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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: BATON ROUGEMarch 23, 2014MaChelle JosephTyaunna MarshallSydney WallaceBATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA LSU – 98 MaCHELLE JOSEPH: Well, first of all, I think we saw out there today why LSU was ranked top 12 in the country early in the season. I really felt like today they were clicking on all cylinders. When you have a guard like Danielle Ballard step up and get 17 rebounds, 5'6", 5'7", that's a physical effort. I just thought she was really difficult to guard on both ends of the floor today. She did a tremendous job being disruptive. She had 10 defensive rebounds, and so she showed a lot toughness and poise for a sophomore, I thought. It was ‑‑ I think the experience those players have had in the Sweet 16 a year ago have paid off for them. On the other side we only had four players who had played in an NCAA Tournament, and I think we figured out today what it takes not only to play at this level but compete at this level in the NCAA Tournament, especially on someone's home floor. I think that's a really tall order and task, and I really feel like it will help our team and a program grow as the years go on. Q. Tyaunna, I think you only had one shot attempt through the first eight minutes when you guys fell behind there and really got back from the lead. Looking back do you wish you had tried to establish yourself more offensively to started the game? TYAUNNA MARSHALL: Yes, definitely. I mean, just being a leader, somebody who's played in the NCAA Tournament before, I definitely needed to come out for my team. Yes, of course I wanted to get more shots, but when shots aren't falling you have to try to do more than just play offense. I like to play defense and rebound, too, but I wish I could have been more of a threat for my team in the opening minutes. Q. Sydney, just talk about how you felt today, your first game in several games, and you really seemed like your shot was there. I know you're disappointed with the loss, but talk about how you felt and how you were able to help your team. SYDNEY WALLACE: I felt good a lot. I spent a few weeks just watching games and just trying to come back mentally prepared and just tried to come back strong for my team. I just wanted to come out with confidence and just try to do everything I could, what my team needed me to do. Q. They have one person who handled the ball all the time. Does that make it difficult to deal with their transition game? SYDNEY WALLACE: Yes, in a way. We couldn't get our press set, and I felt like that's really why they got out in transition and they would quickly get it up, so it was kind of hard for us to match up with them. Q. Coach, curious if you can comment on some of the foul trouble and if that affected the rebounding spread in the game. MaCHELLE JOSEPH: Well, I think what affected the rebounding was a little bit we were standing watching the shots go up instead of pursuing the ball. And one of the things I thought was a weakness of LSU was their offensive rebounding. It's obvious they spent a lot of time on that the last couple weeks because I thought the games they lost down the stretch were games they lost on offensive rebounding, and teams just dominated them on the boards and they were able to stay in the game, but they weren't able to finish out games because of getting killed on the offensive glass. I thought that was obviously one of the things they spent a lot of time working on because they did a tremendous job today getting to the ball on the offensive end and the defensive end. I don't know if it's so much I think our foul trouble‑‑ that caused our foul trouble because‑‑ you foul on offensive rebounds. That's usually where you foul. I thought today was no exception. When they were getting offensive rebounds we were fouling them. Q. Were you surprised that they went to run with you like they did? They haven't scored that many points, and it didn't seem like they were that great in the half court. MaCHELLE JOSEPH: It was a totally different team today than I saw the last 10 games on film. Against the presses, anybody that pressed them when they played in their SEC games, they were really slow in getting the ball up the floor and seemed to struggle against presses and traps, and today it looked like their game plan was just to throw it long and attack it and see what happens, and they played a lot faster than I've seen them play in the 10 games I watched. Q. They also just made a lot of shots at a high rate. How much of that is defensive effort and how much of that is sometimes just‑‑ they made some pretty crazy shots there along the way, too? MaCHELLE JOSEPH: Well, when you get hit with a team that's clicking on all cylinders, sometimes that's tough to defend, no matter what defense you're in. Today they had players making shots that I didn't see them making shots on the film, so I think that they had several experienced veteran players step up and make plays for them. I think when you're playing at home and you played at home last year in the NCAA Tournament, went to the Sweet 16, you get a lot of experience and you get a lot of confidence from that, and I felt like they just made plays, and you have to give a team credit. It feels like for us the last two games we played, Duke and LSU have given us two of the best games all year, but that's something we've come to expect. I think people know we play extremely hard and you have to play that hard if you play against us, and I think they gave us their best shot. Q. This game you guys played the tough schedule, this game compared to any other this season? How tough was LSU compared to what you've seen this year? MaCHELLE JOSEPH: Well, I think LSU is as good as any of the top teams in the ACC, top‑five teams in the ACC. I thought today was a little bit more physical than what we had seen throughout the course of our ACC season, but I think that's postseason play. I think when you get to this time of the year it's going to be a lot more physical, and I think veteran players, that's where seniors and upperclassmen are so valuable because they've been here, done that, and now I have a team full of underclassmen that have been here, done that. That's what the experience gives you is an opportunity to see what it's going to be like when you get on this stage, and I thought today that our players learned a very valuable lesson that every level, regular season and ACC Tournament and then now the NCAA Tournament is a different level of intensity. I thought that LSU really came out and jumped on us, and I thought it rocked us back on our heels a little bit. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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