January 23, 2006
Head women's basketball coach Gary Blair met with members of the press Monday at the weekly basketball media luncheon held on the Texas A&M campus.
Click the link to the right to listen to the press conference. A transcript is posted below.
Gary Blair Media Luncheon Quotes
Would your favorite words now be "second half"?
"Yeah, and really it's been sort of different for us this year. (Usually) Our first half has always been good here. In the second half (on Saturday) we came out and responded, but what helped the second half was the 6-0 run to end the first half. We just made some plays and got a little bit of momentum. Danielle Gant made that shot with one second to go and that really fired us up going into halftime. I thought it was a very even half. Missouri looked taller, more mature; they were all juniors and seniors; we were losing a lot of 1-on-1 battles in the first half. We'll take it at halftime. In the second half we came out, ran our stuff, and gradually our press will wear people down. It usually is not effective the first five or 10 minutes of the game because the other team has worked their press-breaker the whole time they were getting ready for us. We forced 30 turnovers, and a lot of them came unforced on their end when they just threw it away. We did it a few times ourselves. But, you're going to win 99 percent of your games when you take 21 more shots then your opponent, have 23 offensive boards, out-rebound them by 12, win the turnover battle by 12, win the steal battle, and shoot average, but shoot 14-of-18 from the (free throw) line. You're just not going to lose. The 12th Man really stepped in and did a good job of helping us through the press. That's where a crowd can really help you, is when you're more of a defensive team and they're not just sitting back applauding your nice little jump shots or something. They were getting with us on the defensive end because we were working hard out there. We had the depth to do that and we can roll a lot of people out at you."
You said at halftime (on Saturday) you weren't sure if you wanted to drop the press or just play it all the time. What was going into your thinking?
"(Missouri guard LaToya) Bond getting into foul trouble. As soon as Bond got into foul trouble, we said we were going to press the whole half. We didn't feel like their backup could really handle it and be effective at handling it. Bond can break it and can score on you. We were able to just make her active. If we could have done same thing against (Angela) Tisdale at Baylor we would have pressed them. I press more at home then I do on the road, just because at home I have the 12th Man. They extend our press. That's how you work a little bit better there."
What kind of crowd do you think you can get Saturday (against No. 13 Oklahoma)?
"Well, I've already been into my A.D.'s office this morning and given him a lot of my ideas (laughter). Once the season starts, I don't deal with marketing. That's their bag. I worry about 'What can I do?' Last night I wrote an email and sent it to all of the people in the Brazos County A&M Club, of which there's over 1,000 or so. So, I sent that email out. We'll do the Maroon Club thing. They're going to have me do some gimmick, shooting t-shirts out before the men's game. I'm going to try to sell tickets myself. I'm going to be out there on the concourse, doing whatever I can do to sell tickets. I'll hit the radio shows on Friday. The thing that's tough is that we have a 2:00 game (on Saturday), and our men have a 5:00 game. The problem is the average Aggie fan will not commit sometimes to six hours and staying straight with you. When we finish at 4:00, they'd have to wait an hour for the men's game--which they should, if they're a true basketball fan. I don't think they get to (Duke University's) Cameron Field House at game time. They get there before. That could be a great pep rally for our men's game, if our fans stay over and we start the yell leaders an hour early. I'm going to do my part, whatever it takes. I'll be out. But I've got to get fans to do both. Will they do both? I don't know."
It was a loud crowd the other night. The students really seemed to be into it. That could be a huge key...
"When you haven't seen us in five weeks, and the students haven't been here in five weeks, and we've played I think nine home games while they've been gone, all of a sudden it becomes a perfect weekend for us. The men were away, they played on TV that afternoon and got a great win. That fired up our fans. They came out to support us, to see what we're all about, and it carried over. I want to see the same thing. I need the student crowd to be able to stop (OU center Courtney) Paris and Oklahoma. They're playing as good as anybody in the country right now. They're playing very, very well. We'll just have our hands full with that. We've got something else, though, before Oklahoma."
What are the disadvantages of playing a Tuesday night on the road (at Colorado), with the way the schedule worked out?
"You're not just playing Tuesday night on the road. Remember, we played a Sunday on the road (at Kansas), and then played Wednesday on the road (at Baylor), then played Saturday at home (against Missouri). Now we're going Tuesday on the road (at Colorado). That's 3 out of 4 (on the road) in 10 days. It's going to help as far as rest and preparation for Oklahoma. It's going to hurt as far as Colorado, (who is) sitting back and waiting on us because they were at home Saturday night. When you play as well as we did, hopefully the adrenaline will flow. We came back and we had no energy to practice yesterday, so we just watched film for two hours on ourselves and then on Colorado late last night. The kids were in a great frame of mind. We'll take our day off Wednesday and try to recoup and get back ready for Oklahoma."
