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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 3, 2011Tom CollenC'eira RickettsSarah WatkinsNASHVILLE, TENNESSEE THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Arkansas, Coach Collen, Sarah Watkins and C'eira Ricketts. We'll start with an opening statement from the coach. COACH COLLEN: It's always hard to lose. We came in here with high expectations. I know we came in on a two-game losing streak. I was pretty happy after we got through, being a little shell-shocked at the beginning, pretty happy with the way our team played and fought back. I think that's a sign of maturity, something that this team needs to continue to work at and grow. I was happy with their efforts. Disappointed we lost. We know, feel pretty comfortable we're going to be in post-season play, we have a regular-season game to play. We'll go back, rest our bones a little bit, regroup, try to figure out what we need to do to win the NIT, if that's where we end up. THE MODERATOR: Sarah, your thoughts on the game today? SARAH WATKINS: Even though we got down a little bit early, we made some hard decisions, made some good plays to get back in the game. Give credit to Florida. They played really aggressive defense. THE MODERATOR: C'eira, your thoughts on today's game? C'EIRA RICKETTS: We dug ourselves in a hole early. We fought back to cut the lead down. Lyndsay Harris had a great shooting night for us. We had shots that just wouldn't fall for us, but I thought we fought back hard. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. I wanted to hear your explanation on the comeback you had. Pretty impressive comeback from 26-9. You were in it the rest of the game. SARAH WATKINS: I think we just got in them defensively. It's been one of our keys all year, is to play really good defense, let that guide us on the offensive end. I think we got a couple key stops, and that helped us get on a little bit of a roll. C'EIRA RICKETTS: I think once Lyndsay Harris got hot on the three-point line, that got our whole team going. We feed off of her. We feed off of each other. I thought that got us going. THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student-athletes and continue with Coach Collen. Q. A couple days ago you were saying you were pretty straightforward with your players, the NIT might be a possibility, Tennessee would be in the second round. Taking that into account, obviously you don't like to lose, but how do you feel about your team at this point in the season? COACH COLLEN: I think the hardest thing for us is that we did a lot of great things this season. It was a season of firsts for us in many ways. But we were so close in so many games. I think it's probably been stated before. I think we lost six games, SEC games, on the last possession. I felt like going into the last week of the season, we were still in a mindset where we really just needed to win maybe one more game, get to 7-9, 8-8, getting into the NCAA. That's the tough thing. When I make the statement I think we might be the best team in the country heading into the NIT, I believe that in my mind, especially if Lyndsay Harris is healthy and not injured to the point where she can't play. You know it's tough. I've played in the NIT or coached in the NIT many times before. It's a great tournament. We'd rather be in the NCAA, but I think we've got a relatively young team. We have no seniors that play. The opportunity to get into any kind of post-season play I think would really benefit us for the next year. Q. Seeing the comebacks you made today, does that give you confidence? COACH COLLEN: I think this team is being so close to not being just a good basketball team, but a great basketball team. The best example I can give you, we were a little shell-shocked in the last game of the year. We felt if we could beat Alabama, we were still on the bubble. They shot 65% against us in the first half. We got down the same way we got down today. This time when we got down, we fought back, found a way to tie the game and a way to win. That's a good learning experience. If you can get down that bad and battle back, no matter what happens, you can find a way to win. That's a great thing for a young team to learn. I think we'll carry that forward with us. It's going to benefit us somewhere down the line. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. Good luck in the post-season. COACH COLLEN: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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