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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2010Teah GantAlyssa KarelLisa StoneLin ZastrowINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA Ohio State – 82 THE MODERATOR: And we will begin with comments from Coach Stone, then we'll go to the student-athletes. COACH STONE: I couldn't be prouder of my basketball team. They left it on the court. Played their hearts out. Season low of seven turnovers. This game was an Elite Eight game. Two very, very good teams going back and forth the entire game. And I am proud of my entire team. The stat sheet shows some tremendous performances, but a tremendous team effort. We played solid defense. We got back. We rebounded the basketball. We got really good shots. Shot the ball well. We would have liked a few more trips to the free throw line. But the bottom line is this Ohio State is a very good team. Their record speaks for itself. But our basketball team should be in that same conversation, because this is a very fine Wisconsin women's basketball team, and I couldn't be prouder of our players. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Alyssa, seems like I see you once a year here and you're always playing like that. Just talk about your game. I know you'd trade career high, I guess, congratulations, for a win? ALYSSA KAREL: Thank you. First of all, sometimes the ball drops and sometimes it doesn't. Tonight I guess it was dropping for me. But I give a ton of credit to my team. They were giving me the ball when I was open. But, again, like you said, I would give it all back for a win tonight. But we put up a good effort, team effort, and I'm proud of my team. Q. We asked the Ohio State people to tell us what they did differently, trying to deny you more. Did you feel a little more defensive change against you in the last three, four, five minutes? ALYSSA KAREL: They were playing tough D. I felt in the last four, five minutes of the game I was running off a lot of screens, trying to get open, but they were just kind of face guarding me, playing really great D. Keeping on tight on me. So they made it tough for me. Q. Can you talk about the 1-2 punch that Ohio State has with Jantel and Prahalis? Obviously 29-27, how tough is it when you have a 1-2 punch? You can't necessarily concentrate on just one person. LIN ZASTROW: For me personally I'm usually post guarding Jantel. She's a very physical and very good post player, knows how to use her body. When you have someone who can get her the ball, that makes it even harder. But they're a great all-around team and they have weapons from all over. Like Alyssa and Coach said, it was a great team effort and it just didn't go our way. Q. Coach Foster spoke about how much fun this game was to watch in terms of just the style of play, back and forth. You dictated a lot to them for, what, 30 minutes. Could you speak to how much fun it was? It seemed like it was blow after blow, back and forth and high paced and not a lot of turnovers, a lot of trading shots. TEAH GANT: Yeah, we had our season low of turnovers, which I think is great for our team. And we really wanted to focus on ourselves and make them play our game. That's really what helps us stay in games. So unfortunately we didn't get this one this time but it was really fun to be able to play them again and just compete with them. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies. Questions for Coach. Q. It seems like people know about Lavender and Prahalis, but Hill was really big for them tonight, giving them another look, someone else who can take some pressure off of them. How much different does that make them, or does it? COACH STONE: Certainly, Sam is great. Jantel is great. And Tayler Hill, don't forget about Brittany Johnson and Sarah Schultz and the five more off the bench. They're pretty good. They're deep. Got shooters. Drivers. Tayler Hill, a freshman, I think is playing at a very high level. She's one of the best in the league. I mentioned last night, after the game, this conference should gain a ton of respect, because of the youth movement. If you look at the freshmen in this league, sophomores, and you bottle that up, our conference, the parity speaks for itself this year with our results. It's fun to watch those young kids play. And we've got Taylor Wurtz out there, knocked down two 3s yesterday. That's great, in her first Big Ten tournament. Tayler Hill had a really good game tonight. A very good player. Minnesota Miss Basketball, great defender. I think certainly Tayler Hill puts up big numbers, but she's a really, really good defender. With Shavelle Little graduating, they've got another really good defender on the ball. So they're solid. They're very well coached. We made adjustment defensively on how to guard Lavender. Jim, that's how talented he is. He's a great coach. He adjusted to it right away. H recognized it right away. I have the utmost respect for them. But I also think we earned their respect today as well because our kids played their tails off. Q. Lisa, you're in a new position. You're sitting here now. You know you're going to the NCAA tournament. What do you do for the next week or two until it's announced? COACH STONE: I wish the conference tournament was a different time. But the fact that we have an opportunity to get healed a little bit. We'll take a few days off. And our players are such tremendous students. I'm sharing that yesterday we had a long day, had to play until 8:30. We had a few that studied for five hours straight. That concerned me. That's a lot of time to sit and study. But they have a lot on their plate. I credit them. It had no effect on their game. They played really well. It's a big time right now with tests. We'll take some time off, come back, practice, probably Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Maybe Saturday morning. Take the weekend off. Come back, practice Monday and watch the show and get ready for our next opponent. But I think it's really important right now to celebrate the end of the conference season and the Big Ten tournament season and prepare them for the next stage. Q. Coach, could you gush about Alyssa for us. We don't see her all the time. But against a really, really good team, and shot after shot, just impressed the heck out of us. COACH STONE: Coach Foster just saw her out in the hallway. He teases the team, if you can't guard her, maybe I will. But he goes I couldn't get you either. So certainly it was really very nice out here in the back room to wish her well. And our entire team as well. But Alyssa has a very, very strong pull-up jump shot. It's one of the best I've seen. Her 3 was flying pretty well today as well. I thought she got to the basket, made her free throws. Her defense has improved immensely, which allows her to stay certainly on the floor out of foul trouble. But she's a player that is a part of our offense. And the fact she got 31 today came within the conference of the offense. We weren't running sets for her. It just got to her. I thought Lin Zastrow, two games in a row right now. This is good right now going into the post-season because she's a very fine post player. Teah Gant hit some big shots. People haven't respected Teah's outside shot. She's been working on it all the time and that's coming along. Goes on and on. Tara Steinbauer, the fact is that we're a team that plays team defense, and we play team offense. You saw that tonight with nice balanced scoring. Alyssa has a career, but she credits her teammates because that all came within the offense, not a set for Alyssa. Q. The last few times that Ohio State has played you, Coach Foster has said he liked the style of play. I mean, from your perspective, what's your take on that? What would you say your style of play is? COACH STONE: We're a defensive team. We want to play solid defense and play defense without fouling. We want to play defense, rebound, limit them to one shot. But I think the reason Coach Foster likes the game and I do, too, it's just a competitive slug-fest. And it's great for the fans and great for our conference to see the athleticism and the style of play. Maybe two contrasting styles, really slugging it out. And I thought it was a very positive comment when we played at our place. It was a fun game for the fans to watch. He wants to score a lot of points, and we want to hold teams to a low amount (indiscernible). The fact we found some opportunities offensively to score. And I'm pleased with that. Again, I wish them well. They're a very, very fine team. And the Badgers are excited about the next step for us as well. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. End of FastScripts |
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