BYU vs. TCU Post-Game Quotes
3/10/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 10, 2006
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BYU
Coach Jeff Judkins: Well, we're very happy about the win today. Both teams were very tired. I think both times are very physical and I think it just took its toll on us tonight a little bit. I thought our team really battled through the first part of the game with good intensity, and then second half we came out a little bit flat. It's hard. It's real hard when you're up 12, you feel like you played a good first half to come in first five, ten minutes of the half and really put it on. We turned it over, gave them some easy baskets. Like this team done all year, they know how to win and they just came together. I think you can see how important it is in a tournament in this situation to have a real good inside game because when people are tired, that's where you get the ball. I thought Kubik played one of her best games of her career. We really needed her tonight. And also Mallary, I thought Mallary came in and gave us a real big lift offensively. When she's hitting shots and getting into the basket, our team is way more effective. These two young ladies played very well today. I'm very happy for them. We have to move on our arch rival and it will be a great game tomorrow.
Question: Could you talk about your defensive pressure in the first half, and how you had them out of sorts and trying to get with their offense?
Mallary Gillespie: We just needed to get up on them strong. We needed to have a tough defense. We knew we couldn't give them any open shots, and if we stepped up our defense, it would go with our offense. We tried to take them out of their offence and thus far it worked for us.
Question: Did you know you were going to have a big game after seeing them the first couple of times because you just went off?
Dani Kubik: Well, I knew I was really prepared for this game. I was really excited beforehand. Big game. TCU is a great team. I kind of knew it was, you know, my turn because, you know, post is right there. I kind of got them, and thank goodness Mallary was there so I could have a ton of assists too. But yeah, I was ready for this game. I was really excited.
Question: Dani, like coach mentioned, both teams were very aggressive, played physical inside. Why were you guys able to have such success on the inside? Rebounds were pretty close but you scored them on the inside.
Dani Kubik: I think it was more like position, where I got. I don't know. I knew they double teamed a lot, so it kind of helped out to have my teammates open in that area also. But the main thing was getting it down low inside the key in order to score.
Question: Mallary, you guys have Utah tomorrow. What are some of your thoughts about playing the Utes?
Mallary Gillespie: I'm excited. It's always a great game. It is a rival, so it will be a great game. Every game is a great game. I'm excited. They are a good team, they have a lot of good players. We're a good team, we have lots of good players. It's going to be a dogfight. It is going to be tough. And again, hopefully we'll come out on top, so...
Question: Can you just talk about Utah and the differences in the first two times you played them and what you expect the third time?
Coach Jeff Judkins: Utah is a very well coached team, and they have a lot of veteran players who've been in many big games like this. Kim Smith is I think one of the best players that I've seen in woman's basketball. She always seems to play well in these big games. The thing that's going to be nice is that either her pr Ambrosia, who are the two MVPs, are going to win a championship, which is nice. I think both of them have worked really hard in that. It will be interesting. I think Elaine's probably right now figuring out what she's going to do. I can't enjoy this win. I have to go back to the hotel room and watch a ton of film and figure out what we can do. It should be a great game. Both teams are very equal. Both teams are tired. We'll see who really wants it the most.
Question: Between Dani, Mallary and Ambrosia, they scored 54 points to TCU's 53. What kind of performance will you need from that Trifecta tomorrow?
Coach Jeff Judkins: Coach Elliott will try to take that away. That's her game plan, is take those players away. And hopefully somebody like Keele, or Johnson missed some layups tonight that she usually makes, so she could have probably 10 tonight if she made her layups. But it will be somebody else. It might be Riley coming in. I didn't have to play her a lot of minutes tonight because Kubik was playing so well. So Riley shouldn't be tired. I Shawnee Slade can come in. I think you saw tonight Vanessa hit a big three pointer for us. She played well the first time against Utah. So hopefully she can step it up. I told my team in a kidding way, I said, if you want we can play one on one Coach Elliott and me, and whoever wins can win the game. They want to play. It should be a great game.
Question: You mentioned the tiredness factor, both teams having played three games in four days. Can you talk about what that does, advantages, disadvantage for your team as well as what you perceive for Utah?
