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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2012Gary BlairKelsey BoneSkylar CollinsAlexia StandishKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Texas A&M – 79 THE MODERATOR: We're joined now by Texas A&M. Coach your opening thoughts. COACH BLAIR: First another big ballgame for Big 12 and for the nation to watch it. You saw some very, very good guard play on both teams early in the ballgame. Whitney Hand is just a load. She's such a good player and such a smart player. And she's got the whole game. But we're so proud of my team. Again, we were without Tyra White, and we used that 12th man thing; who is going to step up and be the 12th man for us this time. Tonight it was a little bit of everything. Collins had to go in. She had the hard task the majority of the time guarding Hand. But Hand had the task of guarding her, too. And that was a career high for Skylar. She did a heck of a job hitting those big 3s in that left corner. But she's been waiting her turn patiently. A lot of times seniors, when they never become starters, their lip hits the ground and they're never able to do it. Skylar, what was the statement above the dressing room door that I had you read out? SKYLAR COLLINS: It was a quote by Serena Williams and it said: Luck has nothing to do with it. Because of the many, many hours, the countless hours that I've put in to get to this moment. COACH BLAIR: To be able to seize the moment and get the moment. It was right above our board there, Serena Williams' comment. And she's waited patiently. Graduated three years, been working on her master's. It was her time. Tomorrow it might be somebody else. Look at what Bellock did on the offensive boards in the second half. Every time they had a chance to come back, she cleaned them up. Look at what Bone did in the second half after‑‑ she's got teammates to thank and to rest her. Karla played very well in there and Cierra did as well. But, again, I'm getting good point guard play. When you get good point guard play and she plays with a confidence, they were not leaving her as many open looks, because we shot them out of the zone early that they were in and, I think, we executed 4 out of 5 possessions against a zone and they had to go back to man, and I thought we were very patient. Really didn't turn the ball over until the end. But I don't know what we have left for tomorrow. But we're going to leave this Big 12 conference as champions, whether we're defending champions or whether we're competing for a championship, and that's the message I'm going to give to my kids tomorrow to play, because I believe we are champions. And I'm pleased with the effort and how hard we played. I was pleased with how hard Oklahoma played. We always have great games. But, hey, it's yours. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Skylar, comment on your start and how hard it was to get the team rolling early. SKYLAR COLLINS: I wouldn't say my start was too hot. Coach Blair wasn't happy with me the first couple of minutes in the game, made some stupid mistakes. Pulled me out pretty quick. When he put me back in, that's when I settled down and got into the flow of the offense and played hard on the defensive end and just did whatever the team needed me to do at that point. Q. Kelsey, can you talk about what was working for you in the second half? KELSEY BONE: I just knew that Coach Blair at halftime told me to just attack. He told me whoever was in front of me, it didn't matter, just attack. Maryann was on the bench and she kept staying in my ear, telling me, hey, you can score. At any time you want, when choose to, you can score. So I think I was a lot more aggressive than I've been the past few games. So I think that aggression just kind of carried over. And if a shot went up and it didn't go in, I had a teammate to pick it up and get the rebound and put it back in, and I think that's when we really got rolling. Q. Kelsey, let's talk about tomorrow. You played against her a lot of times. Talk about tomorrow, what it would mean to give them an L. KELSEY BONE: You know, it's a great rivalry. So anytime we can go up against them, we're going to have fun with it. It's our last game in the Big 12. It's our seniors' last game in the Big 12. It's everybody's last game in the Big 12. So I think tomorrow's going to be a battle. They're a great team. It would mean a lot to us to beat them, but we're going to come out and we're going to have our game plan ready that our coaches are going to give us, and we're going to execute it to the best of our ability. Q. Alexia, your role obviously changed today. Could you talk a little bit about what it was today and what you felt you were able to accomplish? ALEXIA STANDISH: I think yesterday the shots were open, and so I got to take the shots today. The