Murray State University Athletics
Weekly Media Conference
2/19/2007 6:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Lady Racer head coach Joi Felton addressed the weekly media conference on Monday.
Opening statement
Thursday's game against TSU was a very good game for us. TSU was coming in with their backs against the wall, basically. They needed to win a game to make the OVC tournament, and we did a good job after we got settled in defensively, especially in the second half, making a big run. On Saturday, we went and had a heck of a dogfight in Charleston, Ill. Eastern Illinois was facing elimination, also. We started off kind of slow and had trouble getting the ball inside. Joi Scott had two early fouls, so we were without her for a lot of the first half and had to find a way without her. We went to the locker room down seven (36-29), and talked about doing the things that got us to that point. We weren't playing very disciplined on defense to that point. We were not doing a great job on the boards. We got back to business in the second half, fought back and made a comeback run and really played solid down the stretch.
Amber Guffey hit a big three to put us ahead, and we had some big contributions off the bench. Jessica Jackson had a huge assist to Pam Bell, and that was big. Ashley Brooke Hayes came in and hit a big three-point shot. Alaina Lee, defensively, did a great job on their star guard. Joi Scott got out and got some steals in the passing lane, and so did Ashley Nichole Hayes. Really a great team effort from our bench, from everybody on the floor to go win that game on the road. I think that was a bigger win for us than if we had gone there and won by 20, to come out and, for about 34 minutes of the game, to come back and win that game was huge for us.
You've been talking about a main goal being to win an OVC championship, and now, you're close to at least sharing that title. Is that something your players are thinking about, and how is the team handling it?
We talk about it; we've talked about it all year. It's not a secret. We've talked about the fact that we would love to hang a women's basketball banner in the Regional Special Events Center, and be the first to do it. We know that, if we take care of our business, the worst that we could do is share the championship. We would love to win it outright, and I'm sure SEMO would, too. We just really have to take it one game at a time. We talk about it in the big picture, but what we really try to focus on is one possession at a time of every game, especially taking care of our home games.
We've got one more opportunity in the regular season to take care of business. We're looking at a team that we didn't play very well at all in Cookeville, Tenn., and they had something to do with that, too. We just want to go out and play hard, especially this next game for Joi Scott, Ashley Brooke Hayes and Erica Gordian.
Talk a little more about Tech and how that game went on the road.
They out-hustled us every ball; we got out-rebounded by 17 by a team that, at that time, was not doing very well statistically in rebounding, but that doesn't mean anything. Rebounding is heart and effort, basically. Defensively, we didn't play very well. We just played real soft. We played passive; we weren't very aggressive from the start. We gave a lot of uncontested shots, and Tennessee Tech is a teammuch like Samford: they've got five players on the floor who can shoot. You've got to get out and get a hand in their face. They've got post players who aren't very big, but they can all take you off the dribble. We didn't do a good job of playing to the strengths and weaknesses of their personnel in that game.
We're looking forward to Thursday night. I think you'll see a much different Racer team, and I know that Tennessee Tech is going to come in excited, because they've got a shot to play at home for the first-round game, so they've got a lot to play for.
In the last game, the team played strong defense down the stretch and showed that they really have the desire to hang a banner.
We talked about that at halftime. We didn't play well, we were down seven and Joi Scott was 0-for-1 from the field. I told them that for our go-to player to have one touch, and we're down two or three possessions at most, we're not in bad shape. We just had to get back to what got us there. We talked about defenses where our emphasis was, going to the half, not offense at all. It was staying disciplined and focusing on the defensive end. Joi Scott had a look in her eyes when she came back into the game that "We're not going to lose."
The same thing with Amber (Guffey). She had a tough go at first because the scouting report on Amber Guffey is that she's going to penetrate to pass. So, when she does penetrate to the rim, nobody helps on Amber because they're waiting for her to pass the ball. That's where a lot of her turnovers come from -- I think she had five in that game -- because when she penetrates in, she may have a wide-open layup, but she's looking to thread the needle. I took her out of the game, and toldher "When you decide you want to go in and score, to help your team, then you let me know, and I'll put you back in the game." So, she told me she was ready to go, and she went back in and did that, because that's what we need her to do, especially when Joi was out, we need for her to score. We've got to have people out there who can score the ball, and she's so unselfish, she loves to pass first, and it's like pulling teeth to get her to shoot.