Coach Jeff Judkins: Usually what happens when you're very tired is you seem to shoot the ball short. So a team that shoots a lot of three pointers, it should affect them. That's why I really believe to win this tournament, you have to have an inside game, you have an outside game. You can't have one because it's so hard when you get tired. We do have the advantage that way. I think we have a better inside presence. Utah has two players who can create and play so well together, and they seem to always have somebody step it up. The last two games we played, Carlsen hit some big shots, and Warburton played very well. We got to have somebody else step it up, not just Brosia and Kubik. Somebody else in our team has to really step it up for us tomorrow. And hopefully it will be one of those names that I mentioned. They'll have their opportunity and do it. I know we're looking forward to this, you know. I kind of wish we had a day to rest. But I think we have more depth, maybe this could be to our advantage. They played a lot of minutes tonight themselves. It will be a fun game. Both teams know each other very well. There won't be any surprises.
Question: You've been looking forward to getting Kim Smith out of the league for a while. Have you picked out a farewell gift for her and also do you see this game coming down to Ambrosia versus Smith or what really separates these two teams tomorrow?
Coach Jeff Judkins: I don't know if it will come down to those two, but I know those two will be big factors in the game tomorrow. I'm very excited that she's graduating. It seems like she's been here forever. I think a lot of people thought that when I had Thorn or when ways with Utah with Andre Miller, some of those guys. It should be a great matchup between Kim and Brosia. Brosia didn't have one of her best games tonight. So if I know Bro, she will be really focused and ready to go tomorrow and know this is her opportunity to really shine and do it. But Utah does a great job though of taking people out of games. And we're just going to have to hopefully get the ball where we need to and take care of it and hope we have a little bit more energy to really, you know, push the ball and tried to get easy baskets.
Question: Jeff, you've talked earlier about the depth you have on your team. Can you talk about the development of Hutson and Slade and how much they helped this particular game?
Coach Jeff Judkins: What I've tried to do, you know, I learned this a long time as a player, the only way you can build a bench is by believing in your bench and by using it. And earlier in the year I played my bench a lot. I had a lot of people say, Why do you play 10 players? Why do you do that? Well, I do that because they have to learn how to play and they have to get the opportunity. Riley has played so well for us. I really believe she's if she's not one of the best big post players, she's right there. I thing Slade has really come on. She gives us a lot of speed and quickness and athletic ability. Vanessa has had a hard year. She's fought an ankle injury. She got sick right after the Utah game the first time and fought back. I think she's starting to get back and feel confident. I think Nancy will come in and play well for us tomorrow. Those are players that are really there all year for us. As a coach, that's what I try to do, I try to build my bench and believe in them. I told them tonight, I said, tomorrow's going to be a big situation for the bench to come in and really do well. Elaine's done the same thing. She's had Warburton and Joh Teena and she's had some players come in and play really well for her. That's what it takes to win championships.
Question: Do you believe TCU will be in the NCAA tournament?
Coach Jeff Judkins: Yes. They are a very, very good team. We were fortunate to beat them tonight. We were fortunate to beat them the other two times. They cause a lot of problems. They're very well coached. They've got players that can create and tonight probably being tired affected them more than us because of their quickness and their speed. But they are a very, very good team. They played an unbelievable schedule. I mean, Jeff's not afraid to play anybody. He's always been that way. And I think it's made his team improve and that. I really hope they get the opportunity because they will represent this conference very, very well.
TCU
Coach Jeff Mittie: Well, I thought that the start that we got was almost the exact opposite of the start we had against Wyoming. We dug ourselves such a hole, and BYU was certainly defensively they were excellent today. We did not get many open looks. We tried to speed the game up, and that's where we had success. But the bottom line is we got fatigued and we had trouble keeping the intensity and keeping the pace up enough to get them out of control. And credit goes to BYU. I thought they played excellent today. They are an excellent basketball team. They've been a tough match for us all year. Kubik was outstanding today. We did a good job on Anderson, but in doing a good job on Anderson, Kubik was able to get us low and she was the difference in the game today. The credit goes to their team. They did an excellent job of getting the basketball where they needed to in critical times when we were making runs at them.
Question: Can you talk about when did on defense. How did that keep you out of sorts in the first half and going on the second?
Ashley Davis: We talked about how they like to run a lot of help towards the ball, and they kind of stopped their penetration early. We just really went in the game focusing on (indiscernible) passes and moving the ball getting and getting on different sides of the floor.
Question: For each of you as well, just how do you feel about your NCAA tournament chances at this point?
Adrianne Ross: Well, at this point I think that we did all we can do. We had a good couple last couple of games, and we're fighting hard. And it's always our goal, primary goal, to go to the NCAA. Now we did our part and we can just keep our fingers crossed.
