January 09, 2006
Head women's basketball coach Gary Blair met with members of the press Monday at the weekly basketball media luncheon held in College Station.
Click the link to the right to listen to the press conference. A transcript is posted below.
Gary Blair Media Luncheon Quotes
"Missouri's got LaToya Bond and (Christelle) N'Garsanet, two seniors. Kansas has got (Erica) Hallman and (Crystal) Kemp, two seniors. Texas Tech has (Erin) Grant and (LaToya) Davis, two seniors. And Baylor only needs one senior. The difference is your seniors in this league have to bring you through the road games. My seniors were not doing that the other night. The league's going to be a tossup--that's the way it should be. I hope those coaches remember when I tried to get us to go to 14 games versus 16...it could come back and haunt some teams down the stretch, because the ACC and the Big East are going to get maybe eight teams apiece in just because the difference between the bottom of the league and the top of the league is a bunch. If you do not go 6-2 at home, I do not believe you'll make the NCAA Tournament. That goes for me, Texas Tech, everybody. 6-2 you have to be, 7-1 you should be. Now, I've got to figure out how to get number two--which if I'm not mistaken we've never won more than three home games in conference play. Well, that'll put me right back in the 'Women Not In Tournament.'"
Have you been surprised by some of these results, which look like upsets?
"I was surprised Baylor lost at Missouri, because the crowd's usually not a factor at Missouri, even though they've got a beautiful new arena. The team was the factor. A senior team protected their court. Perhaps it showed us that Baylor is not as invincible as most of us would have given them credit. The shocking thing was Missouri up 35-11 over Kansas State at the half at home. That's unheard of. Kansas State is the second-best shooting team in our league, and its 35-11 against a team that's not the greatest defensive team in the league? Something happened. To me, K-State at Texas Tech is a tossup game. A&M and Texas Tech, that's a tossup game. Six men's teams won at home this weekend. Four out of six women's teams won. The only two teams that didn't win were the teams picked at the bottom, Oklahoma State and Colorado. Everybody else got served. You have to be injury-free and you have to have seniors make clutch plays.
"The defense in the Big 12 has never been given enough credit. It's always (thought that) this has been an offensive league. We always used to say the ACC and SEC were so much more physical and defensive-minded. I think the Big 12 is becoming more defensive-minded right now, particularly with the way the new rules are where you cannot hold on as much as you can. The rules have changed a little. I wish y'all could have seen the last 7:53 (at Texas Tech). They only made one basket down the stretch. They made one basket on a fade-away by (LaToya) Davis with (La Toya) Micheaux right in her face. It was 54-50 (with three minutes left). We made 2 free throws. Then they only make two free throws (the rest of the game) and we had to foul with five seconds to go. At the same time, when we got it down to 54-52, we did not score on five possessions, turned it over on one, missed a 1-and-1 on another, and had three truck collisions that we didn't get any of the calls. Sometimes you've got to have that whether you're a good free throw shooting team or not. You've got to not be afraid to drive the lane, and we drove the lane and didn't get the call. We got basically 'no calls'. It just didn't happen. It was great defense. I think 11,000 people left there saying they saw a good basketball team. It was funny, as the game was ending, Texas Tech's men's team was coming in. They got to see a good last part of the game."
Looking at the shooting numbers though, you do have to find ways to put the ball in the basket...
"It starts with the post play. Oklahoma State, we were 6-of-30. We were 8-of-25 the other night, and that includes (Danielle) Gant's baskets because we played her more at the four the other night just due to Tweety's (Tamea Scales) ineffectiveness with four turnovers and a couple of crucial fouls in 10 minutes. We've got to have kids step up, and in the Big 12 you see a lot of what we like to call the 'bank robber' defense. Stick 'em up, hands to the sky. They just surround you knowing our kids are a little bit smaller at the four position, and you're having to score with baby hooks or whatever move you could generate to stay out of foul trouble. We have to do a better job of scoring in that situation. I think we are getting it in to them enough. Texas Tech scored enough inside to beat us, but we shut them completely down on the outside. I think our outside shooters are doing a great job of creating shots...but (Takia) Starks is the only one knocking down shots. When you have 22 turnovers and you have 13 steals, that's transition. And we're not scoring in transition. That's not second-chance points we're not scoring on, that's first chance points, after all of our work on defense. Why, I don't know. We work on transition every day. That's the number one thing our kids love to do, is play transition offense. We're having trouble scoring. We're sort of like a horse. We need blinders to not see the defense rushing at us, because when we see the defense rushing at us, some of our young kids are turning into pretzels and not scoring or trying to draw the foul instead of scoring the basket. I want the basket, not the foul."
