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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2011Carolyn DavisMonica EngelmanBonnie HenricksonKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Kansas – 71 PETER IRWIN: We're now joined by the Jayhawks from Kansas. Coach, your opening comments before we take questions for the student-athletes. COACH HENRICKSON: I thought defensively we were active between deflections and turnovers. The numbers aren't high. We had 16. But I thought we were disruptive. I thought they struggled to get into rhythm because of our pressure. Aishah in the second half denying some touches at the elbow and extended where they tried to initiate a pass to run some screening action for Spears. And Spears is a phenomenal player. In three games her numbers are impressive, 21, but that's -- for as much as we work and try to slow her down, for that kid to make average 20 against us this year, she's a phenomenal offensive player, and we had our hands full. I thought we guarded some other people pretty well and forced some tough 2s. Obviously the defensive field goal percentage, for us to hold them to 26 percent, I think a chunk of the second half they were shooting 18 percent, and just real proud of the defensive effort. The zone was good for us in the first half, creates the cushion. They don't get much in rhythm, and give them credit because they killed us on the offensive glass. Our first shot defense was good, our second shot defense wasn't very good. But I thought offensively we had good rhythm, moved the ball around a little bit, shared the ball. A good win and survive and advance in March. PETER IRWIN: Questions. Q. Monica, basically it was a game of two runs. You had that little run from the first half where you hit a couple of 3s and then the big run in the second half. Can you kind of talk about what was going on during those two runs? MONICA ENGELMAN: In the first half, we were kind of in a little hole for ourselves and we kind of -- for me shooting, I built momentum and kind of dug ourselves out a little bit. It was a little bit of a spark player. In the second half I think we did a good job defensively getting a stop and getting deflections and running in transition. Q. Were you surprised how well you guys were able to play when Carolyn went out with three fouls and how well you were able to score with her on the bench? MONICA ENGELMAN: Not surprised. Gotta be prepared for situations like that. With Carolyn out, you have to find different ways and -- COACH HENRICKSON: We practiced that a little bit on the road with Carolyn out. So we had plenty of practice. MONICA ENGELMAN: I wasn't so surprised at my teammates and myself. We kind of picked up ourselves a little bit. Q. Can you just talk about the start of the second half, Colorado came out with a lot of energy, cut it to three, how did you respond to that and maybe regroup a little bit to stretch it back out? CAROLYN DAVIS: We always talk about not letting the other team come out and make a run. When they came out and did that, it wasn't what we had planned to do. And I think that it was great for us to just fight back. We didn't let them continue to make a run. We got stops and we pushed in transition, and that's what cut the run. Q. Most of that run was Spears too. How did you feel overall that you guys did on her? CAROLYN DAVIS: I mean, she's going to get her shots. She's a great player, and I think that we did the best job defending her. She got a few open looks down the lane when guards got clipped in screens and we didn't rotate and help. At the same time I think we did great with shutting down the other players around her. That's what helped us get the win. COACH HENRICKSON: You look at them the last four games, they're averaging 10 for 24 from the 3 in their last four games. They got 2 for 13 here, 3 for 17 at our place, and 2 for 7 there. So we defended the 3. We were going to have to defend the 3. That's why they win at Nebraska, they win at Missouri, 11 for 37 against Baylor at home. When you look at them at the numbers, that's where their growth had been. I thought all the players -- Seabrook comes out and gets 2, and we talk about even she, and a lot of them, their first shot 3s have been her in the last four games, and we gave her 2, and then we buckled down, we were much better there. When you're going to space and spread yourselves to guard the 3, it's going to leave lanes to drive. And then they just drove it on us. Our first shot defense was good. It was the in the zone. The zone, we come out and play the zone, man miss, a zone make. It's good on the first shot, and then Malcolm-Peck, the two offensive rebounds are the shooter, shoot and chase, shoot and chase. That's where the Spears is most dangerous on the offensive rebound, on her shot. She chases it. Great offensive rebounder. Q. Let's talk about Baylor. I mean, I know there's got to be a bitter taste from the first meeting. Talk about playing them tomorrow. CAROLYN DAVIS: First game was tough. We don't think we went out and competed our best. We didn't go out and execute or do any of the things that we plan to do. And I don't think