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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 2, 2012Tom CollenAshley DanielsC'eira RickettsNASHVILLE, TENNESSEE LSU – 41
COACH COLLEN: I just think it was a tough loss. We obviously didn't play well offensively. I think LSU had a lot to do with that. I think everybody knows they're one of the better defensive teams in the country. We didn't make a lot of shots. I think the hardest thing about it is that our kids fought so hard coming out of the locker room in the second half and really probably had the game in hand, or at least maybe it appeared that we had it in hand. Then just found a way to let it get away. Got to give LSU credit. Got to give the Webb kid credit. She hit two big shots, had the courage to do it, and knocked them down. You got to give our kids credit for coming back. Even credit for running the last play, getting to the rim like C'eira did and having a chance to win the game. We probably didn't do enough good things in order to win the basketball game, but we'll grow from it, learn from it. We still have one more regular‑season game to play, then we have the NCAA tournament. So hopefully we'll go from there and we'll bounce back. This team has always bounced back. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. The focus becomes on the way the game ended. Are you a coach that feels like maybe you lost the game when you start 0‑16? COACH COLLEN: I think it's really hard. But it's indicative of this team, what they've done. They got behind 0‑4 in the SEC, they battled back and won eight in a row, won 10 of 12, won the first round here. I never had any doubts in my mind we'd be able to come back from it, like I don't have any doubts in my mind that as much as this is a heartbreaking loss, they'll bounce back and find a way to do what they need to do in the last game of the season and the NCAA tournament. It's a learning lesson. You never stop learning in life. One of the great things about the game of basketball and athletics in general is that you have a chance to get back up and grow from this kind of thing. I'm sure these kids will do it. Q. You mentioned a learning lesson. In the locker room after a game like this, is the vibe frustration, anger? COACH COLLEN: I can't really tell you what it is. The players could probably tell you better than me. I think they're probably disappointed. More disappointed maybe in themselves than anything else. I think they probably all felt like they had a hand where they could have done one simple thing better, made one more shot, and that would have made all the difference in the world. You can ask them and they might have a better answer for you. ASHLEY DANIELS: The vibe in the locker room isn't a good one. At the same time we're a team that sticks together. We try to fight through adversity. Like coach said, we do kind of have the increment of doubt in our mind that at this play; I should have done this; at this shot I could have got this rebound. Me, I feel like at the beginning of the game we came out flat, but we stuck together, kept going. The game just didn't turn out the way we wanted to at the end. But we still have a ways to go. We have a lot ahead of us. We're just going to stick together and try to take advantage of the opportunities still lies ahead. Q. C'eira, if you could take me through the few minutes and hit some big shots and the final possession. C'EIRA RICKETTS: Oh, well, I don't know.  My shot just came off. They normally pay attention to me driving. They started backing off from me. The last possession, I ran my hardest getting down there. I got down there, got a pretty good look at the rim. Felt like I got fouled, but they didn't call it. That's the way it goes, so... Q. C'eira, the physicality in the league this year, you mentioned that last play where you felt like you got fouled. Talking to a couple teams earlier, has it changed at all as you've grown up in the league? Has it become more physical? C'EIRA RICKETTS: Yeah, it's kind of more physical. The refs, they're letting us play more and more. But they have a good feel for the game. They don't let it get out of hand too much. I think they did a good job of ref'ing the game. But it's gotten way more physical. ASHLEY DANIELS: I agree with C'eira. Everyone's game has developed and everyone is getting stronger throughout the season, the pre‑season. While growing up in this league, things have changed. Like she said with the refs, they let us get physical in there, but at the same time they don't let us do too much. You may have thought you got fouled, but you may have done the same thing to the next person, so it goes both ways. Q. Last year you had a tune‑up game for the post‑season as well. I believe it was the same team. What is the philosophy of scheduling that last game? How important is that? What are you looking to get? COACH COLLEN: When I came into the league, one of the things I recognized right off the bat is if you're going to go in post‑season play, there's a 17‑game gap between the SEC tournament and the first NCAA game. It was a little frustrating to me. With that said, you were trying to cram 30 games into a calendar that's one week shorter than the men's calendar. I thought that was very, very hard on our kids. I made up our mind I was going to try to schedule a game after the SEC tournament with the expectation that we were going to be playing one way or the other in the NIT or the NCAA. Last year we did it, it was fine. This year we have to go to a pretty good team, Southern Illinois Edwardsville. I'm sure that will be a good challenge for us, but it will give us a chance to bounce back, play a game, hopefully play well and get a win leading into the NCAA tournament. There's not a lot of teams that have an opportunity to do that. The teams that win their conference championships, they're the only ones. It will give us an opportunity to bounce back and enter the NCAA on a positive note. Q. I know coaches love this question. Could you project what sort of seed you think you'll get in the NCAA tournament? COACH COLLEN: You know, I think it's pretty hard. I've been doing this for 30 years. I feel like I could guess, but that's all it would be. The one thing I have confidence in is that the SEC had a strong season, I think the strongest season of all the conferences. I think we have eight teams that will finish in the top 30 to 35. I know we've got six wins against top‑35 teams. When I looked at it the other day, there were maybe 10 teams in the country that had that. I think our résumé will speak for itself. It will be a good seed. It would be nice if it was in Little Rock, Arkansas. The way the tournament is held now, it's difficult. They have so much difficulty moving people around on the home court sites. They really have their work cut out for them. So hopefully when it's all said and done, I know we're going to get a good seed, I just hope we don't end up with a 5 seed playing a 12 on their floor. That would be brutal. I've seen some mock brackets that look like that. Hopefully the SEC has garnered enough respect that they wouldn't do that to us, if we earned the right to get a good seed, they wouldn't make us play somebody on their home floor. It's going to happen to somebody. If it happens to us, we'll just deal with it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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