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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: BATON ROUGEMarch 22, 2014Asya BussieChristal CaldwellMike CareyTaylor PalmerBATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA MIKE CAREY: Well, we're excited to be here. We know it's going to be a great tournament. Our players did a great job this year, and hopefully we can come in here and play well. But we're excited, and Albany, we know they're a great team. They won their league, won their tournament. We give them a lot of respect, and we know it's going to be a tough game tomorrow. Q. Mike and for any of the players, this Albany team doesn't seem like a typical 15 seed. They've got the No.2 scorer in Division 1. What do you have to do to stop Richards? MIKE CAREY: Well, she's very athletic, runs the floor extremely well, posts. They're always looking to lob to her and the other post players. They do a good job. I think they all know their roles and they know where the ball needs to go and that type of stuff. We played against a lot of good athletes during the course of the season, so we've seen players like her, and it's a tough match‑up, and we know‑‑ you're exactly right, they have some very good basketball players. Q. Mike, I'm sure you've been asked variations of this question before, but just given where the program is now, how much is this month about opening eyes nationally? I know within the sport itself what you guys have done is pretty well known. MIKE CAREY: Well, we really don't want to be like a Louisville‑‑ no, I'm just kidding (laughter). That's not our goal, believe me. We feel like we've still got a lot to prove. We still don't get a lot of respect throughout the country and that type of stuff. We are in our second year in the Big 12, so you know, we had to go prove ourselves in that league, coming from the Big East. Our girls are hungry. They understand that we have a lot to prove, and we haven't proved anything yet. This tournament is very important, but everybody starting out is going to play their best basketball and play extremely hard, so we realize that. Q. Each of the players, do you guys feel the pressure for the most part is something that's more self‑inflicted than anything? How do you view that? UNIDENTIFIED PLAYER: I would think so, coming in as a higher seed, you automatically think that people think you're supposed to win that game, but you can't look at it that way. Like Coach Carey said they're a great team, and it's tournament time now, so everyone is going to give you their best shot and you can't put too much pressure on yourself thinking about it. Q. I'm sure you saw a lot of the upsets yesterday on the men's side. Does it kind of drive home the point if you don't play your best basketball each time‑out that you're going to be going home? UNIDENTIFIED PLAYER: Yeah, definitely. I mean, like coach was saying, this is a fresh start. Everybody is going to play their best basketball right now. It doesn't really matter what you did the rest of the season. This is important. It's a one‑and‑done now, so everybody wants to be a national champion, so they're going to go and play like it. Q. This is for each of the players. If you could give me a word or a phrase that you would use to describe this year's team and a little bit on why you picked that. It could all be the same word, but I just like to throw it out, especially to senior leaders. CHRISTAL CALDWELL: I'll go ahead and say fighters. I think there was so many times where we could have given up but we didn't and came back and won the game. Definitely this team knows how to fight and just stick it out for 40 minutes. UNIDENTIFIED PLAYER: I would say fearless. You put us up against some of the top teams in our conference and in the country and we don't back down. It's going to be, like Christal said, a fight the whole game, and we give our all, and we're going to play until the end, so we're definitely fearless. We don't really care about who we're playing. We're going to go out there and get it. UNIDENTIFIED PLAYER: I would just say heart. I think we play with a lot of heart, and this season we came in and we just knew that we had a great team and we were just going to go out there and have goals that we just needed to accomplish. Q. Asya, what have you seen from Richards on film? What have you seen that gets her going and what can you do defensively to neutralize her? ASYA BUSSIE: I think it'll just be a team effort. Our guards have to get their hands up and we have to play West Virginia defense. That's what we pride ourselves on, so just helping each other out and just defending as a team. Q. For each of the players and also Asya, last year you obviously had to sit and watch the transition to the Big 12 and that probably wasn't what you all wanted in Year 1. What did you take away from last year's .500 start in the Big 12 and carry forward to this year? ASYA BUSSIE: Just learning from last season. We knew what we did wrong, and like some of the things that we needed to change and we had to play for ourselves. The coaches, they can only do but so much. They're on the sideline coaching. We have to play for ourselves and we have to be motivated. So I think we realized how important each game was and just it's upon