Murray State University Athletics
Adams Addresses Nov. 12 Press Conference
11/12/2007 6:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Murray State women's basketball head coach Jody Adams addressed the weekly press conference this afternoon. The Racers lost at Missouri 73-64 on Friday, and host Bethel (Tenn.) on Tuesday and Alabama State on Saturday in the Regional Special Events Center.
Q: Talk a little bit about the play of Amber Guffey.
A: If she would play that way, no matter what the competition level is and at practices, she would be somebody pretty special who came through Murray State. She played very well. She played a lot of minutes, too, though. It's tough to play at that level, and hopefully, you heard that through the broadcast, how well she played and what she did for Murray State.
I think, overall, I was very pleased with a lot of things. You're going against a Big 12 school, and when you've coached at that level -- in the SEC, ACC, Big 10, Big 12 -- and then, you coach at what they call the "mid-majors," then you understand the different athletes that you begin to recruit. I thought their size wore on us. It wasn't the lack of effort going to the boards; we actually beat Missouri on the boards. There were a couple right there that probably would have fallen into their hands if there wasn't a 6-3 kid in their face. You had Alaina Lee going to the rim, and everybody was hitting the boards really hard. They did everything I asked. They followed through on the game plan to the best of our ability. I think the only thing that probably shocked me was Alaina going 1-for-10. I never expected that. As great a game as she had here in our exhibition game, I thought that she would have a great game against Missouri.
It ended up being a nine-point ball game, but it wasn't really a nine-point ball game. At the end, we gave them a layup because we told them to stop fouling, and they just stopped. It was neck-and-neck. We were actually in that ball game a majority of the first half. Then, they went on a little run, and we found ourselves getting tired and fatigued, trying to fight our way back into the game.
For the most part, I'm very pleased with this team. I was pleased with their preparation for this game, and that's something we have to strive to do. I can't say our preparation for Bethel has been the same way, so it could be an interesting game tomorrow night.
Q: Talk a little more about the preparation, mentally and physically.
A: I think some of the upperclassmen are on the same page as the coaching staff, but then, I think some of the younger ones don't realize the importance of preparation. They all want to win, but they don't know how to prepare to win. That's such a true statement, and until you become that disciplined athlete, day in and day out, you're not going to get what you want at the end, day in and day out. I believe in laying it on the line, and I can deal with a loss like we had at Missouri because of the effort, because of the preparation, because they did go out and do what the coaching staff asked them to do, and actually did a couple of things that we didn't work on. They took it out of the huddle and executed it. That's a challenge for a team that hasn't been at the top of the OVC every year, and you have to understand that. There are expectations every day. So, we'll see.
Q: Last year, when we had Joi Scott, they tried to get Ashley Hayes to play more aggressively, and I thought she was really assertive Friday night.
A: I thought so, for the most part, on offense. I've asked Ashley to play on both sides of the ball. It would be different if she wasn't able to, but she can. She can do the same thing that she does on the offensive end as the defensive end, and that's expected of her. It's true that it goes right to the heart of the challenges these players face, these players who are very special to Murray State, and that's Amber Guffey and Ashley Hayes. They are two juniors, and they're just asked to play.
Q: Tell us about Bethel, what you see in them as an opponent.
A: I think a scrappy team. I think it's a team that -- as I'm sitting here talking about us being scrappy going into Missouri, giving a second effort -- those are the things that you could see from them that you may not see from Missouri. They're going to do the little things to win. Those are the things that we talked about going into Missouri, the things that we talked about all week, coming into Bethel. It will probably be no different than the Christian Brothers start. It depends on who shows up, what team shows up for me. I can't say that I've been excited about our practice this week overall, although there are some who have come every day.
Q: The turnovers in the first half on Friday, how important is it to pay attention to that?
A: I think it's important, but this team was one of the tops in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio. You're asking a team that pushes the ball as much as we like to push to not turn the ball over? Probably not. I can't say that we looked to push the ball against Missouri, and that caused the turnovers. I don't think that was it. I thought Missouri forced us to play at a faster rate that we cannot emulate in practice. They were unforced turnovers; they weren't forced turnovers by Missouri's defense. Will Bethel force us to play at that speed? No, but I think that they will play good, solid defense. Again, when you ask a team to push the ball and race the ball like we want our team to race the ball, you're probably going to see some turnovers. I wasn't happy with those unforced turnovers; those are the ones you kind of get. If we're pushing the ball and looking to score three-on-one, you're probably going to see a few more turnovers. I think that hurt us in the second half. We turned them around, challenged them at halftime about the turnovers, and they changed it. (MSU gave up 12 turnovers in the first half, six in the second half.)
Q: You also talked about out-rebounding Missouri. This was a team that struggled with rebounds last year, and now you have 86 rebounds in the two games played. Talk a little more about that.
A: It goes back to everything that we preach. They have to do the hard work, and it's not easy to go rebound the ball; it's not easy to give that second effort all the time. We're talking about being in great shape and being in better shape than our opponents in the OVC, and second efforts get you in great shape. That's what we're working towards right now. If you give that second effort, you're going to be prepared in the end. We'll continue to be on the boards; there's no doubt about that. We want to compete on the boards.
Q: I noticed that Angela Brown had 13 minutes in that game. Was foul trouble the reason she didn't play very much?
A: No. I think the tempo did it. Angela was struggling a little bit, and her player was one of the players who had half of the 50 points scored in the paint. Then, you want to hug tight to that kid, and you're not playing team defense, so all of a sudden, she's isolated herself over, and we don't have the proper rotation. She just didn't get back into the flow of things defensively. Can Angela help us? Oh, yes. She has to find where she fits in, and where she's going to dominate. That's what I think she's going through right now. Against a team like Bethel, when you look at their roster, there is only one kid who comes in with her height, her size. Everybody else is 5-10, 5-11, 6-foot, 6-1, and they're very active. So, you're asking a 6-5 kid to close out on the fringe, on the three-point line, defending the three. So, you've got to think: Are you putting her in the right situation or not? We will start the same way, though.
RACERS vs. BETHEL (Tenn.)
TIPOFF: Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. CT, Regional Special Events Cetner, Murray, Ky.
RADIO: WNBS (1340 AM, Murray), Josh Perigo with the play-by-play - Listen Live through GoRacers.com
VIDEO STREAMING/TV REPLAY: www.OVCsports.tv
LIVE STATS: link on the women's basketball schedule page on GoRacers.com
