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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: SPOKANEMarch 25, 2013Shacobia BarbeeJasmine HassellJasmine JamesAndy LandersSPOKANE, WASHINGTON GEORGIA - 65 COACH LANDERS: It was very much the game that we thought it would be, and we have nothing but respect for Iowa State and the job that they did. They were very good tonight. They shot the three ball very well. They took advantage of their size in the paint and Prins played that out exceptionally well. Just a well‑coached game from Iowa State's part. They did what they needed to do, and really did a nice job with it on the defensive end. They were on point. You know, we didn't get as much as we would like to have gotten out of ourselves offensively or out of our sets, but our players really did a nice job of making plays throughout the game, and particularly at the end of the game when we had lost the lead. But it's the kind of game that we thought it would be. I thought Iowa State defensively was very good. I thought that Georgia defensively was extraordinary. Q. I saw you looking pretty impressed by a stat there‑‑ SHACOBIA BARBEE: Jasmine James with eight rebounds, that's crazy. Q. That's actually the segue to my next question. You guys had spoken of wanting a legacy, to change something towards the program, can you go into that a little bit and what did you see out of that tonight? JASMINE HASSELL: You said change, right? I think our seniors, when we first got here as freshmen, our theme was change. Ever since then, that's been our theme kind of because we came in at a point in time where Georgia needed a little change, and as you see, we continued to change and do some big things for Georgia. JASMINE JAMES: One of the things that had to do with change was getting back to the tradition of Georgia basketball and the tradition of Georgia basketball is Sweet16s, Elite 8s, Final Fours, competing in the National Championship games, not just to go to the NCAA Tournament. So to win this game tonight and to be making that step to be going to the Sweet16 and trying to compete in order to try to work to get to the Elite 8 is definitely a step. THE MODERATOR: Georgia's 20th trip to the Sweet16, third all time in NCAA history. Q. The third senior in this group is not on the podium, but can you talk about an Marie's play tonight? Seemed like she was all over the court even with four fouls. JASMINE JAMES: I think Anne Marie was huge today. She really made some great plays and knocked down some huge shots that allowed us to gain momentum as well as keep momentum. Whenever we really needed something that I felt like it was her or Cobi, they were both huge today. But Anne Marie, she was great, and it's definitely great to be able to see her play as well as she did tonight. I feel like she's been battling with her ankle injury all year and now here it is, that's the Anne Marie we know and so it was great to see her back out there like that. JASMINE HASSELL: I definitely agree with Jasmine James. She played awesome tonight and did what she had to do. She said in the huddle we had, she's like, "Guys, this can't be our last game."  Of course, she's a senior, and just to see her come out and give it her all was amazing. SHACOBIA BARBEE: I think coming off a game like she did yesterday, it's a big statement of who she really is and how good she can really play, and she just had a real big game for us tonight. Q. When you see that the team only had five turnovers, and Iowa State was commenting that they were just going to let you shoot the three pointer, and so I wanted your response to both of those things. JASMINE JAMES: First off, to comment on the turnovers, you know, it was one thing that we focus on is try to take care of the ball as much as possible. At this point in the season, the NCAA Tournament is a possessions game. You can't just throw away possessions and throw away the ball and lose opportunities to score the ball. So overall, we did a very good job of taking care of the ball. And as far as them letting me shoot the three pointer, we won by five points, so I hit two (shrugs shoulders).  It is what it is. (Laughter) It must have been a good move. It wasn't‑‑ I mean, it worked out well for us, so I'll take it. Q. How about going to the line twice late in the game as a freshman; how many nerves were boiling in you or did you feel comfortable? SHACOBIA BARBEE: All of them were boiling. But I knew it was time to step up and like I practice them, just try to knock them down, and I did, but I was nervous. Q. The length of Anna Prins looked like it was so tough to go against tonight and seemed like when Anne Marie started driving to the basket you got a couple put backs and that got your confidence going in the second half; can you talk about that? JASMINE HASSELL: Oh, yeah, she was big, but like I say all the time, it's not about me. It's about Georgia, and tonight my teammates stepped up and I'm very proud of them. They did what they have to do, and I'm just proud to be a part of the Sweet16. We still won and all my teammates played great tonight and I'm just glad we went to the Sweet16. Q. You guys haven't been the best three‑point shooting team throughout the season. Has this kind of shooting been I guess‑‑ been there, capable of this throughout the year, and why was it tonight, you guys were so good shooting from beyond the arc? SHACOBIA BARBEE: We just‑‑ we're good shooters. All of our guards can shoot the three. We have four men that can shoot the three. It's been there all season. It's just that we just have to be consistent with it starting now. And tonight, we knew that we had to knock down the big shots. You're wide open, you've got to knock it down and hit it. That was just a big focus. Q. Can you talk about the emotions of the team during that 19‑1 run by Iowa State late in the game? How did you guys‑‑ with you are you able to withstand that? JASMINE JAMES: I think we did a good job of sticking to go. It was like we had two time‑outs during that period and every time we went to the time‑out it was just like, we're okay. Good teams make runs, it's okay. Just go out there, try to lock down on defense and execute what we need to do on the offense. I don't ever think there was a point like we were worried. We knew that we needed to go out there and just buckle down on defense and just‑‑ and everything will take care of itself. I think just everybody did a really good job of sticking together and keeping each other up and making sure that nobody got down about anything, and we just stayed focused on the ultimate goal, which was being able to come out with the win, and we did that. Q. You had spoken this season about the ability of your players to provide things in the game that don't show up in the stat sheet, and it just seemed like Anne Marie sometimes tonight, getting