ourselves how far we want to go. Q. Asya, I know you go against the 6'7" girl from Texas, you go against a 6'9" girl tomorrow. Talk a little bit about the challenges that presents and how maybe you have to hold to your game a little bit when you're playing against somebody who's that much taller than you. ASYA BUSSIE: The challenge is definitely just the height challenge, but like I said, the biggest thing will just be the guards helping, trying to get them to have their hands up so they can't throw too many lobs. Just try to stay out of foul trouble. That would be my biggest goal, and just being straight up and make the shot difficult for her. Q. Coach, I know you get tired of hearing the question comparing the Big 12 to the Big East, but how did that change the program and what sort of an opportunity did it give you? MIKE CAREY: Yeah, I really don't comment on Big East was a great league, Big 12 is a great league. Both of them are great leagues. We're more in the Midwest now and that type of stuff. I think the first year, too, of the Big 12 you had all new scouts, new styles, new coaches, just going and picking hotels. Some of them were‑‑ we thought was close to the arenas and they really weren't. I think some people told us on that purpose to be honest (laughing), but you never know your first year when you go around. I just think it was an adjustment period for the whole team, the staff and administration. Q. For all the seniors, we talked before the season started about the goals you have this year and knowing that you don't get another shot. Christal, can we start with you, how much do you feel like the fact that you have five seniors who all play a big role on this team has gotten you to where you are can be the reason why you go further than you have in the past? CHRISTAL CALDWELL: I was actually talking about this earlier with Brooke in the room. We were talking about how experience can play a big role, and we were looking at some of the NCAA guides and they were talking about big names and stuff like that, but it just seems like experience plays a big role. You've been in certain situations before, so you kind of know what to expect. I think that's helped us a lot this year, and it's going to help us in the tournament, as well. UNIDENTIFIED PLAYER: Yeah, I agree. Experience is huge. Not only the experience but the leadership out of the seniors, as well. You know, the younger players, they listen, they're attentive, and like they understand what we really want as a team. You know, it's more important, I guess, for the seniors just because it's our last go around, but the whole team feels the same way. We want this opportunity, and like you said, like Christal was saying, we've been in these positions before, and it's going to be up to us to lead the team and help them to get over some little humps that we see going down the line. UNIDENTIFIED PLAYER: I think having five seniors is good for the leadership and experience. We're able to lead by example. But just as a team, I feel like our team came together, not just the five seniors. For example, Averee has hit a couple big shots for us to win tight games. She's vocal, and I think everybody knows their role, not just the seniors, and I think that's what makes our team so special. Q. You talked a little bit about I think how they're sort of similar to TCU in some ways. TCU had that zone disguised as a man that gave you some trouble throughout the year. Can you speak to what Albany does? MIKE CAREY: Yeah, they're going to do a 2‑2‑1, different pressures out of a 2‑2‑1 back into their two‑three. They bring their forwards extremely high. They get a lot of steals out of their zone because they come up high in their zone, try to steal the reverse pass, skip passes and that type of stuff. We're going to have to do a good job of taking care of the basketball, and you're right, TCU, thanks for bringing that up, but TCU gave us a hard time the three times we played them. There's no doubt that we'll have to adjust to their zone and style and stuff. Q. Christal and Taylor, you guys have rallied back in those games this year. Which one of those sticks out to you and speaks to the identity you're talking about? Which game where you had to fight back? CHRISTAL CALDWELL: For me definitely Oklahoma. It could have been so easy for us to just stop and just give up. We got down by so much. A lot of people were in foul trouble. Just somehow we found a way to move on through the entire game and pulled out a win. TAYLOR PALMER: I would say Texas. That was a close game, and we went into overtime, and it was on our home court, too. It was a tough game the whole game. Our shots weren't really falling, but we stuck it out and went into overtime and pulled out a huge win, so I'd say Texas. MIKE CAREY: What we're laughing about, we played Oklahoma at Oklahoma and they got 1.2 seconds, whatever, and so we just decided, okay, we're going to switch everything. Well, Taylor tackled the girl, and she went to the foul line and ended up missing the second one, so we turned around and we're playing Baylor at Baylor, and there's like 1.3 seconds, and so I look at Taylor, and I said, now I'm telling you, don't tackle that girl with this last 1.3 seconds, so that's what they're laughing