March 20, 2010

HEAD COACH Teresa Weatherspoon:

Opening Statement: First, congratulations to Florida State who is a very good basketball team. I have a lot of great things to be proud of with the way that my young ladies played. They played with every ounce of energy, effort and heart that we asked of them all season long. If you have ever been proud of some ladies before, I'm prouder than you can ever imagine with this group of ladies that I have, that has battled all year long and battled many adversities. No one would ever imagine the battles that they have fought behind closed doors. Yet and still, they went between the four lines and played basketball. You cannot ask for more than that with these kids. I am super proud of the way we performed and the way we represented Louisiana Tech and the Lady Techster program, being back in the NCAA tournament, a place where we belong.

Q: When Shanavia [Dowdell] got the second foul real early, did you even give it a moment's thought about sitting her down?

A: No, not at all. She's very mature. She understands what she needs to do. She said earlier that she was passive. What happened was that they were keying on her. There were two or three people around her. She loves to be a great decoy. Once she becomes a decoy, our guards must be productive. It was an unfortunate night for us that the ball was not falling the way it usually does. But, Shanavia is just an incredible, incredible young lady first. She's done a great job maturing and understanding what she must do when fouls occur.

Q: Was Florida State's size everything you thought it was going to be?

A: Our kids are fearless. It doesn't matter who they are going against. They feel like they are capable of defending and playing well. The ball must go in the basket, regardless. We do the best that we can defensively to keep people from their comfort zone. Our kids feel very comfortable playing against anyone. But the difference here is when we lose those two [Dowdell and Adrienne Johnson], when you look down our bench, we are not very big at all. So, it's very difficult to do things when those two are not on the floor.

SENIOR Shanavia Dowdell:

Q: What were you trying to do this game, they had some front and back of you the entire second half, what could you do and did you feel somewhat hampered by the face you already had 3 fouls most of the second half?

A: I was worried about that, I didn't want to do anything to put my team in jeopardy because I needed to be out there on the floor and I wanted to be out there to help them anyway I could, and I didn't want to foul out. I think I was kind of being too passive when they put two people on me. I feel like I should have been aggressive. I let them slow me down.

Q: How frustrating was it having to sit on the bench for the last part of the first half when you had 3 fouls and you really couldn't do anything but watch Florida State come back against ya'll?

A: It was frustrating for me, but I knew my teammates would come in and keep the momentum up. So, I wasn't too worried because we had a whole second half to play and I was just confident in my teammates that they would keep the momentum up.

Q: In the second half, was it they couldn't get the ball to you or was the plan to start shooting from outside a little bit more, what was the situation, were they just guarding you too hard?

A: We knew in the second half that they would probably come out in zone, so we just had to tell our guards to be ready to shoot because they were going to sag down on the two post players, so we just knew the guards had to be ready to shoot.

Q: On the charge call that was your third foul, it looked pretty close, what was your feeling on it?

A: Of course whenever a player fouls they don't think it was a foul, so I really don't think it was a foul. I think it was they had the momentum going and it just played into their hands. I don't think it was a foul. I just knew I had to come back in the second half and try to stay out of foul trouble.

Q: You had the two fouls real early and weren't playing passive with two, so why would you think you were playing passive with three in the second half? Were the two fouls weighing on your mind in the first half?

A: No not really because I knew I had three more., but in the second half when I had three with twenty minutes to play that's why I was more passive because I only had two left and I didn't want to foul out that early.

JUNIOR Adrienne Johnson:

Q: What was the mood like in the locker room at halftime? You guys controlled most of the first half, it got away from you the last three or four minutes, but were you still real confident in there at the break?

A: We were real confident, we knew we really wanted to play a whole basketball game, we didn't just want to play a half. We were real confident; we knew we could do it. It just didn't turn out our way.

Q: How many fans did it sound like there were? Was this a really loud game, louder than you expected?

A: It was really loud, but we tried to stay focused and just focus on the game and block the crowd out. I think we pretty much did that, but overall they had a really good crowd.

Q: Can you talk about as a junior getting back here with Coach and helping Shanavia get here as a senior and the important step this was for the program?

A: We are going to work out this summer and do the same thing but get further. Shanavia graduating is going to be a big loss because she was a huge threat for other teams. We're just going to have to try and pick up the slack.

HEAD COACH SUE SEMRAU

Opening Comment: Sue Donohoe, the vice president for the NCAA championships she said the "The best thing that we can have on the first day is compelling games." I wish it wasn't this compelling, it was a fantastic basketball game I can't use the excuse anymore that we haven't played in 20 days. I thought maybe defensively we looked like that in the first half, but we came out in the second half and held onto 21 points on 15% shooting. (Shanavia) Dowdell is a handful. She is going to be a great player in the pros and we just take our hats off to Louisiana Tech. They came out and played an exceptional basketball game.