Now, her sister (Paige), on the other hand, she'll always shoot it. I have to stop her sometimes with a big stick. But Amber, we have to beg her to shoot, and that's every game. It's not like she says, "OK. I remember Coach wants me to shoot." You've got to remind her every minute of every game that we need her to score. That's really what it came down to, and Alaina Lee and Shaleea Petty had some huge defensive stops. They just made the decision that we're not going to lose the game. We had some adversity with replays and reviews of calls and things like that, but we can't let that come into play. I was proud of how we responded down the stretch and never gave in to the thought that we weren't going to win that game.
Is there a lot of competitiveness between the Guffeys?
Well, Amber's not too concerned with scoring, so I'm not sure about that, but neither one of them likes to sit on the bench. When we play now, it's all about match-ups and who is the best match-up out on the floor. They're funny, because if they come out, they can be dog-tired and they don't want to come out. They're real competitive with each other -- not so much with points, but with playing well. They both want to play well and do the right things. We don't have any trouble getting Paige to shoot it. When we need a spark plug to come in off the bench, Paige is definitely our top person to come off and do that.
What things does the team need to improve on over the last two games?
Well, it's the same thing we've been talking about: trying to develop a killer instinct. We struggle with that a little bit. We have a team down big, and then we let up for a stretch. We're not going to be able to do that as we head into the tournament. It would be good if we could get that going now for these last two games.
Martin is going to be tough at home. That's always a tough place to play. You can't have any let-ups. They're going to play hard. They lost their star player (Andreika Jackson), and they've stepped up now to fill her shoes. The things that we keep talking about -- rebounding and defense, and if we get a lead, try to build on the lead -- those are the things we're trying to emphasize.
Now that hosting the first round of the tournament is locked up, is there any chance of losing focus?
I don't think so. We talked about that. Obviously, when we sat down and did our goals in the pre-season, we talked about wanting to play a first-round game at home -- that hasn't been done in seven years, so we want to do that. We want to win an OVC championship, a regular-season championship, and that goal is still out there. We tell them: "We're so close. Don't turn back now. We can't turn back now." I feel like -- if we get this win on Thursday and play well, it's going to be really exciting on Saturday for us. I know that Martin is going to be playing for a lot: their seeding, their position. We're going to be playing for a whole heck of a lot.
That's what we talked about Saturday. Eastern Illinois talked about their Senior Day, and everybody is. Martin's going to talk about it, but I told our seniors: "This is your Senior Day at Lantz Arena. We want to leave that arena and everywhere we go, it will be the last time to play there." I really don't think they're going to lose focus at this point. It would be disappointing, and I really think our seniors are mature and realize that the end is right here, and I don't think they want it to end, so I think we'll continue to stay focused.
It's got to be exciting to be this close to the end of the season and be this close to at least sharing a championship.
I keep saying that I want them to be successful. I've been to an NCAA Tournament (as an assistant coach at Florida). I've been right there to win a conference championship. We get up early and go to practice and with all of the things they've gone through all year, and it really sinks in now that it's worth it. When you get up in the morning and run "suicides" and you run sprints, you don't think about that. But now, in the end, you forget about that stuff, because it's all going to be worth it.
It does feel good. It feels good for them to finally realize their goals and hopefully, we won't fall short. I know people expect us to do well, but we've got even higher expectations of ourselves. We've been working at this for a long time for a few years, so I hope it'll come into fruition.
When you look back, are you surprised at anything that's happened in conference play?
Not really. I thought, coming into the year, the conference was wide-open. I'm not really surprised. Morehead has done a really good job. They started off kind of slow; I was surprised at their start than really how they ended. Austin Peay had a lot of good players returning, they have a new coach, and she did a great job of getting them together pretty quickly and believing in what she was doing, and the same thing with Tennessee Tech. That wasn't much of a let-up, because (Tech coach) Amy (Brown) had been there before. There really haven't been a whole lot of surprises as far as I can see.
