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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: KANSAS CITY

March 23, 2018

Kansas City, Missouri

UCLA - 84, Texas - 75

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by the Texas Longhorns, Coach Karen Aston, Brooke McCarty, Ariel Atkins and Jatarie White. Coach?

KAREN ASTON: I think the first thought I have is that UCLA was really good tonight. Sometimes as a coach you want to blame your kids or try to figure out what went wrong but I think a lot of what went wrong was that UCLA was really exceptional tonight. We were a little uncharacteristic with the basketball.

I thought we had inopportune turnovers, and way too many in the first half in particular. Then I thought we came out after halftime, made a really good run but took some inopportune shots and maybe tried to home run it a little bit instead of making them play defense longer which led into transition points for them. Our transition defense was uncharacteristic today as was the turnovers, but I think you have to give UCLA credit and Jordin Canada credit for the way she managed the basketball team. Again, sometimes you have to give the other team credit.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for our student-athletes.

Q. Ariel, can you give us the idea of the message at halftime? Seemed like you came out fired up and were you surprised with how UCLA responded to your reaction and the big run coming in the third quarter?
ARIEL ATKINS: Our message at halftime was to stick to our game. We hadn't played our type of basketball for the first half and so the beginning of the third quarter we be kinda got a flow and then into the run.

Q. Jatarie, you guys have been so good rebounding the ball this year and they beat you on the boards tonight. What did they do so effectively tonight?
JATARIE WHITE: I think tonight they did a lot of outhustling us on the boards, getting those extra loose balls. They don't wait for the ball to come to them. They'll get it. I think that's what they did better tonight, rebounding.

Q. Ariel and Brooke, besides the rebounding that Ms. White referred to, any other ways that you felt like UCLA was exceptional tonight, like what Coach said?
ARIEL ATKINS: I think they did a good job of capitalizing on our turnovers.

BROOKE McCARTY: I thought they flipped the floor and made us work on defense as well and if they didn't get a shot they went and rebounded their ball. It just all goes back to turnovers and rebounds.

Q. Brooke, I wanted to ask you about Jordin Canada, 0-5 in the first half. Then she comes out and I thought she was the difference in the second half. What changed for her? Did you notice anything? How hard was she to stop once she got going in the second half?
BROOKE McCARTY: I think in the first half she ran the point guards facilitating a little bit and in the second half she decided to take over and when she gets going it's going to be a tough match-up. So you have to be ready to bring your best game and in the second half she managed the ball really well and took over the game.

Q. Brooke and Ariel, how did this match-up differ from the one that you had in the scrimmage last fall with UCLA?
BROOKE McCARTY: I think that over the year everybody is going to get better but I think they did a great job of working on their offense and getting the ball in the hands of people that are going to make shots and stuff like that. So I think that and then the fact that they can capitalize like Ariel said on our turnovers.

ARIEL ATKINS: I think this they have gotten better overall, over the year, I think both of us have. But the difference to me is their chemistry on defense.

Q. Brooke and then Jatarie, with the 15 turnovers in the first half was there a sense that you weren't giving yourself a chance to win the game because of the way the ball was being thrown out of bounds and everything?
BROOKE McCARTY: I think it was uncharacteristic of your team but when you have 15 turnovers in the first half and keep turning the ball over they're going to capitalize off our mistakes; I bet they had 30 points off our turnovers. We have to take care of the ball better.

JATARIE WHITE: I agree with Brooke. We didn't do in what Coach said making sure we ball faked in and made the right pass at the right time. I think that's what made the difference as well.

Q. Ariel, we've been talking about this for several weeks. You knew that win or lose this was going to be the end as seniors. What's going through your mind right now know that go your Longhorn career is over?
BROOKE McCARTY: I'm very grateful for my four years that I've been here and I wouldn't change it for anything. I am upset that we went out the way we did this year just because I had high expectations for our team which everybody on our team should have high expectations for each other. But I'm very grateful that I came here and I got to wear this Texas uniform. It made me sit back and realize there is something bigger than myself. I'm just very grateful.

ARIEL ATKINS: I am truly blessed that I have had this opportunity. I think God opened up a lot of doors for me since I've been here and the stage is set for our younger players to take off. When we came here with a mindset we came here to help the players that were here with us and before us to get Texas back to what it needs to be.

I think the stage is set and I think they have every opportunity to be what they want to be. They're just going to have to work for it. They know what to do. It will be up to them.

THE MODERATOR: Ladies, congratulations on a great season. Questions for Coach?

Q. Coach, I think you used the word "home run it" can you say in what fashion they were trying to home run it? Was it the long, touch down-type passes or something other than that?
KAREN ASTON: I think in the first half they were doing a tremendous job of handling our transition and we're used to getting easy buckets in transition and I thought they were flooding the lane and we missed some easy ones I thought in the first half and then we forced some that weren't there, where we should have flipped the floor a little bit more and we talked about that at halftime.

We obviously got some transition buckets in the second half, but I still think that there were times that we, even in the second half, tried to shoot too quick when it wasn't really there.

Again, they probably didn't have to play defense near as long as we did the entire night. Again, that's part of our personality is to take quick shots, but it's also something that we have talked about repeatedly, which is in the games that we have struggled in. That's been kind of the bugaboo with this team, not to have the discipline to reverse it and shift the defense, for two reasons. One of the reasons is to get them out of position and the other is to be able to offensive rebound and those were two categories that we were not our best in. You don't get 'em out of position so therefore you don't wet to the foul line which all of those things we did not do today.

Q. As I told the players, Brooke and Ariel, we all knew this was going to be their last go-round, win or lose. Thoughts and memories of what they have done and brought to the basketball program?
KAREN ASTON: Yeah, I mean, I've said this many times in the last few weeks, and I said it to them in the locker room. I'm not sure. There may be in my lifetime as a coach that I have coached more talented players but I don't know that I will coach two better role models, two better leaders, two better gym rats, two better workers than Brooke and Ariel. They've been model student-athletes at Texas. We've talked at length about how they've helped us build our program and they'll have some time to reflect. They're hurt right now, and it will hit them at some point, the impact that they have had on our program here at Texas. It's been an absolute joy to coach those two for four years.

Q. Cori was saying she has had some conversations with you about how similar the things that you two have done in terms of programs that had great traditions but you had to come back in and rebuild a lot of things. I know this is difficult for you but knowing her as you do, this is their first Elite Eight since '99. Can you talk about the job she has done there?
KAREN ASTON: She has done a tremendous job. It is interesting. There are a few coaches, three of them in this regional, myself, Cori, Vic that our journey has been similar in that we were long-time assistants for iconic coaches, really, and we've kind of grown up in the profession together. So you have a very mutual respect for, I guess, what I would call it as paying your dues. I think that Cori is one of those coaches that did that and then she does it the right way while she is there. She is an incredibly tireless recruiter. I think we're similar in the way we recruit.

I think that she appreciates the history of women's basketball. Those are all things that because of who we worked for and the time that we've spent in the game, we both have an appreciation for the game and a respect for the game and the people that were there before us.

So that's probably the biggest similarities. I'm obviously very disappointed that we lost, and you know, it's never a time when you lose, especially your last game, to be negative about your own team at all because I've really enjoyed this team and the journey that we have been on. But I will say that they looked like a really hungry team and one that had not been there in quite some time by the way they played.

Credit absolutely goes to them because I thought that the 50/50 balls and a lot of the things we talked about they looked a little, for whatever reason, hungrier tonight.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, congratulations on a great season. Thank you.

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