February 13, 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
Can you definitely feel the buzz of this week already? How exciting is that?
"I think it's great. Just going over and doing the baseball game yesterday, and having our kids out there, they got a big kick out of that. The fans were very appreciative. I was able to watch six innings of good baseball, and then I had to go home and do my homework and watch Oklahoma and Texas. The buzz is there, the phones are ringing, the emails are coming in, the fax machine is working, and I hope the recruits were watching. That's the most important thing. (When) you have three straight national TV games on, you don't realize how much that helps us in recruiting. Heck with the rankings. Recruiting is the most important thing. And we're having emails coming from all over the country, particularly from former students, saying thank you and they are watching the ballgame. We've done what we're supposed to. I think I sat here two weeks ago and said I'm hoping we can win two out of three, with Texas Tech, Texas and Nebraska because two were on the road. And I would have jumped at that. But now we've screwed up and won all three. So what are we going to do this week? I try to bring my team up to date each week with where we are in the conference and what's happening nationally, and the kids like that. They like to hear what's going on. It's not about stats, because we're not leading in too many stat categories individually, but team-wise we are. Our kids are starting to watch more on TV. They're glued to their sets. They'll pick up the phone and call me and say, 'Did you see that?' My point guard (Aqua Franklin) is always watching. The rest of them are starting to find the TV set instead of the MTV and all that stuff."
A bunch of us watched the Baylor/Oklahoma game yesterday...
"It was a great game. The three greatest games I've seen this year were Oklahoma/Ohio State, the LSU/Tennessee on Thursday night...a great game, and then the Baylor/Oklahoma game. Hopefully we can play at that same energy level Wednesday night. Baylor I thought dominated that ballgame until overtime. I thought Baylor was in control the whole way."
You don't like to compare scores, but does it give you anything when you see UConn go down to Austin and play close, and you guys ran Texas out of the gym?
"I'm always downplaying what we do, but at the same time I think Texas had more time to prepare to play that game without (Tiffany) Jackson than they did with us. I think Texas played a lot better against Connecticut, particularly their guard play, than they did against us, but I thought we defended their guards a lot better than Connecticut did. Yeah, it felt good. To tell you the truth, I was pulling for Texas in that ballgame because it would have made us look a lot better nationally. And, you always pull for the Big 12 because we need those wins on national TV. Particularly when you're at home, because Baylor just got beat by LSU and Ohio State had beaten Oklahoma. So when our elite teams are out there in front of everybody else in the (nation) it helps the rest of us down the way. Hopefully we can get some of those games in years to come."
What's changed for your team that it's not just close wins anymore? Margin of victory in these ballgames recently has been tremendous...
"I think it starts at the first of the game because of the preparation that has been done. Our kids, for as young a team as we have, the preparation and the mental part of the game, they're picking up things particularly on the defensive end...how are we going to guard certain sets? We're sitting on the bench and our team is calling out the plays as the other team is running. Mentally we're a lot better. On offense, particularly in the Nebraska game, we would run a set when all of a sudden they'd take away that first set. Well, we'd reverse the ball, get into motion or get into high-low, and our kids were just executing and sharing the ball. It just happened to be Morenike's (Atunrase) first half. That's the best I've seen it. Ya'll don't realize how weak she is sometimes with her right hand in practice. Four of those baskets were scored going right, where she went hard and finished. To me, we want to build off of that, because we're on her case every day about going right instead of going left. She was just making big-time moves. It all starts with your point guard. Even though Aqua (Franklin) was turning the ball over...a couple were unforced turnovers where she got tripped from behind, so she has to take a turnover. Three times in a ballgame, we got tripped, no call, but all of them were accidental."
You've also responded to runs from the other team as well, and that's what a veteran ballclub does, not one with freshman and sophomores...
"I think the only runs we haven't countered this year...one by DePaul in the second half in the Hawai'i tournament, and one by Baylor in the second half that we had no answer for. People say you're on a 28-0 run...you're on a defensive run at the same time because you're making them miss. Everyone gives credit to the offense when there's a run but you've got to give credit to the whole team. We're able to make runs and still substitute at the same time, because of those nine kids coming in getting double-figure minutes played. It doesn't affect us. They're going in and doing a good job."
As far as the mental side of things just how far has this team come from last year?
"Last year our number one thing we had in our possession was our cell phones. And we thought we had all the answers through our cell phones. But this year, the cell phone isn't all the answers. We're putting the phones down and talking to our teammates, instead of talking to AAU and high school coaches and parents and friends. Now we're finding the answers between us. The kids are coming in more to the office. They're looking at more film. They're coming in the office and just sitting down and talking to coaches. They're thinking of us more as mentors than just coaches that coach them during the game. The most important thing is it's great to see kids have smiles on their faces particularly when they go into their classes. People are talking to them like they are somebody. I think it's special. There are a lot of other sports here, particularly on the women's side, that have carried women's basketball for a number of years, with the softball and the soccer and the volleyball teams. I think it's our time to step up and carry ourselves and help some of those other teams that have carried us for every year that I've been here."
