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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

February 28, 2018

Nashville, Tennessee

Ole Miss - 48

Florida - 43

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by 'Ole Miss head Coach, Matt Insell, and Madinah Muhammad and Shelby Gibson. Coach?

MATT INSELL: It was a great team effort. It was good to get that one back. We gave one away we felt like down at Florida and that was a spiral of where our season has been a little bit there and we found a way to get a win here and tough one out. I've been challenging our players to get better defensively each and every day. Sometimes results don't show up on the scoreboard the way you want 'em to but you are getting improvements each and every day.

A lot of people counted this team out and thought this team was going to quit and I think it shows the determination they've got each and every night they go out and continue to play at a high level and to push themselves to get better and today it showed up on the scoreboard and I'm just real proud of that.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes?

Q. Shelby, I know you're a Murfreesboro girl. How much have you been in this arena before? Did you have family here today?
SHELBY GIBSON: It's funny because I was just telling my mom last night, I've watched Predator games in here, it's cool to play here. It feels like home. My mom was in the stands and it's a good atmosphere and I'm glad the tournament is being played here.

Q. After having split with Florida throughout the season what was it like to come in here with the rubber match extending your season?
MADINAH MUHAMMAD: We knew it was going to be pretty competitive. This is like our last game considering everybody gets one game, so we've got to take it one game at a time and we just focused on our defense and we just relied on it.

SHELBY GIBSON: Like Madinah said, I think that we came in here knowing it was going to be a fight and like she said, it's our last game so I think that really laid on our hearts, you know, we didn't want it to be over. So I think defense led the time, but I also think heart and hard work also really helped us win this battle against Florida.

THE MODERATOR: Ladies, congratulations. We'll see you tomorrow. Questions for Coach?

Q. Coach, you had some close losses during this losing streak. What does it say about your team that your best came in the tournament?
MATT INSELL: You know, I think we have had a lot of close losses and I think it speaks a lot to our team. We've had a lot of adversity this year, a lot of things that's went against us. You sit and wonder why, are you snake-bit? A lot of different things go through your head. The one thing they'll say is for the most part our kids, every single day continue to show up and continue to get better, continue to improve. I just told 'em the result eventually will show up on the scoreboard and something special will happen for each and every one of you this year. In this tournament you have the opportunity to make your own memory. Andy Landers, Nell Fortner, Maria, they're going to sit up there and talk about everything they're going to talk about and I love 'em to death but don't let them tell you that Florida is supposed to beat you, or that Missouri is supposed to beat you. You make that decision. We've been close all year long, our record is 12-18, but that's want what we are. We are a game here and there from having 17, 18 wins. A lot of it -- we don't make excuses but a lot of times late in the game you go to your closer. We're having to search for who our closer is, and we're getting kids to step out of their shell to be a closer in a game. Where Shandricka Sessom for the last three years has been our closer and you're in a 1-point game you know you're going to her and she is out with an ACL and so now you have other players that are having to step outside their role and sometimes it gets frustrating for them and sometimes it gets frustrating for our coaches.

But the one thing I will tell you, this team has never quit. If you're struggling to win games, I watch basketball more than anybody. I study this game as much as anybody in this league probably and I'm a huge, huge basketball junky, men and women and all my friends are basketball coaches. The one thing they -- all my mentors and friends and everybody that's coaches from, you know, everybody across the country is the fact that they just keep reminding me that these kids have not quit on your season. They continue to battle every single day. They continue to push forward every single day. Don't let other people bring you down and forget about your ultimate long-term goal and what others say and that's the thing that I keep preaching to our players, is don't let others bring your hopes, your dreams, everything that you want to do down. I had a meeting with them last week and told 'em, look, we all do things wrong. We all have made mistakes but the one thing none of us have done is quit on each other, that's players, and coaches and coaches and player -- everybody in our organization.

Sometimes it's tough, but when you're losing and sometimes it's frustrating when you lose, but it shows a lot about their integrity. It shows a lot about who they are as people that they continue to fight and come in here and get a win over a good Florida team. I'll say this about Florida I think their first 5 is as good as a lot of people's players in the league in terms of their starting 5. We all have issues with depth sometimes but their first five is really, really good and I'm glad that I don't have to play against Lorenzen and Hersler anymore because I think those two players are experienced and they're talented players and they cause so much problem for you and it's a huge win for our team and it's a huge win for our program.

Q. You won a game where you scored in the 40s. A win is a win is a win. You have to almost be not disciplined to tell your girls it's okay that we keep it down in this way and still win with a defensive game?
MATT INSELL: That's something I've been preaching to 'em all year is we're losing games because we're giving up -- we're scoring 79, 80 points in games and we lose. You know, that's because you don't play D! If you score that many points you should win the game. I kept preaching to them in every huddle, we're struggling to score and Florida is a hard team to score on but you're guarding. Don't let your offensive woes bother you to where you stop guarding, because if you keep guarding I will be thrilled to win this thing 40-38. And I hope you guys have the same thrill that I have and I kept reminding them of that, to continue to guard and hold -- and I don't want to mispronounce her name, No. 3 there, Funda, she is getting 15, 16 shots a game and she is one of the best shooters in our league and we hold her to shot attempts -- in the field. True credit to Alissa Alston, just how hard she played. Same thing for Delicia Washington, Madinah Muhammad put a lot of pressure on herself this year, and trying to be special and take up the slack that was left. But Muhammad got up there and disrupted Delicia Washington that whole game. She went 0-11. That's a defensive effort that our kids put together. I'll take a 48-43 win over Missouri on Friday, take one over Georgia on Friday, take one over whoever on Saturday and another on Sunday. And I think we will all take the same thing, so we'll all take it.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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