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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 4, 2012Barnes AricoNadirah McKenithShenneika SmithDa'Shena StevensHARTFORD, CONNECTICUT St. JohnÂ’s – 68 THE MODERATOR: Joining us from St. John's is head coach Kim Barnes Arico along with senior forward DaÂ’Shena Stevens, junior forward, Nadirah McKenith. Coach an opening statement, please. COACH BARNES ARICO: I'm exhausted. I feel like I just played an overtime game. I'm sure the players are tired as well. I thought it was a great basketball game. I thought Louisville came out and really, really played hard. They rebounded the heck out of the ball, and challenged us in every way. I was really proud of the way they took their first three late in the game, they just battled back. That's been the character of our team all season long. I think time and again we keep proving to everyone out there that we're really a great basketball team. Tonight was another opportunity for us to do this. It was a great game, and I'm just proud of the kids. Q. Shenneika, it looked like a war out there. Was it as physical as it looked from the sidelines? SHENNEIKA SMITH: Probably worse. Louisville is a tough team. Q. Can you talk about the defensive effort in overtime? SHENNEIKA SMITH: Yeah, I mean, no, just late in the game like that your shots not going sometimes. It was a physical game, like someone said. At that point in time, you have to buckle down on defense and try to limit them as much as possible. You knew they were going to attack. They were looking for the three‑point shot late in the game. It was time to focus defense and try to get any stop that we could? Q. Can you each talk about the defensive effort that was out there. Shenneika, you shut down Shoni after that start, and Nadirah you had a ferocious rebound late in the game that you just skied over their bigs. You guys played phenomenal defense down the stretch. Can you talk about that effort? SHENNEIKA SMITH: We really commend ourselves on defense. We really tried to get one stop at a time. We played a four‑minute game. Every four minutes we should come in, and she had some tough shots. She hit some good shots with me contesting. I just tried to book it down there and make it really difficult for her. My teammates helped me out on the screens so. NADIRAH McKENITH: I'm kind of surprised they didn't call a foul on that blocked shot. In my mind I think I'm a shot blocker sometimes. But from the rebound for my position and my size, I think I'm a great rebounder. I just try to go in there and get my teammates to help the bigs with some rebounds. Q. It's been a crazy senior year for you. Here you are going to the semifinals for the first time. Can you talk where this ranks in your career as it winds down and the future of this tournament? DA'SHENA STEVENS: It really means a lot. Like they said, we haven't been here in a while. It's just great to be a part of this, especially my last year and how it started. To be finishing up as strong as we are, it means a lot. This game was tough. I think it's kind of getting us ready for tomorrow, because it's going to be a battle either way whoever we play. I just think this overtime game tonight is really going to put us in a great place for tomorrow. Q. Shenneika, that three‑pointer you took at the end of regulation, was that the call? Walk me through that shot. What was your reaction after? SHENNEIKA SMITH: No, it wasn't the call. I was open for a quick second, and I just put it up. I hit a few early in the game. I've gotten a little confidence in my teammates to continue to shoot. Q. Shenneika, the rematch, if it happens with Connecticut, obviously, you beat them on their home floor. How much confidence does that give you if you play them again? SHENNEIKA SMITH: Well, we've got to go out there and watch right now who we're going to play. So we really don't know right now. But we're focused with every team we come out and play. We're going to give it our best. And hopefully we come out and win? Q. Coach, Schimmel went off 11 in the first half and was not a factor all the rest of the way. What adjustments did you make? COACH BARNES ARICO: The first time we played them, Shenneika did a tremendous job on her. She really locked her down. We have spent the last three or four days talking about her and how we were going to defend her. I thought she made some difficult shots in the first half. I came in at halftime. The big thing about her is we said we don't want her going right because she has such a quick release going right. We want to try to at least force her left. In transition, if you come up and let her get a head of steam, she can get it off quickly. So we talked about that at halftime. The big thing we talked about at halftime, is the most irrelevant thing is the halftime score. I said to Shenneika I don't care how many points she scored at the half, that was the half. You can make a big difference in this game, if you go out and lock her down in the second half. And she did that. She was focused in. That was her job, and she was going to commit to it. The greatest thing about her tonight is she did that as well as score. She showed what kind of player she's capable of being tonight, but she did a tremendous job playing in the second half. Q. Coach, tonight you were only really able to play maybe six and a half players for an extended period of time. How does that affect you playing an overtime game and having to turn around and play again tomorrow? COACH BARNES ARICO: Yeah, I think one of the biggest things we really haven't talked about is that we are down a starter. She