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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2010Victoria DunlapA'dia MathiesMatthew MitchellDULUTH, GEORGIA Tennessee – 70 THE MODERATOR: We now have Kentucky. We'll take an opening comment from coach. COACH MITCHELL: Well, want to congratulation Tennessee. They certainly played a great game today. Made a lot of great plays. I just thought they played really tough. We came here to win and came up a little short today. But I thought our players battled against a really fine basketball team today, and I thought we found out a lot about our team. One thing I do know is they wanted to win today, and it certainly showed out there on the court. They played awful hard. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. They brought Williams off the bench. She had eight straight points for them. Address that. COACH MITCHELL: Yeah, that was one of the few times in the game when we were very poor defensively. That's what happens in these kinds of games. There's two good teams going at it, and our margin for error is very slim. We did not need to let something like that happen. I thought she was fantastic. Did not do a good job with her. She was able to get in there, get into the lane, make some shots. But she's a good player. I thought she had some nice shot fakes and got us out of position. I think she's a good player. That was a big, big run in the game. Q. Were you ever surprised that you got the momentum going your way? It didn't really seem to phase them. They always knew how to come back. Is that something you were expecting out of them? COACH MITCHELL: That Tennessee was able to respond? That was not a surprise to me. They're a very good basketball team. They've lost two games all season. They have a lot of experience in this situation. So I was not surprised by that. I was more encouraged by how we responded. We were down eight in the first half. Things were not looking good. I thought our players responded. So that's what I was really happy with. To come out in the second half and play the way they did, made some really fine plays in the start of the second half. I was encouraged with some things that happened with our team today. Q. I know you didn't have the showing you wanted in Knoxville. Is this more what you expected from them? I know it's a loss, but does it give you momentum going forward into the NCAA tournament? COACH MITCHELL: I think what you need to do in these situations is you need to figure out how to build on the victories you have in this tournament, and then you need to figure out how to build on the mistakes you made. That's what we just talked about. We played some very good basketball in this tournament. We played very tough. We had kids play a lot of minutes. I just thought they performed at a real high level for three straight days in what I think is one of the toughest tournaments in the country. There's no question from my perspective right now, there's plenty that we can build on. You have to understand, Tennessee did the same thing. We just got done. These two teams just got done playing nine straight weekends of SEC basketball. There's probably not two teams that are going to benefit more from the time off because we didn't have that -- our bye came on the first playing date. I just told our team back there, I think we will benefit tremendously, and I think we'll be a very difficult team to play against in the NCAA tournament. Q. Is it strange to have to wait a week? COACH MITCHELL: It's good for us; great for us. We need it badly. It will be outstanding for us, help us get refreshed. I want to make this point: I'm so proud of our players for being able to -- we finished the regular season on a real down note. We are not the healthiest basketball team right now, and they found a way to come in here and really play with tremendous energy three days in a row. So that's what I'm more excited about than anything, that their mindset was able to come in and play at a championship level. Q. Victoria, could you talk about how physical it was inside. VICTORIA DUNLAP: It was pretty physical out there. That's the kind of team that's going to come in there and go hard to the boards. I think mentally we weren't ready to really box them out. They got in there, got a couple boards in the first half, and just mentally, as a team, we weren't able to box 'em out, push 'em back, so they got a lot of rebounds, a lot of put-backs, but I think we turned it around in the second half. Q. Brittany Henderson gave you some good really minutes today. Can you discuss her play. COACH MITCHELL: I thought she did a fantastic job. We gave up 12 offensive boards in the first half, four in the second half. So that's something that we talked about at halftime. Brittany Henderson got in there and got some tough, tough rebounds. I just am always impressed with her. She is a gritty player. We didn't have much going on the offensive boards. She had a big offensive board and put-back that was a big play in the game. I like our team. I'm telling you. I like the character of these young women. I like the tenacity they play with. She just embodies what we're trying to be here at Kentucky. That's honesty, hard work, discipline. I was very pleased with Brittany Henderson today. Q. For the players, can you reflect on how far you've come from a 500 finish a year ago, and what has this week showed you about what you can expect from yourself in the NCAA tournament? A'DIA MATHIES: Well, I wasn't here last year, so I can't really tell you how it feels to be on a 500 ballclub. But I know this team we have this year, we love each other. We're really looking forward to making a deep run into the NCAA tournament coming up. VICTORIA DUNLAP: I think compared to last year and the year before that, the team chemistry wasn't really there. We had a lot of individuals doing their own thing. This year people were willing to put in the time, put in the work, listen to the coaches, be willing to play defense and get all the fundamentals right and not worry about what they're doing personally. Just as a team we got together. I'm very proud of the team, of how we played in this tournament. Like A'dia said, I think we're going to do a great job in the NCAA tournament and be ready to go. Q. When you got down by seven or eight, it looked like it was over; you kept going at them and cut it close. Can you talk about the not-quit mindset you had. A'DIA MATHIES: We know every team makes runs. They made a run. We tried to come back with another run. We knew we had to step it up on defense. That was the only way we would be able to come back in the game. So we just tried to make everything more aggressive, more tough, and just be ready mentally and physically. Q. Coach, could you talk about Tennessee being the marquee program in the SEC. What do you feel like you have to do in the future to continue to take this program up? COACH MITCHELL: We just have made tremendous progress. Tennessee has a great program. We have a lot of respect for their program. We talked today about, you know, what's Kentucky about and what do we want to be about. You know, I think you see out there players that play very aggressively, players that are willing to make some sacrifices for each other and play hard together, and I think we just need to continue to do that. We need to continue to find the right kind of people to come in and understand how special the opportunity is to play at Kentucky. Really encouraged with what the team is doing right now. We have a long way to go this year. This season's not over, but the SEC portion is. It is time to look back. They performed well. So we just need to stick to our core principles: hard work, honesty. These kids hear this every day. I think if we do that, we have a great chance to be successful. Q. Can you talk about Victoria and A'dia with big pressure coming on them and they came in and performed and responded so well. COACH MITCHELL: It was really tremendous. First of all, when they received the awards, it could not have gone to two better players, better people. So I was not worried about those two being affected in a negative way at all, thinking this was an individual award or anything like that. They are about the right things. What I did want to happen was us to bounce back from a very unusual week that we had had. I talked to both of them at different times about how important it is to step up at this time. This is an incredibly difficult tournament. So you have to realize after watching them how proud I would be as a coach to have the real good fortune of coaching both of them. They're tremendous defenders. They are selfless, hard workers. You know, I don't know that there are any doubts about their selections. But I think in front of the entire SEC and country, people can know both of those players are the real deal. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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