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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 4, 2010Jolette LawLacey SimpsonJenna SmithINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA Illinois – 59 THE MODERATOR: We'll have an opening statement from the Illinois coach, and then we'll take questions for the student-athletes. Coach, we'll start with you. Some general comments about the game. COACH LAW: Give a lot of credit to my team. They found a way to get it done. Got a little scary at the end, but we didn't get rattled. We took care of the basketball, got some crucial plays, Lacey and Lydia down the stretch. And we converted on our free throws and found a way to get a win. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes, please. Q. Jenna, is it the right hamstring? JENNA SMITH: My left. Q. And you've had knee trouble before, too? JENNA SMITH: Yeah, I have tendonitis. Q. The reason I ask is how much in pain are you and maybe you just built up a tolerance for little wincing pain, you can fight through it for games like today? JENNA SMITH: I do treatment like two, three times a day. If I start struggling and my leg starts hurting, I tell my teammates, I'll tell Lacey, please help me a little more. You have to push through for your teammates. This is Big Ten tournament. Single elimination, you have to push through all the pain and everything that you're feeling, if you're tired or if you're anything, you have to push through it. But there's some days it hurts more than anything, but there's some days I'm great. Just day-by-day. Q. Lacey, I guess is there a way Coach Law gets you up for big games? You guys always seem to perform in some big times? LACEY SIMPSON: I just -- Coach don't need -- she does a great job of motivating us, but it's Big Ten. You win. You play another game. That's my motivation right there. So at the end of the day that's what I keep thinking about. You live to fight another day. That's what she's been saying. You live to fight another day. We took care of business today. So get ready for tomorrow. Q. Jenna, is it hard not to think about what you guys did two years ago in this tournament when it's basically -- it's Indiana and then here comes top seed Ohio State again? JENNA SMITH: We think about it. She was mentioning it to our seniors this year, it's our last one, we want to make another run like that. But we can't think about the past. We're in it now with new teammates and a lot of energy and lot of talent, and we have to make the best out of the opportunity now. Q. Jenna, talk about I guess you guys got the rebounding Big Ten record today. Comments on that? JENNA SMITH: I mean, it's nothing big. I'm here just to play the game with my teammates, try to get a championship. I'm grateful. I give it all to my coaches and my family and my teammates. But we're just ready for the next game. Q. Were you in pain at all today? JENNA SMITH: Not really until the end. I think we had like a long time on and a couple of my teammates had to help me out. They called me grandma. I felt a little old at the end. But, no, I wasn't in a lot of pain today. Q. Lacey, you know you had the motivation coming into today, but do you have the confidence because of what you guys have done here in the past? Do you go into the game with more confidence? LACEY SIMPSON: Yes, I'm very confident. I don't know what happens to me when it comes to this tournament. I'm ready to go. I've been ready to go since that horn hit at the Northwestern game. I've been ready. So tonight I'm just going to eat my Wheaties and go to sleep and get ready for tomorrow. Q. This was not a very good day, Jenna, for the teams that were 2-0 against -- everybody who was 2-0 lost today in the third game. So Ohio State won a couple of games against you guys this year. What do you need to do -- couple things you need to do to reverse that? JENNA SMITH: I think we just need to come off on the jump and play aggressive. We start off slow sometimes. If we come out and play the defense we know how, play like we did today, share the ball and help each other on defense, it will be a good game and we can hang with Ohio State. We have all the confidence in the world. We're all on a high where we won three games in a row. We just have to have confidence and come out and play the way we can. Q. Jenna, what did you see from your teammates today? Because against Northwestern you didn't go very far into the bench. It looked like it was going to be more of the same today but more people got in here, hit some shots. What did you see from your teammates? JENNA SMITH: I think everybody played with confidence. When you play with confidence it makes the game slow. You know somebody's playing outside defense and they've got your back, or if everybody's clapping, being positive and just helping each other out, I think everybody has confidence. If somebody makes a mistake you just gotta keep playing the 40 minutes, make it up. If we all just stick together and have confidence in yourself and your teammates, our bench is amazing. Q. I'm dying to know what Grandma thinks of facing Lavender again? JENNA SMITH: She's a great post. It's fun to play against her. We're both aggressive and strong. Usually I come out and play 40 minutes. It's going to be aggressive. I know we're going to work hard to battle each other, but it's going to be a good game and you gotta come out and play. