Baylor, Louisville Postgame Quotes
3/25/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Live Photos 
Friday, March 24, 2017
Chesapeake Energy Arena (Oklahoma City, Okla.)
Attendance: 3,499
BAYLOR POSTGAME QUOTES
Q. Nina, this looked like your kind of game, up and down, able to get out in the open floor. How much fun was this for you tonight?
Nina Davis: I mean, it was a lot of fun. We came out and got off to a quick start, which is something we needed to do, something we've been focusing on. We were getting out running, everybody was getting out on the fast breaks. They were feeding me the ball. We like to push the ball and play up tempo. Q. Nina, Jeff was in here talking about how efficient your game was tonight, in particular the way you were able to play off of the two big players in there. Talk about, was it a case of you were able to sort of pick your spots in there tonight?
Nina Davis: For sure. Coming into the game, we know they focus a lot on our bigger-sized players. They try to double them. I try to release the pressure, get into the open spots, cut to the basket when they're doubling them, just try to make it as easy as possible.
Q. Beatrice, earlier in the week it was said that in the game of basketball you don't really know what to expect. Did you expect that kind of game for you today?
Beatrice Mompremier: No. I just expected a tough game, going out there, rebounding, helping my team, doing whatever I could do to help my team.
Q. Kalani, y'all outscored them in the paint. What did you like about your interior defense today?
Kalani Brown: We just took what the defense gave us. I was able to get some passes to Nina. Nina was wide open. If they're collapsing on us, we just go to the next option. I think that's what we did. Guarded shots, opened up the paint a little bit so we could score. We offensive rebounded, got put backs. Just did the dirty work today. It was split between all posts. We all did well.
Q. Kalani, in the first game, Teaira McCowan had 26 points. She's about 6'7". Talk about on Sunday you'll be facing another player your size, what you will need to do to combat Mississippi State's inside game?
Kalani Brown: I've actually played her before, on the AAU circuit. She's a big, strong post. If you let her bury you or get you deep, she'll punish you in there. I've got to be smart on defense, keep my hands high, meet her, run the floor. Just do what we've been doing, play our game. Also stay out of foul trouble, as well.
Q. Kim, it looked like you guys did a good job against Asia during the first half. She got going a little bit in the second half. What did you do during the first half to hold her down?
COACH MULKEY: We hedged somewhat on the screens. I didn't think that they did a lot of handoffs that we expected, that we've seen them on film do. Maybe that's because we played good defense. I thought that every shot she took early was a contested shot. We didn't foul her on any perimeter shots. I thought that every shot she took, I just wanted a Baylor player to make it difficult. I think she got five points there at the end on some kids that don't get significant minutes for us. Guys were on a roll. Just playing good basketball. As I said before the game, yeah, you should talk about our post players, but you better not forget about those perimeter players. Those kids get overlooked. They're hitting big-time shots. They're shooting unbelievable from the three. It's because of the big guys that they're able to get those open looks.
Q. Kim, Nina has had to take a lot of different roles for you in the four years. She's done that pretty selflessly. Not necessarily all players would be able to do that. Talk about the attitude and everything that she's brought.
COACH MULKEY: Sure. Unfortunately, All-American teams are picked by people who never see kids play. They might see them occasionally on TV. Nina Davis didn't have help around her for two years that she made all these All-American teams. She had to do it every night. She had to take all the shots. She had to get all the rebounds, play all the minutes. She just kept stopping at an Elite 8. Like all good programs, we wanted to get help around her, to relieve some of that pressure. She's handled it like a trooper. She wants to get to a Final Four before her career is over. You're right, selfish, huh? Parents that you see on TV today, selfish players that you see on TV today. They want everything today. Yeah, well, this kid, all she wants today is a Final Four and a chance at a national championship. Send me those kind of kids and I'll coach 'em anytime.
Q. Kim, sort of a first impression of going against Mississippi State with what you've seen of them.
COACH MULKEY: Well, Teaira McCowan, guys, lives in our backyard. Watched her grow up. She's in the same class as these two kids. Unfortunately, you have to make decisions in recruiting. I'm proud and happy for her because I've watched a young lady grow up really right before my eyes, from the time she was a seventh grader. I'm familiar with Vic and his style of defense, because he was at A&M for so many years with Gary Blair, and that's kind of what they did. They play in a conference where they've seen the bigs before in South Carolina. They're big themselves. It's going to make for a great Elite 8 game.
