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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2012Brittney GrinerKim MulkeyDestiny WilliamsKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Baylor – 86 THE MODERATOR: Coach, opening comments? COACH MULKEY: I don't have any. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Brittney, you're not one for individual record, really. But they kept feeding you it to get you that record down at the end of the game. Is it special for you? BRITTNEY GRINER: I mean, yeah. I'm happy I got it. It would have been sweeter if it was 45blocks. Q. I was watching in the pregame shoot‑around, you were a little short from your shots from the free‑throw line and stuff, but that didn't seem to be the case in the game. Is there any correlation between shootaround in the game at all? BRITTNEY GRINER: You caught that, huh? We tried to make it like it's the game, and I kept hitting them short. It was like I hope this isn't a sign. And it wasn't. I was definitely happy. Q. Brittney, looked like you got a little tired there late in the game. Do you have a sub sign, tapping your head or anything? BRITTNEY GRINER: No, I don't have a sub sign or anything. Q. Were you getting tired? BRITTNEY GRINER: A little bit, I guess. I mean, even if I'm tired I'll stay out there, no matter what. Q. Brittney, this is the third time you've played K‑State this year and third time you've won pretty handily, is there something about them matchup‑wise that helped you guys be so successful? BRITTNEY GRINER: It's our defense. And we play hard. And that's just how it turns out. It's not anything in particular. We play hard and we defend. It works. Q. One thing I notice, every time you get the ball you keep it up high. Where a lot of big players on both men and women, they bring it down low, somebody gets after it. When did you really start working on that and how important is that to keep being able to score just catching it and keeping it up high? BRITTNEY GRINER: When I got here, the coaches were working with me on it, just keep it up high, keep it up high. And I'd say about this year, really, I'm keeping it up high like the whole time. And it's helping me out. Gotta keep it up high. Q. Destiny, I guess you had a pretty view of what Brittney was doing today. What did you see out there? Was she in the zone as far as shooting the ball? DESTINY WILLIAMS: The kid had a phenomenal start. She made all the shots. The guards did a great job of passing her the ball, and she did a great job finishing. So as long as B.G. finish, the guards should be satisfied with the assists. And they play a one‑on‑one, and she take advantage of it as much as possible because you don't see that as much. She did a great job finishing at the rim. Q. Destiny, we're used to watching Brittney. You're used to seeing what she can do. And it wasn't obviously just the scoring today. The assists, the rebounds, blocked shots. Is there anything that she does that surprises you at all? DESTINY WILLIAMS: Nope. Not even when she dribbled the ball up the floor, it don't surprise me either. The kid do pretty much what anybody can do on the floor. She can pass. She has great eyes. She blocked shots from behind, from the front. She can finish. She can rebound. She does it all. So she's a complete player. Q. I guess I'll ask about the missed dunk. Were you going for it? Looked like there were even people in front of you. BRITTNEY GRINER: I thought I was Blake Griffin (laughter). I was trying to throw it in there. Like I said, I tried to throw it in, it hit rim, came out. But definitely, I don't know, something just sparked, I'm going up no matter what, and I went up. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies. Questions for Coach. Q. Was the game plan with the defense that K‑State is playing to kind of keep going to Brittney? I know that's sort of your philosophy all the time. COACH MULKEY: We took what they gave us. They went one‑on‑one coverage with Griner early in the game, go in there and we did. Then they went to the zone and didn't get as easy looks or passes in there to her, but that's what they chose to do and throw it in there. Q. How good has she gotten as a passer? Inbounds plays where she either has the option to throw it or find‑‑ COACH MULKEY: Well, Brittney, her freshman year, was not very good. She couldn't really pass out of double teams well. She would make decisions. They'd be the wrong decisions because she held on to the ball too long. Now she catches the ball, she turns, she looks and she sees the options she has. She keeps it above her head and she makes sure when she can't score it, I'm going to find a teammate. It's not just on the inbounds, it's on the offense we run, and we work it every day. And she's just so much better. Turnovers bother her. She is just like a sponge. Every time you teach Brittney something or you tell her something, she really takes it to heart. And I'm not surprised that her assist‑to‑turnover ratio is much better now than when we got her. Q. I wanted to ask you about the approach player, keeping the ball up as high as she does. How key is that for her success, the fact that she just keeps it there and shoots it from that spot? COACH MULKEY: I think all coaches will tell you you teach your post players to keep it high. When you bring it down low, you usually get a jump ball, tie situation or a turnover. In fact, she brought it down low one time today on the other end. And she knew the minute she came to the bench what she had done. But Brittney naturally does that, but yet we still work with all post players to do that, because post players tend to have a tendency to bring it down before they make a power move to the basket and they do it on offensive rebound and a put‑back. They want to bring it down, gather themselves and go back up. And Brittney, just being 6'8", she has really done that on her own. I'm not sure that we had to correct a whole lot. Q. When did you find out about the Big 12 record? COACH MULKEY: The coaches. I was getting ready to take her out, and they said, Coach, she's five points away. We know you're not about records, but why not? So, again, I left her out there to make sure she got it. She would have been 10, 12, 15, I wouldn't have done it. But five points, you may never get that close again. Q. Obviously Brittney's going to get a lot of attention every night, but Destiny has become a double‑double machine night in and night out. How important is it to have a player like her to shoulder the rebounding low so Brittany doesn't have to go up every time there's a shot? COACH MULKEY: Destiny should have been First‑Team All‑Conference. How do you average a double‑double in this league and you play with the greatest player in the country and not be rewarded. Does that tell you how I feel about her? What's our record? 33‑0. And you can't have three on the All‑Conference First‑Team? Destiny Williams is valuable. Q. I know you guys are going to the concert tonight. But will you watch this next game and scout A&M and Oklahoma? COACH MULKEY: I don't know what we're going to watch that we haven't seen for how many games now. I mean, nobody changes anything. Yes, we will scout it. How much of it I watch will depend on if my feet start hurting and these shoes are killing me and I need to get back into my tennis shoes. But the concert is not until 8:00 tonight. But the concert, we will enjoy it. We'll take care of business. We'll get in the film room and we'll talk about our game plan and what we may see. But we can't do that until we see who wins. So they've got a few hours here to watch it and go back to the hotel. Some of them will not go to the concert. Some of them want to go watch our men play. Q. I think Destiny was also on JuliAnne Chisholm a little bit. Could you talk about her defense there, and something like JuliAnne had like 31 the other night? COACH MULKEY: Destiny started out on her and she hit some buckets early. And then we moved Brittney on her. And I thought‑‑ I'm not positive, but I want to say she had seven at the half and she only ended up with 11 for the game, if I'm correct. So I just thought that maybe Destiny was a little motivated. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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