shots weren't really there for me. So I had to play the point guard role of just being a leader and telling my team what to do and where to be and just encouraging and being motivating and just getting‑‑ so that was more my role today in the game. Q. Skylar, Coach mentioned the corner shots. Looked like you pulled the trigger really fast. Was that the game plan for you to take that shot, if it was there, drive, if not, what exactly was it? SKYLAR COLLINS: I'm pretty sure that wasn't the game plan at all. I'm pretty sure when I took that first shot Coach Blair was probably about to lose his mind until it went through the net, and then he calmed down. So I was feeling it. I shot it and prayed for the best. Q. This program is now in its fifth consecutive Big 12 final, which says a lot about the consistency. Can you just talk about having been part of that, what has made this program able to reach that height so often? SKYLAR COLLINS: Well, Coach Schaefer always preaches to us it's not what we do but it's how we do it. And this program is built around an aggressive defense that's going to get out and pressure the ball and deny the wings. And I think that makes a lot of teams uncomfortable.  And I think that's where our success has been. And it's always started on the defensive end for us. And I think that's why we've been able to compete at the levels that we're competing at. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Tyra for tomorrow, status for tomorrow, was it better today? COACH BLAIR: Randy, your story in the paper was great the other day. I appreciate the time. It was well written. It had some pretty good quotes. And she's meant a whole lot to Kansas City basketball, along with Tanisha and Danielle. But what Tyra White has done has been very special. She's going to be a winner whether she plays or not. We'll have to see once we put it‑‑ put the tennis shoe on. This morning it was hurting too bad. It was still too much pain. And why risk an NCAA championship? And our bench is stepping up. Opportunity comes. And I'm just proud of my team. I'm proud of my coaching staff. I'd love for her to play, but unless she looks better, we will not use our shootaround in the morning since we're playing breakfast at Wimbledon or whatever we're doing here tomorrow. But it's going to be a late night for coaches and early morning for our team, because when you have to do pregame at seven in the morning, that's not great right there. So I don't know. Tell you the truth, I do not know. Q. Gary, what you were able to do on defense, at halftime you had an 11‑2 edge on points off turnovers. Could you talk a little bit about what you were able to do in defense to slow everything down. COACH BLAIR: I think Coach Schaefer got into them about the responsibility that they had. When we switched to zone for a few possessions, they missed about three 3s that they normally hit. That gave us confidence. And then we converted on the other end, and sometimes that's what happens, but they hit 3, White open 3s that all three of them missed. And we tried to mix and match, because my lineup, we were going in and out. We were just trying to play who was hot. But other than that, when you play a tournament like this, you cannot press. We wouldn't have anything left for whatever. I think we pressed in about three possessions totally ineffective. But Coach Schaefer, Just do your job, and that's what he preaches to the kids. Skylar, quit being beat by Hand as much as she was in the first half. We place a great help in defense. But when they penetrate and drive, they're not looking to score, they're looking to throw the 3 ball. And that's what they were so good at in the first half. And I think they still 6 out of 17. I'd love to get to the Final Four by giving up the most 3s in the history of basketball. And we've given them up this year. Q. Could you talk about what your thoughts were after the first seven seconds of the game? COACH BLAIR: Here it comes again. Somebody got beat on penetration. I'm not sure who it was. I thought it was Carter. But she's not admitting to it. So somebody got beat. Bone tried to take the charge. And she's not Meesha (phonetic) in there that took a lot of charges. But that's how we operate. We protect the basket. And I do not mind that foul as much as I allow the penetration. The second foul, by offensive foul, I thought it was a flop. But D thought it was a different way. And she sold it very well, and give her credit. We had a Final Four‑officiating crew. Probably between the three of them, I know Scott said 15, D said about 15, and Lisa's had about 12. So think of how many Final Fours they've had. That was probably the best crew you could possibly have. So I didn't have a problem at all really with the second foul except that I thought she flopped it a little. Q. I think you've