|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2012Joe LegerskiKaitlyn MiletoKayla WoodwardLAS VEGAS, NEVADA Wyoming – 61 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Wyoming. Coach, if we could start with you, your remarks on today's game. COACH LEGERSKI: Coming into this tournament, we talked to the team that it's one‑and‑done. You win, you advance; you lose, you head home. With so many young players in this program, was not quite sure what we're going to get. I know they're very talented. We've played well in conference play. I thought tonight they really stepped up. We asked that we needed to have more people than just one in double‑digits. We needed an answer from so many people. I thought Kayla Woodward got us off to a good start in the first half, Kaitlyn played well especially on defense, but it was a complete team effort. That's what I'm happiest about. We took care of the basketball. The last four or five minutes, I tried to get them to slow up. That's not something we do real well. They were moving and playing at a high level. A big victory for Wyoming today. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it now for questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Kayla, the first 15 minutes, back and forth. What did you do that swung the momentum? KAYLA WOODWARD: I think we played with a lot of heart. We just went out there, had the momentum, kept pushing. That's how we like to play, is fast. I think we just kept pushing and found the open people. Q. Kaitlyn, start of the second half, was there some talk in the locker room about keeping your foot on the gas? KAITLYN MILETO: Absolutely. A basketball game isn't won in the first 20 minutes, it's won in a whole 40‑minute game. We had to focus in and make sure we kept the focus and keep the foot on the pedal so we could get the win under our belt. So that's what we did. Q. Kaitlyn, did you do anything different today? You played these guys last week and lost by 10. Was it knocking down shots? KAITLYN MILETO: We did hit shots. That last game didn't fall for us. But we came out with heart. We all knew it was one‑and‑done, like coach said. We had to come out. We knew we had the motivation to beat them. We had each other to beat them. We backed each other up and came out with intensity. Q. Kayla, close vote for freshman of the year. Was that any kind of motivation or did you give it a second thought? KAYLA WOODWARD: I guess, yeah, it was a little bit of a motivation. It was a team effort. We came out really strong. With all the excitement, like she said, playing with heart, I think that really helped us, really pushed us. I don't know, we just played our hearts out. It really showed. Q. Kaitlyn, same sort of question. Was there anything with this team playing against the freshman of the year, shut her down? KAITLYN MILETO: We knew she was the freshman of the year. We knew Kayla had the ability to get the freshman of the year as well. We just went out and played as a team with heart. It was a team win, and we all put in the effort and the heart to win the game. Q. Kayla, what do you have to do now? Play SanDiego State, a team that got you twice in the regular season. KAYLA WOODWARD: Well, throughout the whole game, we were just talking about keeping our focus. We have that day off tomorrow, so we got to keep focusing. They're a good team. We got to go and play like we did. THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student‑athletes at this time. Thank you, ladies. We'll continue with questions for Coach Legerski. Q. I think you had 12 baskets on 10 assists in the first half. You finished with something like three shy of the record in terms of assists in a tournament game. Have you played a better team game than this? COACH LEGERSKI: You know, over the years it's kind of been our style. We share the basketball. Everyone's asked to shoot when they're open. Tonight we got off to a great start. I thought the game was back and forth early. Then all of a sudden we started finding some people on the perimeter with threes. Those I always say are easy assists. Then when it started attacking on the inside, everybody started making what I call a great decision. That's what we've talked about. We turned the ball over a number of times in the last two weeks. We talked about we had to get our turnovers down, but you need to stay aggressive. That's a fine line with as many young players as I have. Tonight they made the right decisions, found the right person, we stepped up and knocked down some shots. Q. You played TCU last week. Did you do anything different or was it a matter of kids making a few more plays and shots? COACH LEGERSKI: We made some small adjustments of how we wanted to attack the press. I thought we were too time‑consuming the last time. We had to be more aggressive. But we talked about having an aggressiveness throughout the whole game. I thought you saw that with the assists that we had. We got in a little trouble when we tried to slow things down. I liked the way we were able to go. But it was just a matter of, this time of year, there are no surprises. You're who you are. You just have to make sure you're focused. We played at a very high level today. I'm very pleased with the effort that I was able to get from my team. Q. Can you discuss playing Chaundra through two fouls early in the first half? She gave you some great minutes even with two fouls. COACH LEGERSKI: She's been a tremendous player all year. One of the things we talked about coming into today was about focus. We needed to improve our focus. We needed to move on from a play and get ready for the next play. My staff was talking, telling me she had two fouls. I knew I needed Chaundra in the game. Sometimes you got to take a chance. I told Chaundra that I have faith you're not going to pick up a third foul, but you got to respond and play the way I know you can and not reach, slap, create a situation like that. But we needed Chaundra on the floor. She is such a calming factor for this group because she has the most experience. When I look at her numbers, the number that stands out to me is eight rebounds. It was huge when she was on the glass. We gave up too many offensive rebounds to TCU. When I had Chaundra, I felt so much better and we needed to keep her in the game. Q. Do you have the best freshman in this league? COACH LEGERSKI: I never worry about that. What we worry about is what Wyoming does. What we always talk about is sharing the basketball. We talk about making the next play. We move on in that direction. We always talk about that you need to have team success. That's why it just says Wyoming on our jerseys. That's all I ever worry about. Every now and then we step up and we can play at a very high level and we're only going to continue to get better. Everything else, that's something you guys can debate about. I don't worry about that. Q. I know you have SanDiego State, a day to prepare. You faced them twice. What is it going to take to give yourself as chance Friday? COACH LEGERSKI: We're going to have to have a repeat performance. We need to play at a very high level for 40 minutes. SanDiego State is our champs. Very well‑coached. Very talented. It's going to take a complete effort from everybody again. Once again, it's games like this where I talk about trying to win four‑minute segments, trying to stay close so you have a chance in the last four minutes. I think that's all we can ask. We're going to enjoy this victory tonight and we'll get to work on SanDiego State tomorrow. But I can tell you right now, they're very talented, and we're going to need to play at a very high level. Q. You talked about a young team, didn't know what you would get coming in here. What do you think a victory like this does for a young group? COACH LEGERSKI: I tell you, for any team confidence grows when you get a chance to win here. As I told the team, who knows. You go out and you play 40 minutes. We talk in four‑minute segments so it doesn't seem overwhelming to this group. You play, you stay aggressive, we see where it goes. But I'm very happy with the performance today. I'm just glad to be hanging around in Las Vegas for another couple days. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much, coach. COACH LEGERSKI: Thanks to everybody here. Appreciate it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|