University of Tennessee Athletics
Tennessee vs. LSU Postgame Quotes
March 07, 2008 | Women's Basketball
TENNESSEE POSTGAME QUOTES??
COACH SUMMITT: If you don't mind, let them take questions first.
Q. Big time win tonight obviously in front of a nice home crowd. Talk about what it's like headed into the NCAA Tournament right now.
CANDACE PARKER: We're really excited to get this win tonight. We really want to thank our fans because they're the best in America. It was like a home game tonight, playing in front of all that orange. But we know that this is the SEC Championship, and we have bigger fish to fry. We're going to celebrate tonight, but when we go back next week we know we have to play for the NCAA Championship.
Q. Alexis, talk about tonight's game.
ALEXIS HORNBUCKLE: I'm really proud of our team and how we played tonight and stepped it up. Like Candace said, we have bigger fish to fry. We want to win an NCAA Championship so we've got to go back to the gym and get to work.
Q. Nicky, your thoughts on the game and on the crowd?
NICKY ANOSIKE: LSU is a great team. We knew that coming in. But we knew we were better, and we just tried to show it on the court. We played with a lot of confidence. You know, Candace led us throughout the game, and she definitely earned my respect every single time we stepped on the court in this SEC Tournament.
Q. Candace, you were tied at 54 and you hit that big shot with the shot clock going down to zero. Can you talk about that play?
CANDACE PARKER: I remember the shot clock was winding down and they passed to Lex further out towards the three point line so I called her name an threw my hand up, she made a nice pass. I knew they knew the shot clock was winding down, so I pump faked and got a nice look.
Q. You promised yesterday you'd be a different team tonight than you were the first game. In what way were you different tonight? You said defense and rebounding. Were there any other things you did tonight you didn't do in the previous game?
CANDACE PARKER: Honestly, I think this team is a completely different team than we were in the regular season. I think we play for postseason, and now that we are here we have all stepped up our games. I feel like, yeah, defense and rebounding was key, but we had each other's backs. Honestly, we just were talking to each other and pulling through tough times. I mean, we really had each other's backs.
Q. Candace, Sylvia beat you out for SEC Player of the Year. Was there any extra motivation going up against her tonight?
CANDACE PARKER: Honestly, postseason is what I play for and what our team plays for. That gives a little bit of motivation and a little bit of incentive to play harder. But I think we just came out and we stepped it up for our postseason. We had something to prove. We lost regular season SEC to them, so I think we came in with a chip on our shoulders.
Q. With this being postseason, does this mean a little bit more, take the edge off of losing that game, or will that one still remain in the craw as you go into the NCAA?
Well, it was definitely motivation coming into this game as far as a rematch was concerned. But as far as looking further into the postseason, that's the past. It's time to build on it. Actually this is going to be in the past and the postseason is a whole new season. It doesn't matter what you did before. It's all about the six games to get to the championship. Q. Candace, playing the whole game as you did I would have thought you would have been pretty tired, but then you sort of skipped down the bench and it looked like you were in good shape. How tired were you, and were you able to rest at all when you were in a zone? Were you able to maybe take a few possessions off?
CANDACE PARKER: I got my second wind when we won, skipping down the bench, to answer that. Yeah, I feel like I was a little bit winded playing three games in three days and playing 40 minutes. But honestly, my teammates had my back, Nicky was in my ear, just to play hard on every possession. And I think towards the end I used that and stepped up.
Q. Tournament time is right around the corner. Is LSU a team that you want to face again, or you don't really want to see them anymore seeing as they got the win in Knoxville and they gave you a tough fight tonight?
NICKY ANOSIKE: Honestly, we don't care who's on the list. We'll take whatever opponent that they send to us.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, players.
COACH SUMMITT: Obviously I'm really proud of our basketball team. I thought our defense was about as strong as it's been all season long.
When we had to make stops, they did a nice job. I liked the fact that we were able to change up our defenses. I thought that that worked to our advantage.
The zone was really good to us in the first half, and we had some good zone possessions in the second half. And then when we really needed to make stops, you know, I asked them specifically, what do you want? And they wanted to go with a man to man defense.
I thought they did a great job of working in the high low. Sylvia is so good. She's just got great hands, one of the best inside players that we've seen in the game. I was really pleased that we were able to obviously disrupt at times, some of the high low action, and also that we made plays down the stretch against one of the best defensive teams in the country.
Q. Mixing in the zone and particularly in the first half, was that would you think fatigue in that strategy at all?
COACH SUMMITT: Absolutely. I mean, that's why we played as much zone defense against Vanderbilt as we did. We felt like that we had to be able to save at least some of our legs, and of course we were going home and they were getting in ice cold whirlpools, and I think that kept our legs a little bit probably a little more fresh because of that.
