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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2013Kristi BellockGary BlairKarla GilbertDULUTH, GEORGIA Texas A&M – 61 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair and student‑athletes Kristi Bellock and Karla Gilbert. We'll begin with an opening comment from head coach Gary Blair. COACH BLAIR: First, if I'm Steve Spurrier, I'm Kevin Sumlin. That was almost as physical as the football games are going to be in the SEC. I really think both teams played very good defense. They got a few extra shots, but they usually do because they're the best offensive rebounding team we faced all year ‑ until tomorrow. But our kids, we got into foul trouble. My bench saved us. They were not scoring, but allowed us to play some big‑time minutes. Karla, that's the most minutes she's probably played in conference play. She held her own, got to the foul line, made five out of six, whatever. Bellock had her work cut out down there on Welch or Bruner. But she keeps plugging away, plugging away. She hit the crucial free throws. Finally the last play of the game, we knew Bone was finished, so we called a play called Auburn. That's when normally Kelsey goes down on screen, Bellock comes high and we throw it and dunk it in. But Bone was completely worn out. We ran it for Bellock, and she hit that turnaround shot in the lane. I thought that was the play that got us over the hump. I'm going to go back in history real quick. In 1996, I helped coach the Jones Cup team. Dawn Staley, if I'm not mistaken, was the point guard on one of the very best teams ever. We took the Jones Cup team over and we convinced a little girl from South Carolina named Shannon Johnson to come in and be our fifth guard and be the defensive player as well as the offense, because at South Carolina she was an offensive player. Peewee came in, it reminded me so much how Dawn Staley played the game. All of a sudden I was just thinking back to the history, because we had Katie Smith, Rizzotti, Tina Thompson, great players, all that. I remember it was a little girl from South Carolina that came in. She was our Energizer Bunny, sort of what we have like with Jordan Jones coming off the bench. That has nothing to do with today's game, but that's how well South Carolina is coached, and they play just like their coach played. I think it says a lot for basketball. When I was in the SEC 10 years ago, the best day in basketball is this day, the quarterfinals, when you see eight teams that are all top 25, that are all going to the dance, playing each other. It doesn't get any better. If I'm a spectator, I want to see all four of them, and I will see all four of them. But I've got to get this team, get some energy back into them. I'm proud of our kids right here. Our post play I thought was a lot of the difference in the ballgame. We only turned it over 11 times. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Karla, could you talk about how important depth was for this team as you continue through the post‑season. KARLA GILBERT: Basically the bench is important. We don't have a lot of 40‑minute players, so it's important for people to come off the bench and be ready and become part of the chemistry that has already been made during the game. If we keep doing what we're supposed to be doing, we should be okay for the rest of the season. Q. Could you look ahead to tomorrow's game. KRISTI BELLOCK: I'm really excited about that game. The first time around, it wasn't a good game for us. I hope tomorrow will be a better game. We just need to come out with more energy, get them off the boards, run our offense, do what we do, not let them dictate how we play. KARLA GILBERT: Going along with Kristi, everybody is excited about playing tomorrow Tennessee. When we were there last time, our shots weren't falling. We couldn't crash the boards like we wanted to. We want to make a new empty slate and start all over from this game forward. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for Coach Blair. Q. Coach, you talked about how important it is for your team to get off to a fast start, get the lead early. You did that tonight. How important was that in this game? COACH BLAIR: We've done it all year. Very few times have we started the game behind. I think our kids execute the game plan, take what the defense is giving to us. Then sometimes we lose it either due to foul trouble or good play by our opponent or whatever. I thought the key in the ballgame was we were able to withstand what they were able to do offensively. When we had the big lead, we had Bellock and Bone over on the sideline, I thought that was key. We went into halftime 3, we were barely surviving on the offensive end, but playing good defense. Coach Starkey had his team ready to play and did an excellent job of preparing this team. The key to South Carolina is always Walker. They got very good post players, but I thought we did as good of a job as we could on Walker, and sometimes you wear out. But like a good senior, she wants that basketball, and she was trying to make things happen. Sometimes turnovers happen or missed shots happen. I know this isn't part of your question, but I believe we only gave up one offensive rebound on a missed free throw. That's where they beat you 'cause they know they're going to miss 'em. I was always hoping for Bruner to be there instead of Welch. We really concentrated on that today, making sure we blocked out, tried not to give them that second chance. Q. Coming into this last game, you lost four out of the last five. What does this do to right the ship, get you back in the right direction? COACH BLAIR: Don't forget, South Carolina lost three out of six coming into the tournament, too. In February and March, if you can string three in a row together, like LSU got six in a row, we were part of that, it's hard 'cause we're all dying right now. We needed this win bad. We played very well against Tennessee at their place. Trouble was we couldn't stop them inside and they couldn't stop us inside. So it was a great offensive game, similar to what he saw with Florida and Tennessee. Now, we've got to start playing good. We do not want to back in to hosting the NCAA tournament. We're going to work hard. We're going to have a great crowd. Last year we were the second best draw for our sub‑regional next to Notre Dame, and hopefully the same thing can happen. Until then, I read our stats, when we've been the fourth seed, we won the Big 12 twice. That's our goal right now, is to win this tournament. But our goal is to play a Tennessee that shares the ball so well. Williams is an energy player, with Simmons and Spani spotting up out there, Massengale driving hard to the board, Burdick killed us last time. We have our work cut out. But South Carolina got us ready to play Tennessee. We're going to have a great rivalry over the year between Dawn's team and our team because I love the way she coaches the defensive end, and hopefully she likes the way we coach the defensive end. You got two good ball clubs, and you definitely got two top‑20 teams right there. I think both of us have a chance to get that Sweet 16. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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