Murray State University Athletics
Weekly Press Conference
12/5/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Quotes from head coach Joi Williams during the weekly women's basketball press conference on Dec. 5 in preparation for the Lady Racers home game with Arkansas-Little Rock on Saturday, Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. at the Regional Special Events Center.
Opening statement:
"We're 2-3 overall right now, and we had two road losses this week. One was at Arkansas State, where I felt like we played very well for the most part. We really competed hard, and Arkansas State is a team that was undefeated and had some really big wins. We competed hard, and it was really nip and tuck all the way. We had to foul at the end, and we ended up losing by five. Then, we went to Jackson State on Wednesday and had 30 turnovers, and we can't win like that. I was really disappointed in our effort on Wednesday night. We just came out and didn't play very well, but it's something to learn from and move forward with."
"Arkansas-Little Rock is coming in here 2-2. They're coming off losses to Texas A&M and Saint Louis. They actually led Saint Louis by 15 at one point, but Saint Louis came back to win. Arkansas-Little Rock starts three freshman, but they're pretty talented kids. They have a new coach, and he's doing a lot of good things. They run a motion offense with a lot of screens, so we won't see a lot of patterns. But, for us, we just have to get ready to play and play hard. We're a little inconsistent at this point, and hopefully, you'll see a Lady Racer team that will come out and push the ball hard into transition and try to get some easy baskets, which we didn't do on Wednesday night."
On what she's most pleased with so far:
"I've been most pleased with our team's effort. It's been good for the most part, even though we had a breakdown on Wednesday. Other than that, the effort has been very good. They've really tried to do everything we've asked. I'm really pleased with that."
On what is her biggest concern at this point in the season:
"We're struggling to find that killer instinct right now. A lot of it is due to the fact that these kids are not used to winning, and I have to remind myself of that. We were up on Arkansas State at one point 22-7, and it was almost like we looked up at the scoreboard and felt like we weren't supposed to win. That's my biggest hurdle right now. I'm trying to get them to believe that they can win every game. We're lacking in some areas, but we've got some kids who can do some things offensively, especially some shooters. Confidence is my biggest concern, and that's a big part of my job with this particular team. There's a fine line between being confident and not making them think they're better than they are."
On the team's attitude after back-to-back losses:
"I think the team is okay. For me, it's a little different because I'm not used to losing, and I don't want to get used to it. I know it's early. I know as coaches, we're still doing a lot of evaluating and trying to figure out who can play in certain situations. I think that the team could feel my disdain after the game on Wednesday. I told them that I wasn't used to being around a group of people who would not compete for 40 minutes. It doesn't matter if we can't jump as high or run as fast because we're going to have to compete. I think they really felt bad, and I'm certainly not going to make them feel any worse than they already feel. This is the hard part for me because it's something that I'm not used to. I know that I've got to keep teaching and keep trying to get them to really believe in what we're doing. Hopefully, by OVC time, we'll be there and ready to compete. I do think that if we play like we did on Monday night against Arkansas State that, when OVC time does come, we'll be okay."
On whether she's been able to fully incorporate her system:
"It's tough for me because, for us to play the way that I want to play, you've got to have a little bit more speed and quickness than I have. That's just the bottom line. I can't ask these kids to do something that physically they're not capable of doing. To a degree, yes, we're trying do some things with the press, but we can't do a whole lot of man-to-man because we just don't have the athleticism to do it. We've been trying to do some zone presses to eat some time off the clock and just try to work people into some mistakes. We can play at a faster tempo at times, but we have to pick our moments."
On the team's balance in playing time and minutes:
"I'd like to play a lot of people. I've been trying to get the chemistry figured out and find out who can play with who and who can play in certain situations. Some kids are better depending what the other team is doing, so as a coaching staff, we're still trying to figure all of that out. Playing a lot of players is something we have to do because I just don't think we have a lot of kids that can go 30 or 35 minutes."