about. Q. Coach, if this was next year, I know it's not, but hypothetically you'd be playing at home. Your thoughts on that move, and how do you feel about the fact that potentially you could play on someone's home court like a lot of the higher seeds? MIKE CAREY: You know, I think maybe since I've been at West Virginia, I think we've played on somebody's home court every year but once, so I mean, it's something that we've done. We've had opportunities where we could have hosted and that, but I was always‑‑ until we become very, very consistent, I didn't want to look at the athletic director knowing that we didn't make it and we owe all these thousands of dollars. So that was pretty much my fault. But I felt it's tough. Any time you go play on somebody's home court it's tough. But I will give this group‑‑ I've said this for two years. This group is for some reason more focused on the road than they are at home. Next year that may not be the case, so that may be a little bit different. But this group for some reason the last two years has been more focused on the road than they have been at home. Q. Asya, I understand you have a brother who's in Louisiana right now? ASYA BUSSIE: Yes. Q. They've been coming to a lot more of your games this year than we've seen in the past. What's that meant to you your last season, to have them in the stands? ASYA BUSSIE: It means a lot just because these are like the first games he's been to since I've been at West Virginia, and he's been to quite a lot this year. I appreciate him coming to these games, especially my senior year, and just having him to give me feedback after games and him like motivating me during the game. Q. Where is he right now? ASYA BUSSIE: New Orleans. Q. What's he do? ASYA BUSSIE: He's at GA at Xavier, in Louisiana. Q. Men's team? ASYA BUSSIE: Yes. Q. Coach Carey, obviously you're at LSU now. Did you ever have any thoughts about, hey, you might see her when you came down here? MIKE CAREY: We wish her the best. It's probably good she had to sit out this year, so we're not going to be playing against her. I wish her all the best. I hope she has great success down here at LSU. Q. Did that cross your mind? MIKE CAREY: Not really. Not really. I'm usually out of sight, out of mind to be honest with you. But no, I wish her‑‑ she's a great young lady. She'll do a good job down here at LSU, so I wish her only the best. Q. It was nine years ago when you played Southwest Missouri State there for the WNIT title. What do you remember about that‑‑ MIKE CAREY: They beat us, didn't they? Do you have any good news? Q. Any type of stuff you may remember that she was doing then? MIKE CAREY: She does a great job. They're very organized. Like I said, everybody knows their role on the team. They take good shots. They play extremely hard. They put people in the right position. They're well coached. I understand that, and we're going to have to play extremely well. You know, at times we're going to have to hit some shots from the perimeter. I just think we've got to be in attack mode against it. We always tell the players when we're playing against a zone for 40 minutes, we'll make some misses, let's push, let's try to push it up and make things happen before the zone can set up. That'll be something that will be very important. And then we've got to take care of the basketball against their 2‑2‑1. Q. For Coach, your program seems to sort of adopt the mantra of us against the world, having to fight. You're kind of on the cusp of flipping that. How does that change the mentality in terms of coming to play? When do you make that switch? MIKE CAREY: Well, we still have a lot to prove. We haven't done anything in the NCAAs, and that's been under me. We've got a lot to prove. Our young ladies, they've played extremely well and hard and the whole thing, but we have some goals going forward here. We've just got to come out and play. We've got to come out and do what we've done all year, and they mentioned about heart and all that. This team probably has more heart, and there's times we were down during the game, and I'm just there, and they'll come out of there, Coach, we've got this. I'm like, well, could you do it before long? People are going to battle and that. I want to mention about Asya. Even though she's going to be fronted and we front, there's got to be weak side and there's got to be ball pressure. If they're getting a lot of lobs inside, it's because of three things: We're not putting ball pressure, we're not fronting well or we're not getting weak side well. There's a lot of things. That's what Asya was talking about is a team thing. Q. We're in the Maravich Center. Mike, did you follow Pete Maravich at all? MIKE CAREY: Absolutely. His dad, he used to coach at D & E and West Virginia there, so yeah, absolutely. You know, it's amazing, we'll bring recruits and players to West Virginia and we'll say do you know who the NBA logo is, and they have no idea, and then you say Jerry West, and they still have no idea. That's at our place. But I can remember being down here working camps at LSU when Craig Carse was the assistant coach here under Dale Brown, so I've been down here a few times. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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