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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2012Beth BurnsCourtney ClementsChelsea HopkinsKalena TuttLAS VEGAS, NEVADA San Diego State – 73 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by SanDiego State. Coach, if we can start with you, your remarks on today's game. COACH BURNS: First I'd like to congratulate Wyoming, the position they had themselves in in the semifinal game. Tell you what I shared with our team was these are the things we did first game against Wyoming, second game against Wyoming, these were the results. These are the things they did. Now, they lost twice. They did two different things. So what are we going to expect different? We don't know. We have to prepare for that. I think I figured it out it was going to the offensive boards. I deduced that at about five minutes in that Joe decided, Well, we're going to struggle in transition, so we're sending five people to the offensive glass. I think they caught us. That made a huge difference in the first half. Their strength, their speed to rotate to the backside and push us out a little bit, combined with a lot of free‑throw shooting, was the difference. At halftime, you know, we discussed I felt we were winning every other phase of the game. If we could control the defensive glass, then we do what our team likes to do best, which is get out and run and not listen to me call a play. If we control the glass, we have an opportunity to do that. I thought we did a terrific job in the second half of adjusting. I also think we have a lot of good teams in our league. Everybody has good players. But I think, if not the most, we at least are one of the deepest teams in the league. And our bench saved us in the first half. They came off the bench, and everybody contributed in some way. I think it's hard when you have a young group for everybody to understand how valuable those two minutes are. I think the difference is what we were able to do off the bench in the first half, straighten things out, then go forward in the second half. THE MODERATOR: We'll now take questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Chelsea, can you talk about your performance today. You seemed to have good control of the offense. On defense you were making plays. CHELSEA HOPKINS: Honestly, I was just trying to do whatever it takes to win. I wanted to be aggressive. I wanted to limit my turnovers. I had six I think last game. I was definitely trying to be more conscious of what I was doing with the ball. For the most part our game plan was to attack them off of ball screens. I knew that when I got the opportunity, I needed to be aggressive and I needed to create opportunities for Courtney and Kalena. That's basically what I did. Q. Courtney, you talked about the motivation you had coming out of that Colorado State loss. Where is the motivation right now because the approach seems pretty businesslike for you guys? COURTNEY CLEMENTS: You know, the motivation for us right now is that we want to go to the NCAA tournament. We're very well‑aware of the fact that even though we won our conference, there's a possibility we could still not get into the NCAA tournament. If it means that we have to win the championship to get to the NCAA tournament, that's what we're going to do. That's our main focus right now. Q. Kalena, can you talk about your performance today. How does it feel to be back in the championship game? KALENA TUTT: Five for five shooting, that's something I'd like to continue because it's very rare that I score (laughter). To be back in the championship means a lot. Last year we had a fluke kind of a season. I knew we didn't deserve‑‑ it's not our team chemistry to lose in the first round. So to come back to a championship where SanDiego State belongs is pretty good. Q. Chelsea, you really pushed the tempo in the second half. That seemed to get everybody going on the floor. With that said, you played in front of family and friends here. How big of an impact was that today? CHELSEA HOPKINS: Honestly, it's the best feeling in the world. When I made the decision to transfer to SanDiego State, I knew I wanted to play in front of my family and friends. I feel blessed I had so much crowd support from my family and everybody that showed up to support the entire team. It feel goods to have the loyal fans that drove all the way from SanDiego to come and back us. We knew we wanted to get the win for them, for the program. So we're just really excited. THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student‑athletes at this time and continue with questions for Coach Burns. Q. Wyoming was talking about in the second half Chelsea's penetration. Can you talk about that, how that opened things up? COACH BURNS: Well, we really had talked about everybody takes a different approach. Chelsea off the bounce, whether you know it's coming or not, there's certain things in basketball you can prepare for and do a walk‑through, say, We're going to do this, we're going to do that. But to get in a stance, to stop her when her motor's running is really difficult. The best thing about it is how she shares the ball ‑ sometimes to a fault. What I really had her focus on was, I want your first one to be to the cup, take it to the cup, then see how are they going to adjust. Are they going to leave Courtney? Are they going to step up? Sometimes she's so like all good point guards, get everybody involved and do the right thing. I felt for this team, for what we were facing, for her to just guns blazing, take it hard. Then, like she said, ball screens, do different things, opens it up for everybody else. You have to have a help defender to stop her. I thought she did a terrific job. Q. I know coaches don't like to compare players of past years. Where does she stand among the players you've had? What kind of leap has she made? COACH BURNS: All of those players have won championships, so ask me tomorrow. That's a good answer, huh (smiling)? Q. Can you draw any ties between this group and the 2009 group? COACH BURNS: No, because the difference in age. They're all new, but the difference of the maturity of a Chelsea Hopkins coming in. I told Q, I say this lovingly, Q has been texting me, Janay has been texting me, Paris has been texting me. Q as a freshman was the best player for both teams. I just hoped it was more for our team than their team. Chelsea came in with such experience that the enthusiasm and the talent level of the freshmen, even though they don't really understand what all this is about, when someone at that position can be that experienced, it's made a world of difference. But this team is really different from the Q, Janay, Coco. They're really different. They're younger. They're more excited. They're more enthusiastic. Maybe a little bit less businesslike. They don't love it any less. Those guys certainly were passionate about it. This team, really to a player, is really one big happy group. Maybe that's because we've won a lot of games. But I think it's because we've had pretty good older leadership to involve everybody. We don't have somebody in there feeling left out. Everybody feels a part of it. I think that's been important. Thank you, everybody. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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