March 6, 2007
Recap | Box Score | AP Gallery
Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer
General Comments:
"I think it was exactly what we thought it was going to be: a battle. Congratulations to Arizona State, they had a great season. I think they will do really well in the NCAA Tournament. They played really hard, they're extremely aggressive. We had to work hard for every basket we got and every rebound we got. For our team, we went with our big lineup a lot and it really responded. People got on the glass. I thought Candice (Wiggins) did an excellent job for us at the point. Again, playing against their pressure's tough, but we made some big shots, got a nice lead. They kind of came back, they're a great team, you can't keep them down. But Brooke (Smith) made some free throws down the stretch, we got some steals, Candice had a nice steal and a block and we got the big trophy."
On using zone defense: "Well it was something we had used before when we had some people in foul trouble the last few games that we played them and we've been playing it more and more. When Candice was out we kind of had to go with our big lineup more. I think we got comfortable with it and I think they're really understanding what we need to do. And then they knocked down a couple threes on us, then we got out of it, but I thought we did a really good job in it. Especially I thought (Newlin) really rebounded, Jayne (Appel) really rebounded, Brooke in there, when they're in there together they play really well together, and they were running the floor really well, too. I thought our bigs ran the floor very well."
On the formula for tourney success: "You have really talented players, and we have really talented players, there are five that are up here. We try to be consistent all year long. We try to play a really tough schedule. I think our players work hard in practice and they buy into a team concept. They do whatever needs to be done. If it's Brooke playing a three, she plays a three. Candice at the one, her more natural position might be a two, whatever we need she'll step up. And when you have team leaders like Brooke and Candice, and then you have seniors like 'New' and then you get your young people who hustle like Jayne does-Jayne is just fabulous in there, catches things, and scores and has great presence-the formula is people playing hard, playing together and making plays."
On ASU's defense: "(ASU) works really hard and they are very aggressive and it's a steep learning curve for your freshman point guard. 'Mel' (Murphy) struggled but it's a good thing that she did come back in and made some really big plays for us. We were fortunate Candice could step in at the one. She handles the ball really well, and makes really good decisions and is flexible and can do that for us. I thought Jill actually did a really good job handling the ball for us, and so did Brooke. We play against different things, we play against people sagging in and tripling Jayne which is kind of what happened yesterday. Then a different team will box and one on Candice, so we did get exposed a little bit but then different people step up. I think Mel will get better but Candice did step in, and Jill did a really good job for us. I also think Cissy Pierce really had a good game defensively and putting the ball on the floor. We have to be able to play against anything teams throw at us. We knew that ASU was going to do this. We knew and we work on it every day in practice to get ready for it."
On if Candice's play surprised her: "When I think about it in June or July, I'll go, 'Wow.' I do say 'wow' now, but we needed it, and Candice does what we need. She gives whatever she can give. She leads by example. She's the most competitive person in this room by far. Coaching her, the only other people I think are in her league are people I've coached on the Olympic team who'll knock you down for just a nickel. They battled, Theresa Edwards, Dawn Staley, those were some real fights. But Candice is a competitor and nothing she does surprises me. I think she's phenomenal. She hated the fact that she sat last week and I just think she was going to come out and get after it and she is just a joy to coach. You don't have enough ink for all the things I could say. I think her teammates really love playing with her and that's the biggest compliment. She makes everybody better who she's playing with."
On if Brooke Smith playing 40 minutes was planned: "Yep, I said 'you're not coming out,' and she didn't. Brooke is just a big part of what we do. She's just a glue for us offensively. I'm really proud of how Brooke's playing. She is tough, she got a charge down at the other end, she's smart, we're setting up plays for her, she plays different positions, she switches out on the guards and is guarding January. Whatever we ask her to do, she does. I think she's been a great team leader this year and I've really seen her grow and I'm really proud of her. We need her out there. I knew I had to take Candice out. I didn't want to take her out but she had two fouls. But I thought I've got to rest her a little bit and try to get her some time around the timeouts. But Brooke is in great shape and we can play New and Jayne together, I like doing that. Then Jill played major minutes for us, but Brooke, I never even thought about taking her out."
Stanford junior guard Candice Wiggins
On if the shrinking lead was similar to last year's final:
"Absolutely, even when we were up from last year's experience, the game's never over, especially against ASU. We were up 15 points with I don't know how much time's left but I knew it wasn't over. When they cut the lead down it was kind of scary and it did remind me of last year."
On having fun playing again: "This weekend was really fun. Like Tara said I've been really wanting to play so just to be able to play and to help our team win, I just think after last year and what our team went through, this is just a great way especially for the seniors to end their senior year on a positive note in Pac-10. Personally, the individual awards, that kind of stuff will just come but I would much rather be sitting here and be able to celebrate this victory than to get any award."
On other top teams losing in their conference tourneys: "It shows that it's really difficult to win the regular season and in the tournament. That's not an easy thing and so we really did want to-not necessarily because of any other teams-but finish this on a good note and provide some momentum."
Stanford freshman forward/center Jayne Appel
On staying out of foul trouble:
"I think I had the mindset of I knew I couldn't foul out. The coaches talked to me yesterday about how I needed to stay in the game. So I told myself I was going to get no fouls in the first half. I picked up one with about 30 seconds to go, but that was my game plan coming in."
