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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2010Victoria DunlapA'dia MathiesMatthew MitchellDULUTH, GEORGIA Kentucky - 76 THE MODERATOR: Joining us from Kentucky, head Coach Mitchell and student-athletes. Coach, we'll start with an opening comment and take questions. COACH MITCHELL: Well, that was a big move we made there in the second half. Really changed the game. Mississippi State played really hard in the first half, being the aggressor. We just don't function well in a basketball game if we're not more aggressive than our opponent. So they outplayed us in the first half. That was easy to see. Credit our players. It was incredible turnaround of attitude, great energy, great effort. Really proud that they found a way to win that basketball game, dug themselves out of a big hole. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Early in the second, your team's body language was not there. Just as quickly as it wasn't there, it reappeared. Was something said or what did the kids do to rediscover it? COACH MITCHELL: Well, I thought that at halftime we just talked about that our aggressiveness was nonexistent, so somebody had to step up and start making plays. They were all plays we were capable of making. I just think that for our team, when Victoria can get in the press and get active, when A'dia can be aggressive and attack the basket on offense and get some buckets, it gives everyone energy. I think when your best players play the way they need to play, everybody else will come on and get onboard and follow. You know, I've seen it happen with our team before. There's a tiny spark will get it going. Today we were sparked. I can't really remember what it was, but clearly you saw us in the press at our best. I just credit the players for that. They just hustled really, really hard. Q. I think A'dia attempted one shot in the first half. In the second half, she just really took it to them. Can you talk about what she's been able to do. COACH MITCHELL: Well, I thought we did a good job early in the game. You saw how important A'dia Mathies is to us. We were trying to set a tempo, it was pretty clear. I thought we were doing a good job there. The thing that happens on the perimeter with us, when A'dia goes out, at times we can become passive. A'dia is the player on the perimeter that when people are trying to shut down passing lanes, she can get the ball to the bucket or she can get it inside and dish it off. So it's very important for her to get involved. When she went to the bench with foul trouble, that really sort of set us back some. We put her back in, got it back, brought her back out trying to save that third foul. They went down another run. She's obviously a big key to our team. It's a gutsy play for a freshman, a fifth-year senior, whatever you want to say. She's a very talented basketball player. There's no way I could have more confidence in A'dia Mathies. Q. Can you talk a little bit about the tale of two halves from Amber Smith. COACH MITCHELL: Well, I thought that was a big key. Amber is an emotional player, so sometimes your greatest strength can go into a weakness. I thought that emotionally she really got down and shut down and was not leading our basketball team in the first half. I was very frustrated with that. She was able to work herself out of that. I just think it shows some growth and maturity out of our veteran players. She was tremendous. You can kind of see how our energy flows through Amber Smith. She was a big-time player in the second half, as well. Q. Victoria, it's the first time Kentucky has been in the final since 1982. Can you talk about what you have been able to do so far, what you think about tomorrow. VICTORIA DUNLAP: I think we just showed a lot of people in the league that we're a good basketball team. Just our energy is really good, and just for tomorrow we have to come out for the beginning. Last time coach talked about us not being ready, not mentally ready. Tomorrow we have to come out from the jump, shoot around in the morning, and just be ready, be in the game. Q. Victoria, the run that you made early in the second half to kind of get back into it, I think you had 8 of the 10 points. You weren't all the way back as a team, but why did you sense that spark was going to turn into even something more? VICTORIA DUNLAP: I think just with our team, once you get something going, I mean, it's like a spark. It just keeps going and going. Everybody feeds off of it. I think that's just what happened. I was scoring. Amber was giving me assists. She was getting back into her momentum of energy. Everybody was getting back into it. That's just how it happened. Q. Coach, when the momentum kind of got going your way, it looked like the defense and energy picked up on both ends. You forced 15 turnovers in the second half. How big was that? The defense seemed to pick it up. COACH MITCHELL: Well, what was amazing about the run is that we made some good plays at the front of the press. It's not easy to do, but that's where you'll typically see a team that's sort of just on an emotional high make some plays. But what was impressive, we were able to sustain it. We started making some plays in their front court by coming back and fundamentally coming behind, sweeping the ball, we got several plays there. That's exciting, because now the press is working. It's not a phoney press. It's real, and you're starting to see some things happen. Then you start seeing them make some passes. People are fumbling the ball. So the pressure