Why was your defense so effective on Jackson and for that matter the whole Tennessee team four quarters you talked about consistency before yeah um first of all Tennessee is loaded Ria Jackson’s number one draft pick right now in my opinion um and just we were locked in we
Were locked in I think you you watch enough film to know how dangerous everybody in this league is but in particular Tennesse they’ve got five people on the floor can score so I thought we did a really good job of being locked in it was crucial from a
Matchup St point to make sure we got back in transition and got our defense set so we could be properly matched up and I thought we forced her to take some tough shots how much uh does it make you feel good knowing that you know I know youall
Want to play well in all areas but you know still some areas offensively five or 20 shooting you know here and there but you know you guys win with defense turnovers when y’all went on that run you know a couple steel transition opportun yeah I thought the second quarter especially AC
Did a good job of of getting out getting her hands on balls um we anticipated really well some of the things they were running and our guards got some Stills listen our team is going to be a team that defends and um because we we’re capable of it and so that that’s going
To give us a chance when we decide to do that and and when we do that um I thought one of the areas that was really important tonight too is making sure we still own the paint um you’re looking at a team who’s got more sides than we do
But I thought we could still you know get some paint touches and we did that and then the area where I was really proud of our team is rebounding and keeping Tennessee off the free throw line they make 23 free throws a game make and and we limited them tonight for
Seven you know for1 so all those things were were really good for us and contributors to us getting the win Sahara Jones seemed to have a pretty good game play 15 points what you think of her it’s what we see all the time the ball went in the hole you know I think
Sahara is someone who comes out every single day and puts her hard hat on between her and AC they’re always defending the other team’s best guard we’ve asked her to go be an offensive rebounder we’ve asked her to go run the floor um and she stayed with it she’s
Always in the gym she’s shooting so when someone like that has a good night you’re just really really happy for him because they do all she always does or tries to do the right thing and sometimes the ball hasn’t gone in the hole for her but she’s stuck with it
She’s been patient and so for her to have a game like she did today you know I was I was really really happy for her what are some of the biggest differences of your team from the begin of conference play to now I mean what we’re
How four games in I I don’t I don’t know if if I’m able to say I think um we’ve got to find some consistency you know so right now I think that’s what we’re searching for I think we’ve shown what we’re capable of when we’re consistent
And do the things we’re supposed to do and I also think we’ve shown what we’re capable of when we’re not and so that’s what the quest that we are on is to be a team that shows up every day who wants to be elite in the areas that we can be
Elite in and then be solid everywhere else and so we’re still we’re still trying to find that how big was it to get a win today especially with a week off and then South Carolina it’s huge I mean number one you protect your home court you’re still undefeated at home we
We were down one and two we now evened it up you got the number one team in the country coming in on Sunday um it was it was really important um to take care of home court today so really happy that we were able to do that for ourselves for
Our fans for for everybody is it re assuring to be able to keep that same offensive and defensive identity you know pounding the paint read down stuff like that now that you’re in the middle of conference play well we have to be who we are we are a team that defends at
A high level that runs that rebounds and it’s got to have paint points that is that is who we are and obviously we tweak things for teams but we’ve got to we’ve got to bring ourselves every single game we’ve got to bring ourselves and that’s what that’s what we’re
Expecting night in and night out yeah you have talked though about consistency and learning how to win Johnny what about winning when arguably your best player was one of eight or one of nine isn’t that is that a little bit of a step that you’re taking that that
Happens sometimes a lot of teams can’t win if their best player goes to one night right well that’s why we always say it’s not just one player right you know janah struggled a little bit tonight but stayed with it and and got some points there late but she rebounded
Well she defended Ria really well but we’re not a team who is ever going to rely on one player to carry the day that’s not how we’re built that’s not how we recruit you know we want to have our stat line we want it to be from a
Point standpoint whatever it looks like 14 13 12 11 11 like that’s that’s what we want so that you’re not relying on one person you know to carry the day s going back to Sahar was there anything aside from her shots going down was there anything you saw just in terms of
The number of attempts opportunities she was getting either the way the game presented itself or that she was doing to give herself kind of a chance to make an impact offensively no I mean she did the same thing she does every single game that the ball win in the whole four
Tonight I think she always runs the floor well she tries to go offensive rebound she defends at a high level her length gives her a chance to do some really good things on both both sides of the ball you know the ball just hadn’t gone in the hole for um lately and and
Today it did nice sh or Jersey what is the significance I don’t know yeah so this was obviously Maron out game but it was also our divine nine game and the the divine nine speaks to the nine black historically sororities and fraternities so with Martin Luther King Dave in
Tomorrow um we wanted to also recognize the non-historical black stories and fraternities I’m a Delta Delta Sigma thetan so this is the sweater that I have on today when did you feel you had that game today Johnny cuz it looked like you know after that 110 run you pretty much
Had control did you feel comfortable the whole time when the buzzer went off figured you’d say that but I had listen I mean Tennessee is a second half team if you look at any of their games they’ve played they’ve been down 12 they’ve been down 14 they’ve been down
16 and they’ve come back and they’ve won every single one of them so no not comfortable at all at all a minute left I’m not comfortable yeah they shoot the three too well and they’ve got too many good players thank you
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