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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2012Beth BurnsCourtney ClementsChelsea HopkinsLAS VEGAS, NEVADA San Diego State – 68 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by SanDiego State. Coach, if we could start with some general comments on today's game first. COACH BURNS: First of all, I'd like to congratulate Air Force. We've played two relatively tight games with them. We knew what to expect. With that said, saying it and doing it and stopping it is another thing. I give them a lot of credit for how they came out, competed, gave us more than we could handle early and feel fortunate we were able to get ourselves righted. With that, I'm really proud of our team. I think the uniqueness about this Mountain West Conference season is, maybe other than UNLV, which has a lot of core, experienced athletes back, just about all of us have new people, freshmen, people in positions they've never been before. I tell our team a lot, no one has been in the championship end zone before. There's an adjustment to that. I really felt that we had a little bit of nerves early, then I thought we conquered our nerves by being determined to fix it by ourselves early. We were down about 10 at that point. I thought that that wasn't a good strategy either. I think we got ourselves regrouped. We got some help off the bench, got some putbacks. Unleash Chelsea a little bit, make them stop her in the paint because she's a catalyst for everything we want to do. After halftime we regrouped, talked a little bit about what we wanted to do, was real pleased with the way we came back and finished the game, the energy we played with. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up to questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Courtney, what was the message at halftime? What were you able to do coming out of the half that made you successful? COURTNEY CLEMENTS: We just knew we needed to focus on defense. That's our biggest thing, been our big thing all year, is playing great defense. You win on defense, especially in games where you can't knock shots down, it's a grind, it's a grind, it's a grind. If you don't play good defense, you don't win. Championship teams always play good defense. That was our main focus, coming in, getting stops so when we do score, we can get back in the game. Q. Chelsea, you were able to get in the lane more in the second half. What adjustments did you make at the half and why were you so successful in the second half? CHELSEA HOPKINS: I just feel like in the first half I wasn't being too aggressive. In the second half I knew I wanted to utilize the pick‑and‑roll, the ball screens. I knew that the switch was coming, so I was trying to be aggressive and attack. My posts were slipping to the basket, me getting in the lane and trying to create for my teammates. That was the biggest thing. Q. Chelsea, how surprised were you guys how many different defenses they ran at you? CHELSEA HOPKINS: Not surprised at all. Air Force is a unique team. They've been doing that to us the first two times we played. Not really a surprise their game plan. We know they're going to be aggressive, up‑tempo, keep us on our toes. At first that's what kind of led to our hesitation. We didn't know what they were doing in the second half. Once we finally settled down, especially on the defensive end, like Courtney said, that's when our offense came together and we were able to read and play off each other and make plays. Q. Courtney, what was the difference for you in the second half? COURTNEY CLEMENTS: I just played as hard as I could. I just did whatever I could do, I did it. Fortunately for me I was able to get some O boards. The opportunity presented itself. I took the opportunity. Sometimes when shots aren't falling, you have to find other ways. A lot of games where you can't knock it down, can't get touches. You got to find a way to win. I just saw an opportunity by going to the offensive boards. Luckily I was getting putbacks and getting and ones, get us going a little bit. Q. Coach talked about the fact that no one really has been in that championship end zone before. You worked with the same group of girls all year long, yet you come into a situation like this, conference tournament, is there any sense of nerves in the first round that you got to get that out of the way, first half, then get back to the game you know and play well? COURTNEY CLEMENTS: I think we'd be lying if we sat up here and said we weren't nervous at all. COACH BURNS: I thought they were going to lie. That's impressive. I know coaches aren't supposed to interject. Good job, Courtney. COURTNEY CLEMENTS: Last year we came in this tournament and lost first round to a team we had beat two times prior. So having kind of that monkey on your back, you know it's possible to lose to a team that you beat before that on paper you should beat. Anything can happen in March. We're very well aware of that. So you are nervous. Yeah, maybe this game was kind of us getting our nerves out of the way. At the same time it's something you have to work through. Fortunately for us, we were able to do that. THE MODERATOR: At this time we'll dismiss our student‑athletes. Thank you. We'll open it up for questions for Coach Burns. Q. Beth, do you ever let yourself think what this team might be like without those two players? COACH BURNS: No (smiling), because I've had that before. People say, Why are you good? You cannot look at a stat sheet to figure out our team. I knew we were nervous, because we're a very good free‑throw shooting team. We're at good, gosh, 76% in conference. We try to get the right people in the right spots, get them to the line. We're a good offensive rebounding team. We did neither of those things today. But our question mark coming into the season wasn't the backcourt because what Courtney had done in the off‑season to change herself, and Chelsea was in practice with us crushing us on a daily basis a year ago, it was how to integrate it all and how are we going to facilitate a system that we can help these young ones along. It goes back to the old coaching adage of, You're going to know what we're going to do, but fortunately for 23 times people haven't been able to stop it. Q. You're not going to be surprised with anyone coming out with a great effort in conference tournament. Nuts and bolts‑wise anything you need to adjust to? COACH BURNS: I don't think so. Because I think really by this point, that's why conference tournament games are usually so ugly. You can't change what you do. They have a weakness there, let's shoot a 38 ‑ if you can't shoot the three. You can't change what your strengths are, nor can they. They've done a terrific job all season ‑ and I say this with respect ‑ by trying to play ugly basketball. They're going to foul or steal it from you. Put their head down, take it to the hole. They're going to give us matchup problems because we'll keep our bigs on the floor, but we're not a good zone team. We're too young, don't communicate well enough. I wasn't really surprised. I think we were a little bit nervous. But I didn't expect any 80‑40. I think what was atypical for both team, both teams are pretty good defensive teams. 53‑46, usually this is a final for us, we had 11 minutes to go. I think for both of us, it showed on both ends. Neither of us were probably as good as we normally are because of the moment. Fortunately for us, it's behind us. Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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