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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 2, 2012A'dia MathiesMatthew MitchellKeyla SnowdenNASHVILLE, TENNESSEE Kentucky – 71 THE MODERATOR: We are joined now by Kentucky head coach Matthew Mitchell, A'dia Mathies and Keyla Snowden. COACH MITCHELL: It's just really good to be sitting here in the press conference winning that game. What a great, hard‑fought tough game. We have a tremendous respect for the University of Florida and their basketball team. If they're not one of the toughest teams in America, I don't know who is. They're well‑coached, well‑prepared, and their players play very hard. It's a real honor to be a part of that game because they are a tough, tough team. I'm not sure exactly how we won the game, but we were able to make enough hustle plays in the second half, thought we finally started hustling a little bit more, and that's a real key for us. Real proud of the players. Did not look good there for a large portion of the game. For us to overcome poor shooting and find a way to win is something I'm proud of our players for doing. THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Coach, in the second half you went with Amber Smith at the point guard position. Talk about your decision to make that move. COACH MITCHELL: Yeah, we just were real hesitant at that position today. We needed somebody to come off with some energy. Amber had been struggling in that department in practice and in games. I was really proud she was able to rise to the occasion because we needed it badly. We were just sort of lifeless out there at the point position. We just told her she needed to go in and make some plays. I thought she played probably her best game of the year. Q. Coach, do you feel like one of the reasons you were able to pull this out was because you were able to come through a little more at the foul line than they were? COACH MITCHELL: Yeah, I thought that we did a good job getting to the line and making some shots. We missed some at crucial moments, and it made it feel like we weren't doing that great a job at the foul line. Now as you look at the stats, that was a big, big difference in the game. Q. Can you talk about the matchup problems that George and Stewart presented, especially in the first half, how you were able to counterbalance that in the second? COACH MITCHELL: If you look at the three games we played this year, they were all very, very close. I think that's one of the reasons Florida is such a tough matchup for us, is they have excellent post players that play so well together. They're seniors, they're veterans, they play well together. For a large portion of the game, we had to play four guards. I thought that A'dia really tried to battle down there. It's just tough. Those kids are so big, physical, skilled. You see they were big producers today. That's a tough, tough matchup for us and makes it difficult to beat Florida. Q. For the players, it seemed your freshman Bria Goss struggled. What did you say to her for her to make some good defensive plays? A'DIA MATHIES: Bring a hustles every day in practice, every game. Even though she wasn't having the best night, made a mistake here or there, she's going to try to give it her best and her all. We kept encouraging her, kept motivating her. She came back and played some big plays for us. KEYLA SNOWDEN: The main thing I was telling everybody is to try to settle down. Everybody had first‑game jitters. We played extremely hard. I think our defense helped us get through that slump in the beginning. Definitely with Bria, she plays hard and aggressive and we appreciate everything she brings to the team. Q. How important was it for Keyla, especially in the first half, like she said, just to settle you down and keep you in the game? COACH MITCHELL: Keyla came off the bench with great energy. She's done that all year. She certainly showed today. It's great to see that. I tell you, I don't know why we're having such a hard time making shots, but we just are. There's nothing you can do but hang in there. Keyla just stepped in the gap right there and was able to help us hold on. We started out 14 down, just nothing going on. It's so difficult to fight out of that hole. But when you get the three‑point ball going, it can kind of lift everybody's spirits, lets you play harder on the defensive end. Keyla's performance was spectacular. Obviously we could not have won without that kind of performance. So real happy and proud of her on that. Q. Keyla, referring to your first‑game jitters comment, why do you think that happened? KEYLA SNOWDEN: Just being in the atmosphere. We're a team, we've been here before. I think that comes with anybody or any team. Just the first game, you kind of loosen up a little bit as the game goes on. Q. Do you think maybe Florida having had the game yesterday helped them come out and get that jump on you a little bit early? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I think so. That's what coach said, they had a game under they belt. They were a little more accustomed to the gym, the balls and everything. They just got the flow. I think once we settled down and got used to everything, our defense started to pick up in the second half, our offense picked up. I think it was just a matter of time. Q. The first‑game jitters, was it different this time because you had won the regular‑season championship? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I think that adds a little bit of pressure, but I don't think that affected our start. It's mainly like how we come, how we prepare ourselves to play. I think it was within ourselves, like A'dia said, we worked through that. Q. What does it say about your team to go down so much in the first half, then come back and take a lead in the second? COACH MITCHELL: Well, it says a lot about them. I'm not sure how level my head was staying when we were down 14. That's a real good job by the players. I was so concerned about our opponent, first of all. Coach Butler I think is one of the finest coaches in the country. I knew they would be prepared, they would compete, they would play hard. It's a difficult day for us, not playing yesterday. We were out of our game‑day routine because the shootaround was so early. We take a lot of pride in our game‑day practice. We feel like that is something that gives us an edge. We really prepare hard. We just did a walk‑through at the hotel this morning. I don't know that we were just ready to roll to start out. Kind of out of routine. I don't know if that had something to do with it. I don't know if it was getting the trophy there. A lot was going on that's not usually going on for us. For them to battle back from all of that... 20‑6, looked like it might get 36‑6. Didn't look like it was going real good for us. They just kept chipping away and battling. I think in the end defensively having the confidence you could get stops, you could pressure the ball, you could get some turnovers. We had a foul, then a travel. That's what we hang our hat on, is pressure defense. I think in the end down the stretch we were able to make enough of those plays. It says they're a tough group of kids to come back from that terrible start. Q. Did you draw that game plan up for the free throw that Bria hit? COACH MITCHELL: That was such a huge play because Florida took away what we were trying to get. When they took that away, then I saw what was going on. Thank goodness, I don't know who was throwing the ball in, but I think Amber threw it into Bria, then we had a good matchup there. That was not the play we were going to run, but really it ended up being better than anything we could have gotten. She was able to drive. Jennifer George had some fouls and I think she was more tentative than what she would have been. We got a good matchup there. She missed so many of those layups. Thank goodness she was able to power through. We were struggling to score. Florida, I'm telling you, is one of the best defensive teams in this league. That's why we tried to call the timeout to know exactly what we wanted to do. I give the players a hard time for not making reads sometimes. They made that one well. That was a huge bucket in the game. Q. A'dia, for you players, do you feel showing you could come back from double‑digit deficits on a big stage like this gives you some confidence going forward? A'DIA MATHIES: Yeah, definitely. We just know if there's any other times we get down that much, we can always come back and win. We have to stay focused, keep defensive focus. Even if we go up or down, we're still able to win. Q. Coach, we don't know who you are playing next, but we know LSU and Arkansas are two very good defensive clubs. What is that going to be like either way? COACH MITCHELL: Well, it will be tough. All the questions I've been getting is we're a pretty weak 1 seed. It's going to be a tough game. We're going to have to play hard because nobody thought we were going to be that strong of a 1 seed in this tournament. I guess we'll have our hands full tomorrow. We'll get the players ready to go. Whoever it is, clearly LSU or Arkansas, both outstanding teams. We had very tough games with both. So I'm sure it will be a tough game. But our players have to have some confidence headed into tomorrow overcoming a tremendous deficit to win this game. So I'm real proud of them. They need to be pumped up and ready to go tomorrow, and I think they will be. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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