that we'll do that this time. I mean, we're ready for this game. We're ready to continue to move on, and it's another game. We've got to prep for it tonight and play them tomorrow. Q. What makes them so tough? What will you do tomorrow? MONICA ENGELMAN: Be more aggressive. I think we were very passive the first game. First things first, you have to be aggressive whatever you're doing. Q. Are you guys excited about the opportunity to see them again? MONICA ENGELMAN: It's another opportunity to -- we play them in conference. We weren't very satisfied with our performance. But I think we're more excited. It's the next game in the tournament, second round, so trying to survive and advance. COACH HENRICKSON: They're coachable, baby, aren't they? Q. You guys not only are advancing to the second round but you just picked up your 20th win for the season. What does that feel like for your you two players? CAROLYN DAVIS: It feels good. Coach tells us we haven't had that in a while in the regular season. That's what we tried to get to. We didn't get that, but we still got to it. And it's a big mark for us, and we just want to continue to get wins. MONICA ENGELMAN: For me, I'm excited about it. And I want to build off of it. So that's pretty much it. Q. Bonnie, can you frame the 20 wins? That's kind of the -- COACH HENRICKSON: We do a really good job in the non-conference and league play. We're at times pretty good and we've got five overtime games, 4 and 1. About eight one-possession games. When we're aggressive we win, and when we're hesitant and tentative we didn't. That happened to us in the last regular season game at K-State at our place, happened at Texas Tech at our place. When we talked yesterday when we circled up, I said being wise and being experienced means you've made mistakes. We've got some awfully talented kids who just got hesitant and tentative. So I said if we think, remember anything from those situations, moving forward because there's so much to play, remember that. It's not a play called down the stretch; it's your mentality and whatever play is called. It's no magic we're running offense in one game and run the same offense and didn't knock it down. And like with Monica and Angel who have their the ball in their hands so much especially late and Carolyn will be a primary look in all of those things, I think moving forward to learn from where we struggled, that we don't get 20 earlier, which is obviously the direction and climb in the league standings, those are situations you've got to learn from. Same thing in the Nebraska game, all those late game, one-possession games. I think that's most important. That's what we've talked about down the stretch. Don't ever lose the lesson in a loss, don't lose the lesson, but don't hang around and let it weigh you down. You've got to move on. Q. You've obviously played in some great arenas in the Big 12 in front of some big crowds. Talk a little bit about the atmosphere and playing here in Kansas City in the Big 12 tournament for both of you, please? MONICA ENGELMAN: It was fun. It was good to see all the kids up at the top. I don't know if they were here for us or they were just hanging around. COACH HENRICKSON: Sounded like they were. MONICA ENGELMAN: The bands and stuff. We have the cheer squad and stuff, so it was really fun, friendly atmosphere. CAROLYN DAVIS: Yeah, it was fun. We had a lot of fans here from home. So that was great to see them travel here to see us. And, of course, the kids up top, that was always cute. I mean it's just great. Great to see as the week goes on the fan base that will be here. PETER IRWIN: Thank you. We'll have questions for Coach. Q. It seems like sometimes it depends on which game which team of yours kind of shows up. Today seemed to be the team that showed they're capable of beating anyone in the Big 12. And like you talked about, sometimes it's not that. Is there any concern with that, with the way this tournament is set up and back to back and kind of keeping that? COACH HENRICKSON: I think the two going back, if you try to recap every game in the league, the two games that are most disappointing are Baylor, given the Oklahoma game, although we get it to 10 against Oklahoma at home, we're -- for whatever reason, we don't have a pulse. We didn't have a pulse in the Baylor game. That is no knock on Baylor to take anything away from them, obviously how talented they are. But we remember what that felt like in the locker room, just we just rolled over and let it happen. But I think outside of that, yeah, we have been inconsistent. If there's anything we've done consistently is been inconsistent, whether it's from one media to the next or stretches where I was proud today where they cut into it and we grew it, grew the lead and went back to how we grew it and got it in the first half on the defensive end. And then got good shots, good shots in rhythm and did a better job there. And that's a growth and a maturation and a toughness, and you can't be soft in this league. You just can't be from possession to possession, from media to media, to half to half, and we haven't been all of those things consistently enough to