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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2011Micah GaroutteJeff MittieHelena SverrisdottirLAS VEGAS, NEVADA TCU – 61 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by TCU. Coach, if we could start with some general thoughts on today's game. COACH MITTIE: Well, I thought we got out of the gates the way we wanted to. The advantage of the rest is obvious, and we took advantage of that. We came in. I thought we practiced well leading up to this. You know, my guess is New Mexico got a little bit tired. We wanted to get out. We wanted to hopefully take their legs a little bit. I thought our group was very active. I thought our group played well. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student-athletes. Q. Helena, you really looked like you had an extra bounce in your step. Did the layoff really help you? HELENA SVERRISDOTTIR: Yeah, I think so. I think we had some really good practices. We were able to get rest, but at the same time get ready for today's game. So, yeah, it definitely helped. Q. Micah, you had a couple huge baskets in the first half to get TCU going. How important was it to get off to a fast start? MICAH GAROUTTE: Definitely, a fast start was important. Q. Talk about your offensive game in the first half. MICAH GAROUTTE: I just think we were able to move the ball. Coach talked about getting great shots as opposed to good shots. When you have an open shot, just take it. I think we really just trusted the offense and were able to execute a lot of things. That helped us a lot. It's really easy to get good shots whenever Helena is your point guard. Q. What did you all do differently, or did you do anything, in terms of approaching the tournament differently than you have in the past given you've had trouble here at the Mountain West tournament in the past? HELENA SVERRISDOTTIR: I don't think we did anything different. We definitely learned from the past three years. I've never seen my team this focused. That's what I loved about today. We were all so into it. All nine players were ready to play. That's what we need for tomorrow as well. MICAH GAROUTTE: Yeah, I don't think we did anything different. I think just what Helena said, we were all really focused. I think everybody knew that they were going to have their part in this. I think that made everybody really ready knowing that they were going to have to get in there, they were going to have to be focused and really step up their game. THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student-athletes and continue with questions for Coach Mittie. Q. You mentioned New Mexico looking like they were a little tired. Was that something you detected early as opposed to late when it was obvious? COACH MITTIE: I think when we get out of the gate like we did, that can take some wind out of your sails early. If it's a grind-it game, they can find their legs. They played a lot of games leading up to this. In the past, we haven't taken advantage of that. This was a little different for us. They did notice the different prep. I went back and looked when we were -- previously when we had 12-day layoffs for the NCAA tournament, I went back and looked at some practice schedules, looked at what had worked for us. This was a long layoff. We had the last bye of the Mountain West, so we hadn't played since last Wednesday. So this was a long break. I went back and tried to string enough practices together but enough rest. We felt like our practices were better. We probably practiced a little bit less, but we didn't string together four days in a row. We knew what we needed to do was string together a couple days here. We practiced, rest, a couple days of practice, rest, a couple days of practice. That's what we did prior. Q. Talk about Helena. You cleared it out for her several times. She was able to take advantage, the size advantage, down in the paint. COACH MITTIE: Yeah. Well, she made good reads on that. That's one of the things that Helena does such a great job within the offense. It might not be a called play. I thought there were two things that were key with her game. They really locked on Carter. Ice likes the left side of the floor for the drive. With them locked on Carter, she has that drive and she was able to make some plays. Then we were also able to iso a side for her and just allow her to work. She had a good feel for the game today. Q. What happened with Crawford and Thompson? When did you make the decision to leave them behind? COACH MITTIE: Well, yeah, both were a little bit different in regards to their injuries. But the decision was probably made Wednesday-ish, probably Wednesday sometime. It just wasn't going to be productive for them to be here. We hope they have a chance to have them back for post-season. They're both day to day on that. The plane ride, the travel, all that stuff wasn't going to be productive, so we decided to leave them back in Fort Worth. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. COACH MITTIE: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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