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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2012Kristy CurryCasey MorrisMonique SmallsKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Texas Tech 81 THE MODERATOR: I believe our student‑athletes and coach are here. So we'll get them up here and get started. We will start off, Coach. Congratulations on the win. Your comments after the game. KRISTY CURRY: Just proud of our team effort. I thought we didn't stand around and wait for somebody else to make a play. Our kids were aggressive on the glass. Any time we can have four in double figures, we're very successful, and any time we can shoot 80 percent from the line. I thought we played with a sense of energy and purpose today and a tremendous amount of pride. I'm really proud of their effort. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for our student‑athletes and for Coach Curry. Q. Kristy, can you talk about just sort of the way the momentum, it seemed like, from that win at Kansas State just sort of carried right into this game, and you guys went on that big tear in the first half. KRISTY CURRY: I think it's a sense of urgency. We obviously needed something good to happen to us. We've lost a lot of close ones and self‑induced a few errors along the way. Just their character and how we stuck together. That was definitely a positive for us to end the conference season that way. Gave us momentum into today, and we certainly build on it. We have a choice, you can build on it or be satisfied with it. And we decided to build on it. So proud of the kids representing the Double T today. Q. Kristy, denying the Texas post players, it looked a lot like the first game you guys played against them the way you guys handled them. KRISTY CURRY: I wouldn't say we handled them. To a certain degree too, they missed a lot of shots today. It was cold. They're so physical and big in size. It's definitely a match‑up problem for us at the four spot. Again, I thought the combination of Shauntal and Kierra was a big boost for us. I thought Barncastle tried to hold her on. We were just concerned about the offensive glass the second half and did a decent enough job to give ourselves a chance down the stretch. Tried to match their physicality. Q. Kristy, were you surprised how easy it was considering what was on the line for Texas? KRISTY CURRY: I don't think it was easy. I think that Texas is still an NCAA Tournament team. I think their RPI is 20 and strength of schedule is 45. You should look at the body of work. I think they're an NCAA Tournament team. One loss shouldn't define your season. In tournament time, anything can happen. It's happening across the country. That's what we feel good about our opportunity. Again, their strength of schedule, their RPI, their body of work should be enough to get them in the NCAA Tournament. Q. Could you sort of go into detail a little bit about the overall defensive strategy today and Fussell and Fontenette and Anderson, particularly Anderson and Fussell, what you guys did against them. KRISTY CURRY: You can't in transition, number one. We had to do a better job in Austin. We're up for 31 minutes until we have transition defense breakdowns. So transition defense was critical. Thought that Mo and Casey and Mary and Chynna and Amber and all those perimeter players did a great job of buying into the plan today and did a better job. Pretty much was the same plan. We executed it better and learned from our mistakes. Secondly, we threw a little junk there for a little bit as far as the diamond and one on Fussell. We wanted to make sure we didn't give her a lot of looks. I thought that affected them a bit and kept them out of sync whether after a time‑out or a dead ball for whatever reason. Our transition defense and the fact we limited her touches and made things very difficult for her. I think, when she starts hitting shots, gives Texas a tremendous amount of confidence, and it should, just as Casey Morris hitting shots for us does for us as well. THE MODERATOR: Questions for our student‑athletes? Q. Monique, could you sense the frustration of Texas? Do you feel they overlooked you all coming? They were too relaxed or uptight? How did you interpret it? MONIQUE SMALLS: I think we came out really hard. We saw each other before we came out. We have to play hard. We don't want to go home. We found out, if we lose, we go home tonight. We do not want to go home tonight. We want to keep playing. Just having everybody in their head and their momentum up and making sure everyone is aggressive and attacking, kept going on and going on and continued. Q. Mo, how much did you think like Coach Curry said about making shots and Casey coming out and making those shots, talk about what that did for you guys. MONIQUE SMALLS: It boosted our energy. Seeing Casey create a shot, and she makes it two threes in a row and Kierra rebounding. It all leads to good things. Just seeing the energy on everybody's face helps put energy in everybody else. Q. Monique, you guys have played Baylor very well. You're going to be playing them again. Can you maybe talk about does that help having that confidence back to having played them really better than any other Big 12 team has? MONIQUE SMALLS: I'm sorry. Facing Baylor, I mean, we're just going to keep our same momentum as we did today. Same thing, aggressive. Everybody's got to attack. When everybody attacks and are aggressive, good things happen for us, and everybody needs to make plays. We can't wait for somebody else to make the plays. Q. Kristy, can you address that too? You guys, some of the schemes you've used have been effective. I know it's sort of a constant battle against them to come up with new stuff. But you guys have been very good in both the matchups against Baylor. KRISTY CURRY: There are definitely a few adjustments we need to make in the game plan that we feel like we can bottle those two up and do some things better. The most important thing that you have to do against those guys is you can't go get a stop and not go down and score. You've got to make sure that you find ways to score and make plays. You've got to shoot 50 percent to give yourself a chance. You've got to shoot 80 percent from the line. It's just about finding offense tomorrow, and we believe in what we're doing and how we're trying to do it. We've missed some shots that just one here or there that would have made a difference. So I think these kids have a lot of confidence, and at this point, it doesn't really matter to us who we play because we're just thankful for another day. We're playing to stay alive at this point. Q. Casey, do you remember playing against a team that had as poor of an offense in the first half as Texas had today? CASEY MORRIS: I think every team eventually might have a bad shooting night. You just have to overcome it with hustle plays like we did. I think‑‑ I give credit to us. Kierra had 15 rebounds, and Shaunie had 10. Our hustle effort was so good. Free throws, we've been working on that, and we executed well tonight. That was all to us. I think Texas did well and played well, but everybody has a bad shooting night at times. Q. Casey, can you also talk just about when Texas started mounting a little comeback in the second half. You guys didn't lose your cool. Can you talk about the way you guys took a little run of your own after that and sort of took the game away? CASEY MORRIS: I think we've been in situations all year, and it's good we can grow off those situations. I feel like we did tonight and kept our composure. When they did get their run, we kept pushing hard on the defensive and offensive end, and it worked to our advantage tonight. THE MODERATOR: Anything else for our student‑athletes or coach? Q. Kristy, Texas looked at you so little in the second half. Do you think they kind of quit looking for it? Took her out of their game plan? KRISTY CURRY: I think it's difficult. We were doing a great job of face guarding from half‑court on and switching on some screens. We made it very difficult. Again, whether they quit looking for it, credit our defense. I'd have to go back and watch. That was behind transition defense was to limit her touches and make sure we didn't let Yvonne have a big day off the ball on the high screen. Those things were really successful today. Whether it was our defense, I don't think it was lack of energy or lack of effort. Everybody has cold days, and they just didn't shoot the ball well today. We were fortunate to find a way. It's been three really great basketball games with our two programs this year. We're just excited we came out on the good end today. We were fortunate. THE MODERATOR: Anything else? Okay, guys. We'll see you tomorrow. Congratulations. Have a good evening. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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