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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: BATON ROUGEMarch 24, 2014Asya BussieChristal CaldwellMike CareyBrooke HamptonBATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA MIKE CAREY: First of all, I'd like to just say that I'm very proud of our team and where we're at right now. We're getting ready for a tough game tomorrow night against LSU, and we know it's going to be a tough game. It's going to be a tough atmosphere, but we've played in tough atmospheres this year. It's a great challenge for us, but we're looking forward to the challenge, and there's no doubt in my mind we'll come out and play extremely hard. Q. Christal, this is a bit of a silly question, but Coach Caldwell said she was going to check out and see if you were related. She said she was ready to claim you since you played so well yesterday against Albany. Do you have any idea if you guys are related? CHRISTAL CALDWELL: I don't think we're related, but I'll just go ahead and take that as a compliment. Q. Christal, what does it say to you about an LSU team that can turn it over 23 times, yet still score 98 points and beat a good Georgia Tech team by 20? CHRISTAL CALDWELL: Well, I think it's mostly because they get out in transition and they try to score early. If you give them a lay‑up, they'll take it. But still, our defense if we play the way we can, I think we can turn them over a lot. BROOKE HAMPTON: I just agree with Christal. I think they get out in transition like us, and if we do a good job defensively on their guards, they penetrate a lot, I think we'll have a pretty good shot, and we also have to guard their bigs. ASYA BUSSIE: I think it's because they get out in transition and they look to drive and get into the paint so they take those chances of getting a turnover or get the basket. It's just something that we have to deal with, and we just have to defend dribble penetration. Q. Asia, just being a 2 seed and being rewarded with a high seed like that and having to come down here and play on the road in a hostile environment, do you think about that, and how do you feel that could be different in the future? ASYA BUSSIE: I think it's great being a 2 seed, but it is difficult coming into someone else's arena and trying to score and get the win, but I think we've done that in the past. We've proven that we can go into other people's gyms and come out with a win. Q. Christal, yesterday Bria gets 20 points but she does it while missing 11 three‑pointers. You guys kept feeding the ball to her, though. How important is it if things aren't going well you continue to sort of feed the players? Obviously you have the depth you could bring somebody else in, but what was the importance of making sure that you didn't give up on Bria yesterday despite the struggles she had? CHRISTAL CALDWELL: Because we've seen her make those shots all year long, so just because she wasn't making them yesterday doesn't mean that she can't. We have that confidence in her just to know that you're a shooter, you miss a couple, you just continue to shoot. We know she's a great player, so continue to give her the ball and she'll make some. Q. We were talking to the LSU players and they said you guys have depth but they feel like they do, too. If you could talk about how deep you feel this LSU team is and how well you match up because of that. CHRISTAL CALDWELL: Well, I think they play well but so do we, and I don't want to get into too much of talking about that. I just want to get ready to play tomorrow. Q. Asia, going up against their center, pretty good, around the same height you are, a little different than yesterday. What challenges is she going to bring, guarding her? ASYA BUSSIE: Well, I think she's a familiar body compared to the Big 12, so I don't think that's something new. Just still playing the same way I've played all year, attacking, rebounding, playing defense and helping the team out as much as possible. I don't think it'll be a big difference from what I've been playing against in the Big 12. Q. For the players, LSU obviously didn't end their season, the regular season the way they wanted to. They've had a couple wins here and seem to have found something. How dangerous is it to play a team that's just getting it together in the postseason? CHRISTAL CALDWELL: Well, with them not ending the way that they wanted to, that lets you know that they're going to have a chip on their shoulder. It's tournament time, they're coming off a good win yesterday, and we're on their home floor, so they're going to come out hungry and ready to play. You can't really talk about what they didn't do at the end of the season because they're still a great team. ASYA BUSSIE: Yeah, I think they're going to come out really hungry. Like we've been saying, it's one‑and‑done, so they're going to give their all and play their best. I don't expect them to do anything less than that. BROOKE HAMPTON: I think they're going to come out hot from the jump. I think that they have a chip on their shoulder like Christal said, and I feel like they have nothing to lose. Playing on their home court will give them more confidence. Q. Asia, we've talked so much about potentially playing a team on their home court, and now it's here. How important is it that if they are coming out hot right from the opening tip‑off and the crowd is behind them and all that, that you weather that, that you're able to with stand any momentum that they do get early in the game and realize that there are 40 minutes to be played? ASYA BUSSIE: Yeah, we expect them to come out hot and try to get the crowd involved, but we just have to play our defense, the defense we've been playing all season long, and we expect it to be a roller coaster, and play until the end, and I think it's going to be a full 