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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2010Raimee BeckArdie McInellyKathleen SchjodtLAS VEGAS, NEVADA Utah – 63 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Air Force Academy Coach McInelly. Coach, if we could start off with some general comments on the game today. COACH McINELLY: You know what, I think our players certainly played a good first half. I thought that, you know, towards the second half we pulled within seven points with 12 minutes left to go, and then I felt like they came down, they hit some big shots, we didn't get a defensive stop, we came down, and obviously we didn't hit shots, then that kind of just catapulted it from a seven-point game to the next thing you know it's 18 points. You know, I was talking to Raimee and Kat. They said we have to do a better job of knocking down shots at critical times. I think this team understands that. I think they certainly give it their best effort. But we're young. We need some players to step it up at critical times, and that didn't happen. When you play a team like Utah or any team in our conference, you know, you got to be able to be more consistent than we were or that we have been all season. But I will tell you that, you know, with our youth and what we have, if we can put together a 40-minute game, we really believe we will stay with people. We were right there with seven points to go. I do want to say I'm very proud of what Kathleen has done over her four years. She didn't play as a freshman. She didn't play as a sophomore. She played very, very little as a junior. And this year she played, she started, she's just an incredible young lady. She weighs about 120 pounds. She's being guarded, has to guard someone who weighs 170, 180. She really stepped up and gave us a great senior year. We're just all so very thankful that we have Raimee back for another year if we can just keep her healthy. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions for the student-athletes. Q. How difficult a matchup was Taryn for your team? KATHLEEN SCHJODT: She was a difficult matchup. We were outsized. She's a very strong player, very skilled inside. It was tough to defend her. She provided a challenge for us. RAIMEE BECK: Definitely. Like coach Ardie was taking, Kat weighs about a buck 20. I'm sure Taryn weighs a little more. So it's hard to have a matchup like that when we're so undersized. It's something that hopefully we can, you know, get -- get better height next year and see if we can handle her next year, so... Q. Raimee, for next year, are you confident that things can be different for you next year? RAIMEE BECK: Yes. This year, I mean, as you all know, we all had quite a few freshmen that played. We're pretty young. We're very small, too. Hopefully next year we have a few girls that are about 6'3" coming in. With the experience our freshmen had this year, hopefully that can boost their confidence level for next year and we can come out and we've got to work really hard in the summertime. I think we can make some improvement definitely over the summertime and come out with a better, successful season next year. THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student-athletes. We'll open it up for questions for coach. Q. You play against Utah, who is a team very good at both ends of the floor. Can you just talk a little bit about why it's so difficult to play against them and the things that you've tried against them that have worked and that have been gone so well tactically. COACH McINELLY: Well, I think, you know, one thing that Utah does very well is they play great team defense. You know, they mixed up how they played defense today versus the other two times. Their ball screen, they played that much different today. Our players had to adjust to that. Our baseline screens, they flattened out their post player. They still chased us on every screen. But they made some adjustments. Our players, I think that they need to do a better job of reading quicker, you know. And they will. But with youth comes experience. And even though Kat was a senior, she didn't have game experience. Like I said, she didn't really play much basketball for three years. So, you know, we had two, three people that had game experience, being able to make decisions. You know, you were a great player, athlete yourself. You have to be able to make that possession by possession, not just a certain game plan, because they're going to mix things up. I don't know if I really answered your question. I started kind of just talking. Q. We give the teams that are at the top of the conference a chance to answer this a lot, but we rarely ask you this. How do you like the bracket and how has it changed how the conference is for you guys? COACH McINELLY: We are. But I watch a lot of basketball on TV. I see there are men's conferences out there that do it, there are women's conferences that do it, whether we're talking about the Big 12, Big East. Some people don't play for three days. That's what women's basketball coaches have decided. Let's protect the top three seeds and see if we can get the top three seeds into the NCAA tournament, maybe even four seeds, and do it for the conference itself. So I understand that and buy into it. I don't have a problem with, you know, the nine-team plan, the four-team. The other way it's eight, nine, but that way the winner has to play one. So from my standpoint, no matter what you do, you want to protect the best people, the best teams in your conference, and, number two, everybody better be able to play every single day because who knows who is going to win or lose. If we would have played the whole game like we did the first half, it would have been a different game. I just believe that what we do on the women's side here in the Mountain West Conference, I do like it. I don't have a problem with it. So, you know, hopefully it will stay that way. Q. You talked the other day about some of the recruits, a couple 6'2" girls, a couple 6'4". How much would that have helped today, given the matchup you had inside? COACH McINELLY: Well, one young lady from Texas that is 6'4", she outweighs the young lady that we played today. So at least it gives us a little bit more stability, gives us a little bit more depth on the inside. There's a young lady named Diana Rolniak. She had three blocked shots today. We actually got her teammate from Regis High School right there out of Denver, and she's 6'2", 6'3", and she's like a Rolniak. She's very athletic. She's very long. So we believe with some of the bulk, some of the height, some of the higher-skilled players that we have recruited, we believe that's going to help us, combined with the freshmen we have right now, some of our upperclassmen, obviously Raimee Beck, Anna Gault, Liz Dunsworth, that's really going to help us. I'm just hoping that we have that opportunity to watch these young people develop. I believe in them. I believe that a lot of people are going to be surprised next year, pleasantly surprised. Q. The freshmen that you had, the minutes that they played was the majority of the minutes. How much did that help them, despite the fact they didn't experience any wins in conference? COACH McINELLY: Well, I think it helps a lot because you can have a good group of freshmen that never get on the court and they have no experience, or you can have a group of freshmen that get to play and maybe don't win a lot of games but there's nothing to replace game-like experience. I think they've learned a lot. I believe that Chelsea Berger, Alicia Leipprandt, Des Wilson, Dymond James, it's just a great group of young players that that's an invaluable gift that they've had. Now, the hard part is we didn't win a lot of games, but we know that help's on the way. Again, we try to stay patient, we stay positive. My coaching staff continually teaches every single day, teaches the game. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. End of FastScripts |
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