You said you wanted to have success without necessarily having to have other teams in the Big 12 to be down, but because it's worked out that both Texas and Texas Tech are struggling with injuries and other things...to be ahead of them now, with all three teams playing young players...and they always had the tradition on you, now can you can use this (to recruit)?
"I don't like teams that make excuses, and I do not. With injuries or lost recruits or bad officiating, I don't like that. I've seen that in some of our other competitors' newspapers, and that's been coming out. I don't think you need to see that. If we lose a ballgame, it will not be because our crowd is low; somebody gets hurt or goes out; the referees keep us; or we had a player injured or not. The more excuses you make for your team, you're giving them copouts and already thinking about it if there's a loss coming up. I just don't believe in that. This team is very confident of their ability and they're very loose, but they definitely do not have the big head at all. We realize we've had a few breaks now and then but a few breaks have gone against us over the course of the year. It's not that we're getting the calls now, it's that we're making the plays now. Here's a stat that I looked up...how many times at Valentine's Day have the men's team and the women's team had 34 wins between them? I think 1978 or '79. We checked it out. We've got 34 wins between us. That's big. That's good for basketball here. Hopefully both of us can keep it up. Look at this week. We're playing two top-10 teams. I don't care where Baylor falls in the rankings, they're a top-10 team. Baylor and Oklahoma are mirror images of each other. Oklahoma's won two shots at the buzzer over Baylor but there's no difference between the two teams. They're the class of our league right now. We realize where we have to go to catch that class. Two meaningful games in February. That's huge. We get a chance to go to that next level. I just hope that our fans can feel like they're a part of it. And if you're a part of it, do something about it. I just happen to have with me...12,200 yesterday Oklahoma. Minnesota at Purdue, 11,233. Big game right there. Purdue manhandled No. 11 or 12 in the country, 63-31. That's manhandling, by a former Aggie right there, Kristy Curry. Ohio State/Iowa...7,887. Tennessee and Vanderbilt, rivalry week...12,377 after Thursday night just having 21,000 (vs. LSU). This is where women's basketball is going now. Virginia and North Carolina, that was only 4,290, but if it had been at North Carolina it'd been a whole lot more. Michigan State at Wisconsin yesterday...9,181. TCU at New Mexico...11,865. DePaul only holds I believe 4,000-something...3,953 DePaul/Notre Dame. DePaul beats them by 29. That's the home court. These aren't dollar day promotions. This is where women's basketball is going when you get to that elite level. In years to come I want us to have that Monday night game of the week, us versus a Connecticut or something like that. Now, it's going to come if we keep producing. I can't ask for it, we've got to produce for it to happen. Those crowds are mind-boggling."
You said last week you were going to try to make a lot of hay on being in the top 25 because you knew you had to play two big games during the week...now you're going to be in the top 25 again. How much will being there week after week help your team?
"I think it's going to help our program. You don't build a team, you build a program first. To be considered at that elite level...like Texas Tech went out of the top 25 for the first time since way back, that hurt but their program could sustain it because of what they've done in the past. Same thing with Texas, they've got a few injuries right now. But their programs can sustain it. The same thing happened to our softball team, they went 3-2 (this weekend) and they were No. 6 in the country. The program can sustain it. And that's what you want to build to, where you're not worried about the rankings, you're considered one of the top 25 programs in the country. We've still got to build to get there. When I can start bringing in the Connecticuts and the Tennessees then I know we're a top 25 program. Right now those programs do not want to come to Texas A&M."
Have you called them in the past and seriously talked about it?
"Everybody wants us to come there and everybody wants us to come there first."
How hard is that? (Men's coach) Billy (Gillispie) has been going through the same deal...is it a program status situation or is it hard to get here? Will they not get anything out of it?
"That's the way it was with Arkansas' men. They couldn't get the big teams. North Carolina and Kansas and all those folks were not running to Arkansas to play because of the home-court advantage. They'd play you in Little Rock, and they'd take a chance with playing you in Chicago. Some people run scared. Where if you're a Gonzaga...(head men's coach) Mark (Few) will play anybody in the country because he doesn't have to worry about his conference as much. When you get ready in the big time conferences, and when you have to go on the road like Baylor had to with LSU...that's awfully tough to do, knowing who you're playing on either side of that ballgame. Gonzaga can do it in their conference a lot easier than we can do in ours. Those games will come. In the last two years our phones were ringing off the wall. But I didn't need those games back then. I needed a few confidence-builders and I needed to schedule smart. And what you do by scheduling smart is to get the RPI points, you might play somebody that is a second-tier team in a major conference, so you're getting the top-tier opponents' schedules. All that helps your RPI. You've still got to be smart. When I've got a team that's as young as they are right now, I can't go out there and over-schedule."
