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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS & FINALS: DALLAS

March 26, 2011

DALLAS, TEXAS

THE MODERATOR: Coach Matt Bollant has joined us. Coach, your thoughts about the tournament.
COACH BOLLANT: Excited to be here. Our players have worked very hard and accomplished something that's never been done in the history of the Green Bay program. To be a mid major and knock off the Big Ten teams that we did, it says a lot about the fight and who our players are. And it's been a really fun ride and we're hoping it's going to go on for a while.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Obviously the question that everybody asks about Baylor is preparing for Brittney Griner, which is a unique challenge in itself, and I heard there were a couple of unique things going on this week in practice. I want to do it as kind of a two-part. Talk about preparing for her but also when you look before Brittney gets the ball they have a freshman point guard, Odyssey Sims, that's pretty good and she's done a pretty good job. So talk about the two of them.
COACH BOLLANT: It starts with Sims and your ability to contest her. One of the things that -- they're so athletic when they get by off the dribble and you have to help Griner just scoops things up, so they get layups and they get offensive rebounds. It's one of the worst things you can give up against an athletic team is penetration, because it just leads to layups and it leads to offensive rebounding.
But Griner's presence, for us, we focused on just trying to keep her, limit her the best we can. I think the system we do is hopefully the right system for it. We talked a lot this week about be who you are. I know a lot of teams change throughout the year and do a lot of different things. But for us we want our players to be confident, so we haven't changed much this week. We thought be who you are and do the things that we do.

Q. In terms of being who you are, as far as the defense that you'll throw at Baylor, is it predominantly zone and will you look to double, triple Brittney in the post?
COACH BOLLANT: Yeah, we've played two defenses throughout the year, a man and a half court trap, and we'll continue to do that as well. So we'll mix things up and see what works, and that's one of the things that's helped us throughout the year.
We did a lot against Michigan State, is be able to change the pace and mix things up in different possessions and defending the shot clock and things like that.
But the flow of the game will determine a little bit what we do and how we guard.

Q. Can you talk about, like you said, first time ever to the Sweet 16, how to guard against not just being excited being here?
COACH BOLLANT: The first thing we did when we practiced, the first time we took off Wednesday and our travel day coming back, and Thursday, the first thing we did is, hey, we expected to be in this game.
When we left the locker room at Iowa State last year, we knew we were a possession away and felt like we let an opportunity slip.
And we came in this year with the expectation of playing this game. If you're expecting to play in this game, then you're not just happy to be there, you want to play well and you want to have a shot to win.
And obviously we understand the enormous challenge that we have at hand. At the same time, our players are 34-1. When Green Bay steps on the court and every one of our games this year, when we stepped on the court they believed we should win.
And they've done that. I mean, in the last three years I think we've won 90, 91 games, so for three years when we stepped on the court, they believe we should win. And that's one of the reasons why we didn't change a lot this week, is we thought, hey, what we've done has been good enough and we don't want to send the wrong message to our players that we have to do something drastically different when what you've done has been pretty special all year.

Q. Is Kayla going to get the main assignment against Brittney, or is it going to be a whole combination of girls who go up against her?
COACH BOLLANT: It will probably be Julie to start, and she's our 5 and probably best physical presence. But, yeah, certainly we're going to have to switch things off and do different things to give different people a look, and we'd also switch some screens, so it will be some different people guarding her at different times as well.

Q. I guess a common opponent for you is Michigan State, a team you guys just finished beating and a team they beat pretty good back in November. Did you look at anything in those two games?
COACH BOLLANT: I haven't watched Michigan State. I taped it and I'll watch it. I've watched about ten tapes. That was so long ago that I wanted to see all the more current ones first, because teams change throughout the year. They do different things.
But that's something I will go back and watch and see what they did against them and how it worked. I certainly know Michigan State's personnel, so I understand their athleticism. And that's one of the things it's hard to tell on tape, is how athletic the teams are playing against and what they're like. I certainly know the Big 12 is the best conference in the country, so it gives you somewhat of a feel. But that will help, watching a little bit of that tape. And I plan to do that tonight.