Do you figure your team is ready to go on the road and play a complete game?
"We've got a couple I think huge road games that, when you look at your schedule--you play one game at time--but (you look at) Colorado and then the last game of the year at Oklahoma State. Arguably on paper, those two teams are at the bottom of the league. We cannot afford any slipups as well. We'll play this game just like we were playing the Colorado of old, when they were in the top 25. We'll give them a lot of credit. We got beat up there by 10 or 12 two years ago, and I thought we were in the game. They won't put a lot of people in stands because the team is losing right now, but the most important thing is it's on national TV. I'll try to use that spin with my players. We get a chance for people who haven't seen us all year (to see us). It's our first TV game. We'll use it for recruiting and get people out there. If we can look good on TV we'll use it for momentum for Saturday, because a lot of our 'casual' fans, if you will, are trying to determine--they read all y'alls stuff and listen to all y'alls stuff, but they are not coming yet. If we can do a good job on TV, and y'all can spin it and we can play it, perhaps we'll have a good weekend crowd the next two weekends."
You play team like Missouri that had seniors and juniors, and yes, that gives them an edge, but they were also long and athletic. Is that what you're going to see in some of these upcoming teams? Can you tell your team, "Hey, you just took care of a long, athletic team?"
"Well, we did. We'll see that with Colorado. Their point guard will be 5-11--Whitney Law, who used to play at Georgia. Their two-guard is six foot (tall). And their three player, (Jasmina Ilic), leads them in scoring, and I think she's 6-1. Then (you've got) 6-4 and 6-3 (players). We had a problem to start the game the other night, if you noticed. My jump shooters were contested, they were all short, they noticed the fingertips flying at them. (Missouri) deflected I think three out of our first five shots. What we've got to do is we've got to have a counter to that. Sometimes you're not going to be open. We've got to drive it to the basket more. We've got to get Colorado into a lot of foul trouble. They do not have the depth. I think they have seven scholarship kids and two walk-ons. That's all they have this year. What we've got to do is make it fast and ugly. (We've got to) get it inside. (We've got to) score inside, and run like we stole something. We're going to run the basketball. We're definitely going to have our legs running in this game, and we're going to use the Pittsburgh (Steelers) thing. Don't come in (to Colorado) two to three days early and get ready for the weather. You just get there the day before the game and show up and play, and don't tell your kids there's a time zone change or anything. You don't tell your kids there's an altitude. You just play. Maybe they won't notice."
Is Erica Roy the most underrated player on your team?
"She always has been. Remember, Erica's only shooting about 38 percent, but she drives the ball and she's got no fear. Morenike (Atunrase) and T-Kay (Starks), sometimes they get a little tentative and settle for jump shots early. Erica will take it to the rack, and she's going to go guard the other team's best player. If I can get her 20-28 minutes a game coming off the bench, who cares who starts."
Do you think the rest of the team picks up on her defensive intensity?
"Oh yeah, because we praise her all the time in the film room. That poor girl...nobody ever says anything bad about her. We're always praising her and jumping on the others. She's just back there feeling good about herself. As coaches, you reward your seniors that have gone through the wars and make good decisions. Instead of always patting your star on the back, sometimes you pat your most valuable player on the back who might not be a star, because she gives you the intensity to do what you want to do--that's pressure for 40 minutes, whether that's half-court or full-court."
When you were at Arkansas, was this your style? Or does it just depend on the talent each year?
"I couldn't press as much (at Arkansas) because there were more athletic guards in the SEC who could handle the ball in a full-court situation. That's just me flat being honest. We were in more of a run-and-jump press. Here, we're running straight man press more because we're too young to pick up all the little things that I want to do off the run-and-jump. Right now I'm starting three sophomores and two freshmen, and bringing a freshman off the bench along with those two seniors and Lenka (Zimova). Those are my first nine."
Are you pleasantly surprised with how young you are and how well you're doing?
"Yes and no. I think we built on how we finished last year. We built on it because we knew who we recruited. They fit our system, and we knew those kids were going to play early in their careers. So there are no surprises with who's been playing this young. We expected them to play minutes. I think the intensity, when we're intense and getting 5-second counts and forcing teams to shoot air balls at the end, that comes with discipline and good defensive fundamentals. We're doing a pretty good job of that. We've got to do it on a consistent basis when we play the top dogs in the Big 12 south. That's still to be played out because we've got all of those in front of us. They're very young and I'm old, it's a good mix. (laughter)"