was able to turn the game around. You cannot do that if you don't have five players really spreading the floor, laying it on the line. That was as good as we've pressed all year there in the second half. That was outstanding. Q. Can you just talk about as you get down to 10 points and you're huddling up on the floor, what are you talking about to each other? How are you coaching each other to get out of that hole? A'DIA MATHIES: We already know that if we get down that's not gonna do nothing but hurt us, so we just try to keep a lot of energy and enthusiasm. We came down from a lot of points before. We know we're capable of coming back. We got to try to keep up defensive pressure, make runs, everybody make runs. We just had ours. Ours came through for us. VICTORIA DUNLAP: I think at that time we knew that we weren't playing well and we weren't playing together as a team. We just kept saying to each other, Stay together, stay focused as a team. It wasn't about personal mess-ups, but just listen to the coaches and everything will be all right. Q. Amani was pacing behind the bench the entire game. Was that just to keep her limber? Also, is Carly Morrow still battling an illness, because she didn't play today. COACH MITCHELL: She was not good today. It's kind of been going through our team. When you get here and you're all together, we've had several battling that. She was not able to go. Amani twisted her ankle yesterday. It was swollen on her all throughout the night and this morning. She did a whale of a job of fighting through that. Just not able to stop. Got to keep going. So she got a little extra exercise back there behind the bench today. She did a good job. Q. A'dia, when you took the elbow early in the second half, it almost looked like something got knocked loose in your mouth. How were you able to bounce back from that and stay focused? A'DIA MATHIES: I think it kind of gave our team the energy. When I was on the bench, that's when everybody started. I think it actually gave us a little bit of momentum, knowing how the game was going to be, getting tougher, coming together as a team. When I got back into the game, it was already high energy. I just fed off of them. I think it helped me to go out there and make plays and help my team out. She like chipped my tooth out in the back and my mouth was bleeding. I didn't lose the tooth. It's just like a hole. It's chipped, so... COACH MITCHELL: Will you be able to go tomorrow? A'DIA MATHIES: Of course, Coach. COACH MITCHELL: That's good news for us (laughter). Q. Anything from the Tennessee game in particular that you learned that might help you in a rematch? VICTORIA DUNLAP: Our energy from the beginning for the whole entire game. We can't go out there hesitant or looking down on ourselves. We have to go out with the mentality that we can win the game and not worry about anything except how we can play. A'DIA MATHIES: I agree with Vic. We just got to go in there and have a whole lot of enthusiasm and just play the type of ball that got us here in the first place. Just go out there playing aggressive, playing defense, converting to offense. I think that's all we need. Q. Did you say something specific to Amber at halftime? What happened at halftime? What was the exchange? COACH MITCHELL: Well, the thing we're trying to do is we try to teach our players how to function within their roles within the team. Amber and I have talked about this many times. She has a special level of responsibility as the point guard. So when things are going bad, it's sort of like special responsibility of head coach; when things are going bad, generally if the leader gets down and negative and doesn't fight through, then bad things happen. So you're just working with her, trying to get her to understand. We go as you go emotionally, so you have to. I know it's frustrating. I'm frustrated. Everybody's upset. I just thought that she did a great job of pulling out of that, 'cause it's hard to do. That is an athletic, talented, tough basketball team that has us 14 points, and we looked dead in the water. She was able to pull herself out of that, and she made some plays that were incredible. So I thought that we had a good exchange in the first media timeout. I thought she was back then. She had gotten back solid and we went from there. So it was a good, good turnaround for Amber Smith. That's something we need to build on. Q. I didn't see the first game with Tennessee. What will you have to do, any specifics, in order to stay in this game with Tennessee tomorrow? COACH MITCHELL: Well, we did not play defensively sound enough early in the game to have an idea of where we were stacking up right there. We allowed a huge run there early. When you're playing them at their place, it's very difficult to let them go on a big run and get a lot of confidence. Tomorrow we will have to be as mentally sharp as we can be. We'll have to be in the right place at the right time. They're capable of doing that. It's going to be a very tough task, but it should be tough in the finals of the Southeastern Conference championship. I think this is one of the greatest tournaments in the world. It's going to be a tough game. Our team needs to do and play as close to their identity as they can play to give themselves a chance to win this championship. I expect them to do that. I expect them to come out and play extremely hard and carry out assignments. We'll see if it's a good basketball game. It should be. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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