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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: WEST LAFAYETTEMarch 17, 2012Aaron JohnstonKatie LingleJennie SunnarborgJill YoungWEST LAFAYETTE, INDIANA Purdue – 80 COACH JOHNSTON: Congratulations to Purdue. It was a good day. The final score got away from us there in the last five, six minutes. But I thought overall we played well in a lot of areas. We didn't execute very well defensively, especially in the second half. It's a lot of mental breakdowns I thought which led to some really good looks on Purdue's side of things. And just didn't break away a couple of times offensively when we had chances. I kind of felt going into the game this was going to be a half court possession, possession, possession game, and in that style they're probably a little bit better than we are and I think some of that showed. When they needed some big shots they got the right people the ball and made a lot of big ones. Moses was really good. We lost her a lot on a lot of screens along the baseline, and that cost us. But overall very proud of our team, too. We did a lot of good things, just not enough to keep moving forward in the tournament. Q. Jill, can you talk about trying to slow down their guards? Probably needed to pay attention to a couple of them. Was that what happened tonight perhaps? JILL YOUNG: Yeah, they just have really good guards, and they're all good shooters, quick, athletic, and we just lost them on screens. Sometimes we miscommunicated, and they're just really good at passing and screening and just giving the person the ball when they're open. Q. She had those two back to back there after you got it within striking distance in the second half. Did it just seem like every time you guys sort of got close, she in particular came up with a shot? JILL YOUNG: Yeah, she shot really well for them and hit a lot of big shots when they needed them, or when we kind of hit a few baskets, then she'd come down and the crowd would react to that. So I guess that was tough. Q. Jennie, this was the closest in the second half you guys have been since that win. How were you feeling at that point when you got within two in the second half? JENNIE SUNNARBORG: Yeah, definitely. We had good momentum going into the second half, and it was just hard when the other team, they're hitting big shots and we're not scoring ourselves. It just kind of got away from us, and we couldn't respond to it. Q. Jill, you've done what Moses did to a lot of teams before. Was it weird being on the other side of that, watching a shooter kind of go crazy? JILL YOUNG: Well, it wasn't as fun, I guess. Yeah, you know, she's a really good shooter, and like you said, we just lost her on screens. Q. Jennie, last go for you and Jill. You guys looked aggressive, though, and not timid and like you were going down swinging. Did you feel that way throughout? JENNIE SUNNARBORG: Yeah, I think Jill and I going into this game, we're seniors, we're going to fight as much as we can and do everything we possibly can to get a win, and that just didn't happen for us today, which is a disappointment, but we hope Purdue goes further in the tournament. Q. Jill, how much did Houser's ball pressure and some of her being very active on defense maybe take you guys out of a little bit of offensive rhythm early on? JILL YOUNG: I guess we came into the game expecting them to pick up and pressure the guards. I guess maybe that slowed us down at times, taking time off the shot clock and trying to bring it up with a defender on us. Q. Jill, just talk about this run, getting back here for a fourth year in a row and having the men do it, too, and what kind of benefits you think the school and the two programs and everybody associated with it might have. JILL YOUNG: It was just really special to be a part of. We both had great seasons, and to win the tournament in Sioux Falls, I know the state really got behind us and supported us, so yeah, it was just really neat to be a part of, and I think it drew more attention to South Dakota State. Q. Katie, was it hot on the floor? It was really hot in the press box. KATIE LINGLE: Yeah, it was pretty hot down on the floor. Q. Did that affect you? KATIE LINGLE: I don't think it affected things. We were aware that it was going to be hot. We practiced in the heat yesterday, so I don't think it affected anything. Q. What adjustments were you trying to make defensively on Moses? COACH JOHNSTON: Well, we went into it with a game plan to really ‑‑ not quite base guard any of their perimeter players but not really help, either. I thought the first three she hit in the first half, we helped on some penetration and just let her kind of get going, but then from that point on, she didn't need a lot of space to get shots off. Tried showing on some of their down screens from our post players, and I thought that was effective at times. Other times our post just didn't get up. I thought our guards were late coming around on screens. Just as a whole between the screener and our person chasing, we just didn't get to her at times. You know, she's a good player and just so efficient. There's no stat for it, but they screen as well as any team that we play, and those post players are excellent at doing that. They know how to get guards open, and it's hard to get through. That's why they all make so many of those plays off of those screens. Q. I saw you shaking your head as I was asking the question about the two three‑pointers Moses hit back to back there after you got it down to four. Was that sort of the critical time? COACH JOHNSTON: Yeah, and it's even more critical because it's a home game for them. Those are big momentum plays. It wasn't just six points, it was a big momentum change in the game, and really, I think, kind of got us into a point where we were trying to scramble to get back into it rather than feeling like we were right there. So the points were obviously‑‑ that's what wins and loses, but the momentum was the big part of that. Q. You said yesterday you thought your team had to be tenacious today. Your thoughts on how they graded out there? COACH JOHNSTON: I thought we were pretty good. I didn't think we were great. We did have a lot of mental lapses in the second half. I won't go into detail on all of those. But we didn't have a great second half defensively, and when they started to make some plays and the crowd got going a little bit, then I think we got a little bit away from what we needed to do. But I think our effort level was really good. I thought we were aggressive. I thought a lot of the things we talked about offensively that we needed to get, we did get some of those things. So overall I feel like it was a very good game for us, it's