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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 5, 2011Adrienne GodboldJolette LawKarisma PennINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA Penn State – 79 MODERATOR: Coach, if you'd like to give an opening statement, then we'll open it up for questions for the student-athletes. COACH LAW: I just want to say that I'm so proud of my kids. In my eyes they're winners. A long time ago they could have given up, but they didn't. They came in here and they fought and they gave me everything they had, and I'm glad to say the future at the University of Illinois looks real bright. I've got these two young ladies next to me, and the other eight is in the locker room. So I'm extremely proud to be their coach. MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. We'll now open it up for the student-athlete questions. Q. Can you talk about defending Maggie, what you were trying to do and what it's like trying to defend her whether she's driving or along the perimeter? ADRIENNE GODBOLD: No disrespect, but I just felt like I was able to guard her and I would be able to stop her. And her dribbling skills weren't where they need to be, I guess. And I'm allowed to stop her on the perimeter and on driving, like, all of it. I just knew I would be able stop her. Q. Karisma? Is that how you say it? KARISMA PENN: Uh-huh. Q. I didn't want to mispronounce it for the people taking the quotes. I'm kind of curious how an athlete doesn't let the losing mentality creep in. You guys had enough negativity this year. You didn't come to town and play like it. I mean, I'm thinking -- could you speak to how you guys kept going and how maybe two games here meant as much as anything this year to you guys? KARISMA PENN: We just never got down on ourselves. I think we lost five games this season in the last couple seconds. So we always knew we were one or two plays away from just getting the win. So we just never got down on ourselves. And when the Big Ten Tournament started it's kind of like part three of the season. So it was a whole new beginning for us. Q. Adrienne, it seemed like as the game was going along, especially cutting it the way you did at the half with a 2-point game at the half, can you talk a little bit about kind of bringing it back and what the mood was going into the locker room? ADRIENNE GODBOLD: We just had to pretty much hold the ropes. We knew Karisma was on the bench in foul trouble so we just did what we had to do, get stops and execute on offense, and it was just -- I was the one that was doing it. So hold the ropes. And we did a pretty good job as a team. Q. You two might not know this. We're used to seeing Jolette on Saturday and Sundays around here, so kind of tradition. I'm wondering, you're going to take way these two games, you're going to think about them, you're going to say we can build off this. Really, seriously, Karisma, what do you thinking you take from two days where I think you probably surprised everybody but yourself? KARISMA PENN: Like you said, we didn't surprise ourselves, and I think that's the biggest thing. I don't know if the belief in ourselves was there every game this season. But just these past two days I can say everybody believed. And going forward, we have everybody returning. So as long as we have confidence in ourselves, we just keep it up and get better, I don't think anything can stop us next year. We just really have to look at what we just did the last two days, and there's no reason why we should have been 9 and 22 this year. Q. Karisma, can you talk about how much of a difference it made that you guys played an extra game whereas Penn State had a bye in the first round? KARISMA PENN: I don't know because I've never had a bye on the first round so I couldn't really speak on how that feels. Q. Karisma, what actually happened on the floor in the last ten minutes of the game where they were able to pull away? Were they quicker? Were they playing better? Did they switch defenses on you? What happened out there? KARISMA PENN: I think there were a few questionable calls there, and when that happens the momentum kind of switched. I think the momentum kind of switched to their favor a lot. And I just don't think that it was called evenly on both ends, so it was kind of getting to the point where we were getting frustrated, and I think sometimes frustration just creeps up on you. And I think that's most of what happened towards the end. It kind of got away from us. Q. Karisma, following up on that, the free throw discrepancy was pretty significant. They shot 30, you only shot 15. Would you say that was more of a style of play type thing, or what was it that had you guys struggling to get to the foul line? KARISMA PENN: No, I don't think it was style of play because they shoot 3s. So they got to the line 30 times and we got 15 times. I think that's -- I mean, the numbers speak for themselves. That's crazy. MODERATOR: Any more questions for the student-athletes? Thanks, ladies, if you want to head back to your locker room. All right. We'll open it up for questions for the coach. Q. Same questions earlier, Coach. How did the losing mentality not creep in with these guys this year? Because you had to worry about it. COACH LAW: I did. But I was a leader. You know, I had to make sure that they always saw -- I had to get the positive at all times and always keep them focused on the positives. We were very young, teaching them, keep motivating them, keeping their spirits up in spite