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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2010Sharon Fanning-OtisMary Kathryn GoveroTysheka GrimesDULUTH, GEORGIA Kentucky - 76 THE MODERATOR: Now joining us from Mississippi State, head Coach Fanning-Otis and student-athletes. Coach, if you could make an opening comment, then we'll take questions. COACH FANNING-OTIS: I feel like our team was ready to play. You know, a couple of turnovers early and the game was going back and forth, but I thought we adjusted and began to attack in the first half. Hopefully the success breeds success. But when you're playing a team like Kentucky - and I had said this prior to the game - that they're tough and they keep playing. I think, you know, that's their identity. Dunlap and Mathies, those two kids, I've just seen them rebound. If I look at a Kentucky team, I mean, one thing that I think is an identity is just free throws. When you're getting the number that they have, and usually 10 or so more than an opponent, the number they have right now at the end of the year, I think that's a real sign of a team that's won some basketball games. I thought down the stretch they continued to tip from behind. We did some things to ourselves. When we got into foul trouble and you have five people with four fouls, I think that mentally we lost focus. We lost focus a little bit as we were rotating. Our defensive intensity has to be as tough when you're in foul trouble. So our lack of focus and their continuing to play hard, rebounding, getting to the free throw, it kicked us late. You have to be mentally tough to win these games, and we didn't do that for an extended period of time. Turnovers, free throws, and we didn't make free throws that we needed to make. So we had every opportunity for this to be a game that was going to be down to the wire or to maintain the lead that we had. I felt like some of the things we did to ourselves. But I felt like Kentucky's pressure had a lot to do with some of those turnovers and us just not being focused on where the defensive players were coming from behind. So we did some of those things to ourselves. Hopefully we grow from this and hopefully we have another opportunity in a couple of weeks to play some more basketball. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Coach, was it lack of communication or was it kind of self-inflicted cuts to yourself that added up? You handled it well in the first half. I know you expected them to play like that in the second half and come at you. COACH FANNING-OTIS: You know, sometimes if we had the answer to this, I've told you before, I think we'd be doing something else if we knew the exact answer. I think when things are going well, people tend to focus better and communicate better. And I think that, you know, a team as they mature together, they're able to play through adversity, whether if it's you miss a shot or you miss a free throw or you get a foul. Whatever it is, it's a negative. You're able to refocus more quickly and communicate as a team, encourage each other. We did not do that as well as we needed to. You look at the points off of turnovers. That's just such a key relative to little things that they kept attacking. Then, you know, you have to sprint to every huddle. You have to communicate. You have to get defensive stops, positioning, all those things. But if there's a mental lapse there, all of a sudden if that leads to a missed block-out, not taking a charge, all the things we talked about, they made the play and we didn't. Q. Did you feel your team tired when you had the lead? COACH FANNING-OTIS: That's where you can't let yourself be mentally tired. Both teams are in the same situation. They pushed and had to work to win a ballgame, and we did, too. You just can't have excuses. We did look tired mentally. When we made mistakes, we looked more tired mentally. We had more energy when things were going our way. That's when we have to be a more mature basketball team. We have to be tougher, tougher, and be connected with that toughness, where we pull each other up. We have to learn from this. This is something we've been communicating with our team as the season's progressed. We have a couple weeks now to get better. I feel like that, you know, in this league you see teams up and down, you've seen crazy scores, you've seen games where you're shaking your head. We've learned from lessons along the way. Right now we need to play our best basketball. I felt last night was a part of that, as well as the first half today. We made adjustments to a tough basketball team. Second half we didn't make those. So now we find a way to finish. Hopefully we will have that opportunity. Q. Can you talk about the second half. You guys did a very good job of answering some of their punches, but it just seemed as it wore on, there were more mistakes. Can you talk about how you sensed the game maybe losing some momentum or some energy. MARY KATHRYN GOVERO: Uhm, I felt like we came out from the beginning of the game ready to play. We started off the second half okay, and then pretty much the difference in the game was we didn't take care of the ball for 40 minutes. They got a lot more shots on offense, a lot more free throws. If they have that many more shot opportunities and free throw attempts and we're not taking care of the ball every possession, then you're going to have the outcome we had today. TYSHEKA GRIMES: I agree with MK. We got to take care of the ball better. Kentucky is a good team, you know. Got to give them credit. They capitalized off our turnovers. We just didn't finish like we were supposed to. Q. Did you guys feel you did a good enough job matching their energy level, especially maybe midway point of the second half on? MARY KATHRYN GOVERO: I felt like we came out from the beginning and we did a good job of that. Whenever we started turning the ball over and we had several people with foul trouble, our intensity out there, we had a lull right there, and they took advantage of that. We just weren't able to catch back up. TYSHEKA GRIMES: I agree with MK again. Sorry, but I mean, it's true. Not a good game. A lot of forced turnovers and things like that. It's a heartbreaker. It's hard for me to talk about it. It's a heartbreaker. Hopefully, you know, next game, we can make it through the tournament and things like this. Hopefully be better. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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