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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 4, 2011Andy LandersMeredith MitchellPorsha PhillipsNASHVILLE, TENNESSEE Georgia – 66 THE MODERATOR: We're here with Georgia. We'll begin an opening statement from head coach Andy Landers. COACH LANDERS: It started much the way that we thought that it would. South Carolina being aggressive offensively and defensively. And I thought that they played well. I also thought that they might have gotten tired, having played last night. They played really, really hard, and really well last night. But, you know, just really pleased with our basketball team. Their decision-making in the first half was excellent, when to run, when not to run. Their execution in the halfcourt offensively was excellent in the first half. I thought Jasmine James was terrific offensively the first 10 minutes and separated us from South Carolina. Then I thought Hassell and Meredith offensively were very good the rest of the game. We were able to keep that distance. As usual, I'm a Porsha fan. I thought she was just crazy rebounding the basketball and defensively. Overall defensively just really did what we came to do. Did a good job of being focused and addressing the needs that we had defensively. I thought the two guards on the top of the zone were just outstanding. I thought the three back-line players played very, very well, and as a team excellent. THE MODERATOR: Meredith, your thoughts on the game tonight? MEREDITH MITCHELL: We just played hard. I think we focused more on defense during the game, getting the ball inside. All the players did a good job of getting open on the inside and finishing with good shots. THE MODERATOR: Porsha, your thoughts on the win? PORSHA PHILLIPS: I think everybody came to win tonight. We played with a lot of heart, a lot of pride. We just got after it. We executed our offense very well and played our defense well tonight. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student-athletes. Q. Porsha, I think you set the tone early with the double-double by halftime. What were you doing inside to be so dominant? PORSHA PHILLIPS: Are you talking about offensively? Q. Both. The points and the rebounding. PORSHA PHILLIPS: You know, rebounding is very important to me as a player. I love, enjoy rebounding. Offensively, I just let it come to me. I don't go searching for shots like I used to. I just be patient on offense. Q. In the second half, Meredith, you picked up your third foul 12 seconds into the second half, then pretty much took over and scored 13 points. MEREDITH MITCHELL: Yeah, I just tried to play smart. I definitely didn't want to do anything that caused me to get back on the bench. Especially in the past two games, I've been in foul trouble, not helping out my team. They did a great job of reminding me just to play smart, continue to play hard and aggressive, not to pick up any more fouls. Q. Porsha, y'all limited South Carolina to 24% shooting. Why do you think your defense was so effective out there? PORSHA PHILLIPS: I think playing great defense, winning ballgames, we stopped them from penetrating. That's what they mainly do. They have great three-point shooters. We just focused on defense a lot tonight. THE MODERATOR: We'll excuse you, ladies. We'll continue with questions for Coach Landers. Q. Why do you think your defense was so effective out there tonight? COACH LANDERS: Well, I don't think it's a secret. South Carolina's guards are very good. They're very good off the bounce. They're very good off the drive. So first of all, we felt that zone was probably the way to go, to try to protect the paint from the way that they attack it off the bounce. Then in selecting that as our defense, we knew that they liked to use ball screens against the zone. So, you know, we talked about it and worked on that this morning. Those two kids on top of zone were really, really, really good. I mean, I don't know what you saw. One of those guards could be guarding the right wing and two quick passes later be guarding the left wing, or she could be guarding the right wing and one pass and a drive be under a ball screen that her buddy had been screened and stop the penetration. They were just really, really good up top. What South Carolina likes to do is penetrate and score or penetrate and draw you in and pitch to the three. When they do that, they're good three-point shooters. They shot a lot of threes tonight, but they didn't hit 'em. I tend to think that's because our back kids were able to get up on 'em, and our back kids are long. You know, it was just a good effect. Then when they did get by us, and they did. They hit the gaps a couple times and drove. Hassell was really good about stepping into the path of the driver, making them change their shot. Q. Some would argue that you limped into the final part of the SEC season, losing the last game to Florida. This is a best-case scenario waiting for you guys to get back on a motivational standpoint? COACH LANDERS: Who would they argue with? I wouldn't argue with them. We slithered in here. We didn't play well. Our team knows that. Their coach knows that. Fans know that. Why, is the question. But, yes, this is good for us. I told our kids this morning at shoot-around, You need to win for you. I mean, you need to get back to feeling good about you. There were certainly a lot of things in this game that they can feel good about. Q. How do you feel about your team's defensive performance tonight, seeing now it's the best in the history of the SEC tournament? COACH LANDERS: I thought they were really well-coached (laughter). If you print it, I'll come get you. I'll Google you, find where you live, come get you. Just kidding. I'm very, very proud of not just how we played it, but how we played it the entire game. You know, we were consistent from the beginning till the end. We stayed focused. We stayed on point with the things that we wanted to accomplish for 40 minutes. Again, I do think, you know, South Carolina played really, really, really hard last night. I think they were a little bit tired. And then you get behind, and it's tough mentally. But I'm proud of our basketball team. Q. Obviously you have to play Tennessee tomorrow, but -- COACH LANDERS: It's not a but. Q. How do you prepare to come out better this time? COACH LANDERS: I don't think we played very well against them. I don't think we played well in our last three games. I mean, first of all, and this is what I said to our basketball team just now before I left the dressing room to come in here, I told them, You can't beat 'em if you don't want to. I mean, you don't beat good basketball teams unless you want to. Now, if you want to, really, really want to, there's a lot that goes into that. Now you commit to the hurt. You commit to sprinting up and down the floor with a group like Tennessee. You got to get back. You commit to boxing out. You just commit to a tough, tough task. But you got to want to. And somewhere down in there, down in that little tiny place that nobody can see, you got to believe you can. I mean, you don't have to go around and tell everybody. You don't have to hang a sign. You got to believe it. I mean, that's it. There's no magic to it. What do you want me to see? You got to keep them off the offensive boards? Sure you do. But you got to want to beat 'em. I don't know what they would say because they're cool. See, kids are cool. So I'm not sure that they would tell you the truth about Knoxville. But my take on it - and I'm with them every day - is they got out there and got shell-shocked. Tennessee hit two threes, they went, Oh, my God, and they got scared. They're scared again tomorrow night, the result will be the same. If they're not, it will be different. Is that good? THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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