So your inside play, is that right now by committee? Or do you see somebody every game that can come up and get you at least 10 points?
"I don't think it's fair to say (La Toya) Micheaux's ready. Micheaux played her best game of the season the other night. She was physical. She was tough. She made her best offensive move of year the other night when we had to have a basket. I think that cut it down to six or something like that. She got a loose ball, did an up-and-under move and pinned the ball to basket-she looked like 'Josephine Jones' scoring. All of a sudden. I mean, it was a great move. She can build off that one move, because if our crowd would have been able to see that move, they would expect it more and we'd expect more of her. Lenka (Zimova) is still a viable option coming off the bench because she can draw fouls and hit the outside shot, even though she missed the three at the end that would have won the game (at Texas Tech). We had enough confidence in her that we wanted her to shoot the three if that was the only shot we had available, and that was all we had available. They caved in on whoever we posted up, (Patrice) Reado down low I think, for the last basket."
You've lost close games in Lubbock before. Has this team been through enough that they can turn around this week and put that behind them?
"They better. We're becoming better, but remember who my better players right now are that are producing. We had three freshmen and a sophomore in the game on all our last possessions. Three freshmen, a sophomore, and Aqua (Franklin). We had Morenike (Atunrase) out of the game. We're getting better because we are learning how to take the loss like a basketball team instead of, 'We played great in front of 11,000 and pats on the back.' I would say after the game we were...hacked off. Because we blew an opportunity. Last year, we played better at Lubbock and lost, and were happy. This year, we didn't play as well, but neither did Texas Tech. Both teams played great defense and we were totally hacked off we lost the game. You could tell on the bus ride they learned how to take the loss like an athlete instead of having their cell phones going or jam boxes going. They learned. It was a very quiet bus ride back to the hotel. To me, that's maturity particularly when you have a young team, because with a lot of teams those cell phones and jam boxes are going too quick for me."
This week?
"Must games. Two Kansas teams we'll only see once. With our luck, anytime we go to the conference tournament, we see a Big 12 south team. So, we'll see them once. We know them well. Kansas State, even though they do not have (Kendra) Wecker, (Laurie) Koehn, (Nicole) Ohlde, the kids that have played behind them have learned something. Who was it, (Claire) Coggins? Who went 0-of-(7) from the three? When is that ever going to happen? Never. It'll never happen in her career again the rest of her life. She'll be out there, coach will get in her face, she'll coach hard and they'll be prepared for this...because it's a road game and because they're thinking it's a very winnable game. They've won the last two times down here in two close ballgames, and we've got to find a way to change that right now. We'll be ready to play. I think this is a crucial week for us because I think Kansas and Kansas State, you throw us up in the hat, whomever comes out is who will hit the last shot. Ability wise, I think all three of us are exactly the same."
So, will an 8-8 conference record get you in the NCAAs?
"No, because what's going to happen I'm afraid is some of the teams that have better RPIs than us might come up with 8-8 records. I'm trying to get to two right now. Parity's going to happen in this league, and that's good for the league. People used to give so much credit just to the south and not give enough to the north. The north is going to be very good this year. If they protect their home court, you might have four teams out of the north getting into the tournament. Instead of always thinking four from the south, you could have four from the north just due to what their RPIs are now, with Missouri, Kansas State, Kansas and Nebraksa. How are you going to say those four are not going to make it? Those are pretty good teams. And don't forget about Iowa State, playing in front of 10,000 up there is not a whole lot of fun."
Will you go back next year (to Big 12 coaches) and say 14 games sounds good again?
"I think it'll have to just be played out. We'll have to see how many teams that the ACC and the Big East get in this year. I think sometimes it's a cycle. I'd rather be 10-6 and let everybody else worry about what's happening, because I know where I'm going. But this year, I really believe--and I used to just b.s. last year--we have a chance to win every game this year. And I mean a great chance. Because I like my team that much. I don't like the immaturity sometimes, or the decision making sometimes, but I like my team this much that it's not just coach talk. I believe we can compete with anybody because we have enough talent. Now, in the Big 12, you better have some experienced talent to go along with the talent itself."