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies. Questions for Coach. Q. What's been the biggest difference in your team in the last three games since the Michigan State game? COACH LAW: Just we had to do some soul searching and I relieved my seniors from a lot of pressure, because I put a lot of pressure on them to be leaders and to take care of the freshmen. And my coaching staff and I, we started doing some other duties just to relieve them. We just started like thinking about where we want to be, how we want to end the season. And it's still not over and we just talk, had a very good talk and a lot of people regrouping themselves and my team, we started everybody, not just Jenna, not just my seniors, not Whitney too. Everybody, all 13. We just say I'm going to give what I can give, I'm going to bring my personal best. When we do that play and are playing together, we got three wins. Q. I feel like I'm having a deja vu movement. Does Illinois always have to do things the hard way? I think I've asked you that question a couple times. COACH LAW: With me, I just think I praise the Lord every day I continue and can't get down, find ways, go through a little stumbling block. We've lost some games, but as a coach you just gotta continue to motivate them, continue to teach, prepare them. And right now we're trying to do it the hard way, and now there's energy. Our team now is so energized. They think we make this magical run, but whatever I can do to keep them motivated and confident and keep them prepared. Hopefully we'll get it done. Q. Indiana had 73 shots. You only made 20 of them. How much of that was your defense and what did you do? COACH LAW: We just started being a little more aggressive. I think the first two times we played them we were a little more passive. We weren't talking. We were playing sort of safe. I just think that tonight we sort of dictated. We knew Jamie Braun was a great player and Jori Davis. First half we slowed Jori down and Vaughn got hot, and in the second half Jori Davis must have went in the locker room and had some Wheaties, and she came out playing extremely well. We started dictating, giving them different looks. We threw a couple different defensive schemes at them just to keep them off balance. I think it had to do with our defense, but they were hustling for every loose ball. They were really aggressive in the second half. Q. We're not making too much out of Jenna here, are we, or should we, in terms of what we perceive to be a heroic effort playing in pain? It is that. She's had to go through an awful lot. COACH LAW: I have utmost respect for Jenna Smith. I think she's one of the top players in the country. I've always said it. My first year I got here, people were trying to say, What? I said, This kid is special. And the most humbling thing about it is that she would rather the team win than to get all these accolades. But every time you look at the stat sheet, she's in pain. She's constantly double-double or finding ways to get her teammates open. If I challenge her to come out on the perimeter, Okay, Coach, I'll work on that. Everything I've asked of Jenna Smith she's responded, and I'm so thankful. I thank God daily that I had the opportunity to coach her. Q. What happened on that play near the end of the game where they went to the television and... COACH LAW: Well, let me see, I can be politically correct with this one. They said that Karisma pushed her out of bounds. And one official called a travel and the other official said it was a foul. So they went to the table to see what actually happened. They said that Karisma Penn sort of pushed her out of bounds. Q. Coach, it's been a while since I've seen you guys, but do you have more tools now than you had when you played Ohio State the last time in terms of what you can do? COACH LAW: Yes. I think the last time we played Ohio State Jenna was on one leg, barely hobbling down the court. Whitney Toone played extremely well, Fabiola Josil didn't play then, but she's playing with a great deal of confidence now. Kersten Magrum didn't get in the game much the first time but she's starting to play well. So I just think collectively as a whole we have more offensive threats and defensive threats. Adrienne GodBold is playing better on defense. I think right at this time my freshmen are starting to feel comfortable playing and playing through their mistakes than we did early on when we played Ohio State early on. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. End of FastScripts |
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