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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2009Kurt BudkeAndrea RileyShaunte SmithOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA Baylor – 67 THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the Cowgirls from Oklahoma State. And Coach Budke. Coach, your comments about the game. COACH KURT BUDKE: Well, I think you saw today kind of what we've done all year long. I think we have the ability to play with anybody for 25, 30 minutes. And, I think we can scare anybody out there, I really do. I was proud of the kids, proud how they came back. What you might have seen a little bit of, is having to play yesterday, and fresh legs at the end of the game versus a team that played yesterday. And but that's part of it. You are in what you get. And if you are in the bye, we had the bye last year and it paid off for us last year. But, I'm really proud of the kids. There is no quit in them. And, you know, I am excited about any future play we might have this year if we get to go to the NIT. THE MODERATOR: Okay, Coach, thank you. We'll take questions for the student-athletes. Q. Andrea, tough shooting night obviously for your team in the second half. Was that Baylor's defense? Or were you guys just not making shots? ANDREA RILEY: I think it was kind of both. I think that we had opportunities, a lot of opportunities to, you know, run away with the game. But, sometimes the ball just doesn't go in the basket. And even if you're like getting down and playing defense, I mean sometimes the ball just doesn't go in. And it just doesn't go your way. And I think that Baylor's defense is tough to face, because they are very long and they are athletic. Q. Shaunte', after last year where you guys went -- there were such expectations for this. How do you view this game? Where do you go from here now? SHAUNTE' SMITH: We played really hard throughout the game. And you know, we just took the number 17 in the country down to the wire. You know, we can't go anywhere but up. I mean, we just have to build on this and take it into the NIT and hopefully win a championship, so the players next year can build off that and have a great season. Q. Shaunte', unleashed some qualities in some games in the WNIT, but the push just came to do what you guys did last year, to come into the program, knowing where it was and where it is as you're getting close to leaving. How much satisfaction do you take out of that and knowing where this program is now compared to when you first arrived? SHAUNTE' SMITH: I am very happy with where I am at now and what all I accomplished with this team. And I couldn't have done it without my teammates without these four years. And I always said this, that I have gone to the Sweet 16, and went to a championship game last year, and now just playing in front of my hometown for my senior year. And now going into the post-season and to extend it, I am just, you know, excited and I am ready to play more. Q. Shaunte' this is probably inconsequential. But you know, you took first place in career starts. What's that mean to you? COACH KURT BUDKE: She has been around a long time. SHAUNTE' SMITH: I have been around a long time [laughter]. It doesn't really -- it just shows how hard I worked I guess throughout these four years. And I had fun and I'm glad I could have did that here at Oklahoma State. Q. Andrea, how much difference did you notice this year as far as last year when you guys come up out of nowhere? It seems like there is a little more length to the lane. This year it looks like everybody geared to top you from the get-go. How much difference do you notice on defense this year compared to last year? ANDREA RILEY: Everybody worked hard on defensive pressure, so I mean, I don't really see too many differences. Because I mean, like at the same time -- I can't explain it. It's just not different to me. I think everybody is just playing the same defense, it is just more effective at times. Q. Andrea, talk about the charge. It looked like you did a pretty good job of pulling up to avoid contact, but she went down anyway. Talk a little bit that. ANDREA RILEY: I think the referee made the correct call, you know, so. We didn't really want a charge, but sometimes that just happens and you got have to learn from it and try to do something different the next time. THE MODERATOR: Any further questions for our student-athletes? Okay ladies, we will let you return to your locker room and we'll take our first question for Coach Budke on the front row. Q. Coach, Megan had just taken a charge on the other end. Which, you know, they kind of rallied around their player who got called for the charge. It looked like hey, maybe you guys were even going to finish this thing off and then Riley gets called for the charge on the other end. Talk about those two plays. COACH KURT BUDKE: This call could have went either way. And obviously just a judgment call. Andrea does a good job of avoiding contact. And you know, at the time we, we shot what, 16% in the second half? I mean we were needing a bucket. We were needing points. We were needing a bucket right then. And, it just goes back to what we were doing all year long. I mean yesterday, look what we did yesterday, the same thing. One bad half, one great half. Today, the great half was the first half. And you know, go to Mike's question a little bit with Andrea, they are not guarding her any different. She just has two less weapons than she had last year. We graduated two very good weapons last year in a year. It wasn't a good year to graduate people because no one else did. So, it's really, I think they're guarded her really the same way. It's just, you know, we just come up a little short. Q. You talked about being so close but yet so far. But you're up 15 with about 15 minutes to go and then it turns into a free-throw contest and they hit 15-16 down the stretch. I mean, how did you really do the way this played out when were you in position to win? COACH KURT BUDKE: I think they did a good job of catching and driving and putting more pressure on us and stopping us in penetration. And that goes to where fresh legs, not fresh legs. We had to do a better job of not fouling. And giving credit for hitting their free throws, but we hit ours tonight, too. And they just changed. They went little. Went four guards and a post and decided to start driving the ball and it got them back in the game. Q. Two-part question. Are you coaching too many games, three made shots in a half, one. And B, given everything that happened, disappointed through 31 games, or have you gotten about all you thought you would get out of this team through 31 games? COACH KURT BUDKE: The first part, I honestly can't remember in 25 years making three shots and that doesn't happen very often. What happens is the defense suffers or the rebound suffers. It is hard for these kids to maintain -- they are not pros -- to maintain that focus. There are disappointments on the offensive end. And you have to play again, defense, defense, defense. And you need the reward down here every once in a while and we just didn't get that. And everybody talking about expectations, you know, we go back to 26 of the top 30 scores are back and two of the four lost were ours. I really didn't know where we fit into this thing. We can go back on five or six games where we had a chance to win and one of the seniors took us over the top last year and just didn't do it. We lost eight games to top 10 teams. Eight. And lost 11 or 12 games to top 20 teams. So we didn't play a bad schedule or anything. We just have a lot of great teams in this conference. And you know, we just -- you got to just come back and continue to try to build. We have six great freshman coming in next year that we really like and four juniors committed behind that. We think we're starting to build a base here for the future for the long run. Q. Coach, even when you don't have offense, you still have to fall back on defense. During that stretch, they stayed in the game. Let's talk about what Andrea and Shaunte' did to hold the team together. COACH KURT BUDKE: I just thought we had great leadership. I would love to check the stats again. I can't believe Shaunte' Smith only got 10 rebounds. And to me, I thought she had 15 or 20 out there. Her leadership and intensity, she played 40 minutes the night before. I got her out for what, a minute tonight? Shaunte' -- 38 minutes tonight. I think the leadership on the defensive end of one position at a time I thought was pretty good. It's not that Baylor shot a great percentage. I mean, I see a 3-16, a 5-18, so I thought defensively was pretty good. But give them credit for attacking us on the dribble and getting to the free-throw line. Q. Coach, the time-out with two seconds left, did you find that odd at all? COACH KURT BUDKE: [Laughter]. You know, it was a -- I was wondering about that a little bit, but I have been known to draw up a five-point play with seconds to go. It probably was a good time-out. I guess as coaches we take nothing for granted, so you never know, maybe we could have done something. THE MODERATOR: Any follow-up questions for Coach? Okay, Coach, thanks for your comments. COACH KURT BUDKE: Thank you all. End of FastScripts |
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