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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: SPOKANEMarch 19, 2012Shenise JohnsonKatie MeierShawnice WilsonSPOKANE, WASHINGTON Gonzaga – 65 THE MODERATOR: Coach will give an opening view of the game and then we'll open it up for questions for the student‑athletes, then the coach will remain after for additional questions. Coach. COACH MEIER: Usually when you lose a game like this and it's your last game, you have such special seniors, you're kind of devastated as a coach. But for some odd reason, I turned to go in that locker room and Shenise Johnson is already in the locker room. I'm in there to tell them about lessons of the future, how proud I am of them. Shenise is already up there running that locker room, telling those Miami players how proud she was, how happy she was. She never, ever could love a team more. She was proud of our efforts. As a coach, you get a moment like that, it's very hard to feel devastated. Lessons have been passed on. We are a big‑time program now. We did not play our best basketball game, but we played as hard as we could possibly play. Without any question, we fought and fought and fought and fought. Gonzaga did a fantastic job of not turning over the ball. It wasn't for lack of effort on our part by any means. They were very composed. I think Kelly Graves is one of the best coaches in the country. I'm happy for Gonzaga, they represent women's basketball. I'm happy for this community and that crowd. It's an awesome environment and an awesome experience for us. So tough way to go down in terms of looking at the stat sheet and realizing we only turned them over 11 times, realizing we went 1‑12 from the three and that type of thing. I see they made four threes only, but they were four huge ones. They made big shots. So we lose when that happens. But we do not feel like losers. We are very proud of ourselves. We lost to a fantastic team who had a great game tonight. Pepper Wilson is obviously going to be a headliner for us. That was a great thing for me as a coach to see someone that cares so much, dominates, gets that ferocious mentality as we had to adjust. We had to reinvent our team two times this year losing two starters. But there were moments when we were executing plays that we had to bring back that we haven't run since January to get some iso's for Pepper and looks for Mo. I'm very proud. My hat is completely off to Gonzaga. I told them, Just keep winning, just keep winning, because I love that team. THE MODERATOR: Questions from the media. Q. Shenise, obviously right now it's a tough moment. With everything this team has accomplished over the last two years, you're feelings right now. SHENISE JOHNSON: Yes, very far from what we were hoping for. As coach said, we had to reinvent ourselves so many times. I'm proud of our efforts. I'm proud of my girls. I'm proud of my team. There's no pity losses. We left it all out on the floor tonight. We can go home, lay our heads on our pillows and close our eyes with no regrets. That's what we wanted to make sure we did tonight. As far as how I'm feeling inside, I don't want to take my uniform off yet. I don't want to leave this classy young lady. She has more energy than us a lot of the time. I'm looking forward to see what Miami is going to do next year. Q. Could you talk a little bit about the environment. You talked about playing in other venues that were pretty large. Did that seem to have a impact on either one of you? SHAWNICE WILSON: It was a great crowd, but this is a crowd that we already experienced when we played Tennessee early on in the season. The crowd didn't have anyone rattled. I don't think, like, the crowd was a big factor. We've seen it before. Plus in the ACC we have a lot of big‑time games, big‑time crowds. I don't think the crowd too much had anyone, like, nervous. I think we were ready for it. SHENISE JOHNSON: Our shootarounds consist of a lot of noise. We made sure we did a lot of hand signals to prepare for the Gonzaga crowd.  I thought it was a great arena. Classy, classy group of fans. I'm happy to end on Gonzaga's court. COACH MEIER: We were clapping, giving them an ovation when we came off the court. Bravo to the crowd. Every arena should be like that. Q. Shenise, this team had to basically reinvent itself, like you said. Do you have any kind of feeling what could have been maybe had Riquna been able to be here? SHENISE JOHNSON: No, we have everybody who was supposed to be here. As a whole, we believe that everything happens for a reason. No one person (indiscernible) a team. THE MODERATOR: Ladies, you're excused. We'll continue with questions for coach. Q. Coach, you spoke last season when you lost to Oklahoma in the tournament about not having the kind of presence Pepper Wilson brings was a key in that loss. How tough was it having her go out in foul trouble? COACH MEIER: We were very happy we were down three at halftime. Pepper was so efficient. She had great minutes, not just enough of them.  I was debating whether or not I could keep her on that bench. If it stayed within five, I was going to keep her on the bench. But I was thrilled. I loved the second half. We got down a little bit. But that fight when we came back and took the lead, I thought we were in great shape, I really did. We just had a series of well‑executed plays for the right reasons, for the right shots. You got to hit 'em if you want to advance. Then we got a little bit rattled when we had to go small there at the end. We got a little behind. We had some freshmen playing out of position just because we hadn't been scoring a little bit quicker. Other than that, I'm so proud, yeah. I'm usually miserable after a loss. You have to understand that we lost to a great team tonight. My team responded in doing what we needed them to do. I'm just proud. I'm just proud. Q. Obviously Stefanie had a tough game, but she was attacking the basket in the last minutes. COACH MEIER: No one hit. No one hit. At halftime I just said, I'm going to come after you. I'm not going to dance around the fact that you need to hit shots or we're not going to win. I went right at her. She had her head up, shoulders back. She is apologizing to the team in the locker room. And they were saying, No way, you have heart and soul, you're gritty. Coached a lot of years. Coached a lot of years. But this team is just special. They're so special. Forget what they do on the basketball court. If you had a chance to be with them this last week, it would have been the best week of your life. They're just unbelievable. They're unbelievably tough and full of character. They're in there right now still talking about what we need to do better for next year. So I feel great as a coach. I'm disappointed. Obviously I lost two seniors that I love and one senior that was the most versatile player that played. Except for Nancy Lieberman, there's only two people that done what she did on the basketball court. The first thing out of her mouth was taking care of the young kids, that she was proud of them, get your shoulders back, wear Miami with pride, I'm going to follow you, I'm going to be on you. It's why you coach. It's why you do what we do. Q. What did they do to take you out of your style that's usually up‑tempo? COACH MEIER: You know, the reinventing part had a little bit to do with slowing it down, taking the ball in the air, going inside. Gonzaga to some extent did some stuff. To some extent that was me trying to figure out how I was going to win the basketball game, knowing that we had to establish Pepper, too. They can score. I felt honestly like they probably had an advantage if this thing got really high. The other day they asked if it was 90. If it was 90, we're not going to win that. I was really happy with our defense. I mean, we gave them some points at the line at the end. But honestly we held them under 60, without those free throws at the end. That's an amazing team that moves the ball, shares the ball.  To hold them under 60, we should win that game. That was definitely purposeful on my part, feeling like we took early shots, they were sharing the ball like that. Pepper would be at halfcourt most of the game. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much, coach. COACH MEIER: Thank you all. It's been a wonderful, pleasant experience. I really appreciate it. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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