LOUISVILLE POSTGAME QUOTES
COACH WALZ: Well, first off, I'd like to congratulate Baylor on a very well-played game, and thank everyone with the support staff, everyone involved with the NCAA. It's been a wonderful experience for not only myself but our entire program, these young women sitting next to me here, our support staff, everyone that's been involved with it from the University of Louisville. I just definitely would like to thank the NCAA. Then on to the game. They played well. Unfortunately, we did not. We did not put up a performance that even resembled anything that I had seen from our ballclub the last month. You know, we knew coming into it that we were going to have to play very well and really do a lot of things in the post to try to give some post help. Unfortunately, we just did not respond very well. The first play of the game, we got them to take the shot that we wanted to take. They miss it. Then we don't follow through with the box-out. It turns into a layup. When you're playing a team with the talent of Baylor, the depth of Baylor, you have to be able to finish out plays. Unfortunately for us, we did not. I thought we actually took care of the ball decent. But the problem is, you know, every time we turned it over, it led to a point. It's a staggering stat, when you look at it. They have 21 points off our turnovers, and we only turned it over 12 times. Every turnover led to a point, a basket. It's unacceptable. We've been talking, if we're going to turn the ball over, we need dead-ball turnovers, we need to throw it into the stands, hold onto it, but they can't lead to baskets. They led to 21 points. Unfortunately it's definitely not the way we wanted to end this season, in this fashion. I'm proud of the young women that I coach. They've worked their tails off. They've had a great season. We're looking forward to getting back in the gym and start working for next year.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for our student-athletes or Coach.
Q. Asia, it seemed like in the beginning your shots weren't really falling. You started to get into a rhythm as the game went on. The team overall didn't really. What do you think it was that was keeping you from getting started in the beginning? Was it the same thing that was hampering the entire team throughout the game?
ASIA DURR: Well, I think, starting off in the first quarter, I mean, I started off too hyped. As the game went on, I calmed down. We started to get a few stops here and there, but we didn't shoot the ball too well. We just tried to make a few runs. They didn't get enough stops, so... That's what really hurt us tonight.
Q. Coach, the second quarter was where you all made some adjustments to what Baylor was doing. You made a run to close the gap just before halftime. Talk about that.
COACH WALZ: Well, we really didn't make any adjustments. We just actually followed through with the game plan. We actually executed correctly and did the right things, which we struggled with. We knew it coming into the game, that we had to be on point. Then, like Asia said, we came up with some stops. We had some great rotations. Our effort was really good. Went into halftime feeling good. I really felt good about things. I'm like, Hey, it's a 12-point game, people. They had it at 18. We cut it down to 12. We got to get a stop, score, stop. It led to a score, turnover, and-one, a 5-0 run. It was like, Golly, you went from 12 to 17 in a hurry.
Q. Coach, how would you compare this Lady Bears team to the team you saw in 2013? Do you think this team could potentially be better than that squad?
COACH WALZ: I think they're deeper is what it is. I don't see anybody on the team that's the caliber of Brittney Griner. I'm not sure there's going to be. I think she's a once-in-a-lifetime player to come through. Odyssey Sims was pretty darn good, too. I think once you get into five, six, seven and eight, I think five, six, seven and eight on this year's ballclub, you have to guard 'em all. There's only one or two kids that I thought on the roster, when they got into the game, we were going to try to make 'em shoot and score. In '13, I thought they had four or five of them that we were going to challenge. It makes it much more difficult when they can put five on the floor that can score, four out of five most times can score. I think that's your difference, the fact that they're just deeper.
Q. Myisha, did you feel like this game was at all comparable to any other losses you had this season?
MYISHA HINES-ALLEN: No, because this is our last game. This is the last game for the seniors. You're one-and-done if you lost this game. It hurts a lot because we knew we could have played a lot better, and we didn't follow through with the game plan for the whole 40 minutes. We didn't come up with stops when we needed to. You know, it just hurts a lot because we know we could have done a lot better than what we did.
Q. Jeff, you've had probably in your career a few of these undersized kids, like Nina Davis. Seemed like today was the kind of game where her senior leadership and the things she did made a big difference. Talk about how tough a kid like that is.
COACH WALZ: No, she played extremely well. She plays hard. She's crafty. She knows how to put the ball in the basket. Then, you know, she fits what they're doing. She's a very important piece to their puzzle. Kalani Brown -- I thought Beatrice played extremely well, Kalani played well. They're able to throw so many big kids at you, they're big bodies, but they're also talented. I tell people all the time, they always used to tell us, You got to go get a big kid. I'm real excited about Kylee Shook and Ciera Johnson, what they're going to be able to turn into. They're efficient right now. Kalani and Beatrice are very efficient. They score around the basket, which then opens things up for Nina. I thought she does a great job of taking advantage of that. She did it tonight. 10-15 from the field...
Q. Coach, I know you said yesterday that you wanted to force Baylor to use players that they don't normally use to score. 34 bench points tonight. Seemed like they kind of did do that. Is that what you envisioned?
COACH WALZ: No. They really didn't do that at all. The ones that we knew could score coming off the bench scored. We had a few of 'em that were shooting the ball early that we wanted them to shoot, but we couldn't get the rebound. That just eliminates everything you're trying to do. You know, the ones that we were going to want to shoot really shot it. But, unfortunately, did not shoot it enough.
