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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2013Kayla AlexanderQuentin HillsmanHARTFORD, CONNECTICUT UConn: 64 THE MODERATOR: Joining us is Head Coach Quentin Hillsman and senior center, Kayla Alexander. Coach, an opening statement to start, please? COACH HILLSMAN: Obviously disappointed in the loss. Really wanted to win this basketball game and obviously when you're playing against a team like UConn you always want to come out and play as hard as you can and try to get a win. I thought our kids really competed at a tremendously high level. I thought that every play was just so critical and there were times that we broke down, but I thought we always made a run and made a play to get ourselves back into the basketball game. Just really proud of my kids. It's tough to rattle off what we could have done and should have done, but more than anything else I was proud of the effort of my players because when the lead gets to 15 on a floor like this, they can easily go to 30, 40 and 50, and our kids battled back. I thought we had opportunities down the stretch to get it to seven or eight to make a few plays but you got to give UConn a lot of credit. Very good team, very good players and they're a program that requires you to compete. You have to compete every possession and they require to you compete at a high level. They got it done, give them credit. They're a great team and tomorrow night, UConn/Notre Dame is going to be an awesome game. Q. Coach, after last night's game you discussed the importance of Kayla staying on the floor. She was able to do that tonight. Can you talk about her play and her ability to stay the on the floor especially when you were making that run late. COACH HILLSMAN: Obviously it made a huge difference. You can see it in the outcome and in our defense and the way she scored in the post. She is a good player, our best player and we have to have her on the floor to have any kind of a chance to beat a team like UConn and tonight she required attention, she got 12 free‑throws, that was big for us. Q. You look at where the team is now, and you're going to get a great seed in the NCAA Tournament and you played great in the Big East Tournament and from where Syracuse took over at this point and now it's the end of the line for the Big East conference, can you talk about what it's been like reaching this point and still having that kind of an end? COACH HILLSMAN: It's funny because I was talking to bash Jacobs about it yesterday and I said, you know, I grew up in this conference, this is where I started, this was my first head coaching job was the Big East and I grew up in this conference just starting to find my way and starting to get more comfortable with being on the sidelines and coaching and this conference has meant everything to me. Obviously I have some great colleagues and people in the conference office and in different arenas, and getting to know the restaurants and the hotels, but I think most of all for me it's about the vision for our program and where we're going. I put a lot of trust in them and they have entrusted me with this program and with these young ladies and I have 1000% trust in where we are going and obviously we're going to a pretty good conference and there will be some great teams in there but most of all it's new and exciting but obviously I still have friends in this conference and in the conference office but our administration is awesome and they have made great decisions from our facilities down to the game management and to where we're going, so I got a lot of faith in them. Q. Kayla, you passed the 2,000 point mark tonight you're the only player in SU history to do that as you make your exit this year can you wrap your head around that? Did you think you were going to get there when you first started? COACH HILLSMAN: No, when I first got here my freshman year my goal was to get playing time and contribute in any way possible to the team. The fact that I hit 2,000 that's mind blowing and I'm trying to wrap my head aren't that and it goes back to the amazing coach that I have here and the amazing coaching staff and my teammates who are always looking for me and I give it all back to the program, because if it weren't for them I wouldn't be here right now. Q. Coach, touching on the conference move a little more, differing from the Catholic Seven it seemed like an upgrade, you guys will continue to play Notre Dame, Duke, North Carolina, Maryland, do you think that will impact on the program, since you have had one of the best seasons in the school's history and building the program's brand? COACH HILLSMAN: Obviously all the teams will be competing at a high level. There is a lot of unknowns, there is. It's exciting, there is a lot of unknowns, but the one thing that I'm very confident in is what our administration has built for us at Syracuse that's given us the resources to be able to compete with those teams and the resources to be able to recruit nationally. I think that's the biggest thing nationally that we have gotten down south and got some players from down south and that's all about our administration giving us a championship budget and championship opportunities and that's where the move would be bad if we didn't have the resources to do that but we do and they provided it so we've got to get it done. Q. Coach, you talked about the second half and the end result, but I can't remember the last half you guys ‑‑ you were down 15 and cut it to ‑‑ COACH HILLSMAN: We talked about coming to this game that we couldn't have those long drops and pockets where we couldn't score, and when we got it to 10 I called a time‑out and said we have to get two or three more stops to give us a chance to win the basketball game. You can't keep trading baskets when you're down 13 points. You have to go in and get some stops. This is a great team, when we got a bucket and got it manageable, Kaleena Mosquesa‑Lewis hit a deep three and it's one of those things where players make plays and they made plays and down the stretch we knew we were throwing the ball to Kayla, she got the ball inside and that was the difference in the game just staying manageable. Q. Just before you came in here, Geno Auriemma, coach of the Senior National Team referred to you as the player that has improved the most from the time you came into your freshman year to the time you are leaving. I just want to know what that means to hear that type of praise from an opposing coach, as the tournament winds down. KAYLA ALEXANDER: That's extremely flattering seeing that he coaches the Senior National Team. I feel blessed that he said that, and I will use that as focus and motivation to continue to improve my game. I'm very flattered. THE MODERATOR: Thank you guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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