just Purdue played a little better game than we did. But I was proud of our team. Q. How much do you think Houser maybe set the tone for them defensively? This was your second game without stops, how you guys handled the perimeter there. COACH JOHNSTON: Yeah, seems like you think she set the tone. Yeah, I think a little bit. I don't feel like she just took us out of complete rhythm. There was a couple times where I thought she had Gaby in trouble in the second half there, and that's easy to look at that and say, boy, KK is really changing the game. She's a very good player. I don't know that she completely took us away from what we wanted to do. I don't know that I would say that. But she's a good player. She had five steals in the game, so she obviously was a big part of what they do. By I thought we were able to get into what we want enough to be successful. Q. Your thoughts on how your two seniors played? It seemed like both of them were very aggressive tonight. COACH JOHNSTON: I thought their effort level was really good, energy level was really good, good leaders kind of going throughout the game. I just talked to them when they came out there with a minute or two or whatever left and said this game didn't go the way they wanted, but I said overall the reason we're here playing today on that stage has a lot with those two seniors, not only this year but throughout their career. They've continued to move us forward. It wasn't quite enough to move forward in the NCAA Tournament, but we're better today than we were four years ago because of Jennie and Jill. Q. Talk about your bench production. Rachel and Katie had very good games off the bench. What does that make you think about your chances for next year? COACH JOHNSTON: You know, it's interesting, we only graduated two seniors, so you look at our roster today and think, boy, all those good players are back, but it's still not really a complete roster because Steph is not on the floor and then also Megan Waytashek wasn't on the floor. Then we add two really good players, another point guard, which we've played really without for a while here. I thought Gaby really progressed this year at the point, as well. So next year, even though there will be a lot of the same faces, I think we'll very different team really because of that point guard position. We'll have a lot more depth and be I think a lot more consistent. We were playing Jill out of position a lot, we were playing Steph out of position a lot this year, so just having more true point guards is going to change our team dramatically, I think. We'll get back to being a little bit more up tempo and get back to getting the pace we want out of our offense. But we also lose two 1,000‑point scorers in Jill and Jennie, two proven players that can make big shots and have been in these kind of big moments. It'll be fun to see how the team evolves over the spring, but we do have a couple big losses here with Jill and Jennie. Q. Two‑part question. Same thing I asked Jill. Talk about what you think the impact of not only you guys getting a fourth year in a row and the men doing it, too, and all the publicity brings to your school, and secondly your thoughts on what, if anything, you need to add to take that next step in the tournament aside from maybe getting a regional and somewhat closer. COACH JOHNSTON: Well, the jackrabbit logo has got to be the hottest logo out there on the market. It's the best‑looking one that I've seen by far, and it edges out the boilermaker logo, so hopefully on a national stage that'll continue to get some play. You know, it's a little unmeasurable right now because it just happened, but you want dividends to pay off in these kind of events. Basketball, especially men's basketball has such a national presence with that NCAA Tournament. I know more about Lehigh today than I did two days ago, and that's because of that tournament and that event. So for both of our teams, the ultimate is to try and move forward. To answer your second part, for us anyway, we just have to be a little bit better in kind of all areas. In the NCAA Tournament we're going to have to figure out ways to execute a little bit better against these kind of teams. We're able to kind of get free flowing a little bit in our league and with our style and also get in the tournament. They're different types of games, so we're going to have to evaluate how we want to build our team offensively and defensively for this time. For us, like I said earlier, I think it'll change dramatically when we add point guards and add more experience to our team. That'll help us get to what we want offensively, as well. We're just going to have to learn how to play tougher in these environments. We're in a situation where the majority of our games on the women's side very well could be at Purdue or at Xavier or at Oklahoma, and that's a whole different animal than what the men face at neutral sites. So we're going to have to get better at these kind of environments and learn how to get done what we need to. We were better today I thought than we were the last two trips, Oklahoma and Xavier, to be honest with you. We had some shots that could have made the game a little bit closer. Still might have lost, but we had some chances in the second half to keep moving forward, keep grinding it out. We had some really good stops defensively. I think we gave up three offensive rebounds in a ten‑minute stretch that they scored on, so there were some chances there but we just didn't make all those plays, and that's hard, but that's what it takes here to do it on the road. Q. Pretty broad question here, but looking at this year and the last four, are you fairly happy with what's happened here? COACH JOHNSTON: Yeah, overall, I mean, it's 64 teams played in this event. We're one of the 64. To do it four years in a row, I don't know how many teams have played in it four years in a row. We're not the only one, but there's certainly a much smaller number than 64 that have gone here four times in a row. So I am really pleased with the progress of our program. I am a little frustrated just in the sense that we haven't taken another step in the tournament but not frustrated in our players or anything, just frustrated we haven't quite gotten over that hump yet, but I think that's kind of where we're at. We want more shelf life in this event. You need more people to talk about you. People are talking about Lehigh because they won, not because they lost by two. And for us, if we're going to take that next step, I know I've said this the last couple years, we're going to have to figure out ways to win at this event. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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