Murray State University Athletics
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Felton addresses media conference
11/28/2005 6:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
ON THE SEASON-OPENING THREE-GAME HOMESTAND: It's disappointing. I never would have thought that we would start off 0-3, but we had some untimely injuries. That's not an excuse; it's just a reality. Our team is a lot different with those kids who are out, when they're playing. We just have to go back to the drawing board and try to think about what we're going to do until they become available.
The first two games, I was not pleased with our effort. There were a lot of times we made pretty good comebacks at times, but we didn't sustain that effort, so after those first two games, we went back and talked about effort. Our practice was predicated on that. We came out pretty good against Western Kentucky with a lot of energy, and played well in that first half, but like everybody knows, you've got to play 40 minutes. They're a very good team. They are balanced. They did a good job on the boards in the second half. They just packed in on the boards, and we just didn't do a good job of sustaining that defensive energy.
We had a pretty good practice this morning, and we head out to Northern Iowa tomorrow morning (Tuesday).
ON DEFENDING WKU's CRYSTAL KELLY: We did a pretty good job on Crystal. We tried to just match her intensity. You're not going to do a whole lot to really stop her, but coming into the game, Crystal was averaging 32 points against Charlotte and Louisiana Tech, and both of them are very good. I felt very good about us being very physical with her. Derrica Jones came in and gave us some pretty good minutes, and I think, bothered her a little bit with her physicality.
(WKU) has some other kids who are very balanced. Charlotte Marshall hurt us from the outside. We had some lulls where we didn't contest the shooters on the outside, and that hurt us. Overall, I think we did a pretty decent job on Crystal.
ON INJURIES: Gerraca Matthews (sprained ankle) is out, but I hope to have her back by Wednesday. Shaleea Petty is still out. I hope to get her back for that first conference game (Dec. 8 vs. Eastern Kentucky). Alaina Lee is still day-to-day. Her ankle is doing better. She played some minutes, but she's limited. Her being limited helps us. Derrica Jones is cleared to play. She'll play some minutes, but she's got to work her way back in, coming back from that knee surgery. We're still not nearly at full strength, and I'm hoping that we will be by OVC time.
Alaina is a fierce competitor. She's the smallest one on the court, but she's got a big heart, and she fights. Obviously, she's playing with a lot of pain, and I'm just real proud of her effort. She does a great job trying to lead the team and get them going. She and Shaleea Petty both played a lot of minutes last year as freshmen, so I expect to see them improve each time out.
Shaleea practiced 35-40 minutes, and we're trying to work her back into it, so in the next couple of weeks, we'll have her full-go.
ON THE STATE FARM TIGER CLASSIC: We start with Alcorn State, and Alcorn State lost some players from last year. They won their conference championship last year, so those kids know what it takes to win a championship. They expect to win, and they're going to be excited to play.
Then, depending on what we do against them, we will play Arkansas-Pine Bluff or Missouri. It'll be a great basketball environment to go to a Big 12 arena and see that environment. It's exciting for us to be able to play in that kind of environment. We hope to win our first game and be able to compete for a championship. I told our team yesterday that it was our first opportunity to compete for a championship this season.
ON THE TEAM'S MINDSET AFTER STARTING 0-3: They're disappointed. But, you face adversity, you fall down, then you've got to get back up. They're resilient. I think the one thing that they've seen -- watching game films -- is the effort is not what it needed to be for 40 minutes. Knowing that, it's a positive, knowing those teams didn't beat us; we beat ourselves. They were very good teams, but if we had played 40 minutes, you don't know what the outcome could have been. I think they are excited about what lies ahead. They are working hard, and we're going to try to turn it around here really quick.
When I asked them what the problem was, a lot of them said that (lack of effort). Watching the game film helped them see a lot, that they weren't giving the best effort they could give. That was a positive for us. After that, at our next practice, we went out and played extremely hard.
It's an adjustment period. We have a lot of new kids, and freshmen sometimes think they're playing hard, but they just don't know yet. Some of our newer players -- and even our junior college players -- they've played at a certain level, but the level that we have to play at is a lot different. We put them in situations in practice where they have to compete very hard, and we've got winners and losers and penalties. Nobody likes to run, so that helps to motivate them a little bit.
ON THE UPCOMING ROAD SWING: That's tough, especially since we're not at full strength yet. If we were at full strength, we would have some different options as far as our rotations. We've just got to go play. We play Wednesday night, then leave Iowa and drive straight to Missouri. We'll walk through a little bit on Thursday, then go on Friday. It is tough. It's tough on their bodies. I told our trainer she's going to be working overtime. We're excited about it nonetheless. This is the hand that's dealt to us, so we've just got to go with it.
ON THE EARLY OVC RESULTS: Several OVC teams are scheduling tougher opponents. It's good in one sense, as far as our RPI is concerned, but then, we're not getting the wins right now. I think, when it comes down to it, it will be a fight for the OVC title. Eastern Kentucky lost three kids off their starting lineup, and that's a lot of team leadership. A lot of our teams have a lot of young players, a lot of new players, so everybody's going through those growing pains right now.
