March 24, 2008

Recap | Box Score

Baylor Head Coach: Kim Mulkey

Opening Statement:

"Well we're disappointed that we lost. I can give about three things that we did that were critical. We didn't extend the lead at the end of the first half. We had an opportunity to extend the lead. We didn't do it. We had three times in a row by veteran players that have been in the program. Free throws. I mean when you can't shoot a free throw, you can't win many games, and we didn't make free throws down the stretch. I think it was a game of momentum. I thought when we cut the lead to two, the three-point foul call...three free throws extended it (the Pittsburgh lead) to five. That was critical. I think of those three things when I think back to the game tonight."

Your comments on the intentional foul call.

"It was the right call because you can't grab her like that. We were trying to be rough and you know when they break the ball. Just trying to be physical and they were calling off-the-ball stuff. That's all I can tell you. That had no factor in the game. That was desperation is what that was."

How big was that three-shot foul? You all had got it to two, seemed to have all the momentum, you had their big girl on the bench.

"It was huge. That was a huge, critical moment in the game to make that kind of call with one second on the shot clock. I didn't see the girl fall. I didn't see anything. Didn't the ball hit the rim or the backboard?"

What are your comments about how your (veteran) players came out in the second half and played not characteristic of what you have seen a good portion of the year?

"I don't know why you miss shots. I don't know why you miss free throws. It is just part of basketball. It is part of the game. But when you have enough opportunities late in the second half to get back into the game, you can take the lead on free throws, I don't know. Our problem was scoring. Was it because we were fatigued; was it because of their defense? We had great looks."

When you got down 11 there, I think it was maybe halfway through the second half, what got you back in the game again?

"What always does hustle. Hustle plays, effort. Make key shots in that stretch. What we're not able to do right now, we weren't able to do it today, was who am I going to set a play for? Who is our go-to player out there? We are searching for that - who our go-to player is. You mentioned earlier Danielle (Wilson) gives you 15 in the first half, six rebounds, well that's what she ended with, so do we go to her? I just think we have a team of one senior, underclassmen, who are getting better and better, but they are just not good yet. They are not making plays down the stretch to help us win basketball games."

Having played Stanford, can you give us a look how Pitt would match up against that team from your experience of playing those teams?

"Candace Wiggins. She lit us up. Candace Wiggins. Four-time Kodak All-American. Very good at running the triangle offense. Will not take bad shots. Will not miss shots. Will make you guard them the entire 30 seconds of the shot clock. Their style is not anything like you have seen tonight. Not a Baylor style. Not a Pittsburgh style."

Did you lose to a better team tonight?

"They won so they obviously were better than we were tonight."

Baylor Players:
Rachel Allison
Danielle Wilson

For Rachel, their big girl (Marcedes Walker) fouls out with five and a half minutes to go, did you think you all had a chance to pound it inside? Or what was the mind set going in you know with her on the bench?

Rachel: "Well when she got a fifth foul, we wanted to take advantage of that. She's in there getting rebounds. She's scoring on us. We're trying to emphasize that, you know, go inside, but couldn't get it done."

Rachel sort of along the same lines, how much of a factor did Zellous (Shavonte) play after "Big Girl" (Walker) went out? Obviously Zellous (Shavonte) had a huge impact in the final outcome down the stretch.

Rachel: "Well, she hit some big shots. You know she is a good player. She made plays and that is something that we didn't do."

Danielle (Wilson) you had 15 points, six boards at the half and didn't have any in the second half. Did they do anything differently to you or do you feel like you got out of your game a little bit?

Danielle: "I think I just hid behind the defense in the second half. I didn't present myself as well in the first half."

Rachel (Allison), talk about how bad this feels. Especially for Angela (Tisdale), I mean this is her last game and not getting to a Sweet 16 with her.

Rachel: "Well, I feel worse for her than for you know the rest of the team. She's a senior. She deserved to win tonight. She's a good player. She's got a bright future ahead of her."

This is for Rachel (Allison). With the way you guys had a great game early in the tournament, you guys played pretty well tonight. How does this make you feel getting ready for next year the core coming back?

Rachel: "We have a lot to work on. That is all I can say. We've got a lot of work to do in the off-season from everybody. Everyone's just going to have to get in the gym everyday."

Pittsburgh Head Coach: Agnus Berenato

Opening Statement:

"We're going to the Sweet Sixteen and we are really excited. We are excited for the university and Chancellor Nordenberg and our athletic director Steve Peterson and just for the women's basketball program. One of our former alumni came she really took a risk and flew out here, Debbie Lewis, she just said, 'I have waited 25 years for this.' These kids aren't that old, so they don't know what it's like but I want them to enjoy it. It is just a great feeling to know you are going to the Sweet Sixteen and to know that we played a tremendous Baylor team. I have all the respect in the world for Kim Mulkey. Like I said yesterday I've watched Kim since she was a player at LA Tech and I was a coach then so I am a lot older than her, but I respect her, I respect her program and we are just delighted. I thought our team played with heart and soul. I thought the last four minutes they really buckled down and they got after it defensively. 'Big Girl' (Marcedes Walker) fouled out, we went with five guards and I think you saw the heart of a lion out there. I think you saw a team that was not going to be denied. Losing was not an option for us today. We were going to the Sweet Sixteen. I am just really proud. I am really proud, happy for our seniors Mallorie Winn, Karlyle Lim and Marcedes Walker. They are three winners. For this program to be able to get to the Sweet Sixteen is tremendous for them. But what they have done for our program, they've changed it. I just want to thank them on behalf of Chancellor Nordenberg and Steve Peterson. The game was an awesome game and I am just really excited."