loose balls, it just seemed like that exemplified that; can you just talk about that a little bit? COACH LANDERS: Yeah, she's really smart, and as a player, she's really easy for me to communicate with, because she gets me; Cobi gets me; Tiaria gets me. And when I say that, it's like you say something one time and they are good to go with it. Other players get me, but they have to ask, is this to understand what you're saying, is this what you want; they get me first time. To give you an example of what Anne Marie did tonight. We said, we don't mind giving up the two. If they are going to throw it inside, just be sure she shoots over your belly‑‑ I mean, Anne Marie was great. Every shot that Prins shot was contested. Prins was terrific. She did exactly what she needed to do. But here's what you're talking about. Then there would be a guard driving somewhere that she leans over to help just enough to get it stopped, and then go back to her man; sometimes go back to her man and knock the pass down. She gets that. Hassel is being posted inside; she's opened, pointing at her man, pointing at Hassel, cheek down, trying to discourage the ball from coming in. She gets 'help.' And then the other thing offensively, now tonight ‑‑ let me brag for a minute. We were terrific on defense. We were really, really good. Prins killed us. Nobody else did. And we made that decision earlier. We'll give up some twos inside. Let's just not give up a load of threes. We gave up a load of threes, but boy, we shut everything else out. We guarded all their stuff, that they did us; they were really good defensively. We couldn't get Hassel in the position that we need to get her in and get her the ball. And at her size, you've got to get her the ball at the right place, right time, right‑‑ because she's not going to be able to go over somebody 6‑7. So they were really good defensively. Gets down to the last three minutes, what does Anne Marie do? Reverse the layup, drop a three. And then Cobi, she's a freshman, she doesn't even know any better, she drops one on top of it and we're back in control. Just makes plays. It's frustrating because sometimes you can run plays for them, get them wide open, they make you look horrible if you miss it, put them in a position where they have to make a play and be a hero, they can do that. Q. That last three minutes, it was very up‑and‑down, back and forth, there wasn't a lot of stoppage. Why did you feel comfortable just letting your players go and not maybe trying to take a little bit more control at that time and use a time‑out? COACH LANDERS: Because when we were in transition, everybody looked good. Nobody looked panicked. Nobody looked like they were in a hurry. We had five turnovers the whole night. JJ did a terrific job of running our basketball team. And if I call a time‑out, what was I going to say to them? Nothing we called worked. If they can make a play in transition, it might be better than calling a play and a time‑out. Q. You've spoken about this team's focus, and going back after the Texas A&M game, there's a story about how after a bad practice, you locked the gym. Did the focus augment after that or did it really increase? COACH LANDERS: It got better. The message I think was received. With young people today‑‑ I've got great kids, you can tell that, can't you? I've got unbelievable kids. I mean, they are wonderful. But with young people today, their memory is‑‑ they are just‑‑ they don't remember things very long. That's just the way it is. It's a different world. This is the Internet. This is the tech generation. I mean, think about what they do. They play video games and if they don't like the way it's going, they restart it. They just push restart and start over. Their memories are not very long. It never has to be. They get instant information off of their cell phone. They don't have to look for anything very long. And the sad piece of all that, what I see with young people in this generation is they don't understand how to invest. They are not real invested in anything because all the information that they need in their world, all the entertaining that they need, it's on their fingertips all the time. When I was in college, you sit in front of the radio for an hour and a half waiting for your favorite song; they have 300 of them on their belt. It's real. They wait for nothing. Their memories aren't real good. It was that piece, locking them out of the gym got their attention. It was good for about two weeks. Then you've got to play the game they play. You've got to push restart. You've got to change the game. Invent something different. Get their attention and then go with that and then a week, two weeks later, you've got to come up with a different song and a different dance. You know, the one thing that I will say for them, is the one thing we don't change; if you're going to play at Georgia, you're going to play really, really hard and you're going to be unselfish, and that piece is consistent. We may change some things around, but you're going to be a good person and you're going to play really, really hard and you're going to play unselfish. And that's what you've seen with two teams here. You've seen a team come out totally focused on the defensive end. I don't know what you thought, but as their coach, I think that they are spectacular defensively. Iowa State is a great offensive basketball team, great. I have no doubt that we can guard them, size and everything. I didn't know really‑‑ you never know exactly how it's going to look. But now that it's over, it looked kind of the way I thought it would. I knew we would give up stuff inside because of the size and because we are going to have to pressure. You know who was terrific, who goes totally unnoticed? Tiaria Griffin. I mean, this little joker just plugs in right under the ball. And you can't get away from her, and it's constant. I mean, that kid, that point guard at Iowa State is really good. Couldn't get away from her, 40 minutes, every minute she played. And what it does, it allows everybody else on your basketball team to get up, have a chance for a deflection. Or if you are going to be a half a step late, that could have cost us a three, you know. But you're not because Tiaria has got so much pressure on the ball, takes another hand‑‑ and that's where it all starts, with her. I'm sorry, I rambled. Did I use all my time? Can we go now? But Iowa State is really, really good. I really hated that somebody had to lose. I'm glad it was them but they are really, really good. I mean, they were well coached tonight, guys, Iowa State. Did they ever say they got frustrated offensively, any at all? Because we did. I hope they did, because they sure frustrated us. Anything else? Thanks. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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