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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2012Sherri CoaleAaryn EllenbergWhitney HandKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Texas A&M – 79 THE MODERATOR: Oklahoma has joined us. Coach, your thoughts about this afternoon's game. COACH COALE: We didn't shoot it as well as obviously we would have liked or as we would have expected to. Give A&M credit. They made shots. Their supporting cast Bellock and Collins came in and both made significant contributions to the game. And then in the second half we had it. We had it to 5, I believe, and had four attempts, good looks at the basket and couldn't convert. And it kind of took a little bit of juice away from us. Then down the stretch we would have loved to be able to go back to a zone because Bone was just killing us in one‑on‑one coverage, but we were too far behind. Didn't have the luxury of doing that. So it sort of got away from us after that stretch in the second half where we cut it to five and had some options. We missed some shots from the perimeter. I think it comes down to not getting any second‑chance shots. We went through that stretch and just didn't get any offensive rebounds. And it's just so disheartening and takes away your momentum, when you're not getting any second chances at the basket. And while that was happening they were getting lots of second chances. So their rebounding played a huge factor as well. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Whitney, you guys have played one of your better halves last night in the second half. But this team's been on a roller coaster ride. As you go on to the NCAA tournament, just talk about where you think this team is right now? WHITNEY HAND: I feel like this is the question that we've been trying to answer all season, just where we are and where we are is trying to find consistency, is trying to win games in a row. For the last month I feel we've been win/loss, win/loss. So where we are is trying to string wins together and string good halves together and that's our goal for the tournament. And that's all you gotta do, as Coach says, catch lightning in a bottle. It's there and it's possible. We have it. It's just stringing those things together, I think. Q. Whitney, I think A&M has eliminated you guys from the Big 12 tournament four straight years. You've been here for all four of those. Why do you think that keeps happening? Was this game any different, or was this just typical A&M when you meet them in the Big 12 tournament? WHITNEY HAND: I didn't realize it was all four years that I've been here. It just stinks. You don't want to admit that they're good in the tournament and we lose to them every year. But it's the facts. It's what the stats show. It's kind of heartbreaking for us as a team, but at the same time they're really tough in the tournament. They're a tough team. They battle you. They fight you. And we gotta be tougher. We gotta figure out how to be tougher. I guess I remember lots of memories playing them in tournament and they just fight. They fight hard and they're bullies and they make you fight for it. Q. Aaryn and Whitney, what needs to change for you guys to string some wins together finally, next week‑‑ and beyond, perhaps? AARYN ELLENBERG: I think just playing an entire game, not just playing one half. We've gotta do what we do as well and we've got to guard. Basically that's one of the things we've been focusing on, really just guarding, putting two halves together. WHITNEY HAND: Yeah, I would say consistency, all the way around. Q. Aaryn, you appeared to get banged up pretty good at the beginning of the game. How did that affect you today? AARYN ELLENBERG: Well, I mean, it was a bit of a stinger. Probably took me‑‑ kept me from shooting a couple of shots I probably normally would. But other than that, I didn't really focus on it. We were out there trying to win a game. So I kind of just put it out, aside. Q. Just elaborate on that a little bit. Was it your wrist, looked like diving for the loose ball? AARYN ELLENBERG: It was my hand. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Sherri, K.K. got two fouls there in about 30seconds. Was it a case you just couldn't get her out in time, or were you hoping to let her play a while with three, or what was going on there? COACH COALE: No. K.K.'s fouls came boom, boom, I think they both were in transition, which is quite odd. And we just had situations everywhere. We had foul situations everywhere and just felt like we needed her in the game to rebound and defend. Q. Question about A&M. Are you going to miss'em? COACH COALE: I wish them well in the SEC. Q. Same question about changing some things to string some wins together and to play a few weeks in the NCAA. What comes to mind? What needs to happen? COACH COALE: Well, first of all, after the grind of the Big 12 conference season there's a breath of fresh air that comes in for the conference tournament. And you go, oh, wait, we're playing all those same people with you just rolled around with for two months. And I think now is when you really get the breath of fresh air, just play someone different, anyone, just someone different. And I think that helps as much as anything. What has to happen for us to string two wins together, consistency from the guard spot. Our big three‑‑ when our big three‑‑ that's Morgan, Aaryn and Whitney, when they've played really well we have won. And obviously we need some post production. But we'll get what we can get there. Those three have to be on top of their game for us to be able to win consecutively in the tournament. Q. I know sometimes we in the media maybe overanalyze compared to you guys, on rare occasions. Have you thought much about the seeding because of your roller coaster season, what may be fair, who they may bring with you to Norman, an 8, 9? Some people say; is that too high, too low? COACH COALE: Oh, that's too low. Look at our RPI. Goodness gracious. I haven't looked in several days, but last week we were at a 15 RPI and a 6 strength of schedule. And we finished second place in this league. Come on, that's worth more than an 8 or a 9. I don't know where they'll put us or who they'll send to Norman to play us. And I wouldn't want to be a committee member in that room. They have a tough job. And there's been a lot of upsets across the country that will, I think, affect things. I think that actually in a crazy sort of way may help our seeding in that there will be some teams who came through won their conference tournament, some teams in leagues that nobody expected that to happen. So you're going to have some of those guys that might actually boost the position that we're in. Q. Elaborate a little bit on Bone and the foul trouble and K.K., especially the 2. I mean, it seems like once she left the game Bone really had a huge impact on the game. How much did it impact, do you think, her getting those two and getting four? COACH COALE: We didn't have an answer for Kelsey Bone. She's just physical and goes and buries you and goes, and she catches the ball and puts it on the floor and buries you two foot and three foot further. What else are you supposed to do? You're there and she just physically moves you two feet further and scores. I don't know what you do about that. We had all kinds of foul trouble across the board with our posts. Nic was in trouble. Jelena had three and K.K. was in trouble. We were really at a disadvantage there. And like I said, we fell behind and we couldn't go back to a zone and risk that. We had to try to put a little bit of pressure on them, make something happen. We did not have an answer for her. Where I feel like we failed to maybe exploit her a little bit is she got some early foul trouble, too. And we weren't able to go at her and get her in foul trouble the way my bigs were in foul trouble in the second half. Q. A couple of schools in the Big 12 have been pretty public that they're not going to play A&M in the future. Looks like no one is immediately. Do you think that will eventually thaw? Do you think you'd eventually play A&M? COACH COALE: It's hard to say. Scheduling is such a big part of what you do for your season. When you play in a league like we do, and depending on how many teams there are in the Big 12, I don't know if it's set right now or‑‑ I wake up every day and try and find out. But we play two more games this year than we typically do in league, and that was really tough. When you balance it with what you're trying to do in your preconference schedule. And we schedule three and four years out and have had historically some very, very tough nonconference opponents, Tennessee, Connecticut. We've got Duke coming in there. We have several things on the horizon. So it all has to fit with that. You can't go play five top 10 teams outside of this league schedule. That would be absolutely crazy. So you never say never. Once you have children, don't you decide that, you never say never? THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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