February 20, 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
So do you have to have a short memory now and forget about last week and what went on?
"What week? (laughter) All I know is I was at the NBA All-Star Game last night having a great time. No, you're right. You have to have a short week but you have to improve when you play top-10 teams. I think our mindset completely changed after the Baylor game and Oklahoma game. In the Baylor game, we did not know how bad we played until we got into the film room. After we looked at the film, how well Baylor played and saw what we didn't do-particularly on the defensive end-it was mind-boggling the mistakes we made almost every trip down the court. We had two pretty good practices after that. We played a good ballgame at Oklahoma. We had a chance to play two games in front of 22,700 people. Most teams in Division I that are not in major conferences do not play in front of that all season, and we had it on Wednesday and Saturday night. We changed our defense. You'd say, 'The stats didn't look good.' Well, it was the defense we played...we were not going to force turnovers. We played 6-6 (Lenka Zimova) and 6-3 (La Toya Micheaux) in there together at times. We ran some offensive sets that created problems for them. We stayed in the ballgame. It was a 7-point ballgame with 3:30 to go. I hated for our kids that it turned into a 19-point game, because you want to go in, even if you lose, you want to fight for that last basket to the end. We're going to be better because of it. We went ahead and worked out yesterday. We had planned on taking a day off, but we'll go ahead and wait and take it off Thursday since we do not play until Sunday. We had the best workout that we had in probably three weeks. What we need to do is carry it over to the Texas game, realizing that Texas is healthy. We're healthy. The greatest rivalry in sports is fixin' to happen Wednesday night. If I could just get five or six thousand out of that 11,000 back I promise you we will play better than we played against Baylor."
Texas is always a big game, but coming off these is it even more because of where you're at?
"Each game, you always say, is the biggest game of the year. But this is the biggest game of the year. This is right here because of the implications on seeding and towards the NCAA. Texas is playing for their lives right now, knowing that if I'm not mistaken, they play us, then Texas Tech at home, and Baylor. They're playing for their life. They need a momentum boost to go in and play those two national TV games. They've got (Tiffany) Jackson back. When you've got a wounded traditional power...what you've got is a wounded Longhorn that has so much pride and tradition that they deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament. I think Texas, all they have to do is finish 8-8 in our league and they'll be in the NCAA Tournament due to the strength of their schedule. The NCAA will look at their injury situation and say they played through it. I definitely think they deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament. Not at our expense, but they've got to play well. They've been up and down this year, but a lot of us have. This game is huge. You say, 'Well, if you lose to Texas, you've got Iowa State.' Have we ever beaten Iowa State here? Not during my time. Do you want to go into Oklahoma State where they might be 0-15 on their senior night playing you? I don't want to do that either. You take care of business with Texas first. You get to nine wins and then you play a little bit more relaxed when you see Iowa State. If you get nine wins in a power conference, you're going to the NCAA Tournament unless your non-conference schedule was absolutely horrible. And ours was pretty good."
This is the next game, but you know how important it is to get that first-round bye in a power conference tournament. Did you talk to your kids about that?
"I've got a fine line on how much pressure I can put on this team. I keep them aware of everything going nationally. I know what's happening probably more than most coaches because that's just who I am. I am a stat guy. I can tell you what Willie Mays' average is or the whole nine yards. I am a stat guy and I know what the NCAA does. I know how many teams they've taken in the last few years that have an RPI over 50. I know how important this game is for us, to play well in and get a W. You don't want to back up into the NCAA Tournament. All the bracketology or whatever you call it have us in as a seven or eight (seed). It could be six if we win our last three games and win a first-round game in the Big 12 Tournament. But you don't want to back into anything. The thing is, you want to play well. That's the most important thing, because you start all over when you get to the Big 12 Conference Tournament. Very few times does the regular-season winner win the Big 12 Tournament. And I'm sure (Baylor) Coach Mulkey (Robertson) is talking to her team about that right now because they're playing every bit as good as Oklahoma. Am I going to put pressure on the team? I've put enough pressure on myself. I'm putting pressure on my team to play a 40-minute game, not just one half. I'm putting pressure on my team that this is late in February...some of the unforced turnovers we're making on offense, there's no excuse. It's us making mistakes. Our decision-making has to be better. I was watching Texas Tech yesterday against Baylor execute in-bounds plays to precision. Does this look like a team that's .500? No. It looks like a team that is paying attention to detail, like Texas Tech is doing. We will look at those in-bounds plays in practice today. Not stealing theirs, but watching execution. These are the things that I expect out of my team, that we need to be better at this time. We cannot make the December mistakes in late February that we're doing now."
Last year you weren't talking about putting pressure on your team and seeding and NCAA Tournament. Is this something new your team has to handle? Part of the maturation process?
