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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2014Matt InsellKenyotta JenkinsValencia McFarlandDiara MooreDULUTH, GEORGIA Auburn – 70 THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening comment from coach and the student‑athletes. COACH INSELL: Full credit to Auburn. Auburn, you know, they've got a really good basketball team, real long and athletic. They really got spread out in their zone and caused us a lot of problems. So full credit to them. But I'm real proud of our basketball team. Our record don't indicate everything we've accomplished this year. These three seniors here, I have a lot of respect for them, bringing our program to where we're now back on the radar, back to where we're being competitive each and every night, showing what Ole Miss basketball is about. I hate that the season's over. But full credit to Auburn and their coaching staff for beating us tonight. DIARA MOORE: As coach said, full credit to Auburn. They are a really good basketball team. I just want to thank my two teammates right here for helping me feel like that Ole Miss was a second home to me. I know I wasn't there as long as they were. But the two years I was there, I'm glad that I got to be a part of that. We didn't come out with the win we wanted to, but I'm very proud of the things we have accomplished this year as a team. I know that people are noticing us now. That's all we wanted to accomplish, that people respect us now. I know that they do. I know next year's team is going to come back and be even better, be stronger. I'll always be an Ole Miss Rebel, so I'm proud of that. KENYOTTA JENKINS: Give full credit to Auburn. They out‑rebounded us. That's something we talked about, was rebounding. They out‑rebounded us. Watch out for next year's team because they coming and they ready. VALENCIA McFARLAND: I'd like to give full credit to Auburn, like they said. They came out and played a great game. I think we played great, too, but we just fell short in the end. THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and take questions. Q. Talk about your three seniors, what they've meant to the program. COACH INSELL: These three seniors, when I first got the job, I think it was April when I first got to campus, one thing I asked them, I know it's your senior year, give it all you have. Your seniors have to buy in. I couldn't ask for a better group of seniors on and off the floor, the way they led our basketball team, the way that they carry theirself. They got futures ahead of them hopefully in the game of basketball. I'm going to help them in any way I can. I got so much respect for them. They're the ground floor of what we're building here at Ole Miss. They're going to come back 10 years from now, a lot of what we're going to accomplish over the next 10 years is a true credit to them. I'm proud of them, proud to be their coach. Valencia McFarland, her record won't indicate the impact she's made on our program. Just an incredible, incredible player, one of the best point guards to ever play in this league. She's put numbers up since she was a freshman and done unbelievable things. I feel real special to be able to coach her, I'll be honest with you, all three of them. I hate that it ended like this for all three of them. Proud of Valencia for her leadership and her will to fight every single day. She has a bright future in the game of basketball. Q. What do you take from the last five to six games, the way you finished the season? COACH INSELL: There's so much when you're remodeling a program, there's so much you have to get accomplished, so much you have to do. We were kind of late getting going, starting to play the way we played the last five or six games. I'll tell you, the last five or six games we played really, really well. If you take out the last eight minutes of tonight's game, we played as good as anybody in this league over the last five or six games. I take from it that I have three seniors that kept fighting every single day. That will be something I use in the future with all of our seniors and continue to show examples of what these three girls have done, how they continue to bring it every single day, which motivated the younger players to bring it every single day and not quit on their season. It's not the way we wanted it to end. We came here to win this tournament. We'll continue doing that. We'll continue this process. Great days are ahead because of these three players right here. Q. Coach, you had an 11‑point lead at one point in the first half. When you got down to the final eight minutes, get a stop, get a score, drill wasn't working as well as yesterday. How much of that was about the emotional energy expended on the floor yesterday? COACH INSELL: Could have had something to do with it. We got some stops. We didn't rebound, like Kenyotta said. We knew the key to this game was rebounding. Auburn is not a great shooting team, but what they are is a great offensive rebounding team. They shoot a lot of shots outside. They go get. We didn't do a good job of rebounding that stretch, which allowed them two and three opportunities, and if we could have kept it at one opportunity like we did for the vast majority of it... When we went to the other end, we scored one basket in the last eight minutes, something like that, maybe two, got good shots. I think a little bit of that came with the wear and tear on our legs. I think a lot of that comes from that. We had a lot of players playing a lot of minutes. That comes with depth. We've got to do a good job of recruiting more players so we don't have to get in this situation in the future where you got players that are playing 40 minutes and 38 minutes and things like that. The 11‑point lead in the first half, we were playing really, really good basketball. We continued to play good ball. Auburn came out after we got up 11, they hit us back, had a good run of their own. We knew that was going to happen. We continued to play hard and really well. I'm really proud of them. We're not going to judge our season what happened the last eight minutes of this basketball game. We'll judge our season on the progress we made throughout the whole year. We'll look back on this year, Kenyotta, myself, Valencia, Diara, we'll pop this tape in and get mad at each other while we're watching it, but we'll have a good time. We'll pop that Arkansas one in and really have a good time. Q. For the younger players coming back next year, what does this do for them? COACH INSELL: We didn't get to participate in the tournament last year. Coming in it this year, I really enjoyed the experience because just walking in the first day for practice and seeing the smiles on our players' faces, something taken away from us last year. When you come to play in the SEC, the SEC tournament is something you really look forward to. To see their smiles, their excitement about playing in this tournament is something that really, really excited me. We'll take from this experience, we've got experience. Without even playing in it last year, to come in and win your first game, that says a lot about these three guys up here, their commitment, where we want our program to go. We got spring break next week. Our girls are going to go home. We're going to get away from each other. It's been a long year for us. We'll get back together next Monday and begin the phases to start next year. The first thing is we'll watch the selection show two Monday nights from now. We'll get used to watching that because that's where we're going with our program. We'll have a good dinner and maybe Kenyotta will be happy with me if I get some good food over there for them. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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