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NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOURApril 1, 2012Terran CondreyBrittney GrinerKim MulkeyOdyssey SimsDENVER, COLORADO Baylor – 59 THE MODERATOR: Joining us from Baylor, head coach Kim Mulkey, student‑athletes Brittney Griner, Odyssey Sims, and Terran Condrey. Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Odyssey, can you talk about the contributions from Terran and how important that was for someone to step up and hit some outside jumpers? ODYSSEY SIMS: She's been hitting big shots all year. She's been key to us winning big games, and she stepped up like a senior should and she hit big shots for us. Q. Terran, Coach yesterday said something like if you guys win the national championship, it's not going to be because of Brittney Griner, it's going to be because of the team effort. Do you think under‑‑ this was like exhibit A, because you got so many contributions from so many different players today? TERRAN CONDREY: Yeah, I think so, because most teams double‑team Griner, so they'll leave most people open, and we had to be ready to knock down the shots in the game. Q. Brittney, to see Terran do that in that kind of moment, and also Jordan Madden had some big shots in that second half, were you proud of them to see them delivered like that? BRITTNEY GRINER: Definitely. I was very proud to see Terran and all of them step up and knock down shots. It's not the first time she had done this. She's silent, but you hear her on the court. Q. Brittney, can you talk about what Stanford did against you and they kept you to your lowest field‑goal output or‑‑ or tied with for the season, and just was it a difficult night for you? BRITTNEY GRINER: I give credit to Stanford. They're a good team. They always had two people on me or second offender come in try to double me. They stuck with their plan the whole game. Frustrating. You get frustrated when your shot doesn't go in. But I had all the confidence in my team. Like Coach said, it's not the Brittney Griner show at all. My team stepped up and knocked down shots. Q. Odyssey, can you talk about just the overall frustration that whole first half? Seemed like nothing was going right either team, both having trouble on the offensive end and how you guys broke out of it about five minutes into the second half? ODYSSEY SIMS: Just like we came out not as strong as usual. I felt like some of us were a little nervous trying to get all the jitters out. But we didn't come out strong. But going into halftime we knew we had to pick it up. Q. Odyssey, at the end of the game you threw the ball to the rafters. This is where you guys have been pointed towards all year long to finally get to this national championship game. What's the feeling? ODYSSEY SIMS: It feels great that we're going to play on Tuesday. But, then again, we haven't done that yet. Q. Can the athletes talk about whether you felt any effects from the altitude up here? Does it make it harder for you or are you already so well conditioned it doesn't really matter that much? TERRAN CONDREY: In my opinion, I think the altitude is terrible (laughter). But I think that we are in good shape, though, as a team. ODYSSEY SIMS: Altitude is very different from what we're used to. But I feel like we're adjusting very well and we're not trying to show them that we're tired on the court. BRITTNEY GRINER: I'm with Terran on the altitude. But, I mean, we're in shape. You just gotta push through it. Q. Brittney, there late in the game I saw you look over at the ref and it was like kind of shaking your head, like: When are you going to call a foul? Was this any more physical, though, than some of the games you've seen all year? BRITTNEY GRINER: No, not really. Just the ref was laughing, I was laughing. Found it funny at the time. Q. Brittney, can you just talk a little bit about the matchup with Neka? And you guys haven't played against each other in college at least. It's been a long time. Can you talk about what that was like for you? BRITTNEY GRINER: I enjoyed it. It was a good matchup. She's a great player. And it's been a while. We've both improved. And had to work on‑‑ first time I've really had to work the whole night. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. You said all year long that you can't win a national title with just Brittney and Odyssey. This kind of proved it tonight? COACH MULKEY: Yes, it did. We've seen multiple defenses throughout the year. And I just thought Terran Condrey, she's a great shooter, a senior, and I didn't hesitate to quickly insert her in the lineup. She can nail that shot down. Jordan Madden can, too. But what we did better in the second half was we turned down the first look. We were rushing the shot. We'd make one pass and we'd play right into Stanford's hands and shoot the first shot that was open. And all you gotta do is reverse the ball, be patient, let Griner still get touches, and you're going to get the same shot next time across the floor. I thought we did a better job. But Griner does what she does. She draws a lot of attention, and we're not a one‑dimensional team. Brittney Griner is the face of women's basketball right now. And we embrace that. She deserves that and it's great recognition for Baylor. But our team is not just Brittney Griner. Q. You mentioned Jordan's ability to hit that shot, too. In the first half, though, it