Q. Can you talk about how difficult you are to defend? Because I know Kim talked about that y'all can shoot the 3 at any position on the floor and move and dribble drive, that kind of thing. Talk about how difficult you are to defend.
COACH BOLLANT: Yeah, I think that's one of the things that -- I think we pass the ball extremely well. I think that makes a difference in how you guard us. Julie Wojta led us in -- our 5, led us in assists. And certainly she'll step out and face the basket, be able to shoot the 3 and go off the dribble as well.
So that's kind of a unique challenge. In watching them play, Griner didn't have to guard too many 5s that were stepping out, facing the basket, shooting the 3 and going off the dribble. And so hopefully that will present a little bit of a problem. And that's something that as we play bigger teams that we try to take advantage of.
And then we'll post our guards. And against a lot of teams, posting the guards is pretty effective. I'm not sure -- they've got big, athletic guards, so it's going to be a challenge to maybe get quite as many touches. But Celeste Hoewisch has posted up all year against bigger guards and been really effective.
I think our ability to pass the ball, I think we play with a lot of discipline, we're willing to make four, five, six passes to make you have to guard. So hopefully those things.
One of the things we say is let's make them have to guard and make them have to guard a lot of action. It's easy to guard one or two screens, one or two passes; make them have to guard four, five, six, seven and see how they do with that.

Q. I notice also in the stats that you guys have a lot of steals. I mean, is that a key against Baylor, too, is just being active, getting in the passing lanes and that kind of thing?
COACH BOLLANT: Yeah, it certainly is. We pride ourselves in playing as hard as any team in the country. I've had probably more coaches this year before the game say, Coach, I don't think I've ever seen a team play harder on film than your team.
And certainly people will look at that think, well, it's the quality of the play of the Horizon League, but Michigan State had 15 turnovers in the first half against us, so it's not just the Horizon League that turned it over, certainly Baylor is a whole 'nother animal as far as their guards and Sims and how talented they are.
When we play hard and play aggressively, then usually good things happen for us defensively.

Q. About six weeks ago there was another team from Green Bay that was here that most people considered an underdog. Have you mentioned that at all to your team? How much motivation -- I know it's solely unrelated, but --
COACH BOLLANT: It's fun to be -- we talk a lot about Title Town and just the championships and that there's not only one championship team in Green Bay.
We won 13 conference championships and been to the NCAA -- I think this is our 12th time in the NCAA Tournament. So it's been quite a run for the Phoenix program.
And the Phoenix program has been really good for a long time. We just haven't been to the Sweet 16. So this is kind of the next step for us and it's exciting to put us on the map.
And certainly the Packers -- we have a lot of players from Wisconsin. They're die-hard Packer fans and they don't miss a game and they've grown up since they were five years old, they've been following the Packers and going to the games and all that. That's kind of neat. We've gotten to know a little bit of the staff and players here and there, so it makes it fun to be in Green Bay.

Q. Your team is obviously very confident. They believe in themselves. But is there any worry at all when they get on the floor against Brittney and that presence out there that there could be an intimidation factor that they're just really not prepared for no matter how much you watch film?
COACH BOLLANT: Yeah, you know, you can talk about her blocking a shot and doing that, but it's just hard to simulate that and say how that's going to affect who you are.
One of the things I said is, hey, they block a shot and it goes out of bounds, we get to run inbounds. So we score more on inbounds plays than just about any team in the country. We've got 20 different inbounds plays versus man.
They're going to see a lot of different things. Don't get rattled. If they block the ball and it goes out of bounds, good. We're about to run an inbounds play and probably going to get a great shot.
So I try to use that psychology. But until you're on the court and until she blocks your shot, you don't know how they're going to react. But hopefully they're going to tell themselves the right thing. We've tried through the year, all year, to talk about moving on to the next play, not letting one play affect the next. But a blocked shot is a little bit different in that scenario, and hopefully they'll be able to handle that. She's certainly going to block a lot of shots because she's very capable.

Q. Baylor just being a little bit down the road and they draw pretty well, do you approach this game kind of as a road game knowing that they're going to have a pretty good following here?
COACH BOLLANT: Yeah, yeah, I think we do. It's part of where we're at. We were really thankful to -- first time in the history of the program we've gone to a court been able to play two neutral court games. So that was really the hope going in.
Last year we lost a hard-fought game at Iowa State in front of 8,000, 9,000 fans. I think as a neutral court, I'm not sure we lose that game. So having a neutral court was good.
One of the things we hope for is a lot of Texas A&M fans to come out, because I know they'll be cheering for us so they don't have to play them a fourth time.
So I'd encourage the Texas A&M fans to get out here and support Green Bay. I'm friends with Coach Blair and he sent me a text, so I'm sure there's a lot of A&M people hoping for an upset from Green Bay.
THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by two of the student-athletes from Green Bay, Celeste Hoewisch and Kayla Tetschlag. Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Celeste, your coach was just up here a minute ago talking about you guys have to be you. And obviously what you are is, I mean, 34-1. You've won 25 in a row. How much confidence do you guys have right now, just with the success you've had?
CELESTE HOEWISCH: I think we're very confident with ourselves and what's got us to this point. We're obviously going to have to play a good game. There's no doubt about it. We're going to have to play very good basketball.
But we just can't get caught up in No. 1 seed and get intimidated by that. We just have to go out there, play aggressive and play Green Bay basketball.

