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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2019Stephanie WhiteLeaLea CarterNashville, Tennessee Alabama-74, Vanderbilt-57 THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Vanderbilt. Coach, an opening statement, please. STEPHANIE WHITE: I mean, I'm disappointed for our team. We've been through a lot of adversity this year. At times we've shown great perseverance. I'm disappointed from this game and our last two games in terms of our energy and competitiveness. I'm proud of this kid right here who has continued to get better, continued to grow, continued to make an impact on our program. Certainly thankful to Bree Horrocks for the last two years and what she's brought to our program. Certainly don't want to continue to feel this way when you're at the SEC tournament, but looking forward to building with some of the pieces we have, a great incoming class we have, really getting to work this summer. THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. It seemed like you guys in that first quarter sort of dug yourself a hole with some cold shooting. Even though you made spurts, the deficit was a little too big. What was it about the first quarter? LEALEA CARTER: I think we started off rough. I think it was just the effort. We just didn't have it. I felt like during warmup we didn't have it. I felt like we just came in here not caring. That should never be the case. Alabama, they just pounded on us. Coach White and the coaches talk about it every day, when we were practicing, You got to come out to want it. The start of the practice is like the beginning of the game, first quarter. I felt like we just didn't care. Some people cared, some people didn't. You can't have that. You all got to be on the same page, you got to want it more than your other opponent. Especially after we were embarrassed at home, you got to want to win. It's earned. I felt like we didn't earn it today. We should have done a lot better. Shouldn't have lost to Alabama. At the end of the day, you got to want it. Q. Is there any frustration at all in the fact that you played against Mississippi State, beat Tennessee, come in, not able to meet that same level? LEALEA CARTER: It's a lot of frustration. I'll start by this. Now a junior will be a senior, the past three years I've been here, experienced it. We have yet to get past the first round. Knowing this is my last game as a junior, it's frustrating. Every time we step on the floor, we have a chance. Any given night, anybody is beatable. That's an explanation with Tennessee. We have to want it just as bad as we wanted to beat Tennessee. We made history. You have to want that every time you step on the floor. Same thing with Mississippi State. We wanted it. I'm not speaking for Mississippi State, but it looked like they underestimated us. I think if we can put Tennessee together, Mississippi State together, we're unbeatable. I felt like we didn't bring that today. I felt like we haven't brought it in the last few games. I've been inconsistent myself. I feel like if we put those two games together, we're unstoppable any given day. We have the athletes for it. We got to want better for ourselves. We got a lot to work on this summer, including myself. Q. You lose Bree, but really that's the only piece you lose. Does that excite you a little bit, to know what can come back? LEALEA CARTER: It does. Bree played a big factor in our team. Bree, she's full of knowledge. Bree knows everything. We all lean on Bree. Bree did everything for us. We're truly going to miss Bree. She was a factor on this team. I'm excited to see what's coming in next, to get to know the players, to get to play with the players. I'm excited to see what they can bring to the team. Hopefully we can go further in the tournament, especially throughout the season. Q. You're going to be a senior leader next year. How are you going to participate, making sure everybody is on the same page? What can you do to get everybody more focused for a game like today? LEALEA CARTER: I would start with myself. I think preparation for me, since I'll be a senior, I think it's really working on my game, doing what I need to do to make the team better. In preparation for the team, just being more vocal, trying to push everybody to their next level. That's what Coach White has done for me, especially the past three years. I think if I can take what she's taught me, I can help somebody else that's been in the same boat as me. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, can go back and join your teammates. We'll continue with questions for Coach White, please. Q. That comment made about not caring, I noticed during the first media timeout the coaching staff was telling players to come over. It was evident right there. Did you get that feel? STEPHANIE WHITE: Yeah, I think there's a certain competitiveness that comes with the day-in and day-out that you have to have in order to be successful. Alabama has been able to come out in both of our games and sort of punch us in the mouth, so to speak. We haven't really been able to respond. I'm not sure if it's not caring as much as it is about having a sense of urgency all the time. I think with a young team, particularly a team I'm not sure how many games we had a consistent lineup on the floor, that's still really trying to figure ourselves out, consistency is something that we have to be able to bring every day. Urgency is something we have to be able to bring every day. We've shown potential at times. I think we've shown that there are pieces that are there. Learning how to do that day in, day out, there's a maturity to that. I think our group just has not had that. One thing that we haven't had to fight really is our team plays hard. There's a difference between playing hard and competing. Really continuing to work on honing in on what that means. Q. Early on it seemed like you were getting shots, they just weren't falling. How impactful was that first quarter stretch? STEPHANIE WHITE: I think that's big. I'm not sure what it was. I know at one point we were 18%. When you're not able to especially hit some easy buckets, then you start to tighten up, you start short-arming it, second-guessing a lot of things, as well. Offensively, especially in the first half, we couldn't quite get it going. They were. I think one of the things that really stood out to me, and continues to, in this game as well, they're just bigger and stronger than we were. We have to be able to be tougher and stronger. Our off-season workout program is a big part of that. They dominated us in the paint. It was a lot of different ways. Our commitment to strength and conditioning is a big part of it. Being able to answer those punches, being able to respond to those punches with toughness. We've shown at times we're capable of doing that. I think from a strength and conditioning standpoint, when you physically can do that consistently, the mental part then comes on top of that. Q. Today notwithstanding, you talk about not having a consistent lineup due to injuries, when you did have full health, Mississippi State and Tennessee seem to happen. Does that excite you going forward? STEPHANIE WHITE: Absolutely. I think not just having a consistent starting lineup, but being able to find consistent rotations. A rotation is a big part of being able to sustain throughout the course of a game. It absolutely does. I think when you have a player like Fas who was a second team all league player, you have Brinae Alexander who was an all freshman player. Jordan Cambridge, talk about the heart and commitment from that kid. We didn't know if she was going to play this year. For her to be able to come in and do the things she does, the emergence of LeaLea Carter, Cierra Walker has always been consistent for us. Chelsie fighting back from injury, a little bit up and down. When you saw a healthy, confident Chelsie, we were a very good team. Yeah, it's certainly exciting. Takes some time right now to get healthy, takes some time to focus in this spring, laying the foundation for what happens over the summer, our work for the summer. We have some good pieces, we got some good pieces coming in. Q. How do you really mix that many new players with a good amount of old players as well? STEPHANIE WHITE: I think it's going to be certainly a growing experience for our staff. It's going to be a growing experience for our team. I think at the end of the day, with everybody, returners and those coming in, we have a lot of fundamental skill work to do. Really I think embracing what it takes on a day-to-day basis in how we work. Not skipping steps, so to speak. We have to start with a foundation. When you're bringing in a lot of new players, the terminology is different. We're going to have to have regular chalk-talks about terminology. The way we play is different, the things we want to do offensively and defensively is different. It's not going to hurt our upperclassmen to have refreshers on that, be great leaders by example for our young kids. But primarily focusing this summer on fundamentals and skill development. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. STEPHANIE WHITE: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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