eliminated the Sooners four straight years in the tournament. Why do you think you have such success? Two of those teams went on to the Final Four. Why do you think you had such success against them? COACH BLAIR: The respect I have for Oklahoma, the respect I have for Sherri, the athletes she recruits. I get up for playing Sherri and Oklahoma. That's going to be one of the rivalries that I'll miss more than anything in the Big 12 is going against Sherri. I mean, my God, she outdresses me every time. She looks better than I ever have, and she's got Whitney Hand over there. Everything about Oklahoma I like. And I'm tired of them coming down taking all our football players away, okay? They need to stay across that border. No, Oklahoma plays a wide‑open offensive game. Okay? They're known for their offense. They're known for their 3s in transition. They're known for their quick hitters that they do. Their double screens. I thought we did a decent job on Ellenberg tonight. She hit 5 out of 11. But sometimes that kid can go off for 30 in a minute. But Karla was on her. So whatever she earns, Carter is always going to be on the other team's best player. Q. You had some struggles for most of the year shooting the outside jumper, and even free throw issues throughout the season. What's it been‑‑ what's been the difference in postseason play for this group? COACH BLAIR: More confidence. We're starting to execute better. We're starting to get more wide‑open looks instead of contesting. It's taken a while for our post players to become better screeners. We're still not perfect in that. But if we have a screening offense‑‑ we won a national championship with that same offense. And it's taken my point guards a little bit longer to get into the timing, to be able to pocket pass, to be able to‑‑ when we run that 2‑3 play, for Carter to come screaming off of there and have the dump‑in to Jelena or something, it just takes time. We've now shot five straight games, correct me if I'm wrong, 46percent or better, I think in five straight ballgames. And that's how we finished the last year shooting the ball that good, because you know defensively we're not as good as what we were last year, but offensively we're not as good as we were last year, but we're pretty damn good with what we do have. Q. How much fun is it that it's Baylor again? And I'm sure you have a plan now to stop Brittney Griner, right? COACH BLAIR: I remember Jody Conradt's best compliment that she gave us when she had to go against our defense. Her last year she said she'd rather go to the dentist and have a root canal. And I thought that was a great compliment to what we did defensively. She was as good today as I've ever seen her. The 15‑footers were just money in the bank. It was just like Hakeem or Wilt shooting over everybody, because you cannot get up there with her. But do you see how hard she moves without the ball? I've never seen a kid that can play 40minutes and not sweat. And she doesn't sweat. She just plays hard. She's good for our game. What are we going to do? The last time we played her pretty good. It depends on how long our post players can stay in there, and it also depends on how the game is going to be called. Are they going to let us bump and grind a little bit, because it's a championship game, are they going to call the nitty‑picky things. But what we've got to do, we've got to earn our fouls. You have to earn them. Don't help them out by making any cheap fouls. You cannot forget about Odyssey, and Destiny Williams is probably the best offensive rebounder in this game, because all she has to do is go to the boards every time Brittney shoots. And usually she takes it out of the net. But she's a great offensive rebounder. We've got to free our shooters up. Hayden and Madden do not get the credit that they should get, because they're taller wings. They're 5'11'', 6', and it's hard for us to get Carter and Standish open against them. I'm more worried about us scoring against Baylor right now. Okay? I'm more worried about us scoring. We've gotta do a good job like we did at our place about a week ago. So let's think about Oklahoma right now, that it's going to be a long night. Breakfast with us tomorrow. Y'all come. Randy? This is the way it should end. The two top teams should be playing each other, and this is the way it should end. And I think the committee will finally agree that these two teams should not have to be in the same region. Last year it worked to our advantage. This year I would rather go see Colson in Poland than go to Baylor's region again. But tomorrow we're looking forward to the opportunity. We're on house money now; let's just play relaxed and go and see who can come off my bench and be the next star. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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