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AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2014Jude SchimmelShoni SchimmelAsia TaylorJeff WalzUNCASVILLE, CONNECTICUT Louisville - 60 THE MODERATOR: Joining us from Louisville is Jeff Walz, along junior guard Jude Schimmel, Shoni Schimmel and Asia Taylor. Coach? JEFF WALZ: First, I would like to congratulate South Florida. If they're not one of the 64 teams in the NCAA Tournament it's a shame. They're healthy, they've got everybody back. I think they've lost three games since Jan, or four, and that could be three of them to us and one to UConn. Courtney Williams and Inga Orekhova are special players and if we're trying to put the best 64 in the NCAA Tournament there is no question South Florida should be in. For our kids, we didn't play fantastic, but I thought South Florida had a lot to do with that. We weathered the storm the first six minutes of the game, where they were sloppy, but, again, they caused some of that. Down 10, get a 4‑point lead at the half and fortunately we came out to start the second half and did not play very well. So it's situations where we have to get better at taking care of the basketball and making sure we execute at crunch time. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Shoni, can you walk us through that last 10 seconds where you went down the lane and pulled up for the rebound? SHONI SHIMMEL: I just saw, you know, they take out a great rebound and I saw a few people behind me and I just kind of went with the ball we had numbers in transition and the pull‑up was there and nobody picked me up, so I shot it. Q. Coach, what did you tell your team at halftime? Like you said, they were fighting out there, South Florida, USF? JEFF WALZ: We just talked about the fact that we're all playing to survive and play the next day. So we knew South Florida was going to come out and compete. I don't think we matched their intensity to start the game. Once he we got our composure, I thought we played really well the last 10 minutes of the first half. But we didn't come out to start that second half with the same intensity, had some breakdowns, turned the basketball over and that led to some runs for them. Q. Coach, you guys haven't had many close games this year. You played them tough it was an 8‑point game the first time you played them. What does it say for your team that you pull it out close in the end? JEFF WALZ: We actually take some games back in the non‑conference, we take Oklahoma to overtime, I think we were down 4 with 30 second to go or 6 with a minute to go, pushed that game to overtime. Our game against Florida State we're down 4 with about 40 seconds left, take that game to overtime, so our kids have been in this situation before. I thought for the most part we did a really nice job defensively of making players that we wanted to have shoot the ball from South Florida, and then when Inga and Courtney took shots we did a good job of trying to make them difficult shots. Q. What do you tell your kids at this point that you haven't expressed to them, pointed out to them, emphasized with them about playing UConn? Is there anything left to say or is it just about performance at this point? JEFF WALZ: No, we haven't talked about that yet. We're going to enjoy this for about an hour or two, once we get back home to the hotel. We will watch some film, and then we'll sit down and breakdown UConn again. We know in order to beat them, we have to play a great game at the defensive end of the floor because they score the ball so well. We're going to have to figure out a way to score. I personally think the only chance you've got to beat them is you have to put 70 on the board yourself and I'm not sure they have allowed anybody to score 70 all year. So we know what we have to do. We especially have to do a good job at the defensive end because when you have breakdowns, they make you pay for that. Q. For the players, obviously UConn has handled your team well through the years. Do you feel that they are beatable and what's it going to take? JEFF WALZ: We're going to have to score more points. ASIA TAYLOR: We have to play forty minutes of basketball and I think the score will take care of its. JUDE SCHIMMEL: Like Asia said we have to put it forty minutes of basketball together and we just have to continue to be disciplined, play good defense and good offense and do what Coach tell us to do. He's going to want us to run our game plan and we're going to be as prepared as we can be. Q. Jude, we have never seen a player serenaded by the band when they do something good like this. How does that feel? Are you tired off it after the end of the year? JUDE SCHIMMEL: It's a great song, I like it, I appreciate it, especially for me he. It's a great feeling. LOUISVILLE: My daughter's name is Lola, can you imagine the song they will play for her? "Her name was Lola. (Laughing) Q. You played them a week ago, what can you change? You had home atmosphere and 20,000 fans. What can you do differently? JEFF WALZ: We have to do a better job defensively. Offensively we got the shots that we wanted but we gave up transition baskets, one after another and that's something we can't do. They're a great basketball team, but we know we have to get it into a half‑court game the best we can. We can't allow them to score in transition and then we have to do a good job of guarding their half‑court offense. They're going to make shots but we have to make them shoot contested shots. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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