Their post, Danielle Wilson, had 15 points and six rebounds at the half. What did you do at halftime to take her out of the game? I don't think she had anything at the second half.

"We were upset at half because she only averages nine and six and she had 15 and six and we felt that she got them on some slips from our trapping and she also got two baskets on transition. We were upset with that. It wasn't like she was just pounding us inside we had to do a better job at our transition game and when we trapped, and I felt our traps really hurt them. We did a great job on the first and second pass, but the people making the trap weren't sprinting back and I think we made that halftime adjustment and I felt that adjustment was really big adjustment for us to make at halftime. Also, when we do get in severe foul trouble we went zone and I felt that we really practiced hard on our rotations and on just our movement. I thought that that was key for us. I thought Sophronia (Zellous) came up big with some really big rebounds. It worried me when we only played five guards that they would just pound it inside. But the kids just played bigger than what they were."

You have often talked about certain wins being program defining or program making wins. Baylor has obviously won a national championship a couple years ago. Can you talk about the magnitude of this win for your program on a grander scale than just going to the Sweet Sixteen?

"Again, I feel like, and I keep saying it, but I really respect Baylor and Kim. I respect that she won a national championship, I feel like she does it all. Baylor, they are always in the Sweet Sixteen or the Elite Eight constantly. I think that our team being from the east, being in Pittsburgh, I don't know if they were intimidated as much with Baylor as they would be with Connecticut or Tennessee. Now the staff, we know, we know basketball but I was really confident we were going to the Sweet Sixteen. I thought you know it's about time that Kim Mulkey that she tried to feel what it was like to go home after the first round, to spend some extra time with her family, get caught up on the laundry and the bathrooms. Why doesn't she let me experience me staying on the road for about ten or 12 days and I told her that. I think that eventually, what goes around comes around and Kim has a great great program. I think she had a huge injury to her team. Her team is not the same since they lost the kid to the ACL. We all know about ACL's and we all know what that can really destruct a team. At the same time we had severe setbacks and we weathered the storm so we take it as definitely a win, this is a program changer win. Notre Dame when they were ranked ninth in the country that is a program changer. DePaul ranked fifteenth in the country, go up to their place and beat them by 30 that is a program changer. I still won't get over that we lost to Duke by two but that would have been a program changer. Slowly we are making some impacts and now everybody else besides the Big East will think well Pitt wow, they are really paying attention to women's basketball program and they are going to be a force to be reckoned with in the future."

Pittsburgh Players:
Shavonte Zellous
Marcedes Walker

Marcedes (Walker), you've often talked about when Agnus (Berenato) came to recruit you and how she was kind of selling you on a dream and on kind of the fiction being as where was compared to some of the other programs that were recruiting you. Can you talk about now you are obviously not done, but this had got to be a step where you kind of feel like that dream is being fulfilled right now?

Marcedes: "It's exciting. You know being Coach B (Agnus Berenato) recruiting saying that she was going to build the program around and like I am so happy to have like Shavonte (Zellous) and Mallorie (Winn) and Xenia (Stewart) and just my whole teammates cause now I have to do it on my own, now I can rely on them and tell them to shoot and I go get their rebound and it just means so much because I know, I know when I picked up that fourth foul coach was taking me out and I was trying to stay away from the ball, but it was just like my reaction to go for a rebound and when I got my fifth foul I know Shavonte (Zellous) grabbed me soon and she was like 'I got you big girl. I got you' and it just means so much because freshman year if it came down to me fouling, we was done, but now it's like I can rely on people, Shavonte (Zellous) we got you, Mallorie (Winn) we got you and you know that's what you need. You need a team. It's not an individual game and to have the support cast that I got and I'm a support cast for them as well. It just means so much to me."

Shavonte (Zellous), can you talk about what it was like to see Marcedes (Walker) go out with more than five minutes remaining and the game getting closer at that point. What did it take for you to pull out that victory?

Shavonte: "Like Marcedes (Walker) said it was a team win. When Marcedes got her fifth foul like she said I came over to her and said 'Big girl we got you, we got you'. This isn't the first; Marcedes has fouled out in a couple games and us being a team coming out and pulling out this victory, that's what we had to do today.

Was there a point early in the game where you guys figured out that you might even be better than this team? Was there a point where you felt like man you deserve to be here?

Marcedes: "Well, all the time we feel like we better than the team. We can't go out thinking we going to lose Paul, come on man, but we knew, in the beginning of the game we just wanted to run our game, our game plan and you know in the beginning we started running our game and we let them catch back up and they took the lead so, I know when we went into half time coach really emphasized on that, play our game inside outside game and we should go back up on this team and that's what we did and we just toughened out in the last four minutes when I fouled out and got big rebounds and made some big free throws and that's what it takes to win games, as long as you buckle down and get the key stops that you need."

Shavonte (Zellous), can you talk about what it was like to play in a game where so many fouls were called and so many players had several fouls and you had to worry about that while stopping a good team defensively?

Shavonte: "I really don't like to comment on the officials, but it was kind of frustrating because Marcedes (Walker) had like two fouls, I had two fouls, "Mal" (Mallorie Winn) had two fouls, "Z" (Xenia Stewart) had two fouls so, it was kind of frustrating, but we all came together as a team and by us having a bench. I think Taneisha (Harrison), Karlyle (Lim), and Chelsea (Cole) came in and stepped up and they helped us out."