be as successful as I certainly thought we could be from a win-loss column in the league play. Q. Do you think the first time you played Baylor that you guys maybe got caught up in the fact that of the Griner, of Griner? COACH HENRICKSON: Kind of hard not to do. I mean, I thought our -- of course I thought their mentality was fine. We're shocked that we just didn't have a pulse -- just shocked and embarrassed, quite honestly, we didn't have a pulse. And they were, too. And they were, too. And, again, not to take anything away from them, because they can do that to you. They can do it to you, because they're that good. But when someone starts to punch you you can't put your hands in your pocket. We didn't have anything back. We didn't have an answer. And it's four-minute games. One possession at a time. All of those things. But, yes, I say that with absolutely taking nothing away from how good they were that day and how good they've been consistently through the season. Q. Talk about the 20 wins again, just from a program standpoint. Just talk about the benchmarks. COACH HENRICKSON: Right, if you're in basketball it's 20 wins and that's important and the kids are proud of that. And it's hard for me to go on and on and on about it because we hoped we had that maybe a month ago. We were hoping it would have been more than that by now. But if you're in basketball it's 20 wins, and that's important. And the kids are proud of it. And, again, but still proud of it but wanted it to happen sooner than -- wanted that in February and not necessarily have to wait until March. Q. Having said all that about Baylor, what do you say to your team tonight to prepare for tomorrow? Obviously you'll do Xs and Os, but what kinds of things do you tell them? What's the message tonight? COACH HENRICKSON: We talked a little bit in the locker room before we got out of there about remembering what that felt like emotionally, after that. And I don't think any of us have forgotten that. And that's important. But it's a new day. It's a new game. A different game. Same teams obviously and our prep will be -- it's challenging because it's going to be in the hotel and a taped floor and try to go through rotation what we need to do defensively. And as you look at it, how much Griner -- who do we go to? Carolyn Davis. And I think Colorado took one shot in the paint. Now it's not a focus for them. That's not who they are, sit down and block. But she's phenomenal offensively, but she's been tough defensively because of how she changes the game. I mean, at their place last year, Sharley Morris (phonetic) comes off and almost from 16 feet away throws it half court because they'd come off and hit 2. She can do that. It's what she can do on both ends of the floor. But this time of the year, there's as much here, there's as much here in your ability to focus and concentrate and execute a game plan, but it's 50/50 balls. It's a gut check. It's a toughness. It is there's a scheme obviously and to execute and play and do the things to give yourself a chance, but there's another element, too, that we have to embrace and hurry and accept that challenge tomorrow. Q. As an opposing coach you said some really nice things about Brittany Spears, and she hasn't had maybe a lot of talent around her but today became the all-time leading scorer for that program. How would you assess especially how she has maybe matured this year because it seems like she plays better on both ends this year? COACH HENRICKSON: She's worked harder defensively. She's more active in passing lanes. Her steal numbers have always been good, but I've called it like possum; she'll sit back there and wait for you, and then she has those go-go gadget arms, she goes and gets a ball in the passing lane that nobody thinks she can get. She's been more aggressive in passing lanes. If you look at her willingness to deny entry, she doesn't sit there and gamble for steals and be undisciplined. She's more disciplined defensively and her effort is better there. I think from when you watch her and as much film as we watch, I think her emotional maturity, I think she's been a better teammate, not that she was a bad teammate, she plays with people around her better, but she recognizes when she needs to be able to take over, and give her credit for that. But her ability for one-on-one and her efforts on the offensive glass and how much you have to prepare for her because of the all different ways she can score, I've always been a huge fan of hers and her ability one-on-one offensively, have been more impressed with her on the defensive end and respect her commitment on that end before because I think that was the knock on her before. She played on one end and rested on the other. But I think her effort has been much better on the other end. She needs to still do that for the young kids, because if your best guy is giving you the best effort and attitude, you've got a chance. I'm not in Linda's practice, but I think she would be able to say that about her this year. PETER IRWIN: Congratulations. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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