Q. Kayla, the obvious question is Brittney Griner stands in the middle of that Baylor team. Talk about preparing for her. Can you really prepare? I've heard you were shooting over green foam the other day, just whatever it would take. Talk about preparing for it and will you be ready for it until you get on the court.
KAYLA TETSCHLAG: All year we've been undersized. Both of our post players are six foot. We went against Penn State in Cancun over Thanksgiving and it wasn't a problem, just because we have that fight to us and we have that heart. And sometimes I think that just makes more of a difference.
Yes, we understand she's the tallest player we've ever played against. But, again, like Celeste said, we can't get caught up in that.
So we've been doing our best to simulate it in practice, but when it comes down to it, it's just going to be about the heart and how hard we fight.

Q. Couple of months ago there was another team from Green Bay that came down here that was considered the underdog and ended up walking away Super Bowl champions. I know it's a little unrelated, but talk about that a little bit. Just do you feed off that a little bit, Green Bay coming down here and trying to do something?
CELESTE HOEWISCH: You're the first person to say that (laughter). I'm just kidding. No, we've heard that a lot. I think it's cool to be compared, Title Town, that whole thing, winning tradition. I think we embrace it as a team.
We're very proud of the Packers and we're very proud of this team. And I think the same thing, like how the community embraces the Packer team. It's very similar to how our community is with our team. Hopefully we can have the same type of magic and get it done.
KAYLA TETSCHLAG: We're okay with being compared to them. I think I see a lot of similarities in their team and ours, just because, like you said, they were seen as the underdog, but they came in here with a lot of fight and with a lot of heart and got it done.
So being in the city where it all happened, I think that's a great thing for us.

Q. Kayla, you've had some creative shot-making moments in your career. How important will that be against a good shot blocker like Brittney? And she has not fouled out of a game this year. How do you try and get her into foul trouble?
KAYLA TETSCHLAG: The biggest thing our coaches have been telling us is to go up into her. Don't block the shot for her, is a quote we've been hearing from our coaches. So don't turn yourself in different ways and make it easy for her to block that shot. Just continue to do as best you can.
We have been working on it in practice stepping on the perimeter a little bit for our post players and just continuing to see the rim and not seeing the long arm in front of you.
So we're going to continue to do our best with that.

Q. Celeste, so much focus is on Brittney Griner. Talk about some of those perimeter players and how you can't lose focus on those too.
CELESTE HOEWISCH: Definitely, I think that's one of the biggest things I think we saw in film, is that they've got some other great parts around there. Odyssey Sims is a great point guard and can really create for the team.
So I think ball pressure is going to be key for us and keeping those guards in front, because Brittney Griner is going to be a hard enough task as it is. We don't want anybody else going off and creating and penetrating. So I think keeping their guards in front is going to be a challenge for us.

Q. Kayla, you guys are also far away from home. Obviously Baylor and A&M will have very large contingents of crowds here. I don't know how many Green Bay fans will be here. But do you kind of embrace that sort of underdog mentality?
KAYLA TETSCHLAG: Yeah, well, I think we have a good crowd that traveled with us. We tend to travel pretty well, which is exciting.
But as Coach says in his pregame speeches, for away games we're all we have, and that sometimes makes us stick together even more and trust each other and communicate even better because we don't have that huge crowd behind us.
It's not going to be like a huge number like a home game, but I think we'll have a pretty good crowd, and we'll just have to stick together that much more.

Q. Celeste, and maybe Kayla, too, Coach talked about it, this is the first time y'all have ever made a Sweet 16 appearance. How do you keep yourself from being content for just being here?
CELESTE HOEWISCH: I don't think that's a problem for this team. I think this team has been hungry all year. We want to achieve great things. I don't think anybody's satisfied. I think everybody's still hungry and wants to keep this thing going.
We want to stay playing together for as long as possible, because we love each other so much. We're a family. And we don't want this to end.
KAYLA TETSCHLAG: Yeah, I feel the same way. After the last game I was thanking all the underclassmen for just giving me one more game in this uniform. I think they've shown that they don't want to stop playing with us by playing as hard as they play. So looking forward to it.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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