But I still knew we played our starters too many minutes in our second game, which concerned me. I think they just tonight they just came in and stayed focused, and they played through fatigue. I thought the mental toughness I thought Vicki was really key coming in and playing the way she played. She made a difference in us closing out that game.
Q. I just want to follow up on that. Was your plan all along that Candace was going to play 40 minutes?
COACH SUMMITT: Well, she had talked to Dean, and Dean said that she may need a time out somewhere around the 15 minute mark, second half. I asked her if she wanted to come out then, and she said, no, she wanted to stay in the game.
She called one time out herself. I said, if you need more timeouts let me know, but I've only got two, and I may need them.
I think that we had an understanding that she could come out if she wanted to, she just chose not to in the end.
Q. You've talked throughout the year or throughout the season about not really knowing this team. How much better do you know it after this tournament?
COACH SUMMITT: I know the way they played in this tournament they're a team that's got a chance to win the championship. I think for a team coming off a championship, I think they had a hard time being motivated for 40 minutes game in and game out. Fortunately with the schedule we played, that made it very challenging in a lot of games.
But I think right now they can see a light at the end of the tunnel. When you can see something that is doable if you're willing to work for it, and they've been there and they've been down that path, then I think right now they'll have a lot of energy and a lot of passion for how they want to play in the postseason, and certainly I'm going to give them at least the next three days off and let them rest. I mean, I know there's a lot of fatigue that they're going to deal with, so I'm just really proud of them, and we want to make sure that we don't over train in this time period.
Q. A lot of orange in the audience tonight. Talk about what it was like having everyone on their feet screaming, over 12,000 people? COACH SUMMITT: A difference maker for us, to have this crowd. The one thing I never take for granted, you're going to hear me say this a lot, is how wonderful our Tennessee fans are. And when you talk about women's basketball, you know, we have the greatest fans in the country. The numbers speak volumes. We have people come from all over just to watch our team play in Nashville that had never seen us play. It was amazing how many people were just coming up and saying we came here from Montana, we came here from California, we love the Lady Vols and we wanted to watch them play. It touches my heart because when I started out coaching and there was 54 people that came to the first game and then we got over 100, and we weren't even selling tickets, they were getting in free.
And to see where we are today and to see the impact, I feel that our fans have had on women's basketball, and they certainly have been a great source of energy and pride for our team, every team, and for our coaching staff, and they're just tremendous.
Q. I probably should have asked this of Candace, but she played really poorly against LSU in the tournament last year, and she's played great against LSU in both games this year. Do you think that game was a source of motivation to her this year, or was that even a factor?
COACH SUMMITT: I think Candace after that game I think she took total responsibility. She had, what, four points in that game, low energy. That's the worst I've ever seen Candace Parker play, and I watched her play in high school and AAUs and obviously had an opportunity to coach her and watch her play these last two years. I just couldn't believe that Candace played the way she played.
I just think she learned from that, and I'm sure, as the team will tell you, she said that won't ever happen again, and it hasn't.
Q. To follow up that question, you talked about the game of women's basketball. Tonight's record crowd, over 12,000 people, what is it like when LSU and Tennessee get together and what kind of impact that has on women's basketball?
COACH SUMMITT: Any time you have the top two teams in your conference meet, it's big. Obviously LSU has got great fans. Because of the match ups we've had, and they beat us out last year, and we're playing for a championship this year, it was just great. I mean, it was great. I know television loved it and I know the fans loved it. I have to believe there are a lot of eyes on this game tonight and a lot of interest throughout this country because we are two of the top teams in the country, we both are working and worked hard for a No. 1 seed.
Someone suggested last week we might be a 2 seed, and I told our team, "Let's win this tournament." I don't care what people are saying, it's all about what you say through your game and what you do in the SEC. So I feel like both these teams deserve No. 1 seeds.
Thank you all for being here.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
LSU POSTGAME QUOTES??
THE MODERATOR: Coach, an opening comment?
COACH CHANCELLOR: I thought that hats off to Tennessee, that they got a great team. I thought Coach Summit, her usual self, made a great sub tonight, putting Auguste in for the freshman to give them more defense and quickness, and I thought that was a great move.
I'm really proud of our team. I think they fought. I didn't play a lot of people tonight by design. They played as hard as they could. I'm really proud of our effort. We just come up a little bit short.
Ask the players questions.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the players?
Q. You guys had plenty of ball to play still. What do you tell yourselves in the locker room with the NCAA Tournament coming your way?
SYLVIA FOWLES: Like Coach said, we're very proud of ourselves, we came out and fought for it, and you've just got to learn from these mistakes the last couple minutes, the mistakes that we made within the game and go back and correct them and get past this point and move forward. I'm looking forward to the NCAA Tournament.
QUIANNA CHANEY: I agree with Sylvia. You look at the mistakes you made and we've got some time before the tournament starts, and you go back home and improve, and you come back to the NCAA Tournament ready to play.