"I think it's new. When we go into press rooms, it's funny how there is more media there now, when we go on the road or when we go at home. I get more questions on the conference call now. I'm getting people hopefully wanting to do individual stories on our kids. We're in this to win. If you can't handle the pressure, go down and play in the lesser leagues. I want the pressure. I want the pressure that basketball gives you. I want Texas and Texas Tech to not be played on a Wednesday night. It should be a Saturday or a Sunday and this should be a TV game. But it's up to us to make this a rivalry. In the last two years, we're playing both Baylor and Texas on Wednesdays. Well, that's what the conference office thinks of us right now. I want those marquee games to be played on weekends. Let's play the North teams on Wednesdays and the South teams on weekends where we typically draw better."
Women's basketball this year seems to have a lot of parity. Is it four teams and then everyone else? How do you see it?
"When I look at the first group here, anybody in that top 10 would not be an upset at all."
Do you remember a year like this?
"No. And it's good. But it's not just good in say that top 10. Where was Michigan State last year, going to the Final Four? I don't know where they were ranked, but I don't think they were in the top 10. Where was Baylor until they got there? I think it's good for the game. When you look in some of the other conferences, like my Dartmouth team...now they are tied with Brown. I need Dartmouth to get into the tournament. They don't have a conference tournament. I've got Washington playing again, and I've got them bubbled in, because that's a key win for us. I've got DePaul playing good again, even though they are in third or fourth in the Big East. Parity is good for the game, because you don't know who's going to win, and more importantly, the officials don't know who is going to win. I think in years past, too many times...they read your papers too. It's good to know going into the game there's balance and respect, from the officials towards the coaches and to the teams, and I think you've got a lot more even playing field than what you used to have. That goes from teams playing each other and officials calling the game as well. We had a great game called up in Oklahoma."
Oklahoma was the first time you played your big girls (La Toya Micheaux and Lenka Zimova) together. How much practice time have you had with them not going against each other?
"During that ballgame and yesterday in practice. That is it. Not one set and not one time, and I'm sure they didn't play with each other in pick-up games before I could be out there. But we still lost the game. We'll have to look at that. I don't think you're going to see it on a regular basis, but as well as (La Toya) Micheaux was playing, and my 4 players for once were not playing well. That's what hurt us in the game, (Danielle) Gant and (Tamea) Scales and (Patrice) Reado were just not playing well. They were making a lot of mistakes. My 1 and my 2 were 1-for-15 between them with about seven turnovers. That's basically 1-for-22, if you turn it over at that position too. So, why not try, even if you're losing the game? You might have instilled something in our opponents' heads that they're going to have to prepare for that now. When we play Texas, they will spend at least 30 minutes working on our press, whether we press or not. They've got to work on it. When they play at Nebraska or Iowa State, they don't have to spend those 30 minutes working on the press, because those teams will not press. What you do is you just put one more thing in your weapons list that they have to prepare for. I sort of liked it, but then as long as we're in a zone or helping defense it worked."
(Men's coach) Billy (Gillispie) had mentioned that Dominique Kirk was his "glue" guy on his team. Do you have any players like that?
"Erica Roy. Erica just fixes what is wrong. She's probably a streak shooter, very similar to Dominique Kirk. She just comes in, is the quietest kid on the team...but when she gets under your skin and is playing, an opponent does not like to go against her because she's going to hold and scratch and claw a little and belly up to you. She has to go up against a lot of 6-footers to 6-1 kids. If they put Tiffany Jackson at the 3-position, she's got to guard her at 5-8. They could put Lindsay at the 5-spot, and (Mariana) Mergerson or (Aubry) Cook or Daria (Mieloszynska) at the 4-spot, and you've got problems there. That means 5-8 on 6-4. Not very good. I just believe Erica has been that player for us. Then I'd probably have to say Danielle Gant coming off the bench for us, what she gives us on the offensive end. She's going to be a very, very good player in time."
How good did (Texas' Tiffany) Jackson look against Oklahoma State? Have you seen the film yet?
"I'm not sure we get that tape. We don't get that one, but they don't get our Oklahoma tape either. They don't know how well our big kids played together because it wasn't on TV. You can have some tremendous match-up problems. I've noticed something Jody has done in the last three games. She's shortened her rotation. When you shorten your rotation, then the kids are not worried about making a mistake and coming out. Sometimes that's the best thing you can do. I've got that many kids too, so sometimes you need a psychologist as an assistant coach to explain why you're not getting the minutes that you got earlier in the year. That all comes with February. February is bananas. It's probably the same way in yall's life right now. You've got clothes all over your apartment. You've got things that are unfinished. You start a lot of things but you don't finish a lot. But the highs in February and March...gosh, they're good. They're really, really good."