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PACIFIC-10 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2011Nikki CaldwellDoreena CampbellDarxia MorrisLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA UCLA – 63 THE MODERATOR: All right, we've got the UCLA Bruins. Coach, an opening statement, please. COACH CALDWELL: Well, I'm excited for this team. I'm excited that they've put themselves in a position to play for a Pac-10 championship. Though Jasmine Dixon didn't have an outstanding game, I thought that these two young ladies to the right of me really stepped up and did what they needed to do to secure the win for us. These two have been huge, not only players for this program, but they've just been huge in moving the UCLA program to the level that it is at right now. I just hope that they continue to play as a unit, and we'll see how far they'll take us. Q. Besides getting the victory today, what was the mindset going into this game, and how were you able to execute your defense so well? COACH CALDWELL: Our mindset was, because we've been off since last Saturday, was to make sure that we came into the game with great intensity. We talked about you have a choice every time that you step on the floor, and you have a choice to go toe to toe with your opponent and compete with them at a level that's higher than them or you can stay even with them or below them. I thought tonight, for the most part, our team made the choice to elevate their play. And they understand that we've got to do it on the defensive end. They understand that that's who we are, and that's how we get our transition game going. That's how we get easy looks. That's how on we turn people over. To me, that's a fun way to play this game. Q. Can you just talk about how difficult it would be to come back against a team like yours, just the way you play the kind of controlled offense that you play? How difficult it is to even chip away at a lead like that? COACH CALDWELL: Sometimes it's controlled. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes Do and Rex will come off with a single ball screen and not make one pass and shoot it. But they do have the green light to do it. I think for us, because we eat up a lot of the clock against our opponents, because we extend our defense 94 feet and we show different looks. Tonight we stayed more to our one-two-two look. But when we're getting you late, 13, 12, to run your offense, to me that makes a big difference in you being able to come back. Then a lot of teams are not pressing period in the country. So we're not having to speed up our offense or we're not even having to take time off on of our offensive possessions. We pretty much dictate when we're going to shoot the basketball. Sometimes I don't want them shooting it that early, it depends on what rhythm we're in. But I think that has a lot to do with it. Q. Without getting really technical, you said your defense keys your entire game. But was it as easy as it looked? You got off to an 11-1 start and then just for a layman, was it from your perspective as easy as it looked? COACH CALDWELL: No, I kind of worry about how much pressure we're going to bring and how long, because I don't want to wear them out. But because we've been that way all year, they've been conditioned that way. So when you're having to go up against traps and bring the ball up 94 feet, don't know when the trap is coming, or we may get you on reversal. I think to me that makes the other opponent very hesitant in their play as far as being aggressive, because even if you come at us aggressively, that can still prompt us to trap you. If you're come ago cross half court and we feel we've got the lanes covered, we'll go then as well. So for this team they work hard at it. They work extremely hard at it. Again, we're not the biggest team in the conference nor in the country, so we want to use our athleticism. We want to use our quickness and our versatility to make sure that we're disrupting people away from the basket as much as we can. Q. Can you talk about match-up with Stanford and what they do and what you're going to have to do differently to make it a better game and possibly beat them? COACH CALDWELL: It's not what they do, it's what don't they do. They have a very balanced offensive team. Their ability to stretch you and their ability to score in the paint. For us, we'll have to really, really focus in on being stronger and being much tougher than what we've been. Obviously, there are certain things in the game that we can't control, but I do feel that our possessions that we've taken off, a team like Stanford is going to exploit you and they're going to capitalize on it. So we've got to understand that every possession matters. We've got to understand that defensively you cannot miss your rotation because they'll make you pay for it. When we're looking to battle inside, it can't just be Jasmine and T. I mean, Darxia and Doreena, everybody's got to be involved in keeping them off the offensive glass. We've got to be involved in making sure that our ball pressure's there so there's not easy post entries. We've got to do things at a very higher level than what we've done. We're capable of doing it. It's just a matter of are we going to sustain it for 40. DOREENA CAMPBELL: I think Coach is right. We have to play for 40 minutes, and just play our hardest, you know, and go out there and give it our all. DARXIA MORRIS: Yeah, play for 40 minutes, rebounding, make open shots is the key for us. Just no room for mistakes because Stanford's a great team, and it's a championship game, so, yeah. Q. You mentioned this wasn't Jasmine Dixon's best game. Was it just an off night for her or something that the defense was doing specifically that contained her? COACH CALDWELL: I think for Jasmine, when you're playing teams twice now and a third time you're going to know they're going to come with double teams and they know your game. She's got to be more comfortable in the high post area for us, which is where we're moving her around, because she has that high post shot. We're definitely giving her the green light to do so. Jasmine is a tough competitor. She knows how to win. For Jasmine, this is the longest and basically season that she's had in her collegiate career. She didn't really play at Rutgers. Then last year we only had her for half a season. So now it's a full season for her. We're very conscious of the fact that Jasmine is basically a year and a half into the league, but she's a junior. She's really a sophomore in that regard. So she's going to have those nights. At the end of the day we're going to go with Jasmine because she's put us into this position, and she's a player that's going to compete. Q. How important was it coming into this game not looking past this team, knowing that Stanford's pretty much going to be next and that daunting challenge? How important was it to stay in this game? DARXIA MORRIS: It was key. You can't just look ahead of games. You have to look at what's in front of you. You take a game day by day, you don't look ahead. We just did a good job preparing for this game. Cal's a good team, and we did good executing on our offense and defense, so that gave us a good win. Q. Can you explain how you had been playing at the beginning of the season compared to how you're playing now individually and as a team? Do you feel that you're peaking as a team right now? DOREENA CAMPBELL: Well, I think starting from the beginning of the season to the end of the season you're going to have -- you're going to make changes, you're going to adjust and whatnot. For me, personally, this is it. We're going to the end now, and every game counts, you know. Every game is that one last game that you'll remember or whatnot. Why not put it on the line? Why not give it our all, and that's what I think. DARXIA MORRIS: I agree with Doreena too. Coming to the beginning you play everybody twice. But no matter what you still give it your all. Coming to the Pac-10 NCAA you're one and out. So basically give it your all and play your hardest. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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