|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2014Lisa BluderAlly DisterhoftMelissa DixonTheairra TaylorINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA IOWA - 77 THE MODERATOR: We'll get a statement from coach and then go to the student‑athletes. COACH BLUDER: I'm thrilled for our team. Ohio State has played extremely well. Ameryst is so hard to defend. She is playing tremendous, but really, their whole team has played so well in this tournament. Again, just feel great about the victory. I thought our kids were really mentally tough down the stretch. Thei's basket was incredible. I think she just willed that thing in. I think the whole Iowa fan base willed that ball in. Defense held the last few seconds, the last minute there, and very, very glad that we survived this one. THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Take me through that shot. Did you heave it up there, or did you know the whole time that it was money. THEAIRRA TAYLOR: Good question. Well, I saw the opening, but I didn't know if I had the touch to kiss it off the glass the right way, but luckily I did. Q. Ally, you guys built a 10 point lead and Ohio State kept coming back, but they never took the lead, what does that tell you about your team? ALLY DISTERHOFT: Obviously, great teams make runs and that was a game of runs, but I think that out there we really showed our resilience, we stuck together as a group and down the stretch we all made plays, whether it was Thei out there hitting those two free throws at the end, everybody stepped up on the offensive and defensive end. Q. Melissa, there was a point in the second half and Ameryst was close posting up and scoring off you guys and then basically she stopped. She couldn't do it any more. How do you stop her? MELISSA DIXON: We just stayed together as a team, we got back to playing team defense and staying together and making sure that we had each other's help. Q. Melissa, what was going through your head as you stepped to the line for the final two free throws? MELISSA DIXON: We practice our free throws in practice in that situation, so I didn't regret being in that position. In my head I knew that when I got to the line I would make them. Q. For any of the three players, have you ever played any games where there were two charge calls overturned and went back the other way in a game like this happened today? THEAIRRA TAYLOR: Absolutely not. It kept us all on our toes. We had at least 30 seconds to find out what the final call was going to be. ALLY DISTERHOFT: I agree with everything Tierra just said. Q. For any of you, have you had a chance to talk to Kathryn after the game? I don't know what the situation was before if you guys expected her to play or anything, but just if you got a chance to talk to her afterwards. ALLY DISTERHOFT: We didn't know for sure with her it was kind of touch and go. But, obviously, Kathryn coming in and playing those minutes and doing a good job hitting with the pressure was awesome. And afterwards we were all so excited for her and if you would have been in that locker room you would have been pretty happy too. Q. Tierra, what does it mean for you and for this team to be in the position now to play for a championship tomorrow? THEAIRRA TAYLOR: It's an amazing feeling. I can't think of a better script or a better team to be going to the championship with. I think we deserved it, we work hard, we played team basketball, we play the game the way it's supposed to be played and we're all excited to play tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: Okay. Thank you, ladies. We'll take questions for coach. Q. Logic had one point and four fouls and I thought she played an excellent game. Talk about the stuff that she does without the ball and in that kind of taking charge and that kind of thing.  Talking about Samantha. COACH BLUDER: Nine assists and one turnover. Sam has never been about being about herself. It is all about, I will do whatever it takes for our team to win this game. I don't have to score a point, it doesn't matter. And I think when you truly have that feeling, I mean, some people can say that, she lives it. You need a rebound? Fine, I'll rebound. I don't need to score, I don't need my name in the paper, I'll do whatever it takes. And that's I think her performance out there. She's our floor general, she leads us, she didn't have her shots today so she didn't force it. Some kids get in that situation and they will start forcing shots because oh my gosh I haven't scored yet. I have to do something. Q. Take us through on that Disterhoft charge and reversed call back to the block. What did you see from your perspective? COACH BLUDER: It was the other way around. I thought they called the block and then they called the charge at the end. Yeah. Obviously they went to monitor, they looked at it, so they got it right. I thought that Ally would go to the free throw line. I mean, I think we were celebrating that she went in there and took it and I think she took a hard foul, but obviously, she didn't. Q. I asked the kids and they gave me the coach speak, but how did you stop Alston from getting inside, because she was hurting you for awhile? COACH BLUDER: She was hurting us a lot and it was just her drives to the basket were so strong and, um, we started having to switch every single thing. I mean at the beginning of the game we were only going to switch through ball screens and we just had to switch every pitch, every handoff, every single thing and try to keep her in front of us. And that was really the adjustment that we made. I thought that when we went back to the zone, that also mixing it up a little bit was good and trying to keep her out of the paint all day. We shifted our zone personnel around as well. Never done that all year long and did it tonight for the first time. Never practiced it even. Crazy. I know. Q. Theairra had a couple highlight reel plays, is her will to win kind of what's pushing this team so far in this tournament? COACH BLUDER: I think she's playing great basketball right now, she has so much confidence going to the rim, she's having fun, she's putting no pressure on herself. This team, again, they love her so much, they want to win for her so badly, and they celebrate so much when she has a move like‑‑ I mean she provides me with a lot of wow moments and I love those. Q. I think you addressed this with the zone changes, but did you have to approach defending this team differently than maybe the one you played 10 days ago, based on what they did the last two days? COACH BLUDER: Oh, yeah. Being aware of their 3‑point shooting was totally different how we prepared for them this time. What they have done in this tournament was amazing. But it did catch up a little bit today and they only made like one in the second half and three for the game. Q. Was the officiating at all a distraction in this game? COACH BLUDER: I don't think we let it be a distraction. And I think again, that it kind of goes back to the mentality of our kids. You certainly can get‑‑ you can let it get into your mind and start worrying about things or your focus becomes that instead of the next play, and I thought our players did a really good job. Even that last stretch where Ally‑‑ that call, they just talked about playing great D. They didn't talk at all about the situation of the charge, they just talked about all we need is one rebound. One rebound. That was all. Q. Is Kastanek going to be another game time decision? COACH BLUDER: Most likely. We'll look at her tonight and see how it goes. Q. Seems like you talk about this every game, but how good was Ally today, especially in this type of situation that she was in? COACH BLUDER: Not playing like a freshman, is she. She's playing like a seasoned player. She is playing with authority out there. She is not scared and not backing down to anybody. It's just so much fun to see. It's so much fun to see her development, her confidence grow, her rebounds at the end, you mean she was one that was grabbing those defensive boards at the end when we had to have them. So not afraid to take the ball to the hoop, I'm thrilled with how shes playing right now. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you. COACH BLUDER: Thank you. 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
|