|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2013Gary BlairKelsey BoneCourtney WalkerDULUTH, GEORGIA Texas A&M – 66 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Texas A&M coach Gary Blair and student‑athletes Courtney Walker and Kelsey Bone. COACH BLAIR: How about those Young Aggies? We keep finding a way. We might not have had Johnny Manziel, but we had some freshman step up. I had leadership out of Pratcher in the first half, knocking down shots. Bone second half was just very, very good. I think she's the best post player in the nation and she's hard to guard. When her mind is set, she's scoring easy, she's awfully tough to defend. But Tennessee, they're just not a team, they're an institution on what they've meant to this game all the way back to 1977 when I met Pat Summitt for the first time at North Texas at a summer camp and I played three‑on‑three with her. She kicked my rear from one end to the other. I remember that. I was just a high school coach at the time. She found Mary Ostrowski for the first time at that summer camp. Holly did a tremendous job. They were hurting us with their dribbles and kicks. Then all of a sudden we were not putting them at the foul line the last seven or eight minutes. They were going one‑and‑out and we were getting some great boards. But Spani, give her a lot of credit. Williams, their Energizer Bunny, give her a lot of credit. But I've got two seniors in Bellock and Pratcher. They're my Energizer Bunnies and I'm proud of them. You have two new ones up here today, Courtney Walker, a great freshman. She made life a lot better by hitting those two free throws and not letting us have to go down and play hope‑they‑miss defense. Bone, appreciate the effort coming back from getting banged up yesterday on that meniscus. You stepped up like a trooper. Just appreciate the effort of my basketball team. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Kelsey, how much was the knee bothering you? KELSEY BONE: In the beginning I was thinking about it a little bit. We had a walk‑through this morning. It was only a walk‑through, so today was my first time. Game time and warmups was my first time going full speed on it. Once I got comfortable and my adrenaline started going, it didn't bother me a whole lot. My teammates stayed positive with me. Coach Blair told me, When you come out of the game, don't sit by radar. I sat accidentally by our trainer, so I didn't have a time to think about it. Q. Kelsey, how did you think the crowd played into this one? You went to Tennessee and they have their crowd. It seemed like you had the Georgia fans in attendance rooting for you guys. KELSEY BONE: It's funny because we came Thursday to watch South Carolina and Alabama play. And we said, Gosh, all the orange everywhere. We knew coming in once they won last night there would be more orange than blue. When you look around, the other SEC teams are rooting for us because we're the underdog. We roll with our fans. We roll with who was cheering for us. We tried to create our own energy. We knew nobody really expected us to come in and win this game. All the odds were against us. This is our sixth straight conference tournament championship game. The last time we won a conference tournament we were a 4 seed. We're hoping we have some history and some magic on our side. Q. Courtney, can you talk about the importance of taking care of the ball. COURTNEY WALKER: One of our points in the game today was stopping their transition because that's something Tennessee does very well, especially with their great guard play they have. One thing we focused on was turnovers that lead to points for them. That was something we did at Tennessee that I don't think we did too bad of a job on. Here today we did it very well. Really taking care of the ball, running our offense, knowing what we're looking for so we're not scrambling, turning it over for them to get a score. Q. Courtney, you were down 50 to 40 fairly early in the second half. You came down and hit a couple of baskets that kind of seemed to turn the momentum. What was your mindset at that point? COURTNEY WALKER: I can't even tell you for sure. I mean, I just feel like we've been fighting so hard and we've been staying together. KB and Pratcher have been preaching at us for our seniors and the people that we need to fight for, this is their last chance, so we need to get it for them. Our back was back against the wall down 10 in the second half. Somebody just needed to turn it up until everybody got going. That's what I was trying to do. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for Coach Blair. Q. Can you talk a little bit about the decision to put Tori Scott on Spani in the second half, how that affected the game. COACH BLAIR: She came in for a few minutes just to slow down, because Williams was not able to guard her. I don't think nobody was able to guard her. We just had to change pace. Tori is the quickest kid we got on the team, along with Jordan Jones. We said, Don't leave her, don't let her breathe. She gave us a chance to relax and get Williams' head on there. Sometimes the best equalizer is the bench. You don't have to say a word to them. I'm not sure that Spani scored the rest of the game, even when Williams came back in there. Scott gave us next man up. That's what the 12th man is all about. 12th man is all about somebody ready to come in if needed. Scott came in. At the same time Gilbert came in in the first half, was not as effective as yesterday. A lot of that was Tennessee. Gilbert has to learn to pin the ball. We were shooting the ball instead of pinning the ball, forcing the defense to have to guard us. But we learned in the second half. Q. Kristi's game, having a double‑double today. How important was that for you? COACH BLAIR: Bellock, sometimes she gets the quietest double‑doubles you've ever seen. Sometimes I'm hugging her, loving her or cussing her. That's all about Kristi. She just gives me that smile every time. She's just a kid that's waited her time. You wait three years to play, play behind a door, all of a sudden you're limping down, your parents aren't calling to transfer, you become the best student on our basketball team. Good things are happening to her. She'll get a chance to keep playing ball after that. But Bellock's a great midrange shooter. She is just a low‑maintenance kid. Just a whole lot of fun. I would love nothing better to take that kid back to New Orleans. To do that, that's where she's from at John Curtis High School. I'd love to take her and Scott back to New Orleans. Right now we got Kentucky or Georgia. I'd like to put in a special plea for the Tennessee fans. If I'm not mistaken, Kentucky borders Tennessee. Georgia borders Tennessee. You're not supposed to like somebody you're bordering. So we're the new kid on the block. I want to see that Tennessee orange there pull us through, and I hope they'll stay. Even if they don't cheer for us, I want them to cheer for women's basketball because this is a special place. We've been treated great here. The hospitality, the management of the facility. The crowds have been very good. I do not want to see Tennessee pack up and go home. I want them to stay and root on the next team. That's what we heard when we first came into this league. If they couldn't get the recruit or they couldn't win the game, they started pulling for SEC. So that's what I'd like for them to do, is hopefully stay over and pull for us. But I was proud of my 250 Aggies that were there against those 6,000 Volunteers. Q. I noticed after postgame when you were shaking hands, you stopped and spoke to Spani. Can you tell us what you said there. COACH BLAIR: Well, first she turned down my letters when I was trying to recruit her years ago. At the same time I appreciate that kid. She could have stayed in the Big 12 where her sisters played and her dad played and everything like that, probably been the biggest show on whatever team she decided to come to. She came to a place where she could be a value role player and continue the tradition that Tennessee has. A lot of kids will not do that. A lot of parents won't let their kids do it because they want their kid to be the whole show. Now she's stepped up. She's going to lead them deep into the playoffs. The kid's just a winner. I just appreciate what she's brought to the game. Q. Other than getting in her face, when Spani was having this hot of a game, did you give any special instructions to stop her from going left or whatever? COACH BLAIR: It wasn't her driving that was hurting, it was her spot‑up shooting. How many girls catch, release and go up? All post players got to bring it down. Most guards got to bring it down, check the description on the ball or something. She catches it, she goes up. She knows the game, okay? That's where our game has to catch up to the men's game, is on basketball IQ. But our role models now should be women's players. We don't need Michael Jordan or Dennis Rodman anymore or whoever. We need to have the role models of the WNBA players that are playing the game, the elite women's players, and the coaches that are in the game. I beat one Hall of Famer yesterday, beat another one today. I guess it would be Andy Matthews got to wait awhile, but he'll be in it pretty soon. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. COACH BLAIR: Thank y'all. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|