March 5, 2010
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VANDERBILT QUOTES
THE MODERATOR: Joining us from Vanderbilt, Head Coach Melanie Balcomb and student-athletes. Coach, if you make an opening statement.
COACH BALCOMB: I just liked their defensive effort tonight. Thought we did a great job knowing where certain people were, taking their strengths away, and then rebounding. When we out-rebound people, we have a great shot.
So (indiscernible) one shot and a tough shot, and I thought that kept us in the game all night.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the coach or student-athletes.
Q. Early in the first half down 12 points, talk about the team battling back.
COACH BALCOMB: Well, we’ve been struggling with leads this year. So I decided to remind them it’s hard to hold leads, and that they’re probably going to get tentative and start to hold leads.
So I tried to put them in their shoes and say, Hey, they’re going to be tentative. We have to get aggressive, and the aggressor is going to win. I thought every time we got down, we got real aggressive, and the two sitting next to me got very aggressive.
Jence was driving it to the basket or dumping it to Hannah down low.
Q. Do you think the experience last night helped you down the stretch in this game?
COACH BALCOMB: Absolutely. I always think when you play a game on this court it helps you because you’ve won a game on this court. So they have the first-round jitters and we’re already in the second round. I think mentally you can have an advantage.
Q. Coach, this is the fourth consecutive time you’ve beaten LSU in the SEC. Do you have some secret of beating LSU now?
COACH BALCOMB: No. But I do I think it’s mental going into the game. I think, you know, when you have any kind of mental edge at this time of the year and they know that they’ve been beaten last year when we beat ’em and we beat ’em in the final, and recently we’ve beaten ’em, so I think they know we’ve won a lot of games in these tournaments.
We’re confident. Maybe they’re a little more hesitant. It can never hurt you – put it that way.
Q. For coach and the players, could you kind of address the challenge of having to play three games in a row, and against a team as good as Tennessee.
Jence Rhoads: Well, I mean, obviously it will be a challenge because that’s a lot of games and a lot of minutes.
But it’s a tournament time. That’s what you do. We came here to play. We’re excited. We’ll be going off adrenaline, so I don’t think it will be a problem.
Hannah Tuomi: I think it’s going to come down to the toughest team who battles the hardest will come out with the win.
COACH BALCOMB: You know, I always look at it kind of oddly. We practiced a lot for three hours, and I would say that that’s harder — and we do it every day, day after day. A 40-minute game or a 45-minute game yesterday, I’d say it’s not as hard. The games are easier than practices. That’s the way I always look at it. They should be ready to go, because they had a shorter day than practice.
Q. This is for the players. You start out the season probably not clicking on all cylinders. As the season goes along, when Vanderbilt gets into the SEC tournament, they’re dangerous. Why is that?
Jence Rhoads: This lady. She keeps pushing us all season. Like we said, practice every day. We eventually start clicking. The younger kids get more minutes, then people start stepping up. This one over here plays really well. Just by tournament time, we’re ready to play.
Hannah Tuomi: Of course, beginning of the season is going to be rough for every team. Coach does a really good job of pushing us. Whenever we have a slump in the season, she makes sure we get out of that and when we get out of the season, make sure we can be the best team we can be.
Q. (Questions regarding playing in Baton Rouge a few weeks ago.)
Jence Rhoads: Definitely. We talked about that before the game on the bus ride here. We didn’t want to come out like we did in Baton Rouge. We weren’t proud of that game at all. It was one of our worst games all year.
We wanted to get a little bit of revenge and show them what we were really made of.
Q. Hannah, you had great positioning on the floor tonight, open under the basket. Where did you develop your hook shot?
Hannah Tuomi: The hook shot? Well, I believe I was about like 10 years old or something and my dad took me in the backyard. And it was like, Here is the first move that I shot or that he practiced. So he just showed it to me, and I’ve been using it ever since.
Q. This is for coach. Did an article about prepping going against Vanderbilt. How many offenses do you actually run?
COACH BALCOMB: One year at Xavier I was asked that, so my players counted. Out of bounds, halfcourt, out of transition, dead ball, quick hitters, side, under, and we had 64.
I could tell you right now, I mean, that’s why Vanderbilt was a good place for me to coach. I had to stay with the smart girls. Right now we don’t have half as many plays. This is the least amount of plays we’ve ever had.
But I always take pride in being a very tough scout, which makes it very hard for people to play u swith 24-hour notice in tournament time.
This year we have so many players playing multiple positions, I mean, there’s some plays Jence plays the post. Hannah never plays the point. But we have so many people. I’ve never had a team as versatile as this team.
