Everybody ready? We're gonna open up week seven coach I'm gonna take some questions after that yeah appreciate you guys being here just proud of our team obviously not satisfied but proud of our fight obviously quick turnaround and had to make sure some things together I thought Frankie did a great job. Just kind of you know being out pressure release for us and doing a lot more ball handling than she typically does and I thought our team really did a nice job with just playing different positions and getting into our offense you know with with with different books and I thought we battled on the boards you know, a team like South Carolina and you know, congrats to them. Don's a great coach. They got a great program. You know, you can't have a lot of turnovers and that's one of the things that we talked a lot about. But I think they're, you know, the biggest difference for us I'm not used to playing at that pace. I know these guys aren't used to playing at that pace. Usually we're, you know, we can they were able to do a lot more in transition and so it resulted in a lot more of a half court game. For us. I thought we actually got some really good books and so a lot to build off of for sure. Again, you know, disappointed but not deflated. And I think if we can bottle up what we did today, the focus that we had and continue to to move forward. We've got a lot of young players out there and this is going to help us get better
rather than what did you like, you know, you saw specifically from your freshman you will get both the abbeys and you embrace you know going out there competing number one.
Yeah, you know, I thought I mean, Shrek was in a tough spot obviously. First time starting and welcome to college right you play the number one team in the country but you know, she's such a warrior. She's such a fighter. I know she didn't shoot the ball particularly well tonight but did a lot of good things for us. And I thought you know, slaughter was really, really good for us as well and and he and he got into foul trouble early but she battled you know I didn't feel like any of them back down. It's a game of benches. What you got to do the you just got to be so disciplined in in if you want to have a chance to to beat a team like South Carolina but i There are freshmen the way they the poise that they played with I thought it was pretty dang solid.
When you look at the how valuable is that experience are there yet that young getting a start especially for Abby? Are
you doing we started three freshmen and sophomore in fifth year senior. You know, so just it's a different feel. I think sometimes that can be a good thing though. You don't know what you don't know and you just you know, lace them up and you gotta go play and I thought, you know, that's the mindset that our players had and really proud of the way they approach the game. I think that is huge. You know, in the SEC you really got to get yourself mentally and physically ready, night in and night out. And I feel like you know, we all collectively felt like we didn't bring what we needed to bring against the good Alabama team. And you know, that's a tough lesson to learn in the SEC, but I know there's some really good talk in the locker room and just the importance of the focus and the attention to detail that we had going into this game I thought was really good and hopefully something we can continue to build off of.
Coach, you had some players in foul trouble early, including Ashton and Haley with some of the injuries and some of the things that you knew about your team did that make you more likely to leave them out there for longer stretches, even with three four fouls?
We didn't have any other options. You know, just rotations and you know, I think you got to put yourself in a position to stay in the game. And, you know, this isn't a team that you get down 1520 You know, it's gonna be really hard to come back and so, you know, you just hope that you know, they can can play smart enough put themselves in a position to to maybe pick those extra files up and yeah, we played them a little longer than we'd probably typically when. Coach
when I coach a little bit on the video last night you mentioned that you felt like Ashton was turning a corner title lead in points time for the lead assistant leading the team in rebounds. Just what did you think tonight was for her?
That's pretty good. You know, she works so hard at what she does, and you just I think a lot talked about this last night. I think a lot of times when you invest so much, you know, in an odd sort of way you build pressure on yourself because you know you've put in the work and you just want it so bad and I think for you know Ashley is just was about taking a deep breath and maybe put her focus somewhere else and you know, how do I pour into leadership more? How do I pour maybe more into my rebounding, my communication, you know, our team needs connectivity. We got a lot of young kids out there, how can she help elevate those areas and, and typically good things come for you. And she's had a couple of good practices. And I know it means a lot to her. And so I'm really proud of her ability to recalibrate and I thought she had a big game for us and she's had a lot of big games for us this year. And I think she's just she's growing up in front of her eyes, which is exciting.
Afternoon. Is that what you felt like was playing out tonight?
Yeah, I think it was just a switch of mentality coming into the game. I felt like there was a period of just like Coach beside maybe some pressure, but I just felt like we play our best especially as a team just going out and playing for you and just kind of playing with a chip on our shoulder and I felt like that's the type of mentality that we have to carry on to all of our SEC games.
It really how much did you feel the offense changing and how do you feel a little more on ball action with with mom out tonight
was definitely felt a little different out there personally. But I mean, like you said, I'm really proud of the way that everyone just kind of embraced the situation we were in. But we did a good job. I mean, it's not like we had a ton of time to prep for just being in different positions. So I think it says a lot, especially with so many young kids, just their ability to execute on the fly and just really smart basketball team and I think that showed up in that area. Who
it seemed like in the first half especially it was taken, you know, so much work to create an inch of space offensively came a little bit easier in the second half and what was the the change or adjustment that you saw that was leading to up being able to get some more open looks after the break with
just the players in the locker room. That was one of the biggest things we talked about. We felt like they were just kind of really spacing us out. And it was just, you know, setting our man up, really spreading it intentionally and then separating out of our screening action. I mean, we've talked a lot about the tempo we have to play with and not having turnovers but I think we were starting to let them space us out instead of also staying in attack mode. And I think we made that adjustment a little bit. The second alien was a leader on this team. What do you tell you know, especially
those younger kids that you mentioned after a game like this where you know Robin says, trying to build off the fight you guys should.
The whole message was just how we showed up tonight. Tonight felt a lot like the LSU game and like she said against Alabama. We felt like we didn't bring that same edge. So the message was just like it starts tonight. You know, we go to bed, get a good night's sleep. Come back and prepare for a huge game on Sunday. And the number one team in the country or whoever it is and the SEC have to prepare the same way. Just bottling what we did preparation wise mentality we had and bringing that into every game was the biggest message. Coach,
we talked about how difficult this SEC schedule is. Last year you suffered a six game losing skid on a three game losing it's good to start SEC play. How do you make sure that this doesn't spiral what's the message to your team?
Different team different season? Just so the work that these girls continue to put in you know you have what that what they do outside of what's required has just been incredible. I don't even know if it's worth talking about because it is a completely different lock around that. We've got a couple bets that that remember that. In we don't want to be an emotional roller coaster. We want to just continue to grow and get better. We're young, we got a lot of new players, obviously in our rotation. And so if we're learning we're growing, there's a lot of games left to play and, you know, it's just the mindset of tomorrow's New Day where 00 And we got to come back and we got to attack today and win the day in our prep.
Coach go with the second team all season the whole Camilla Cardozo to single digit points. Just what do you think work specifically on her and defensively, as you know, she's one of the best post players in the country. What was what was so successful with her? Well,
we'll probably talk about that next time we play them again and so you know, you got to try and find all the nuggets you can and so, you know, I thought I girls did a good job of just positioning on what that needed to look like.
Any more questions? All right. Thanks, guys. Thank you.