Q: Did anything effort wise change dramatically other than using three people around Dowdell at all times?

A: Well, we knew we had to make an adjustment and it's not something we do, that we practice, doubling down or bringing somebody over, but we knew we had to make an adjustment. I thought, you look at what happened, it was Christian Hunnicutt, Angel Gray, and Courtney Ward being able to make that adjustment and play in our zone. I thought that inside players got much more confidence as a result of that and played harder, but again I think a lot of it has to do with flow, and getting our rhythm back defensively after a long break.

Q: Did you give your team a number at the half, said, if we can hold Dowdell to a certain number in the second half that we can beat this team?

A: No, and I was shocked when we held her at six, I knew she didn't score much in the second half, but when we held her to six - we let them know how much she had at the half, for sure - but we didn't want to give them a specific number. We wanted to give them a specific method of attack and I thought that they really embraced that and rebounded much better.

Q: Looking back on the game you see that third foul on Dowdell and that really was a game changer, was it not in your mind?

A: Absolutely. It gave us an opportunity to catch our breath defensively and put some points on the board without them answering. Then it gave us time to go into the locker room, and really talk about what we needed to do in the locker room, so yes it was huge. I was very surprised they kept her on the floor as long as they did, maybe they felt like that was their chance to come out and beat us.

Q: We know how tough this bracket is already, but that is not a 14 seed team, that means there is 52 teams better in the country than that teams and that doesn't seem likely?

A: No, I agree. I thought that watching them on film, also since when she (Head Coach Teresa Weatherspoon) said "we are welcoming in this challenge", and I'm glad it was a team of that caliber. But it wasn't easy and they're a great basketball team, and again have to credit Teresa Weatherspoon and her staff for what they've done.

SENIOR JACINTA MONROE

Q: The job defensively in the second half on (Shanavia) Dowdell, how committed were two or three of you at all times on front, back and side of her? How panicky did it get when you looked up and there's five minutes to go in the half and you're down nine?

A: We weren't panicked at all, we just had to get focused and locked in. Like you said, (Shanavia) Dowdell went off and she had a great game but in the second half, we just focused. That's the biggest word for it and the best word for it, we focused. We just locked down and everybody played a role in that. The guards pressured so Dowdell wasn't seen in the post and we were flipping and turning and doing what we could to prevent her from scoring.

Q: The block/charge call late in the half kind of obviously changed everything and got her [Dowdell] out of the game. How confident were you when the whistle blew that you were in position; that you were in the spot?

A: I was confident in my position, but the call could have gone either way. You never know, so I was just hoping it went in my favor.

Q: When it went your way, is that when, with Dowdell off the floor, you had to start taking advantage of the next four and a half minutes?

A: Yes, of course. With her in foul trouble, we definitely attacked and we just did what we had to do.

Q: That doesn't look like a 14 seed to me at all. Can you talk about the talent that they had on that team? I mean, that was a pretty good basketball team.

A: Oh yeah, they're an extremely talented basketball team and we knew coming in that a 14 seed was clearly underrated and we knew it was going to be a dog-fight, or a cat-fight, or a fight-fight. So, we just had to stay locked in and no matter how many runs they went on, we had to stay together and stay composed.

JUNIOR COURTNEY WARD

Q: Talk how obviously it was a team effort to guard her [Dowdell] in the second half. It seemed like there were two girls around her everytime when she got the ball. Just talk about what the halftime adjustment was and what personally you guards felt responsible for in making sure she didn't shoot?

A: Basically we just allowed her to score way too many points in the first half. So, coming out in the second half, we knew that we had to do something to change that. Whatever we could do, double them or anything, we just did it.

Q: Talk about what Alexa (Deluzio) did and what she brought to you guys, especially in the second half.

A: There were a lot of possessions where we shot the ball and Alexa got big-time rebounds, I thought. Not only did she get the rebounds, but she made smart decisions when she got the offensive boards, and that helped us a lot.

FRESHMAN ALEXA DELUZIO

Q: Was there a difference last year, when you were at the NCAA tournament and you weren't able to play. It looked like you and Chastity weren't freshman today. How big was that experience last year in Atlanta?

A: Just being able to watch and get the feel for it on the bench and it helps a lot when your other teammates have confidence in you in coming into the game.

Q: You led the team in steals this afternoon and made some plays that don't appear in the stats, specifically drawing that fifth foul on Dowdell to get her out of the game and other plays. Can you talk about that?

A: I think plays like that, you're just playing hard. Everyone on our team, you know Angel Gray had nine rebounds, and I think that kind of goes unnoticed. When you're playing hard, things kind of just flow.