Stanford senior forward/center Brooke Smith
On carrying same focus to NCAAs as last season:
"Well we talked about before this tournament how we want to build momentum going to NCAAs. This is the most important time to be playing well and so it was really important to us to sort of get the momentum going. Coach was talking in the locker room after the game how she wants to hold us to the same intensity in practice that we had last year when we lost. So we're not going to have any 'oh we're so great because we won this tournament.' We're going to get back to work on Wednesday and practice as if we would have lost. But we definitely built momentum this weekend and that's going to help us out a lot going into the tournament and will definitely carry over."
On physical play tonight: "That's good, going into the NCAA Tournament as well, they stop calling as much. So you have to be ready to battle and play through it and initiate contact sometimes. So you just have to go with it, there's not much you can do about that."
Stanford senior center Kristen Newlin
On front court of Newlin, Smith, Appel:
"We're just learning to play with each other more lately in the season. Just the more we play with each other the better we become. It poses a different threat to teams when we have 6'4", 6'4", 6'5" in there. We know in the tournament there's going to be a lot of big teams and we'll have to do that to match up with them."
Stanford sophomore forward Jillian Harmon
On playing the two:
"It's kind of a new position for me, I didn't play it at all last year. But we're so effective with our big lineup on offense that it kind of helps when I can play two on defense at the top of the zone. It's a good look for us and it worked well for us today."
ARIZONA STATE
Arizona State Head Coach Charli Turner Thorne
General Comments:
"Are you ready for the clichés of all clichés? Offense wins awards, defense wins games and rebounding wins championships and we just didn't rebound well enough. Despite our shooting woes, it was about the boards, and if we could have controlled the boards we would have won the game. Hats off to definitely to Stanford. They did a tremendous job and we just need to use this game to learn from, regroup, get a little rest and get ready for NCAAs."
On adjustments made after being behind by 16 with 6 minutes to go: "I think the second half in general we played more like we play. We weren't hitting shots at the clip that we normally do, but our energy and effort was better, we were making plays. I think we just felt better about our game. We're a full-court team. We know, that in 3, 4, 5 possessions we can turn things around in a minute, minute and a half. We kept talking about that, tried not to focus on the score and really just play basketball. In general I thought we did that pretty well in the second half. We just needed to do it better in the first half.
On full-court pressure: "Really, zone or man, if you're getting out and getting the jump it shouldn't matter. We didn't execute as well as we wanted to early against the zone and then we did a better job gapping and getting interior shots. It's really more about us. If we run with five people like we normally do, we can usually create some pretty easy offense for ourselves. We didn't do that really consistently enough tonight."
On opportunities to get back in the game early: "We really didn't take advantage. We missed shots. It's the third game in three days, so it'll be nice to regroup and work on our halfcourt offense. Anyone who saw us play earlier knows we do a nice job with our halfcourt offense with our motion and our alignments. We're not really where we were earlier in the season with that, and I though it showed. We forced some things."
On the NCAA Tournament: "We haven't lost very much this year. It's an opportunity to learn and it's a painful one. There is a silver lining and a blessing as we go into the tournament, because our weaknesses were exposed and we saw things we have to do better. While we obviously wanted to win the championship tonight, I think a lot of things from tonight's game will help us focus on improving."
On defending Candice Wiggins: "Obviously, we've played them twice before. She hit threes on us before and we took them away the second. Our focus was to try to shut her down. I thought we did an OK job, but not as well as we wanted to. Our first priority was to take away the threes because threes add up quicker, the second thing was make her earn it and be ready to help early and aggressively and I didn't think we did a great job helping each other. With our defense, we don't want people attacking the middle of the key, and Stanford does a good job of that. That was one of our shortcomings tonight.
On the impact of Jayne Appel: "She's special. She's having fun and playing loose like a freshman and is a major force for them. When you have Candice Wiggins and Brooke Smith, though, I don't think you can say she's the key. She's a major player for them and will be critical to their success in the tournament for sure."
Arizona State senior forward Emily Westerberg
On Stanford's ability to play three posts:
"Obviously we're undersized. With me playing the 4, I think I'm undersized and our entire squad is, we give up inches. It's not like it's a big surprise, because we've seen it all year. Obviously Stanford was big and they'll do great with their size in the tournament. But we're going to play teams like that all year, We're just going to have to take care of a few things."
Arizona State sophomore guard Briann January
On ASU's shooting trouble:
"We were just trying to focus on what we do and keep it in full court game. I don't think it too much win out of our sails. We tried to stay positive and push through. I thought we got open looks and took good shots that just weren't falling. We just had to play through it."
Arizona State junior guard Jill Noe
On defending Candice Wiggins:
"She's a tremendous player and can score in all aspects. We tried to contain her, and just came up a bit short."
On whether they felt momentum slipping away: "I had no doubt we'd fight 'til the end. It's a testament to Charli and the rest of our players that we never give up and we could see in our coaches' eyes that they have faith in us and we just ride that all the way to the end."
Arizona State junior guard Reagan Pariseau
On handling Stanford point guard Melanie Murphy:
"Our defense creates a lot of energy for us. Stanford's a tremendous squad and they had other players step up."