Your team has seen a lot of Baylor...talk about the respect between the two teams and having to play the national champion one year removed...
"I think a lot of that comes from the type of players that we've recruited. Neither one of us have a Parade All-American on our team, so we're not all caught up on ourselves. I think there's mutual respect, particularly from the kids in the Houston and Dallas area. They all grew up together, played AAU and other things together, and they're good friends. A lot of times you'll be surprised. Kids talk to each other on the phone, just like that thing you saw this weekend where (Duke's J.J.) Reddick and (Gonzaga's Adam) Morrison were playing video games over the phone. That's the respect that these kids have for each other right now. That's the way women's basketball is going to that level. Right now, women's basketball at the highest level I believe is better than what the WNBA is...at the level that Lisa Leslie's at, (LSU's) Seimone Augustus is at that level in college. I don't think you see that necessarily on the men's side versus the pros up there. But in women's basketball...our elite level at the colleges is getting as much attention as the WNBA players are getting now."
You played Baylor close last time, but since then you've had a lot of landmark victories. What are you going to spin to the team, is it time to beat Baylor? Do you feel you've improved that much in the last three weeks? What exactly are you going to challenge the team with?
"We held Baylor to 60 points last time. I think we've got to do a better job on their compliment players. When you're defending national champions, they're not role players, they're compliment players, or blenders. They do a lot of good things well. I think Chameka Scott is the key to their basketball team, because she defended Morenike last time and held her to zero. (Angela) Tisdale and A'Quonesia I think will be a wash at the point guard. They're both good, they both accelerate, neither one's afraid to pull the trigger. Jordan Davis coming off the bench is one of the leading 3-point shooters. I've got to have that from (Danielle) Gant coming off the bench for me. I think we're a mirror image of each other. They're playing nine kids a lot, sometimes 10, and we're doing the same thing. I think it's going to be a great ballgame. This game is going to be huge for us because it helps us with the seeding for the Big 12 Tournament. We've never even talked to our team, and I don't know if I'll talk to them today about it, but my gosh we're playing to get into the top four. Our only goal all year has been to get into the NCAA Tournament. Now, we're at that level. Where do the games fall right now? Do you know who has the easiest schedule left? Missouri. A lot of us would be loving to sit on that schedule. But the rest of us in the south, we're going to knock each other off. It's tough, but this week, if I could win one of these, I'd do cartwheels in here. I might even give you a rose (laughter). Where's your best chance? When you're playing at home. Look what Billy's (Gillispie) done, and he's won the last two by three and two points. The home court can take care of that. That's the best way to defend (Baylor's) Sophia Young is with the 12th Man."
OU was kind of the previous "big" home game. How do you think the team handled that pressure and how might it be different on Wednesday?
"We didn't take advantage of the opportunity when (Courtney) Paris went to the bench. If you notice, in that Baylor game yesterday, when Paris got two fouls they played her. They felt like they could sit her against us but they had to play her against Baylor, or Baylor would get too far and they couldn't catch up. That was just smart on their part there. I know one thing, I don't think Baylor will run on us as much as they did last time. If we've got to send five back on defense we've got to take away their layups they were getting on us. I just think we're a better ballclub now and you're always better second time around you face them. Baylor's had a lot of heartbreaking losses this year, whereas last year they won those ballgames. This year if she's (BU coach Kim Mulkey-Roberston) going to have those losses she'd rather have them in the regular season. But I promise you, Baylor's playing as good as I've ever seen them. I don't think she worries about Ws and Ls right now, sort of like (Tennessee coach) Pat Summitt doesn't worry about them right now. She worries about the playoffs."
If you lose a lot of close games can they carry over? Yesterday when Paris went out with three fouls, (Baylor) had a chance to break it open and they didn't do it. They had a couple of bad possessions in a row...
"They did, and if you looked at the Vanderbilt/Tennessee game, Vandy had Tennessee beat. Then all of a sudden they got too conservative on the road and they'd dominated the game. You could see it happen. Sometimes you overcoach and you get overprotective there, because all of us coaches, we watch too much film. We start doing all the stuff that didn't get us to where the point is. You need to attack some more. That's what I did the other night in the Texas and Texas Tech games. I started pressing when we were way up just to try to create some easy baskets, because I thought we might get too conservative on offense. Sometimes that's why I press, is to get the tempo a little bit faster even after we're ahead."
Do you see this game Wednesday as kind of a landmark game, where you could really win over a pretty big fan base?
"I'm hoping. Like I said this is still a community growing. I think the key for both Coach Gillispie and ourselves is moving those letters from WNIT to NCAAs. And then the expectations will happen in the stands. When it happens in the stands, it's just like in football, they become bonified experts sitting behind us. And when you're an expert, the expectations come with the job. I'd rather have those expectations on me rather than have everybody patting us on the back for playing teams close. My back is fine. Lower back isn't. (laughter)"