Q. Sylvia, before the game or after last night's game Candace said Tennessee was a different team from the last time you guys played them. Did you sense that they were a different team today? If so, what way?
SYLVIA FOWLES: I don't think so. I think they came out and did the same thing they did in the previous game. They crashed the boards, they played hard, and I don't think there's nothing changed about their team.
ERICA WHITE: I don't think they changed much, either. Tonight's game, we've seen each other all year, and this time of year it's just hard. I would say they just wanted it a little bit more, but different team? I don't see any difference.
Q. Lady Vols are a team you're going to want to see down the line for a little bit of redemption?
SYLVIA FOWLES: We ain't looking for pay back, but once we meet up again we'll do a whole lot better than what we did in this tournament?
ERICA WHITE: I agree.
Q. You say they wanted it more. Does that bother you? Is that something that will stay with you a little bit? Why do you think that was the case?
ERICA WHITE: Does that bother me? You know, Tennessee won. Tennessee is the SEC champion, so hats off to them. I look at my teammates and I look at the stats sheet, and I don't see any difference on that stats sheet too much. The only thing that I can think of, they had to have wanted it more than us. Maybe they prayed more last night, I don't know.
Q. Sylvia, how do you think you played tonight? You kind of got off to a slow start. Were you a little hyped up like you were talking about the other night?
SYLVIA FOWLES: I don't think I was hyped. I think I just was missing a couple jiffies, didn't get a couple of calls that I thought was fouls. You can't live in the past. You just have to come out and work hard, and I think I did that in the second half.
Q. What do either of you take from this game positive? Tell me something about that.
SYLVIA FOWLES: Just our ability of sticking around and coming out and playing hard and giving it our all. We all made a couple of mistakes, but just to stick around and play the way we did, I take that as a positive standpoint?
Q. You've played against Candace a lot of times. What was your impression of her play tonight?
SYLVIA FOWLES: Same thing, she's going to come out, she's going to bang and get her points. There's nothing you can do to stop her, you can only try to slow her down, and that's what we tried to do tonight?
Q. You guys won the regular season title ostensibly by beating them on their home court. Now they win the most recent title, the tournament. Which would you rather have?
SYLVIA FOWLES: Both (laughter). You sit here and you think about the things that you need to do and the things you did wrong, but for the most part I'm glad that we won the regular season.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, players. For Coach?
Q. Did you see a different team today from Tennessee?
COACH CHANCELLOR: None whatsoever.
Q. At the end of the first, you guys had a lot of momentum going your way but then there were a few hollow possessions down there. Do you have feel that would have been the turning point and if you made a few of those buckets you could have come away with a W today?
COACH CHANCELLOR: I thought our missed free throws really hurt our momentum more than anything throughout the game. We had two or three times we could have really taken advantage of the situation. In a game like this you're hunting separation, and our missed free throws, I don't know about that. The rest of it was Tennessee's defense. They were pretty good today.
I would say there was a little difference between this game and the other game; probably their defense was better.
Q. When I talked to you yesterday you said home court advantage wouldn't play a factor here because you went into Knoxville and got that big time W, but every time some momentum swung their way everybody in orange was up on their feet. Did that play a factor today?
COACH CHANCELLOR: Think that helped them. Up there we were able to remove the crowd from the game by the way we played. But we just never could we needed to make a play in the last three minutes to really kind of quiet their crowd, and we could not make it offensively or defensively. Part of that was because of how good they were.
Q. The shot that Parker hit, I think it was just under two minutes to go, shot clock was running down, she hit that jump shot. Is that one of the plays you look back on, just a great player making a big time play?
COACH CHANCELLOR: That's the difference in the game, shot clock is down, the ball is outside with six, they're in disarray, they just throw it to her and she makes a play. I thought that was the difference in the basketball game.
Q. With 17 seconds left Quianna put up a shot. Was there miscommunication there or did you want her to shoot that that soon?
COACH CHANCELLOR: In Connecticut I took a time out with a 17 seconds to go, ran a three point play, and it didn't work. Tonight we thought we would let it run and hope to score and actually go for a two and score and call a time out and foul. But didn't none of it work. So when it doesn't work, it's always on the coach. That was my fault.
Q. What positives do you draw from tonight going into the postseason?
COACH CHANCELLOR: Here's what I told our players after the game: If Tennessee is good enough to win a national championship, we are, too. We beat them at home, we had a great game here today. I don't see much difference in the two teams. That's what I see. Whatever they are, that's what I think they are. Wherever you put them, we're right there.
Q. Today was a record for an SEC tournament, over 12,000 fans. How good is that for the college basketball women's game?
COACH CHANCELLOR: I think it's great. Two of the greatest players to ever play the game, two Olympians, great game, great excitement. Great game if you don't care who wins or loses, except I do.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, sir.
