February 06, 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
Talk about Texas and how Tiffany Jackson impacts them, and what you have to do to plan for her even after she got injured on Saturday...
"I expect her to be there. I've seen her go down before and come back up the next game. She'll probably be in a boot for a day and be ready to play 38 to 40 on Wednesday. We're preparing for Tiffany Jackson as well as all their other good players. I think preparing for Tiffany is a little bit different this year because they are playing her at the 3-position as well, when they put (Ashley) Lindsey and (Mariana) Mergerson in there, or Cook. They just run about six of those 6-2 to 6-4s in there. When she goes to the 3-position, that's a problem for us because of her size. They can go to a front line of 6-4, 6-3, 6-4. I'm a little slow in math but it doesn't work too well for us. We've just got to play faster, put more pressure and take them out of where they want to run their offense. That's what we have to do. When they put that front line in they're probably the tallest team in the league. Jackson just plays so hard. She plays hard every possession. She makes some mistakes and some turnovers, but she just makes things happen. By far her, (Baylor's Sophia) Young and (Oklahoma's Courtney) Paris are the three best individual players in our conference. She's playing with a lot of young kids on her team right now that she's having to learn to get them involved in the offense. I'm sure (UT) Coach (Jody) Conradt is trying to figure out just the right formula. Sometimes as coaches we see so much talent on our bench and sometimes depth will confuse you, because the backup quarterback always looks good. You want to go by that mentality, but I like their team. I like their talent. I've seen them play very, very good this year and I've seen them play very average. That sounds like what people would say about our team as well. When you're young, you don't worry about Jackson, you worry about Texas. Jackson's going to get a double-double just about every time she comes in. What you try to do is limit her touches. A lot of teams have gone into it doubling her every time, making her give it up and let somebody else try to beat you. I'm not sure that will be our approach but we'll probably try three or four different things in that ballgame to try to stop Jackson or slow down Jackson."
Coach, the polls are out and you guys are in for the first time since 1996. Your reaction on that...
"I'm happy for our kids but I'm happy for the fans. They've weathered some very mediocre teams and some very average teams at the time. I remember back to that 95-96 team, that was a pretty special team they had here. And I remember back to when they won the Southwest Conference Tournament championship by beating Texas Tech. This place has not been void of talent, it's just been a little void of winning at the highest level. Sometimes it's just chemistry, putting all the right players together at the right teams. I think we've earned it. If you take the top eight to 10 teams away, you could go 11 through about 35, and we're all about the same. Even out of those 11 through 35, there's going to be some of those teams that might not even make the tournament due to the numbers. Most of them are in the power conferences, and if you do not have a .500 record, you might be in a little bit of trouble. We're going to enjoy the one or two days that we're in, and we're going to build off of it and we'll use a lot of it in recruiting, so we'll be working the phones hard, but all of a sudden Wednesday comes real quick. It doesn't go in the paper until Tuesday and we're playing on Wednesday. We've got two tough road games this week, but we're going to enjoy it. That's all we can do."
Is it a little bit of a trap to play, where you say Texas Tech beat Texas like they did, then you have your game on Sunday, and now you play Texas, especially with a young team? Would you maybe feel the same way with a veteran team?
"It could be, because Texas was very fortunate to win on Saturday against Colorado. They were down 58-52 and their best player, Jackson, goes out with a sprained ankle. All of a sudden a freshman stepped forward. Well sometimes that can rally a team more than anything. Your star didn't win it for you. All of a sudden your senior finally makes a couple of plays, and a few others step up. That worries you. We're always looking for the silver linings or how we're going to spin this loss. Did I want Colorado to win? Sure I wanted Colorado to win. You've got to add up as many losses as you can against the Big 12 south. You don't pull for friends anymore, you pull for yourself. You pull for the Aggies. But you take what comes. They've had a close win at Nebraska and a close win at Colorado, and it doesn't matter if you win by 20 or you win by two. In fact I talked to the NCAA today on that, and it doesn't matter if we beat Texas Tech by 18 or one. It only goes down as that 'W'. They do not give you any credit for beating a team by 18 or 20, or losing by one. If you lose by one, you've lost. That's the way it should be."
Are you where you expected to be in year three, when you first took the job? Did you outline goals?
"My A.D. expected me to. That's the number one man that counts. Yes, yes and yes. I expected to be there. But we're not anywhere yet. Until we make the NCAA Tournament, we haven't done anything in year three yet. We've won 17 ballgames. We might have to bleed a little for the next couple. I've been on the wrong end and been left out before. In '97, we were 18-10 (at Arkansas) and I'm one game below .500 and they've got me wired. And we've got three top 25 wins. All of a sudden they come on before the NCAAs, the TV cameras are all there shooting the pictures, and it was the agony of defeat. And we didn't get in. I sensed it before the show started. Our kids were all fired up. The next year we go to the Final Four. There was no WNIT that year, so technically we were the 65th team. That was tough. That was year four. We made it in year two in Arkansas, 23-7."
Is there tournament talk in the locker room?
"No. There is Texas talk. We're not good enough to have the luxury or experience to be talking of that. We've had one goal all year, and that's simply NCAA. Whatever it takes to get there, that's our goal. If we get there, we'll set up some new goals...Big 12 Tournament, NCAA, the whole nine yards. If it happens to be WNIT we'll set new goals there. But we want NCAA. These kids couldn't tell you who we play two games from now. They could not tell you and I promise you that. They know we play Texas though."