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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2014Tiffany BiasJim LittellBrittney MartinOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA Baylor – 65 JIM LITTELL: Well, I'm really proud of our team. I thought they competed very hard. Also disappointed because I felt like we had a chance to win the basketball game. You could look at about four different things, in the first half we had a lot of empty possessions where we didn't run very good offense, and those are just possessions that you can't get back. The buildup of those come back to haunt you. Another thing that really hurt us is we gave up offensive rebounds at key times. We cut it to four a few times, and Davis would get a put‑back on her. She's probably one of the best offensive rebounders in the country, and it's not a lot of fun to think we've got to play her for three more years, but she's very active, and she hurt us at times on that. And in the triangle‑and‑two, I thought we did a nice job on Odyssey. If somebody would have told me we held her to 17 going in, I would have taken that. But the second part of the triangle‑and‑two was we were not to lose Robertson, and we lost her about three or four times, and she hit shots out of the corner. That's probably the single most thing that we needed to do that we didn't do. We just didn't stay locked in on her the way we ought to, but if we'd have done that, I feel like we would have won the game. Then the fourth thing that really hurt us was we didn't make enough free throws. To upset a team of this caliber you've got to make sure that you're sticking easy shots and making free throws, and we didn't do that. Q. Tiffany, just talk a little bit about how you had to change your game maybe a little bit when you picked up the two fouls in the first half, and you played the final eight‑and‑a‑half with four fouls. TIFFANY BIAS: Basically coach just told me to be smart, and as a player with four fouls you know you can't be as aggressive as you want to be. You have to be mentally tough and be sound on defense. Q. Tiffany, offensive struggles in the first half, what were they doing defensively to slow you down there in the first half? TIFFANY BIAS: Well, it's a good defensive team. They deny the passes, and really put pressure on the ball, so I think that we weren't executing our offense on our end, so I mean, if we just ran our offense through, we'd have been fine. Q. Brittney, how much does a game like this, and not only the game but league play, prepare you for the NCAA Tournament? BRITTNEY MARTIN: I mean, all the games are going to be tough in the NCAA Tournament, so I mean, all the games are tough in the league, but I think this game really prepared us and taught us that we need to be patient when people start denying our passing lanes and things like that. I think we really need to be patient on offense, and it showed how hard we're going to have to work to get where we want to. Q. Brittney, there was a lot of fouls today. There was probably 30 some odd fouls. Was this one of the most physical games that you've played this year? BRITTNEY MARTIN: I think so. This rule change thing has got us all messed up. I can't say we can't play as hard, but we need to move our feet instead of using our hands. I think we're still going to have to get used to that. Q. Tiffany, how frustrating was it in the second half, you got the lead down to three, four, and every time it seemed like you guys were never able to get the defensive stop you needed or convert a basket on the other end, how frustrating was that to never get over that hump? TIFFANY BIAS: Well, as you play, you don't really worry about that, but I think that was our fault on our end playing on the court. I think when we have the momentum on our side we need to slow down and keep that momentum on our side. I think we learned from it today that slow the ball up when we don't have something and get a good shot on our offense. Q. Brittney, how much did the athleticism of you and Kendra, as well, kind of utilize that athleticism against their bigs, obviously both of you with 11 points and combined for 20 rebounds? BRITTNEY MARTIN: I think that both of us are kind of a tough match‑up, a big on Kendra, she's a lot quicker than most bigs. She's quicker in a weird way, I think. She's just quicker than them. I guess I'm a tough match‑up because I can take the post from the outside in. I just think I'm quicker from the outside to inside. Q. Liz was scoreless in the first game. Today she had eight points. How important is it to kind of get her back on track before the tournament starts? JIM LITTELL: Well, Liz has got‑‑ we have to have three players that can score on a consistent basis for us, and it's got to be Liz Donohoe and the two ladies who were here, Tiffany and Brittney, have all got to score. Our big three have got to get baskets and then we've got to get support out of LaShawn and Kendra Suttles inside. We need to get her on track. We need to get her making shots. We had some good looks. We had a lot of shots that I thought were going in that rimmed out. We never could get over that hump once we got it to three or four, and you know, we just‑‑ I allude back to some of those mistakes that we made that you can't do against a team like this. You know, I look at it, we shot 35 percent and we're within four. You've got to make more shots to beat a team like Baylor. Q. Coach, can you talk about the end of the game when Odyssey had the ball right at half court, and is there a reason why you never fouled? JIM LITTELL: We probably should have fouled. One reason, she's about 80 percent free throw shooter, 85 percent free throw shooter, and we should have. Did that one play make the difference in the ballgame? Probably not, but we probably should have fouled on the rebound is where we should have fouled. And we wanted to do that before it got into Odyssey's hands. Q. NCAA readiness, this tournament and league play, how much did it prepare you for what's coming in a couple weeks? JIM LITTELL: I think you see everything within this league. You see great zone out of TCU, you see man‑to‑man teams, you see athleticism, you see size, you see scorers. I think when we get to the NCAA Tournament there's probably not a whole lot that you haven't seen or you're prepared for. Coach Mulkey told me after the game, she said, "Jim, this league is a grind, and you know, you guys can go into the tournament and win games," and I believe that out of her team and I believe that out of our team. I just think this league is, from top to bottom, the best in the country, and it prepares you to play in the NCAA Tournament. Q. Kind of going along with that notion that the league is a grind with playing everyone twice and then playing the tournament, what do you have to do to prepare for the NCAA Tournament? Does this off week this upcoming week really help from a physical standpoint? JIM LITTELL: It's kind of hard to prepare when you don't know where you're going or who you're playing, but I think we get some days off. We gave some days off prior to this tournament, and I think we had a lot more pep in our step. We seemed rejuvenated. We played two good games here in this tournament. This was a positive. You know, and if you want to draw from the positives, five of our eight losses this year are the conference champions. You know, all eight of our losses are to teams that are going to be in the NCAA Tournament. So we really don't have a bad loss on our résumé right now, but I guess getting back to answer your question, we've got to get some time off, get these kids rested up, get healed up a little bit, and this point of the year you're not going to teach them that much more, you've just got to have fresh minds and fresh bodies. Q. Jim, it seems like Brittney may be a half to two thirds through the season really started to go to the boards, and she had 11 points, 15 rebounds today. Was there a point in the season that you really emphasized that to her, because she has been getting a lot more boards. JIM LITTELL:  Yeah, that's a lot of rebounds for a 5'11" or 6'0" kid. I think she just really picked up her game, especially in this tournament. You know, she's got a knack for the ball. She jumps well. She's one of those kids that catches the ball at the top of her jump. She's a good athlete, and she's very capable of bringing a double‑double for us every single night. I thought we ran some good things, got her some good looks, and you know, her, Tiff and Liz really didn't have a very good shooting night, and we needed to make some of those shots. But I thought we did a good job of getting good looks for them, and we didn't finish some of the shots. There's a lot of different things you can point to. I'm really disappointed; I thought we had a chance to win the ballgame. Q. LaShawn and Kendra combined for just six rebounds. How important is it to get that production up from those two in the NCAA Tournament? JIM LITTELL: Well, I mean, it's crucial. It's crucial, and LaShawn can't have one rebound and be successful once we enter postseason play. We've talked to that, and five in 22 minutes isn't bad for Kendra, but LaShawn does have to pick it up as far as rebounding. She's one that's got the athleticism and the quick twitch to go get the ball, and she needs to rebound better than that. But sometimes you look at it, too, there weren't a lot of rebounds left after Brittney Martin was getting all that she got, as well. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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