wasn't really going down for her, but you did insert her back in the game. What did you tell her? COACH MULKEY: Just keep shooting. Just keep shooting. If you're a shooter, you gotta keep shooting. She made some and ones there late and didn't lose her confidence. She got frustrated a little bit coming in and out of the game, and competitors want to play and just keep playing. It's going to fall for you. And at the end I decided to go offense/defense with her and with Terran and I just felt that they were challenged and they stepped up. Maybe not early in the game. But it's going to fall for you. Just keep shooting it. Q. How is Destiny? Is she okay and will she be able to play on Tuesday? COACH MULKEY: Destiny? Q. Odyssey. COACH MULKEY: Odyssey, you're talking about the layup there when the trainer went out on the floor? No one's hurt to my knowledge. Q. I had heard‑‑ someone told me that Destiny had been injured too. COACH MULKEY: No. If she is, they haven't told me. Odyssey had a little cramp there. I called a timeout so I didn't have to take her out of the game because the trainer was on the floor. Had I not called the timeout, I would have had to insert somebody to shoot the free throws for her. Q. Neka mentioned that Griner‑‑ maybe psychologically playing Griner kind of psyched her out a little bit. Do you think that's part of what Brittney's built up over time, the fact that she's so good that it's almost a mental game as well as a physical game? COACH MULKEY: I do. I do. Because the women's game we haven't seen the likes of a Brittney Griner before. We've seen 6'8" and 6'9" players. We've seen players that dunk it. But her presence on the defensive end‑‑ I've been around the game since I was 18years old at this level. And I've never seen anybody dominate on the defensive end, just her wing span and her presence. Q. I think the score was tied 31‑31, and then you went on a 15‑3 run. Was there anything in particular that you were doing different during that one span that kind of gave you the big lead? COACH MULKEY: No, we didn't change‑‑ well, we changed our defense a little bit. We played a 2‑2‑1 zone back to a man, and one possession or two, I don't know the time period, we went back to a 2‑3 zone. But we probably got some easier baskets in transition through that period and just had some defensive stops, got to the foul line. But it wasn't a magical thing that I did or called on either end of the floor. I think just our patience paid off. I thought‑‑ one of the things that we really stressed against Stanford that we did well is we kept them off the offensive boards. When you have a Neka and Chiney, they're such athletes, if they don't score on their first shot, they're usually getting putbacks, getting their team an opportunity to score again. And I thought we battled with them and made sure we eliminated their second chance points. Thought our defense was good. We held them late in the shot clock many times. And I thought we got to the foul line. Q. Kim, on a night when Destiny was not shooting her best, just battled on the boards, ten rebounds for her, can you talk about what she gave you? COACH MULKEY: I thought Destiny had one of her better defensive games. Honestly, you tried to keep Griner inside. You may assign‑‑ you have Neka, you have Chiney, but the truth is keep Griner in the paint as much as you can. And I thought Destiny was active on who she was guarding, whether it was Neka or Chiney. I thought she didn't let her offense or her inability to get many shots affect what she was trying to do to help her team win. If that was blocking out and getting the defensive rebound, she missed some free throws. And she never let that affect her. So she makes her free throws, Destiny does what she's been doing, and that's a double‑double. Q. I asked Odyssey about reaching the national championship game. Of course she said it's great, we haven't accomplished anything yet. Did you love hearing her say that? COACH MULKEY: Sure. You do. We're 39 and 0 and you're going to play for the national championship. And they deserved to play for the national championship. They've taken everybody's best shot. They've got a gimpy coach up here that can hardly hear, see, or talk, yet they pull me through and pull me along. And we'll be out there come Tuesday and we'll give it our best shot again. Q. You said before that there's nobody that's come up with a new defense for Brittney Griner. But it looked to me double teaming is certainly not novel. But they were doing it a little bit differently tonight for the first half at least, in that they had one player playing behind her and one in front to deny her the entry pass, where Tennessee was playing to help the defender between her and the post. Was that different and was that part of what held her down? COACH MULKEY: No, it's not different. We have seen that. Jordan and Terran and NaeNae have been challenged and they have seen that before. St. John's was outstanding doing that to us. So it's not anything we haven't seen. And when you think about it, if you knock those shots down early you take a big lead quickly. And they've got to make some adjustments. But when you don't knock those shots down early, you need to be more patient and make sure we continue to get Griner touches. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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