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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2014Christal CaldwellMike CareyBria HolmesOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA West Virginia – 67 MIKE CAREY: Well, the two games we played Texas before, it was physical, wasn't pretty, so it doesn't surprise me this wasn't a very pretty game. Both teams played pretty good defense, both teams go inside a lot, and that type of stuff, and there's a lot of banging. We was able to get a lead, Texas cut in there at the end, and then we was able to hit foul shots and make some big buckets. Very proud of these players. Down the stretch, always feel good, especially with these players down the stretch, under four if it's close. We've had a lot of games this year under four minutes close, either behind or close, and we've been able to win a bunch of them. Q. Bria, how eager were you to get out here again today? I know last night had to be totally frustrating with the fouls and so forth. Were you able to put that behind you pretty quickly and be ready to play today? BRIA HOLMES: Yeah, I put it behind me. I came out today ready and focused again, ready to play again. I noticed my outside shot wasn't falling yesterday, so today I decided to attack the basket more. Q. Bria, I thought a big part of the game was you guys neutralized Imani McGee‑Stafford and Nneka probably better than anybody has done so far this year. How much was that stressed pre‑game, and how much was that part of the game plan that you would do that? BRIA HOLMES: It was stressed a lot. We had to be on weak side a lot and there for the help and just close back out on the shooters. Q. Christal, what is it about this team and even when teams made runs at you, Texas pulled within a point or two several times, somebody always seems to come up with a big shot. Are you just expecting this now in this situation? CHRISTAL CALDWELL: Well, it's just always a team effort with us. If someone is down we just always try to pick them up or someone else can step up and make a big play for this team. That's why we all have West Virginia on our jerseys, because we're just a team and we always try to step up and help each other. Q. Christal, you get Baylor again. You just played them a week ago today, third time. Your thoughts on that match‑up tomorrow night? CHRISTAL CALDWELL: It's going to be a dog fight. Everyone wants it bad, and this could be our first chance to win a conference tournament championship, and Baylor, they want us again, and everyone just wants to come out and play hard, and we're going to come out and play hard for 40 minutes. Odyssey is going to come out strong. She let one go with her team on senior night, so I'm sure that's still on her mind. Tomorrow is just going to be a big game for both teams. Q. Bria, how do you prepare to play Baylor tomorrow? BRIA HOLMES: Just come in ready, focused, ready to play as a team, just go out there and play hard for 40 minutes. Q. With Stanford losing and possibly a No.1 seed opening up, could you expect your team possibly to slip in if you were able to beat Baylor tomorrow night? Your thoughts on that? MIKE CAREY: I don't know. I really‑‑ I've never in my whole career never really got into that. I just know we didn't want to be a 4 seed, just put it that way. We didn't want to be a 4 or 5 seed. I'd rather be a 1, 2, 3 or a 6, 7. Our focus is going to be on Baylor tomorrow night, and whatever happens with the seed happens, but we've got to get focused on Baylor. Q. Coach, Texas had a size advantage over most of their opponents this year. Imani doesn't score a field goal until, I don't know, some 15 minutes of the second half. How big was it part of your game plan and what did you do to help neutralize that part of their game? MIKE CAREY: Well, I thought we did a good job. We got up the lane on her. She does an excellent job of selling people down there and all that, and we was able to get up the lane, even when we switched with a guard they stayed on top and we was able to get weak‑side help. And then the other thing, I thought we got decent ball pressure, where at times she was open, but they really couldn't see it, get it in there. It was a combination of things. They're a very good basketball team. They do a lot of high‑low type stuff, and we do a pretty good job getting weak‑side, getting ball pressure and keeping it on one side of the floor. Q. I know the players are always confident even when it gets tight there at the end that they're going to pull it out. Are you the same way? MIKE CAREY: No. Q. I know you've been seeing this all year. Was it still driving you nuts? MIKE CAREY: We was up, what was it, eight or nine, took a couple bad shots, led to fast breaks on the other end, gave up a couple three‑point plays on the other end. I just felt we didn't execute as well as we should have going down the stretch to let them back in, but give them credit, too, they put pressure on us and that type of stuff. At the end I thought our players stepped up. They tried to press us, their press didn't hurt us, they had to end up fouling us, and we was able to go to the line and hit the foul shots. Q. Could you imagine a tougher road to get to the final, obviously TCU and Texas who play such good defense? MIKE CAREY: You know, that's funny. We said coming into this about a week ago, two of the teams we didn't want to see was Texas and TCU because both of them play great defense, both of them were very physical. So we played two very physical teams going in, and now we're going to end up playing three physical teams back to back to back. Q. How do you plan to cover a player like Odyssey Sims, and then also now Nina Davis? MIKE CAREY: Well, we haven't covered her yet, so I guess I don't have a plan. She had 48 and 38. She's a great player. What we did a good job of at Baylor, she had her 38, but we did a great job on the other people and didn't let them hurt us, and we kept them off the offensive boards as much as we could. Our goal was just going to be to keep it close going into four minutes left. Baylor likes to jump on you, go up 15, 20, and that type of stuff. We've just got to keep it close, keep it close, and then both teams have pressure on them with four minutes to go in the game. Q. Continuing on that question, getting the chance to see Baylor today before your game, is there anything that you've seen heading into tomorrow? MIKE CAREY: Well, you know, Oklahoma State played them a lot of triangle‑and‑two. We'll mix up some, but it's going to come down to our defense against their offense and our offense against their man‑to‑man defense. Both teams are really, really good defensively, and both teams play hard and both teams are physical. You know, we've got to do a good job when Odyssey comes in there, and I don't want to say jumps into you, but when she comes in there, your secondary defender can't move, and sometimes that's hard when somebody is coming in there and being as aggressive as she is. Q. It seems like every year, every game this year, if you see Bria has a down game she almost always bounces back. With the real big game the next time, does she really never get down on herself? MIKE CAREY: Not really. She probably gets down on herself more missing foul shots than anything. She could shoot three air balls, and it bothers me, it doesn't bother her, because the fourth time she gets that look she'll shoot it, and that's what you want out of a scorer and a shooter, where she has a short memory. But I just kept telling her to drive it, drive it, drive it. You've got to see the ball go in from somewhere, from the foul line or somewhere, and then once you get a little confidence you start looking outside a little bit more, so she did a good job doing that. Q. This is not you guys' first championship. You had a couple Finals against Connecticut in the Big East. Is there any correlation with how tough the Big East was to how tough the Big 12 is now? MIKE CAREY: I don't want to get into that. Big East was a very strong conference, and Big 12 is very strong. I will say this: From top to bottom the Big 12 in my opinion is the strongest conference I ever coached in, from top to bottom. There's just really not a lot of off nights. Q. A little provincial question from me, but Texas was one of the worst teams in the conference last year, didn't make the tournament, went 12‑18. What do you see as the greatest improvement they've made to reach this point? MIKE CAREY: Well, I think needless to say their size, that coach does a great job, sets up a lot of schemes, go high‑low, that type of stuff. You know, their guards are matured, some of them are sophomores now, not freshmen, and I just think she's done a great job. I mean, they've really improved. I can't remember, I think they beat us last year, too. I mean, they beat us last year. That says a lot about us, where we were at. You know, she's done a great job. They just keep getting better and better, and their future is so bright. They have a great recruiting class coming in, and they only have one or two seniors on this team. In my opinion they'll be preseason No.1 next year, in my opinion, coming in. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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