40‑minute game and it's going to come down to the stretch. Q. Asia, they've asked you about playing on LSU's home court. Even though you're the No.2 seed in this game, do you feel like you guys have kind of an underdog mindset going into this game? ASYA BUSSIE: Not really, but I do feel like we have a target on our back, and it's been like that all season long. We don't get the respect that we should get, and we just have to go out there and prove it every game, and I think this whole season we have had to prove people wrong and just show that we are a good team, we deserve to be a 2 seed, and I think that's what we continue to do even throughout this tournament. Q. Brooke, I assume y'all have had goals of getting to the first Sweet 16 in program history and getting to the Final Four. How do you set that aside and get through the one game, not to let the emotions or thoughts of those goals get in the way of what you have to do? BROOKE HAMPTON: I think the most important thing in tournament play is just take one game at a time and focus on the present and not the future, because you don't know exactly who you're going to play in the next round anyway. I think just one game at a time and advancing into next round is the most important thing. THE MODERATOR: Coach, this would be your first Sweet 16 under you but the second for West Virginia, right? They had one in '92 or '93? MIKE CAREY: Yeah. Q. Christal, you played a lot of the same players a year ago in a tournament in Miami. What are some of your recollections of that game? CHRISTAL CALDWELL: Well, they took us off a lot of ball screens and they dribble penetrated a lot, so we are going to take that into consideration and go over scout and some of the things that they do and just try to play our defense and just sit down and try to stop their guards from getting too deep into the paint and setting up other people because they do have some three‑point shooters. Q. Starting with Christal, I think every team feels like they're dissed or underrated or whatever. But I've heard that a lot from you, that you guys at least in the last week since the brackets came out and the people at ESPN seemed to kind of dis you there. Can you give me some examples of what you mean when you say that people don't give you any kind of respect and the things that have gone on this year that give you that idea? CHRISTAL CALDWELL: Well, we've done so much this year. We are co‑champs in the Big 12. We've only lost four games this year. We set so many records. We have a 30‑win season. We've just done so much, but I think a lot of people don't take that into consideration. Maybe it's because they think that you can't live off of that. But I think we've done so much and people just don't really give us that credit. But at the same time it doesn't really matter, we just have to come out and play basketball. ASYA BUSSIE: Just thinking back to the beginning of the season, we weren't even preseason ranked and just to be in the top five and the top 10 now, I think that shows you right now how great our team is and people didn't think we were that good from the beginning of the season. Maybe like the media coverage we get or like how much we get talked about I feel like we deserve a lot more as a team. BROOKE HAMPTON: I think in the beginning of the season our team was underrated, but I think we proved a lot of people wrong and proved ourselves right in the postseason and everything. But I think now we're considered unrespected, being a 2 seed and playing on the No.7 seed's home court and then the No.3 seed's home court. But I think that we do a good job of playing away better anyway, so I think we'll have a good shot. Q. Coach, they made some pretty solid points. Do you think it's a legitimate argument? MIKE CAREY: You know, we want to have a chip on our shoulder. I think we play better when we have a chip on our shoulder, so you know, I'm going to bring up everything to them because I want them to have a chip on their shoulder. I want to have a chip on my shoulder. I feel like I coach a little bit better, a little bit harder when I have a chip on my shoulder. So anything we can find, we're going to try to find it and use it. Q. We were just talking to Nikki Caldwell. She said there's a difference between being hungry and being starving. She feels like her team needs to be starving for this opportunity to go to the Sweet 16. You are a team that has had so much success this year but still clearly has something to strive for. Do you feel like they are starving for that next step to continue on in this tournament? MIKE CAREY: Well, I think so because this group hasn't done that, has not went that far. I guarantee you that they're hungry to move on. It's going to be a tough game. You go to the NCAA Tournament, you're going to play tough games, and you're not going to play them at your home arena. If you want to move on to the next level, you have to play against good teams, and sometimes you have to play them on their home floor. Q. You've talked a lot from the beginning of the season, internally you all knew what you had coming back and knew what this team was capable of, but I think one thing that we haven't discussed is you did have to bring in two new assistant coaches, and that dynamic of getting used to the way you want to scout, I know Coach Reeves has some familiarity, but knowing what you had personnel wise, did that factor into the hiring, and how did that mesh over the course of the season for y'all? MIKE CAREY: Well, I think the assistant coaches meshed in well. You know, I've been in coaching for a lot of years. I'm not going to change my way, so really, they've got to adjust to me, and they've done a great job of that. Like you said, Coach Reeves was with me before, and I think all the coaches have adjusted well and are doing great job