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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2012Tiffany BiasJim LittellToni YoungKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Missouri 72 THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by the Oklahoma State Cowgirls. Jim Littell, the coach and our two student‑athletes. Again, we ask out of respect we maintain our questions to basketball. Coach, your opening thoughts. COACH LITTELL: First, give credit to Missouri. I thought they played very inspired and very confident basketball tonight. They had some seniors that stepped up. They attacked us at the post area, and their two post players, I think, ended up having 39 points and 23 rebounds. That was probably the difference in the game. I was worried about this, having a quick turnaround after a game in Stillwater on Saturday, on the maturity we would show and realizing it was a different setting and it was a tournament game. We didn't guard‑‑ give them credit again, but we didn't guard like we have guarded the last four or five games. Really don't understand that when we get in this setting. They shot it extremely well, shot 45 percent. For most of the year, we've held people in the 30 percent. And we're not going to win when we allow somebody to score that many points. We just don't have the ability to match that offensively. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. We'll now take questions from the floor. If you would, please, give your name and affiliation. Q. Tiffany and Toni, can you talk about the comeback? You looked dead there in the middle of the second half. Then you got it back to a three‑point game by the game's end. What happened down the stretch that you were able to get back in the game? TIFFANY BIAS: We really didn't play tough defense for the whole game until maybe the last ten minutes. We got some fire under our belt, and we decided to play and relax. I think the whole game we were kind of just playing timid and not really playing our game. We weren't defending and weren't executing on the offense. I think we kind of got a beat off each other and started playing and started hitting shots actually. Q. Toni, Jim talked about this, about how they really hurt you inside early. When they moved their offense out after that. Why were they so successful early, do you think? And then at points in the game they were able to really hurt you in the paint. TONI YOUNG: We were letting them establish their spot too deep inside the paint, and that kind of dug us a hole there. We should have had them pushed out about 15 feet and made them play like they were guards instead of their comfortable spot on the block. Q. To either one of you girls, do you worry that this game cost you a chance at the NCAA Tournament? TIFFANY BIAS: I mean, we are worried about that. We really needed to get this win. But I think we just pray and hope that we get a bid in. I mean, we can't really do anything about it now. I mean, we just pray for it. Q. Toni, it looked like to start the second half you guys were trying to pressure, full‑court pressure and speed up the tempo. Didn't work at first. They really got on a run. But it seemed later that the tempo and the pressure really worked in your favor. Is that an accurate assessment? What did you think in terms of the pressure you applied and tried to speed up Missouri? TONI YOUNG: We went from a press to a four‑man front, and I think it got them out of their comfort zone and caused a few turnovers and got us back in the game. Q. Regarding your concern for this game costing a chance to get into the tournament. COACH LITTELL: It was definitely a big game, and there were some other circumstances that occurred too on Sunday when Oklahoma lost to KU, and it gave them their eighth win. And then when Texas beat Texas A&M, and it gave them their eighth win. If some of those things don't happen, we may be finishing sixth alone. You've got to learn to control your own destiny and take care of your own business and make sure that we get a win. I'm not sure what's going to happen in the selection committee. I know we would have enhanced our opportunities a lot with the win and then going on and playing Oklahoma and seeing what happened there. But we finished with eight wins in the No.1 RPI conference in America. It's got a lot of great teams in it, and you see a lot of teams within this conference that just beat up on each other all year long. Baylor is obviously head and shoulders above everybody in this league, but when your second place team finishes with, I believe, seven losses, it tells you how competitive this league is. And 2 through 10 on a given night, they're very good. You follow Missouri, and prior to us playing them on Saturday, they had the six games before, they had won two of those games. They took Iowa State to overtime in Ames. They led Texas A&M by five with about 2:30 to go. So this is a good team. I mean, they battled everybody off. And it was a team that really didn't have a whole lot to lose tonight. Played loose, played confident, and hit big shots. So I guess I'm not answering the question very well, but I'm not very sure on how it's going to be viewed. I just know we played in a great conference, and 2 through 10, it was very, very competitive and very even. Q. Jim, why do you think you got back in the game? 12 minutes left after you're down 25. And in the last minute, you're down six, then five, then four, then three. COACH LITTELL: We just defended better. We just defended better and played with more of a sense of urgency that every possession was crucial. You know, the first six, seven minutes of the game, I don't think they made a shot that wasn't a two‑footer. So we dug ourselves too big a hole. I'm proud of what we did the last six or seven minutes, but you can't fall that far behind a team that's capable of making shots and making free throws and expect to win. We just dug ourselves a big grave on it, and it was too much to overcome. To answer your question, we played with just more of a sense of urgency, and we played a lot harder the last eight to ten minutes of the game than we did the first 30. You can't do that in a game that has this magnitude to it. Q. Tiffany, can you just talk about‑‑ this is a young team obviously. Talk about the progress and the perseverance the team showed. If this is the end of the season, either way, the kind of fight this team showed this year. TIFFANY BIAS: I mean, we fought well. It sucks that we had to wait until now to find this game. I think it shows a lot for our team. It shows a lot of heart and a lot of desire and a lot of passion for this game. Our team is still growing and we're still young. I don't want to have that as an excuse or use it as an excuse, but every game you can see us progress. It wasn't really the first 32 or anything like that, but throughout this whole season, we have progressed and grown as a team. So I'm proud of them. THE MODERATOR: Thank you all very much for joining us. Best of luck to you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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