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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 12, 2010

Connie Yori

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

Nebraska Â– 63
Kansas State - 46

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by the Nebraska Corn Huskers, Coach Connie Yori and her two students Kelsey Griffin and Cory Montgomery. Coach your opening thoughts about today's win and congratulations.
COACH YORI: Well, it seems to be the story of this tournament. I don't think anyone has played very well on offense, and I think there are factors that go into that. Obviously this wasn't our best offensive game, but there are three facets to the game and I thought our defense was good and the second half we did a good job of rebounding. So we won two out of three facets of the game and we didn't shoot well. When Cory finally made the three. We kept saying in the time outs we're going to make these shots and obviously they weren't going in but it was go ahead to see a couple perimeter shots go down, but again, I think that's where we are in our league. When you're playing in the best league in the country the 16-game schedule that you have to face is wearing, and I think you haven't seen teams play at their best offensively in this tournament and I think that has to do with the fact that everybody is -- the fatigue factor has set in to a certain degree, and I think hopefully we will see a little bit better basketball but today we had to do it with defense and rebounding.

Q. Cory, can you talk about the team going 0-18 on 3-pointers, until you finally hit that one?
CORY MONTGOMERY: We knew -- we're confident shooters, and we missed our first couple but we knew we had to keep shooting the ball and shoot with confidence and hoped that it goes in. We just did that and we were fortunate, we knew we weren't hitting, so we had to go to the offensive glass and get the rebounds and get the extra possessions because our shots weren't going down, and we knew we had to tighten up everywhere else in the facets of the game because our shots weren't going down.

Q. Kelsey, can you talk about the conversation at halftime? You guys had a rebounding deficit, you weren't hitting perimeter shots, what was the conversation?
KELSEY GRIFFIN: It was basically that that wasn't us out there. Our defense was good we were playing hard defense and we were happy about that, and usually it's kinda the reverse that our offense is helping us and our defense needs to get picked up. We knew -- we know we are a better shooting team than we showed, we can take care of the ball better we have better chemistry on offense and we went out there and tried to prove it.
Shots didn't really fall but I have faith in my teammates, they put a ton of work into the off-season and we can gain confidence from that and hopefully it will be different next time around.

Q. Cory, what does it say about you guys that you go 0-18 on 3-pointers and you're still leading by 13 at that point?
CORY MONTGOMERY: That we're a fighting team. If we're struggling in one area we know that we need to pick it up in another area which we were able to do with our defense. We wouldn't get things going on offense, so we knew that we needed to bear down on defense and get the stops we needed as a team to help our offense.

Q. Kelsey and Cory, how much attention do you pay to the other undefeated team in the country and do you find yourself imagining what it would be like to play against them in the postseason?
KELSEY GRIFFIN: I think my team feels privileged to be mentioned among that other undefeated team, but we have so many games and so many scouts and so many practices before that would be a possibility that we don't want our season to be cut short by overlooking teams.
So we're taking it one game, one practice at a time. I want this season to go on forever, so I don't want to look to that last game if that's the possibility, so I'm taking it one day at a time.

Q. Kinda following up on the halftime question, Kelsey, did you take it upon yourself early in the second half to take command? You scored 16 of the first 20 points.
KELSEY GRIFFIN: I don't feel like I have to take anything upon myself. I just kind of let the game come to me. We knew we needed to do a better job of transition, it's harder for me to double team and things like that. So I think we really just played more of our basketball.
My teammates do a great job of putting me in successful positions, and that came but there is more to what came than just putting the ball in the hole. There were defensive stops that people were coming up with and defensive rebounds and it might have looked like I was going on a run, but it was a team concerted effort to be able to do that.

