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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 10, 2013Tiffany BiasJim LittellToni YoungDALLAS, TEXAS Baylor – 77 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Oklahoma State head Coach Jim Littell and student‑athletes Tiffany Bias and Toni Young. Coach, some opening comments. COACH LITTELL: Very proud of our basketball team. We went toe‑to‑toe with the number one team in the nation tonight. I believe we were down by three with 38 seconds to go and they hit a three. Probably had a bad possession when it was 72‑69, a chance to tie it. I would have loved to have that opportunity to put a little more pressure on them. But our group played extremely hard. I thought we played smart, executed very well. It's something that is a step in the right direction for our program. We can build off of this. Even though it is a loss, we aren't into moral victories, but even though it is a loss, it's something we can take forward the rest of this season and for the years to come, that we can play with a lot of people. THE MODERATOR: Questions for our student‑athletes. Q. If you play like you did today, how far can you get in the NCAA tournament? TONI YOUNG: Our team, we're really athletic. We don't ever give up. I think if we work as hard as we did now, we can go as long as we work. Tonight was pretty obvious. We came and competed with the No.1 team in the nation. Not that many people came that close to them. If we play like this all the time, we can make it all the way. TIFFANY BIAS: I mean, I agree with Toni. If we play with a little heart and pride, we can play with anyone in the nation. We had them to three points. It was our mistakes that led them to an eight‑point difference in the game. I think our team can go as far as we want to go. Q. What was different this time around? TIFFANY BIAS: I think that's a big pride factor and a lot of heart. You just have to go out there and play. This is the Big 12 tournament. I think the last few games we played, we played timid. We're afraid to play defense on Griner. I think you have to give it all you got and just go out there and play. TONI YOUNG: I also think the same thing. Tonight we came out and had fun. You could see on the court we enjoy each other the whole time. I think that's what helped give us the confidence. No matter what, we enjoy each other on every play. Q. Tiffany, first half you missed 12 or 13 shots. They were up 17. You made that shot where I'm sure you called bank on the three‑pointer over Griner.  Do you remember that situation? Just the fact you made that shot, did that seem to kind of relax everybody? TIFFANY BIAS: I don't know about relax. That kind of gave us a little spark that says, Hey, we can play with them. We weren't playing as hard as we could. We weren't playing up to our potential. I think we all got together as a team and said, Hey, let's get this on and let's play. Q. I don't know what you did defensively in the second half, but whatever it was they were frustrated, they weren't getting easy shots. Nothing like the first half. I know you're playing hard, but in the middle of that, what are you doing specifically to slow them down? TIFFANY BIAS: I think just playing together as a team. Our coaches had a really good scout for us. They changed on the spot our defenses. They had different defenses for us to go to. That really helped. Just confusing them. I think it got to them when we were close to them throughout the whole game. I think by trading defenses, just sitting on Griner, trying to double her, I think that really confused them. Q. Toni, towards the end of the game, it was a pretty intense moment, you weren't rallying, you got the ball in and hit a 6‑footer over Griner. You had a smile on your face. What was going through your mind when you hit that shot over? TONI YOUNG: I was having fun. You can't always expect to not to get blocked. She's 6'8", you're going to get blocked sometimes. You have to take your chances. I was having fun taking chances. THE MODERATOR: We'll continue with questions for coach. Q. Jim, that zone, did you do any kind of tweaking it as it went along? You play zone the same way, most teams can find holes. Were there some adjustments you made during the game? COACH LITTELL: Yes, there was. When we started having some success, getting some hands on the ball, we kept our forwards down in front. We roped our guard to the corner. I think that helped us to have a continuous body on Brittney inside. We had a front and a back on her. It worked for the most part. They reversed the ball late. Was it Madden that hit the three? But you've got to give‑and‑take. You can't guard them straight up. That was the adjustment we made, that we kept the fronts with our 3s and 4s on their respective sides, roped the guards to the corner. It helped us get a lot of hands‑on balls. Brittney Martin was very active, our freshman, got a lot of feels during that comeback. We kind of did that on the fly. I'm proud of our team. They listened in the timeout, made some nice adjustments. Q. How much do you think you help your seed today, given your performance here? COACH LITTELL: I think we've helped our seed going and being in the game at Iowa State with a minute to go, very difficult place, then coming and getting a win on a team that we lost twice to. To play the No.1 team in the country, we're down one possession with 38 seconds to go. I think the Selection Committee is going to look at that, that this is a team that has gotten better as the year progressed. They look at how you're playing before you go into the tournament. I think we really helped our cause today. Q. Talk about the emotions, what you were telling your players to keep them in this game. COACH LITTELL: You know, we were down by 9 about eight or nine minutes to go, and we came into a timeout. I told our team, Let's change our mindset right now. Let's change our mindset from playing them close and being respectable to thinking about going and winning this thing. I felt like our team really responded to that. They got excited. You know, you've got to have some luck on your hand. You've got to do a lot of things right. You've got to make shots. But to beat them, you've got to believe that you can. I think the last nine minutes, our team, whether it be smart or not, believed they could win the basketball game. You know, I'm proud of 'em. I thought we played with no fear. I believe there's a lot of teams that have a fear factor when they play Baylor. Q. You mentioned the fear factor. Obviously you've seen Baylor a lot the last couple years. Gary Blair talked about how when he beat Baylor in 2011, he played them seven times in 13 months. They're clearly good. Do they become less scary the more you're on the court? COACH LITTELL: I don't think they become less scary. I didn't sleep at all last night, knowing what it was going to be like. They're a great ballclub. We played them really well at Stillwater and played awful well and lost by 18 or 19, but we didn't make shots. You've got to hit some shots. We did a lot of positive things today. We had 19 offensive boards against them. We had 17 steals, as well. So there were a lot of pluses out of today's game. We got 20 more shots at the basket than they did. You do those things, you're going to have a chance. The one thing that I regret is we gave them too many and‑one's, but that's going to happen with them. When you go to double Griner, somebody is open on the backside, kind of pick your poison at times. There were a lot of pluses. 19 assists. Forcing 24 turnovers out of Baylor. There was a lot more good out of this game today than bad for us. Q. Through Brittney's years, can you talk about what you've seen her improving all the way to her senior year? COACH LITTELL: She's gotten better every year. She's added dimensions to her game where she can step outside and shoot it. She's a prolific scorer, shot‑blocker. But what people don't realize is how great a passer she is, how she enables her other teammates to be better. By what you have to do to stop her, it enables her other teammates to be better. I'm not taking anything away from their other players. They've got McDonald's All‑Americans across the board. She just allows them to play a different way, an unconventional way. On the wings, they can get up and guard on the wrong side because they know that she's back there. They can take chances. They can gamble because they know she's back there. I've said it numerous times, I think she's the best player in the history of the game, and she continues to get better. Credit their coaching staff. She's progressed each and every year and taken her game to new levels. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much and best of luck in the post‑season. COACH LITTELL: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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