of the defeat. So I just kept telling them stay the course, we gotta -- just take the positive out of every game. If we carve out two minutes, if we carve out 10.5 seconds, if we do the little things. So every year -- every day I was just coming up with a lot of creative things to just keep them focused on the long-term goals. And I look at the record, and I've told a lot of people, I've told the press in Champaign, I've released them from the record. I'm just trying to right now to get the better. I have a very young team. A lot of them did play, a lot of them didn't have a lot of experience, and we had a lot to learn. And I just think that this test this year was our storm. So it won't be long. So I'm looking at the future and I feel very confident. Q. Coach, all season long you and the players have been saying that you were really close to getting over that hump and really being a good team. Do you feel like this tournament run kind of proved you guys right in a way? COACH LAW: I always knew what we had, and I know I saw a lot in them a long time ago. But I think finally they realized how good they could be if we all buy into all the little things and everyone played their role and if we follow the game plan. I told them from day one, October 15, the season is going to come down all the little things. Don't think about the big picture and the score. It's going to come down to the little things. I think we learned in these last two days, they finally saw themselves, you know, wow, if we would have done this all year long. I went, yeah, I was trying to tell you. But it's great that I have them all coming back, and I feel that this experience really will -- they'll now know what it takes to be -- to go to that next step to go to the finals and what you have to do during the course of Chapter 1 and 2 to be able to perform in Chapter 3. Q. The little things bearing down, it seemed like you guys at the end of that first half you went on -- I believe it was a 15-to-2 run, closed the gap to 2 going into the half when that 3 hit the buzzer, and it really seemed like the building was behind you guys. Can you talks about what kind of maturity it shows that they were able take that first punch and keep on going? COACH LAW: I told them I knew that Penn State -- great team. Like I said, a great team. Well coached. They have different weapons, and I have the utmost respect for them. I just said they made a run and we could have -- in the past probably would have dropped our heads and got really frustrated. But Karisma was on the bench and there were other people that stepped up and held the rope. We always say let's hold the rope, hold the rope. And I was very proud of how we responded. Went in the locker room, I just told them the first five minutes of the second half is going to be crucial and they're going to make another run and we've just got to make sure we are focused and we're poised. And once we got through that and then -- I'm not trying to disregard what Karisma said, but it was -- they got really frustrated after a while because there were some calls being made. But that's another thing. You can't let a tough player, you can't let officials, you can't let anything, the crowd, you can't let anything rattle you. And that's another growing step that we're getting to. So I charge that to being young and not knowing. So no excuses. Right now I just think the last ten minutes, to answer your question, Penn State just went to another level and I think we sort of, you know -- they took advantage of our mistakes. Q. Coach, you had four players in double figures. I've been kind of watching your team from afar, and I kept seeing Karisma Penn scoring all the points. Was this a major step for you watching four players in double figures? And did you that all tournament, I think. COACH LAW: It was a major step for us because I've been asking for it all year. And I've been trying to build confidence in each one of my players. That is, not just Karisma; we need to be a total team and everybody needed to do their part. And I just think that, you know, Monday before we got here I just needed more from them. I need all of you, everybody, whatever you can give, give it. I think they all embraced it and started just, you know, playing and, now they're starting -- this weekend we start knowing what the offense is, we knew the second cuts, third cuts, third options, fourth options. During the course of the season, it was option number one, let's get it to Karisma and let's stay in and watch her. But I think we've grown up a lot and now we're moving forward. I think it will be positive. Q. Going back to those final ten minutes, I know I asked Karisma this, how much do you think fatigue played a factor into the final ten minutes, being that you guys have played an extra game as compared to Penn State who had a bye? COACH LAW: I would say personally I think a couple miscues on defense. I would say some of it was fatigue. A lot of it had been frustration. Then going to your bench and everybody got to be ready. So I just think that, you know, some of my kids -- that's why I was calling a time-out. I was trying to use my time-out wisely. You call one and then, no, we're going to go to media. There was a couple times Penn State start capitalizing. I had to burn one because I knew we were just not communicating and not as sharp as we were before. So I think it played a little part in it. MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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