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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2015Raven FoxAlex SheedyJaime WhiteLAS VEGAS, NEVADA New Mexico – 64 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Fresno State. Coach, some comments on tonight's game. COACH WHITE: Yeah, first congratulations to New Mexico. They played a great game, came right out of the gates knocking down some shots, shooting 46% in the first half, just really limiting us. I thought they played physical. Their defense really kind of threw us off there a little bit at first. I thought we were forcing some offense. But when you look at the game in general, we stayed with them rebounding. They're a nice rebounding team. That was one of our goals. You got to know where Brown is. She's a nice player. Obviously a reason for all conference. Shumpert, I thought they did a nice job on her. She's a nice, physical five. Just turnovers. They've kind of haunted us lately. But overall I'm proud of the girls. I thought we cut that lead. It was 36‑37. Felt like we had an opportunity to go ahead at that point. Just kind of we had some multiple turnovers that create chaos for us. Other than that, I mean, it's been a joy to coach these two obviously. I inherited them. I'm grateful for it. They've been staples for our program this year. It's been nice to work with them. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Would you say it was a poor offensive night for you guys or a great defensive effort by New Mexico? ALEX SHEEDY: I think there were things we could have improved offensively. But I think obviously there were times when we exploited their defense. I'm not sure how I would answer that question. I think it was just a matter of toughness and making shots. Q. Specifically early in the game because you went a long time without getting a field goal. I should have made that clear. ALEX SHEEDY: Yeah, uhm, I think it just comes down to toughness. We had a lot of open shots that we didn't knock down. We missed about seven million layups. Yeah, we made some mistakes and needed to hit some more shots. I don't know if that was great defense or just bad offense. I don't know. Q. How important was it to tune out the noise? It was definitely a pro New Mexico crowd. RAVEN FOX: I think we were just trying to focus on ourselves. I mean, we had fans there, too. We weren't really worried about the crowd that much. Just trying to focus on ourselves. Q. Alex, I'm assuming you're hoping to play, hoping there's another game, maybe not the NCAA, but women's NIT? ALEX SHEEDY: Yeah, obviously this is a disappointing end to our season in conference. But we want to advance in conference play, something we haven't done before. So as disappointing as this loss was, we have things we can aim for now. We have new goals we can set. We can hopefully get some games in the NIT or something. This may be the end of conference, but this isn't the end for us. We're hoping we can continue to get some wins and do maybe something else we haven't done before. THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student‑athletes at this time. Thank you. We'll continue with questions for Coach White. Q. How much was the crowd a factor? This was a real partisan crowd. COACH WHITE: Well, you know, we heard 'em. You know, they were loud. For me, just being in the Mountain West, I've seen how New Mexico travels. We were ready for that. We knew that was going to happen. We talked to our kids about it. I think the biggest thing, 'cause in playing there, it was really fun. I don't know that it was as intimidating as it was fun. It's just that we can't hear each other a lot, whether it's even them talking to each other or me kind of trying to call a play. I think that a little bit. Also, you know, they do a good job of cheering at the right times. We tried to use our timeouts to kind of, you know, keep them down. But New Mexico made some great plays. That's going to happen. We've got some kids that haven't really played in a lot of these games. Other than Alex Sheedy, I mean, a little bit from Mo, a little bit from Furr, some Rov. Those other kids, we could tell, you know, it's a bigger stage and we've got to get used to that. Q. What did you think about what Alex was saying about getting some games and doing something you haven't done before? COACH WHITE: I have a lot of respect for the NIT, been in it multiple times. I know that the Mountain West has been successful in it. Obviously Wyoming won it a couple years ago. Well, let's see. They won it just after I left. Hopefully that's not the reason (smiling). So they've been successful. It's another way, also, 'cause in a year we're going to have a really young team. We lose five seniors. It's another way to get your kids experience in the post‑season. We'd love to do it in front of our home crowd. Q. Second half was a bit different than the first. A quick start for you in the second half. What were some of the things you told your team at halftime in order to start scoring more? COACH WHITE: Well, again, that first half, and credit to New Mexico, they hit some really hard shots, big jumpers. We just said, Hey, we came back from a nine‑point deficit. We've been down before, we can come back again. It's got to be one possession at a time, but it starts with defense. That's what we challenged them with. I thought we did a good job rebounding. It's just we didn't knock down some shots. It was physical. We weren't getting some of the seams that we got the other night. I think when you don't get what you got, then sometimes you struggle a little bit to find that second option. Q. Would you say that despite the loss it ended on a good note, especially offensively? COACH WHITE: Well, yeah, I thought we did a good job right there towards the end. I mean, I would like to keep that score close versus having to come back and come back, you know, come back eight points or ten points. When it was 36‑37, I felt like we were one possession away. I felt like that multiple times this season. It's one of those things we've got to work on. Obviously it comes on the offensive end. We crawled back defensively, but I felt like offensively we never really turned the corner. We got some openings and we got some stuff to the rim, but I think it was just a little bit too late. Q. Are you able to put the season as a whole, your first year, into perspective? COACH WHITE: Yeah, this talk after this game is never one that you plan. But, you know, there's a feeling of success. I mean, we've had some challenges. We've come through those. We've had some great successes in a couple wins where we won on the road. We beat Oregon. We had the 13‑win stretch. We had a great run at home. If you look at it from my perspective, we were two overtimes away from maybe being first in the league, coming in first. I mean, I feel very good about it. For these kids, especially kids like Ray and Alex to go through three different coaches, to have had the success they've had, even continue to do it, I think it's been a joy to coach them. As a new coach you're always worried about how they will respond. But it's been a great group of kids. I'm really, really proud of them. In all areas of their lives, academics, basketball, all of it. It's been a great first year for me ‑ so far, it's not over. Q. At the start of the second half, the first 12, 13 minutes you were able to clamp on them defensively. New Mexico then found their rhythm offensively. What changed in the timeout? COACH WHITE: I thought we did a good job of getting back into it with their pressure. I thought they broke through that pressure, got a couple fouls. They were physical all night. I'm just going to say the No.11 kid, she's a difference maker. It wasn't all necessarily in shots, but when she got that open shot, they knocked it down. She was physical. She forced us to catch a little bit deeper. Shumpert did a nice job. She went one for seven. Then I can't say enough about Brown. She's got one of the best jump shots in our league. I would say, I mean, athletically she's one of the nicest players that we have here. She's done a great job. She's played really mature and gotten better throughout her career. My hat is off to them and we wish them all the luck in the world. Q. Physical play in the game. Incredibly chippy. Speak to that. COACH WHITE: Anytime the game is physical early, the chippiness is bound to come. Then all of a sudden you're looking at a team that's never lost in the Mountain West tournament, not lost in a tournament in the last seven years. They don't want to lose. We don't want to lose. Neither does anybody. All of a sudden I think it just got a little bit emotional and chippy, but I don't think it was cheap at all. Our kids, they're going to go for it. They're going to win it until the buzzer sounds. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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