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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2013A'dia MathiesMatthew MitchellDULUTH, GEORGIA Kentucky – 76 THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Kentucky head coach Matthew Mitchell and student‑athletes A'dia Mathies and DeNesha Stallworth. Coach, an opening comment. COACH MITCHELL: Well, it's a terrific start to the tournament for us. We are very excited to be here and playing in the tournament. We feel really honored to have a chance to compete for the championship. I was so pleased with our players. They gave a terrific effort today and really, really proud. Vanderbilt has a good team. They're tough. They made it tough on us to get the victory. But I was real proud of our players and we're excited to have a chance to play again tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: If you could each make a comment about today's game. A'DIA MATHIES: I think it was a great game tonight. A game we definitely needed. We just wanted to come out here and make a statement. Just know that we're looking forward to winning the championship. Vanderbilt was a great team. They came out and fought us very tough. We came out with the win and I'm glad we did. DENESHA STALLWORTH: To add on to what A'dia said, everything was a team effort. Everybody came in and gave great minutes. We're looking forward to this next game. BY MR. TAKER: Q. A'dia, you talked yesterday at practice about how you wanted to go out on top. How do you feel like your team competed? A'DIA MATHIES: I think we did a great job tonight. We just played 40 minutes with fresh legs. I think that played a huge factor tonight. When we can have two people running down the court instead of one person... It's going to take a toll on 'em for the last minutes. I think we was getting great post‑ups, making good plays, especially defensively we was getting big stops. I'm proud of their effort. Q. (No microphone.) COACH MITCHELL: I thought the start was very good for us. We wanted to have a fast start. We wanted to use the energy of the second five coming in fresh, almost like they were starting the game. We talked about that before the game. That was the plan before the game. I thought we had a great start. It's exciting to be here and playing in this tournament. I think our players are excited. We feel like we have quality depth. In this setting, I think it can be very, very useful. I love the way we started and our intensity. Q. Coach, can you talk about the defensive pressure, especially on their guards. COACH MITCHELL: Jasmine Lister is a very good player. She is their primary ball handler. We're just fortunate that we have some depth and we're fortunate that these players have worked really hard to be in the position to play that kind of defense. You just don't show up today and say, Hey, we're going to play pressure defense. It started back last summer. When you have one primary ball handler, our plan is to try to make that very difficult and try to make fatigue a factor. She's a very good player and I was very pleased that we were able to get as many turnovers against her because she is such an excellent ball player. Q. How noticeable was that depth tonight, especially going up against a team that already played one game? COACH MITCHELL: I thought we had some stretches in the game where it was pretty noticeable that we were able to get some baskets because we were maybe a bit fresher. I thought our two point guards really did an outstanding job tonight, Jennifer and Janee, one of the best games we've had them as a tandem. I thought they were pretty relentless with pushing the basketball. That was something we wrote on the board before the game, we wanted to be relentless in this game. We wanted to push the basketball. We wanted to make pace a factor. Really, really pleased. Just excited for our team to have this opportunity. I think we have an opportunity to advance tomorrow no matter who we play. I think if we will just keep a great attitude and stay really hungry, we have an outstanding chance. We want to advance. Q. Coach, nobody played more than 26 minutes. How big is that going forward for saving legs? COACH MITCHELL: Well, we'll see. In theory it should be great. I have been to a lot of these tournaments and I don't think you can make any guarantees. If our players will recognize that we're stronger when all of us come together and really give great effort, I think that it can be a great factor. But we just have to stay real focused. We have to continue to hustle. I thought we did that. We have to really work hard on defense. I thought we did that today, pushed the pace. It was really a fun day for our players. I thought they played together and worked really hard. We just need to concentrate on what we know, will help us be successful. But we certainly are planning on the depth being a factor in the tournament. We want it to be. Q. You spoke specifically about the depth possibly playing a role in the post. How pleased were you with the play of Azia and Samantha tonight? COACH MITCHELL: Gosh, I just thought they played beautifully. I thought it was probably their best game, too, as a tandem. Many times they came in and spelled Samarie and DeNesha. I thought we got tremendous production from them. Azia Bishop continues to develop and play good basketball. That's huge for our team. Samantha, had to be her best game of the season. We believe those two players are very talented. It's a great luxury for us to have right now. We need to continue to take advantage of it. Q. Do you see those kids coming off the bench maybe getting some confidence that they didn't have midway through the season? COACH MITCHELL: I thought since we made a commitment to it in Oxford, at the Ole Miss game, I really noticed it in the practices leading up to that when we said, Hey, here's the plan. Since then we've seen an energetic group. I would agree with that. I think they do have some confidence. They should. They have performed well in three straight games and it's really made a difference for our basketball team. I'm really happy with all of our players. We have a tremendous group of players. I just want to see if we can advance tomorrow and do everything we can to prepare to get that done. Q. How important is that cohesion with each five coming in? Is that why you're doing that? Do you also feel confident you can mix and match a little bit? COACH MITCHELL: We definitely can. We don't have to do five at a time. I think the second unit is confident right now because their roles have been clearly defined. I think they are taking some pride of coming in as a unit and being productive. We mixed it up some today. We didn't go five for five every time. We have some really good combination on this team. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. COACH MITCHELL: Thanks, everybody. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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