Q. Both players, obviously it's been a great season all the way through, no losses and you keep doing things you haven't done, or haven't done in a while. This is the first win at the Big 12 tournament since '05, talk about what that means to this class.
CORY MONTGOMERY: It's great for offensively us to have that first win in the Big 12. We have never accomplished that in the years that both of us have been playing. To have that was great and we knew we really wanted to get this first win, and from here we'll move forward and look into our second team once we know who we're going to play but it's great to get this first win and we're excited.
THE MODERATOR: Okay, ladies, we're going to let you go back to the locker room, congratulations on your win. Questions for Coach Connie Yori.

Q. Connie, it was the first win in the Big 12 tournament in five years this isn't exactly a slow build for your team and program, you've gone from not winning a tournament game in five years to being the number one seed and coming in undefeated. I wanted to ask you to wrap your head around that a little and how quickly things have turned for this program in the last year.
COACH YORI: I don't feel like our program has turned as quickly as people might think. Two years ago we were a pretty good basketball team and I think we finished 25 in the RPI that year. So everybody keeps looking back at last year, but we have built this program I think in the right manner. You used the word "slowly" I think that's the way we built it, little by little, two years ago we were an NCAA tournament team.
Last year we were an NCAA, played Maryland on their home court in front of their own crowd and the number one seed that year and last year was a step backwards, obviously, but this has been -- I felt like we were going to be a good team this year and it felt like this isn't as much of a surprise as what some people might think.

Q. Coach, I know Kelsey is probably too humble to take any credit for it, but can you talk about the run she had in the second half? It seemed like she decided she was going to score, and she did.
COACH YORI: Yeah. She kind of has a way about doing that. Kelsey has -- can dominate a game, she can take over, and I felt like we didn't get her the ball enough in the first half and we talked a little bit about that.
She has a way -- I mean it wasn't just on the low block, she took people off the dribble and she got on the offensive glass, that's her versatility and that's the kind of player she is, and when you have a variety of ways you can score, you have the capability of taking over the game like she did during that section.

Q. Connie, also along the Griffin line there, she also took a couple of charges in that run that we're talking about. Why is she so good at that? I know you've talked about it before, but can you expound on it?
COACH YORI: Well, she's smart and she understands player tendencies and she's willing to take charges. Not all players are willing to take charges.
You can talk about it in coaching and you can work on it, but when it happens quick until a game you've got to be both intelligent and tough and she's both of those things.

Q. Coach, you talk about obviously you felt like you would have a good team but there is a difference between having a good team and being undefeated at the stage of the season, especially given the competition in the Big 12. Can you talk about how special that is?
COACH YORI: Well, obviously no one would have expected us to be 30-0, nor did I, but at the same time, again, we thought we would -- if we could get healthy and stay healthy we thought we would have a pretty good season. Obviously, what we have done, we've found a variety of ways to win games. You don't get to 30-0 by winning just with offense or just with defense or just with rebounding.
As I keep saying, you've got to find different ways to win, today it was about defending well and doing a good job of rebounding in the second half. This is a rarity, I might coach for another 30 years and not have this happen and I've been telling everybody about fifty years you can have one of these seasons.

Q. Coach, during the week leading up to this you mentioned maybe needing one more win to solidify yourself as a number one seed. Do you feel this win makes you a number one seed?
COACH YORI: Again, I'm not on the committee, but I do think this was an important game for us and puts us in a great position and tomorrow regardless of what we play we're going to play a top, good RPI team, a team that's going to be ranked in the top 20, and so this game I thought was very important for a lot of reasons; and, again, I'm not in on the discussions, but I think there is a good chance we will be a number one seed based on what happened today and regardless of what happens tomorrow.

Q. You talked about rest being a key and getting players rested and having a chance to sit for a little bit as a key for this tournament. Were you relieved that you guys pulled away there late because Kelsey was playing a lot of minutes beforehand?
COACH YORI: Yeah, we tried to -- I knew going into this game that we were going to put a few more eggs in our basket in this game because we felt like this was one we had to get. Hopefully to lock up a number 1 seed, so we felt like we weren't going to go as deep in this game but tomorrow we will probably end up going deeper into our bench.
THE MODERATOR: Okay, Coach, thanks and we'll see you tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

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