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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2010Korinne CampbellMike CareySarah MilesLiz RepellaHARTFORD, CONNECTICUT West Virginia – 56 THE MODERATOR: Coach, an opening statement, please. COACH CAREY: Well, I thought, first of all, Rutgers, I thought they'd come out after playing -- this is their third night in a row, come out and play extremely hard. As a matter of fact, at the beginning they were beating us up and down the floor, which was surprising to me, but they came out and played extremely hard. She had them ready to play and they did a great job. I thought Sarah Miles for the whole game did a great game for us, was playing a speed higher than anybody else. I also thought that Asya Bussie in the beginning, we were able to take the ball inside a little bit and get some scores there. And in the end, I think when we were pressing, Sarah was breaking it and making things happen at the other end. I don't know how many. We ended up with 15 -- how many turnovers, 15? Wow, I didn't think we had that many, but we did. But I thought in the end we hit the foul shots we needed to hit and was able to win the game. I thought we did a great job on Brittany Ray. I think the one three she hit, we went into a zone and they skipped past and she hit a three, so I thought we were where she was all night. Q. Sarah, can you just talk about what you guys did against their press late after you made that run and then they started pressing and getting back into it? SARAH MILES: We were just trying to get the ball to the middle and break the press and slow it down and try to set up because we didn't have the lead, so we weren't trying to speed the game up to their tempo because that's why they were pressing us to get the game going faster, so we were trying to break it and slow the game down to our tempo since we had the lead. Q. Korinne, you guys, it was a close game, and you made like a 10-0 run maybe at about 15-minute mark. Can you talk about what was going on and how you were able to do that? KORINNE CAMPBELL: Well, Coach said we had to add to our lead, and we all just went out there and executed on offense and got a few steals on defense and just pushed it, and that didn't give them enough time to set up in their press, and that gave us enough time to get shots off that were high-percentage shots. Q. Sarah, your thoughts on playing UConn tomorrow? You guys lost on this court to them in the regular season. What do you have to do to try to make that championship yours? SARAH MILES: My thoughts on playing UConn is just going into this game like any other game, playing against UConn like any other team. We're not going to look at them like they're UConn. Yeah, they're undefeated, but it's just another game. Q. Liz, how rough was that at the end of the half with the two quick lay-ups to tie? How tough was that for the team going into the locker room? LIZ REPELLA: Yeah, I was dreading going into the locker room. Yeah, we just -- I think that might have gave us a little edge coming into the second half because we really wanted to get after it after those quick points and we wanted to come back with a lot more intensity. They played for three nights, and they were beating us on the floor, and that's no excuse. We just wanted to run, and I think we did a good job in the second half with that. Q. Korinne, being a New Jersey native, I know this is the last team that you wanted to see knock you out of this tournament. How personal was it for you there in the second half? It seemed like you really picked it up there in particular. KORINNE CAMPBELL: I really didn't take it exactly personal. It was just, we have to win this game. It adds to our résumé. We need this game. We want a good seed in the NCAA, and I think that just motivated me and the team to just score and play defense. Q. Liz, can you just talk about the challenge tomorrow? I mean, obviously UConn won by a lot of points in the first meeting, and can you just discuss what you have to do tomorrow and what your mindset is going in? LIZ REPELLA: Yeah. They're a great team, no doubt about it. The first time we played them, we played them good for 25 minutes, and you can't play good for 25 minutes against UConn and expect to win or even keep it close. So going into tomorrow we all know we have to play for 40 minutes, and that's what we're going to concentrate on. Q. Sarah, midway through the second half you inbounded the ball and you had this look on your face and you were very determined and your team went on a 12-0 run. What was going through your mind at that point? SARAH MILES: No, not that I had to get it done and do it ourselves. I just knew our shooters was having a tough night, so we had to find points another way, so I just decided to step up myself and try to get the ball in the hole tonight, so that's what I did. COACH CAREY: Let me just make a statement that when we made that 10-0 run there, in the second half we made some adjustments and that's why Sarah freed up so much because we just stuck our people that had the triangle on them out and let them play three on three and isolate down low and let Sarah have driving lanes and all that instead of getting them involved in the offense at that time. I think that's when Asya scored a little bit, Korinne drove it, we took Madina Ali out to give us a little more defense and Sarah was able to drive it against their triangle two. It worked pretty well to give us that lead there in the second half. Q. With this win, do you have any question that you're going to be probably a three but maybe a two if you win tomorrow night? COACH CAREY: Well, we would hope if we finish second in the Big East we would at least be a two. I would hope with 28 wins going into the championship game in the Big East, if we're supposed to get the credit we should get and we're playing in the Big East, we're the No. 2 seed and we're going to be championship game, we should hopefully be a 2 seed. Q. But the people above you all won their championships, so that's a big jump -- COACH CAREY: Well, I'll still be disappointed if we're not. Q. You guys obviously have UConn tomorrow, and like she said, you guys played them well for about 20, 25 minutes, and that's what Notre Dame did tonight. Talk about the challenge of trying to play them well for 40 minutes and what it's going to take to beat them. COACH CAREY: Well, Notre Dame played 2-3, sagged off on Tina and that worked for a while. Then all of a sudden they started hitting their shots. Notre Dame missed some and they started pushing a break and hitting some threes and getting to the rim. And then Tina Charles, her and Maya are the best players in the country, and it's going to be a tough challenge. Like the girls said, we were down eight at halftime here and cut it to six during the first media break, then all of a sudden they made about three runs and we're down 30. That's what UConn does. They're a great team. I told the girls after the game, We're going to come tomorrow night to compete. We're not coming to just show up. As long as our girls compete and play hard, then I'm going to be satisfied with that, win or lose. Let's face it, nobody else has beat them, either. It's not like we're the only one that hasn't beat them this year. Q. Mike, tomorrow against your co-coach of the year, should you end up winning that game, any thoughts on you demanding that title for yourself? COACH CAREY: I win that game, I'm retiring, I think, myself after that game. (Laughter). But they're a great team. Geno does a great job, and they're deserving of everything they get, believe me. It's extremely hard, even though you have all that talent, to come out and take everybody's best shot night in and night out, and they do a great job at it. Q. Do you care to give us the PG version of what you had to say at the end of the half when you gave up those two lay-ups? COACH CAREY: Well, I just thought we got lackadaisical. We didn't rotate back. Sarah penetrated, and our two guard didn't rotate and gave up a lay-up and then take it back and get lackadaisical and a girl up front gets a lay-up. So we addressed those two plays at halftime. I think like Liz said, we did get them a little fired up, a little motivated, and they were a little hungrier when they came out the second half. Q. I know we've discussed this probably pretty much all year, but Sarah Miles, the kind of game-changer that she is, not just offensively but defensively, sparking this team, and I know you were probably disappointed she was not a first team all-Big East, but has she really shown some things, especially coming here to this tournament and playing the way she has? COACH CAREY: A lot of people have to understand she was a 2 guard last year. To convert to the point and do the job she's doing this year is unbelievable, and we go as Sarah goes. Our girls really count on Sarah. They try to get her the ball. They look for her to break the press. They look for her to set up the offense, and they look for her to dictate our defense. She's the main thing. Yesterday in DePaul's game when she got in foul trouble, I thought Akeema Richards came in and maintained that a little bit, so that was good to see Akeema come in yesterday and maintain. And push for us for a 2 seed, okay? End of FastScripts |
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