So we have less plays. We’re playing different spots within those plays, which takes a lot of time.
We generally have players playing two spots, maybe three. We have a lot of players playing three and four spots right now.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much.
LSU QUOTES
THE MODERATOR: Joining us from LSU, Head Coach Van Chancellor and student-athletes. Coach, would you like to make some opening remarks about this evening’s game.
COACH CHANCELLOR: Out-coached us tonight, out-hustled us, outplayed us. I thought Melanie Balcomb did a much better job with their team than I did with mine. They played last night in overtime. They out-rebounded us. They out-carried us.
They did everything you ought to do. I’m fully responsible. We couldn’t stop. Marsh got what I thought she’d get. Rhoads was pretty good. The kid we couldn’t stop was 15. She did a heck of a job.
Q. Coach, why do you think you guys have struggled to win close games?
COACH CHANCELLOR: I get our kids to realize that every possession counts. I’ve struggled all year to get them to quit fouling jump shooters. That’s poor coaching. I can’t get them to quit fouling jump shooters.
We made a lazy pass over the press. We shot layups. I’ve done everything I can to get them to understand that every possession counts. We can’t keep our focus. This is why we have struggled with — we could have had a fabulous year. We lost three overtime games, two games at the end.
I think nothing but just lousy, pitiful, sorry, miserable coaching. And that’s putting it mildly.
Q. 15-3, is that the point?
COACH CHANCELLOR: Same problem. 15-3, had Vandy right back on their heels, could not score. All of a sudden we think we’re going to become a three-point shooting team. Oh, Lord. That’s poor coaching, too.
If you came into the conference tournament, don’t know what you’re trying to do, it is pitiful on your part. They have no idea. We’re out there jacking up three balls, and we ought to have been getting it inside trying to draw fouls.
We didn’t turn the ball over. I mean, the most disturbing stat to me is just at the end Vandy just out-rebounded us. Vandy had more heart, more character, more of everything. And that’s putting it rather nicely.
Q. What did you think about Allison?
COACH CHANCELLOR: I thought she was great. I’ve been trying for three years with 17 seconds on the clock to get her to go get the ball. I can’t get her. They miss a free throw, I’m down two, and I got what I think is the best open floor player in the conference. I’m out of timeouts. I can’t get her the ball.
Yeah, I’m a little frustrated with that.
Q. Allison, at the end there, were you involved in the screen? And talk about what happened with the jump ball.
ALLISON HIGHTOWER: When she put it up, everybody crashed the boards. I think I was on the floor with some Vandy players, and the ball went to them. So a jump ball, I guess, went to them.
Q. Katherine, could you talk about the close games you’ve been in this year.
KATHERINE GRAHAM: They’re frustrating, but I agree with what coach said. We just got to be more disciplined and listen to what he’s saying, go out and execute and try to win those close games.
Q. Vanderbilt has a history of playing better in this tournament than in the regular season. Is there any reason for that, do you think?
COACH CHANCELLOR: Vandy? They got all the heart and character in the world, and they play a matchup. But let me tell you this. I hate to say this. We practiced for Vandy all freaking week, so that ain’t an excuse.
They come out and get in this conference tournament, and they just play their heart out. Marsh is going to make shots; Rhoads is going to play; and then their post players were just rebounding.
She just does a great job. That’s why I pulled so hard for Arkansas last night. They just play. They get in this baby and they bring it. They don’t overlook nobody. They play. They’ve had as much success as anybody in this league in this tournament, compared to what I would say where they’ve been seeded.
They’ve never come in here seeded first much. They’ve been seeded three, four and five. They’re going to play Tennessee tomorrow night. Don’t kid yourself. They gonna play tomorrow. I don’t know if they can stop the biggest giants in the world playing women’s basketball today, but they gonna play, man. Don’t worry about it. They gonna play smart.
They ain’t going to be fouling when they shouldn’t be fouling. Their key players get three fouls, they ain’t taking any more fouls. They ain’t going to be trying to draw a charge. They ain’t going to be blocking.
They just play smart. They play really, really smart, and they know exactly where they want to get the ball to.
We scored enough points to win tonight. 61 points should have won. That’s about as much as we scored, and didn’t even shoot the ball really well.
Q. You had such a good stretch toward the end of the season. This one game, do you feel like you’re seeing some bad habits that are coming back in this one game?
COACH CHANCELLOR: No. We played six great basketball games. Score is 15-3. We played like we played the last six games. We went brain-dead somewhere in here.
You want to ask the players, ask them. I’m pretty frustrated.
THE MODERATOR: Any more questions for the student-athletes? All right. Thank you very much.