for us. Q. Not being able to get to the Sweet 16 at this point except for the one time in the early '90s, how much of that is a reflection for having to travel for the first and second round games, and why have you guys not had the opportunity to host some games? MIKE CAREY: Well, I think‑‑ first of all, there's good teams in the NCAA, and if you looked at our seedings in the past, usually we were playing a No.1 seed or a No.2 seed the second round, and it's been tough. You know, don't get me wrong, we should have probably won a couple of those, and we didn't, and we have an opportunity here. My philosophy is if you can get to that point, eventually hopefully you win one. If you keep knocking on the door, hopefully it's going to open up for you a little bit. Our teams have done a great job to get to this point, and we need to take the next step. I said that before the year started, we need to take the next step in the NCAA Tournament, and we have another opportunity. Now, hopefully we can take advantage of that. Q. Players were asked about this, but Bria Holmes coming off yesterday, do you say anything to her? Obviously you know what she's capable of, and how do you handle that going into tomorrow? MIKE CAREY: You know, shooters like Bria and Christal and some other shooters, I don't say a word. I heard Bria saying to a couple of teammates, I'm not taking a three the next game, and I said, well, you will or you'll come out of the game. I'm more, if that's your shot, shoot it. If you miss it, you miss it. I don't get caught up in that stuff. The only thing I'll do, because sometimes shooters when they're not hitting their shot will get a little tight and then the next shot is tougher. Sometimes I'll say just kiddingly, it's okay, it's not against the rules to hit one once in a while. It's okay to hit one. But I don't say a word to shooters. I really just let that go. If they're open, that's their shot. If it's a bad shot, that's different, but if it's a good shot and that's their role on this basketball team, then shoot it. Shooters are like anything else, they may miss five in a row, but you're liable to hit five in a row, too, the next five, so you can't take that confidence away. Q. You've said a few times that this team hasn't done too well in the NCAA Tournament in the time you've been here and you continue to put that on yourself. You say that's my fault. Are there things philosophically that you've said I have to approach the NCAA Tournament a different way? Are there changes that you make when it comes tournament time now? MIKE CAREY: No, not really. Not really. You know, I don't think you can reinvent yourself tournament time. I mean, you are what you are. You play 20‑some games and you either won or lost those games in 20‑some games. Now, you may make some adjustments and you may play your starters a little bit longer or you may do certain things during the course of the game, but you're really not going to reinvent what you've done all year long. I just believe you go with what you've been successful with. I try to stay‑‑ even though I don't look like it on the sideline, I try to stay calm. I really try to stay calm. I'm the type of person, I'll go da‑da‑da‑da‑da, and then I'm calm and I'm over it, then we can really discuss what we need to do. I think the biggest thing is keeping your players focused, keeping them calm and don't get excited. We already talked about this: It's going to be a 40‑minute game, and we need to be in the game going into the last four minutes, and we've been very successful if we've been in the game going into the last four minutes because these players have done a great job of executing under four minutes. So that's where we want to be tomorrow night. Just be close, be right there and have an opportunity to win the game the last four minutes. Q. I asked the players about a hot LSU team. What did you see in that Georgia Tech game that maybe differed from their last 10 games in the regular season? MIKE CAREY: Well, I mean, they played with a lot of confidence. They were hitting their shots. You know, when I looked at points in the paint, they scored a lot of points in the paint, but then when I watched some film, a lot of it was Georgia Tech was pressing, and they were getting a lot of two on ones, lay‑ups, that type of stuff. They're very talented. They have all the pieces. They have size. They have a 4 that can step out and hit the three but also go inside and post you at 6'5". They have shooters on the perimeter and they have people that can penetrate. So they have everything to be very successful. We understand that, but our style is not Georgia Tech's style. We're not going to stand out there and press and give you lay‑ups all day. We're not going to do that. We're going to try to put a body on you, don't give you as many offensive rebounds and that type of stuff. Q. When you played LSU in Austin in '07, can you talk about what you remember about that game? MIKE CAREY: Yeah, the shot clock was running down and they were out past the three‑point line. It was under five, the shot clock, and instead of us closing up on the shooter because they couldn't put it on the floor, they had to throw it up, they hit that three. From that point on they kind of took the lead and was able to beat us. That was a good game. I also remember playing LSU last year. You all asked what stuck out in my mind. What stuck out in my mind, they shot 40‑shot foul shots last year in Miami, and I think they made 30‑some, whatever. That's pretty much what‑‑ because they penetrated and we didn't do a good job and we put them at the foul line a lot. We can't do that tomorrow night. We've got to contest, make them shoot over the top and then box out. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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