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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2011Jordan HooperLindsey MooreConnie YoriKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Iowa State – 69 THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by the Huskers from Nebraska. Coach Connie Yori, your thoughts about this afternoon's game. COACH YORI: Well, it was a fun game to be a part of. Didn't want to come out on the side we came out. But I thought we've had to rely a lot on shooting 3s and kind of live by it and you die by it. And that kept us in the game through the first 35 minutes, 37 minutes. And then we couldn't make shots. And they have an improved inside game from where they were a year ago. They go down to Poppens and she's able to make plays down the stretch for them. But I think Mansfield was the one -- we played a lot of zone. I've been coaching for 25 years, and this is the first year we've ever played any amount of zone that we're playing because of where we are health-wise. We've had to go to that a lot. We started the game and, man, they score 14 points in the first, I don't know, four and a half minutes. So then we went to the zone, and I thought that was a factor. But I thought Mansfield hitting the shot she hit, you expect Bolte to hit shots whether it's man or zone. But I thought Mansfield was a real key for them. No, they made more plays down the stretch. THE MODERATOR: Questions of the student-athletes. Q. Lindsey, did you guys think you had an upset in you today? Did you feel confident coming down here that this could have happened, what happened? LINDSEY MOORE: We did. We talked a lot about how we're going to play like there's no tomorrow. Because for us, a tournament isn't promised for us. So coming into this tournament, we knew we had nothing to lose and everything to gain. So we just wanted to come out here and play hard. If an upset was possible, then definitely do it. Q. Jordan, when you went into the locker room, what was the mood? What were you thinking? JORDAN HOOPER: We were excited. I guess we were super duper happy to come back out in the second half and upset the No. 5 team in the Big 12. Q. Either of you players can answer this. How much did you give up by putting so much emphasis on Kelsey and did that leave Chelsea maybe with some looks that she might not ordinarily get down the stretch? LINDSEY MOORE: You know, we -- obviously Kelsey's a great player and she's going to make great shots. For us it was a focus that we just contested her shots. And I think we got down to where we were worried about so much about the outside we kind of spread out our zone. And they were able to get good looks inside and Chelsea was just able to finish around the rim. Q. Lindsey, this has been such a turnaround coming in the last year and then having so much weight on your shoulders this year and the team struggling a little bit more, but what have you learned about yourself this season, just going through the adversity that you have? LINDSEY MOORE: You know, I learned that I need to become a better leader out there on the court especially with the loss of Dominique. I learned I need to be more a more vocal leader out on the court and get my team going and just be dependable and make shots down the stretch when we need them. THE MODERATOR: Congratulations, ladies. Questions for Coach. Q. Connie, other than the result, did you get about everything you wanted out of your kids today? COACH YORI: Well, I think our players have competed really throughout the season. There's only been a couple of times this year where I've left a game saying we didn't come into it ready, we didn't compete hard. And I feel like we've been competitive. Scores sometimes aren't indicative of the effort that we have put forward, because we ran out of gas with some limitations. We've been in games, we've been in a lot of games with ten minutes left and we just haven't had enough fuel to finish. And then the lead expands. But I feel like we've been -- the last couple of weeks we've been really competitive in games. You look at our A&M score, I mean, which is our last game of the year, that was not indicative of what really happened in that game. So obviously we have some limitations and we gotta do a better job of recruiting, better job of coaching, but I think our kids have done a really good job of continuing to work through the struggles and handling adversity. And that's what you want, that's all you can really expect from any group of young women and just keep pushing forward and have the attitude that they're going into every game and trying to win it. And I feel like we've tried to do that. I feel like our kids have been real good from that standpoint. Q. What adjectives would you describe what Poppens did against your school's No. 2 all-time shot blocker down at the end? COACH YORI: Well, adjectives. Let me think, adjectives. Let's see, a journalism major with a -- she's powerful. And she's a strong kid. And she gets the ball in the low block. And she got deep. And she overpowered us. And Cat got -- we're playing zone so Catheryn got caught playing a little flat in our zone. Because you've got to cover more than one person in a zone. And that's what allowed her to get those touches. I don't think those are adjectives, are they? No. Q. Connie, how would you gauge Jordan's improvement this year and what are the things you think she's going to be working on next season as a sophomore? COACH YORI: There's some little things she's gotten better at. But in the off season, she absolutely needs to develop more to her game than just being a shooter. She needs to be able to put the ball on the floor. She needs to develop as a passer. She needs to develop as an inside scorer. I think she can do all those things. She needs to get stronger with strength. She will be able to do those things more and she's -- she's as good a shooter as maybe I've coached. And I know her numbers don't necessarily reflect how good of a shooter she is. But she's a really good shooter. Largely because she has to take tough shots because of the fact that we don't have a lot of scorers. She's got to take tough shots. But she's got to develop some other facets of her game, as I mentioned, and I think she will. Q. How much did Jordan's fourth foul kind of mess up what momentum you thought you had at that time? COACH YORI: Well, we struggled with foul trouble here the last half of the season, and Jordan has been one of them. And again that comes from being young and playing behind the play. She has a tendency to take herself out of position and she gets herself into trouble that way. But both her and Catheryn have been in a lot of foul trouble this year for us, and obviously that's had an impact. Had an impact today. Both games against Iowa State previously, those guys got in foul trouble. We tried to emphasize that. That's one of the reasons we went to zone, too, you think you can stay out of foul trouble a little bit better. Q. It's officially goodbye now. I know you probably haven't had much time to look at the Big Ten as busy as you have been, but your thoughts about making that transition? COACH YORI: Honestly, I could not even tell you what's going on in the Big Ten. And we're focused on our season. We're focused on our next opponent. We're going to take the off season to try to catch up and watch some film, and we've taped a lot of Big Ten games. And we'll learn from that. But I just want to -- I feel like the Big 12 has been a great league for us, and there's so many people in this league that I respect. Bill Fennelly is one of them. I think it's interesting that we ended up playing our last game in the Big 12 against someone who I have great respect for. And I think he does a great job with his program. I think his kids go about their business the right way. And so it was intriguing that that's the way the opponent we had in our last game. So I'm just thankful that the Big 12 stuck together. I said that in the summer when it was going on. I'm sitting there from almost from an outsider's perspective, you don't have a lot of involvement in it watching, and I'm just saying, well, I just hope they stick together so these guys can continue to have a good league in the Big 12, people in the Big 12 office continue to have jobs. So we're just really thankful that everybody -- that there's still a Big 12. We'll be looking at the Big Ten starting here in the next couple of weeks. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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