Ashley Davis: That's definitely been a goal since the beginning of the season. We're going to take a couple of days off and enjoy the last couple of weeks we had. We ended really strong and just feed off of that and see what happens.
Question: Can you talk about how they were able to get the ball inside that was a little bit of difference in the game?
Adrianne Ross: Definitely. We put a lot of our effort into stopping Ambrosia which you have to do. Then they went to plan B, which is Kubik. And they did a good job of getting into her. We were unfortunate trying to stop. And she's a big body and she is solid and she did a great job tonight.
Question: Do you guys feel like with the schedule you guys played that will benefit you as far as the selection committee is looking at all y'all's resume?
Ashley Davis: Hopefully that will help us as team. Personally we know that's made us a stronger team, playing the top notch teams that are out there. I mean, in our minds it's definitely helping us. Hopefully it will help that committee deciding if we make it or not.
Adrianne Ross: Not only like the tough games that we had before conference. You know, our conference is pretty tough. It is really solid and we impressed by the switch over. That ought to benefit us as well, playing teams like Wyoming, New Mexico, UNLV, BYU three times. So we'll see from there.
Question: Can you talk about what you did on Anderson today how that fed over to them getting Kubik involved?
Coach Jeff Mittie: Well, we denied her the ball, we denied some touches, but when you do that certain times on the floor you're not going to be able to run as much help. And BYU does a great job of moving it. They ran some good stuff against us to get some mismatches down there. A couple times when we were switching, they ran, you know, pretty simple guard to post screen and got her not against her post but against a guard. And it's pretty simple but they executed it very well. And they were quick with it. Timing is a big issue in that. And they had excellent timing today when they did those things today.
Question: Can you talk about their defense and what they were able to do?
Coach Jeff Mittie: Well, I felt like we were sluggish early and felt like the ball movement and player movement was going to be critical. And early in the game we weren't getting either. We would skip it but then everybody would watch the skip pass and stand so we weren't getting active after we moved the ball. We went to the press because we needed that game, I wanted to get BYU scrambling some. I wanted to get the floor more open. Unfortunately we made some runs, but we also made some turnovers that allowed them to get the game back in the half court. So when you fall behind like that and you need the game in a different speed, we did what we could and then I thought we got fatigued down the stretch. And Kubik continued to make basket after basket. She's big and strong down there. I mean, I I'm not sure I'm not sure we could play her the same way with what they were allowing her to do. Is that correct enough without getting me in trouble?
Question: Could you also assess your NCAA tournament possibilities and do you feel like you belong?
Coach Jeff Mittie: Well, I am the way I look at it is when you put the RPI numbers, that's based off the toughest schedule. I didn't create the formula. I just put together a schedule that would match up with people in the country. And you put together 18 wins and you have the last couple weeks that we've had, I feel good about our chances. And I feel very deserving. I think the thing that has been outstanding, and I'll get to this, Adrianne touched on it a little bit, is that the league has been so good this year. It's not just about non conference scheduling; it's about the quality of games we got within the league. Because the top 6 teams in this league, we played 14 games against those, and those are all RPI inside the top 60. That's a lot of games inside the top 60. I like our chances. I'd love to have two more wins because I'd be sitting there on Monday and then I'd be worried about where we're going. I guess now I'll be less picky. We'll see TCU come up on the board. So, I hope so. We finished we finished third in the regular season. We get to the semis here. I think our league is deserving of 4, 5 bids. I feel like we're definitely in there.
Question: Are you not nervous about it?
Coach Jeff Mittie: I'm nervous. I'm nervous every year. I was nervous when we had the automatics because then they put you in the last bracket, and you're going, is there any chance they have forgotten? Or somebody so, no, I'm always this one will be, because of where we came from, I think we finished so strong though. The way our schedule is set up for us, we knew it was going to be really tough down the stretch, but that should be a benefit come committee time. They want to see good wins down the stretch where we beat Utah on the road, who doesn't get beat there very often. We come home, beat a very good UNLV team. We beat an excellent Wyoming team. And then we ran up against the team that's proven to be the best team in the league all year long.
Question: How is Vanessa?
Coach Jeff Mittie: You know, I don't know. Did you ever have won of those little operation games when you were a kid and you couldn't touch the sides? That's how Vanessa we got an elbow injury, we have a head injury, and she's got an ankle. She's banged up. I was nervous it was a knee, you know. And you see that a lot in women's basketball. But it's the ankle, and my guess is it's going to be a pretty good ankle sprain for 3, 4, 5 days.