hasn't been back, and we still have been able to pull it out and grind these games out without her. But it definitely has taken a toll, and we've had to go a lot smaller and it's affected our rebounding, obviously, as you can see tonight. But at this point in the year, it's survive and advance, and these kids got to dig down and be ready to play. They've got to go back and get ice baths and drink Gatorade. I think a lot of it is mental. They're young. You know, they're in the best shape of their lives. So mentally they've got to say to themselves they're ready to go and they've got to bring it tomorrow. Q. Coach, as a follow‑up, can you talk about the minutes that Briana Brown and Keylantra gave you doing all the little things that need to be done? COACH BARNES ARICO: You know what's funny, in the locker room after the game, I said we were watching film and preparing for Louisville, you know. Mary made a bunch of key plays in that game. She took a couple charges and got a couple rebounds. If you looked at the stat sheet, it would have said two rebounds, four points, and no one would appreciate that. We have kids on our team like Mary, like Briana, like Keylantra, like Tesia Harris that their stat line might say four points, two rebounds and to the rest of the world that doesn't mean anything. To our program, that's the difference between winning and losing games. With Mary out, Briana has stepped up and done a tremendous job for us. Keylantra has made some outstanding plays tonight. If you weren't watching the game or you just looked at the stat sheet, you might not appreciate that. But for us it's the difference between the victory. So those kids are doing a great job for us. We really value whether it's six minutes, one minute, or 20 minutes. They can make an impact on our game, and it's important for us to have them play well. Q. In what ways have things changed since the UCONN win? COACH BARNES ARICO: You media people actually talking to me (laughing). No, actually on that note, people know who we are. St. John's, even though we were doing really well, and even though we were in third place in our conference and our kids had been recognized in the past, once we beat Connecticut, I think the rest of the country really knew who we were. For our players, I think that's a great tribute to them how hard they work and they're really deserving of it. Nadirah McKenith, I'm still saying it every single day, she's second team all conference. Golly. She's second team all conference. I think she's one of the best point guards in the country, but that tells you about our conference. But I also think Shenneika, Da'Shena, we've got great kids in our program, and I'm happy that they are starting to be recognized. But I think the other thing, I keep talking to them, okay, just because we're being recognized doesn't allow you to become soft. All these people out here are trying to make us soft, so we've got to continue to work hard and get better every single day. But I think their confidence is at an all-time high tonight. Louisville battled back and we went down, but our kids didn't stop playing. Our kids didn't quit. They're very resilient and they kept working. I think it gave us a tremendous amount of confidence that we can play with anyone and they have a no‑quit attitude. Q. The other day at the awards ceremony after it was all said and done, you were talking to Geno, and Shenneika came over, and Geno and Shenneika kidded around and had some fun. It is kind of unusual for a kid to hit a three‑point shot to win a game. But is there any story in their relationship that you knew of beforehand that would allow them to have that kind of relationship? COACH BARNES ARICO: Yeah, actually, I think Shenneika's freshman year I brought her to Big East media day. She had asked me at that point can I introduce her to Coach. She always looked up to him and idolized him. He's the greatest coach in the game. And I have a pretty good relationship with him, so I brought her over to him. They chatted, and she was just in awe after. Then the following year I brought her back to media day, and she was going through a lot of struggles and she had her little bumps in the road. People were trying to get in her mind, and some people were trying to do different things with her, and she was struggling. I said to coach, you know, Coach, can you just grab Shenneika for a minute and talk to her for a minute? And he did. That kind of turned the kid around, and she's the greatest kid ever. The commitment that she's made to our program and the strides that she's made have been tremendous. He really pumped her up. He gave her a bit of confidence and made her feel good. She came back and was a different player. When we walked in the other day he was in the corner. I didn't even know he was here. She was like, oh, Coach is here. Coach is here. I said let me go say hi to him before I leave. I said you can come on over. She walked over and he was like, come on. Like you planned to hit that three? You said give me the ball? She said yeah, I did. So he started busting her chops a little bit. He said I let you make it. I let you have it. So it just means the world to her. I think sometimes people don't realize the impact that Coach Auriemma can really have on kids. I think he does. What he did for this young lady in just a short bit of time has really helped her and made a major impact on her. I can't thank him enough. He didn't have to give her time the other day, and it means the world to her. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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