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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2012Angel GoodrichBonnie HenricksonAishah SutherlandKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Texas A&M 78 THE MODERATOR: The Kansas Jayhawks have now joined us. Coach, your thoughts on this evening's game. COACH HENRICKSON: I thought in the first half, we both battled and both made runs and both trying to limit runs and answer runs of our own. They make the run coming out of the locker room, start in the zone and go to the man and just rip and drive and get to the rim and trying to change up defenses. Standish got good looks off all those makes are uncontested. That's a breakdown in our part. Three of those against man and three of those against zone. I thought our kids came out and battled, and I thought the two right here played with great energy and great pace. Just disappointed we didn't get it done. THE MODERATOR: Questions for our student‑athletes first, and we'll send them back to the locker room. Q. Angel, I just wondered what it was like at halftime kind of down two and what happened when they went on that run to put it away. ANGEL GOODRICH: Our mindset is always go in and attack first. When they attacked us, we didn't answer back. In this league, you have to get an answer. Q. Aishah, how frustrating is it for you guys now that they're leaving the conference? Is that a frustration for you at all because you've faced a lot of good teams with A&M and stuff like that? AISHAH SUTHERLAND: It is frustrating, but we have to just pick it up and beat the next team. Q. Angel, you and Sydney Carter have had really great matchups this year in the three games. What makes that matchup so good? ANGEL GOODRICH: Well, we're both quick, and she's got a really quick shot. She's balanced on defense, and she gets into like the game. I mean, it's a great challenge between the both of us. It's just who answers back. Once someone answers, how are you going to respond? Q. What were your thoughts when you saw that Tyra White wasn't going to play? I mean, you're without somebody pretty good too. Did you think, well, that evens the score? What were your thoughts knowing she wasn't going to be in? ANGEL GOODRICH: At first, I didn't see her until when we were shooting free throws, and I was a little bit surprised. She's a great player. I don't know what's wrong with her, but I hope she gets better. Q. Angel, you've been here for quite a few times when you've watched the selection show. What do you think Sunday will be like? ANGEL GOODRICH: I'm not sure what it will be like, but I feel like we deserve to go to the tournament. We're in one of the toughest leagues in the country. We went 8‑10. I feel like we built our resume pretty strong. I feel like we deserved it, though. Q. When Coach Blair was in here, he made a comment how he wants to lobby to get you guys in the tournament. What is that recognition for you guys? Especially after a hard‑fought game like this. ANGEL GOODRICH: I mean, it just shows that other people see how great we are. It's good. It's good that he can do that for us. AISHAH SUTHERLAND: Just like she said. He's a great coach, and he's been in this for a while. Q. Both you guys, can you just talk about how hard it might be to wait until Monday night to find out? That's got to be the hardest part right now, I'm sure. ANGEL GOODRICH: It's going to be hard, but we're going to wait and cross our fingers. AISHAH SUTHERLAND: It's going to be a long three, four days to wait. THE MODERATOR: Ladies, good luck. Hope the selection comes through. Now we'll take questions for coach. Q. Bonnie, can you just talk about the difference in the second half? Obviously, you showed you can compete with these guys, and then they got away. COACH HENRICKSON: Right.  We talked about it at halftime, and we call a time‑out at the beginning of the second half but it wasn't‑‑ we said at the half. It wasn't what we're running. It's how aggressive we run, what we're running. I thought we got sloppy the last two or three minutes of the first half. We wasted possession, give them good looks, turn the ball over and don't capitalize on some opportunities on offensive end. Coming out of the locker room, we talked about it again. We went zone, they score. We went back to man. As soon as we got to man, they ripped and drove it and got to the rim. We didn't contain. I said on the time‑out, that's what we talked about in the locker room. I was talking about this. If it's a busted play, get in and be aggressive. Our ball screen offense has been pretty good for us down the stretch. Now we're looking at them. It's not how they're running, it's how aggressive they're running what they're running. We wanted to force twos and layups coming out of the locker room. And while they're growing the lead, we're struggling to score and getting in low clock situations and missed opportunities on the other end. It's every other possession by them. And throw in an uncontested three by Standish, and we break down defensively. Q. Bonnie, Angel had a lot of big plays today. We've gotten used to that all year. How much is she the heart of this team? COACH HENRICKSON: She does for us what Carter does for them and did for them and certainly on both ends of the floor. She carries us defensively on that end of the ball and a great communicator on the offensive end. We ask a lot of her, make shots, make plays. If you look at the percentage of plays and the offense they're involved in, it's either her or the guy that's scored probably has just gotten it from her. We do ask a great deal from her, but she has stepped up and answered over and over and over again. We said, you know, you lead, we'll follow. We just weren't aggressive enough around her. I thought Aishah was really, really good in the first half. We got her good looks. They disrupted in the second half, disrupted us. She didn't get to the rim as much, didn't get her enough touches in the second half. We need some other people to step up and be as aggressive off the dribble and make plays when the ball got out of Angel's hands, and we didn't do that enough, obviously. Q. Bonnie, you said a couple days ago that this was a chance to maybe take away some of the doubt of where you guys were. I guess where's that level of doubt now? COACH HENRICKSON: Angel said, we're 8‑10, earned a sixth seed and finished sixth. It wasn't a coin flip. In the tiebreaker, we won the pool. We were 3‑1 in the pool with Texas and Oklahoma State. It wasn't a coin flip we got sixth, we earned sixth. We finished sixth in the best league in America. Got four top 50 RPI wins and two of those on the road. You look at some of the bracketologists that are doing this, and they're sniffing around at Wake Forest. We beat Wake Forest at Wake Forest. As far as people they're considering, if we played them, that's only when you look at it that's in consideration, we beat them on the road. It's about have we proven that we can win on the road? Other than Baylor, we have the best road record in the league. We have the best road record in the league, and you talk about in the postseason that matters. And a win at Oklahoma down the stretch. A team that‑‑ two teams beat Oklahoma at Oklahoma this year, Baylor and us. That should matter down the stretch. Q. When the committee looks at you, are they going to say you lost Carolyn, so are you as good a team now as you were earlier? COACH HENRICKSON: But we lost to Oklahoma at home with Carolyn. I understand what you're saying but‑‑ Q. But what about a team that doesn't have a Carolyn Davis? COACH HENRICKSON: Absolutely. Take the team who we are right now. Take the team‑‑ I mean, it's your full body of work. It's not like we haven't done anything. You know, we beat Texas Tech at home, and she has 35. We go beat Texas Tech without her, and other kids have stepped up and performed and performed at a high, high level. I think it's irresponsible to say, well, could they have won with‑‑ can they win without her? Well, you can do that. That's not how that should go down the stretch. It's their full body of work, and we have won, we have won without her, and we have been in one‑possession games without her. THE MODERATOR: Anything else for coach? Q. Bonnie, you guys have been through a lot this year with everything like that. How do you think the next couple of days are going to go for you personally and how you're going to be feeling? COACH HENRICKSON: Oh, it will be a lot of fun. Can't wait. We'll take a couple days off. We'll get back together. We'll probably get in the gym on Sunday and just get some shots up and get back together and huddle up. Give them a couple days to catch their breath. We all kind of like to be around each other. Seriously. Not that they don't deserve a day off. Sometimes we'll say, hey, let's get together and watch film and shoot some free throws. We don't do much. Like stay in their ears and get a feel for them. We'll go Sunday a little bit and practice Monday and watch it together on Monday. You know, it is what it is. They'll figure out how to occupy themselves and stay busy. I watch film. That's all I do. I'll watch film. Thank you. THE MODERATOR: Coach, hope the bid comes through. COACH HENRICKSON: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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