Murray State University Athletics
Weekly Press Conference
1/10/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Monday, Jan. 10
Questions were addressed to assistant coach Rob Cross, as head coach Joi Felton was not feeling well Monday.
Opening statement: We had a good win over Morehead State. We out-rebounded them, which is outstanding. It was the first game we out-rebounded our opponent this year. Unfortunately, that didn't happen against Eastern Kentucky.
Our kids are starting to step up a bit more. They're spending a lot of time together, figuring out how to make themselves tougher.
We had a good week from Katie Willinger. If she can continue to put up those numbers night in and night out, we will be in good shape. Ashley Hayes stepped in up this week, and Rebecca Remington had her best complete game as a Lady Racer against Eastern Kentucky, with 19 points, nine rebounds and six assists, and she was playing hurt, so that was really big for us.
On rebounding woes: You can't give up 19 offensive rebounds and win many games, plus allowing 62-percent shooting in the second half. Rebounding, to me, is about attitude, having an aggressive nature. I'm covered in bruises from our practices where our kids have gotten physical. We've got guys practicing with us as the opposing team -- some of them have gone to state -- and our kids push them around. I'm not exactly sure why we don't correlate that in the games. It's something the players have to work on themselves.
We spend a lot of time on that. The bottom line is: the kids have to get the job done. One thing that would help is that our point guards have to do a better job on rebounding. They can get up and get the ball. Right now, they are averaging one or two rebounds per game.
About Samford: Every game is important to us. On this trip, No. 1, this is the first time we've ever been down there, so we're not familiar with that atmosphere. We have played at places like DePaul and Louisville and Iowa State, so we are prepared for whatever they throw at us. You must win on the road to win the conference.
Samford runs the old Princeton offense, so we need to make sure we don't give up any easy lay-ups on cuts. They will be without one of their outstanding players, Alex Munday, who was a tremendous freshman player last year. They've had two players step it up in Veronica Pike and Cora Beth Smith. They've played well for them lately. That shifts our focus frm stopping Munday. We need to focus on not letting them control the tempo.
On second-half inconsistency: We want to play the game consistenly throughout as if the score is tied. In practices, we stress that it doesn't matter if we are up 10 or down 10. We've been playing to hold the lead rather than playing to win. Against Eastern Kentucky, they made a run and we played not to lose.
The biggest thing is we have been out-rebounded by 12 a game, and we're trying to correct that, but you know it's going to happen. I mean, every team gives up some offensive rebounds. We just need to play to win the game.
