University of North Carolina Athletics
Georgetown NCAA Press Conference
March 17, 2012 | Women's Basketball
March 17, 2012
Georgetown Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy
Opening Statement:
“I can't tell you how excited we are to be here for the third year in a row. It's very exciting for our seven seniors. It's very good for them to go out strong and just as hard as they came in. I think we've had a really good year this year and what better way to begin our postseason play than in the NCAA tournament.”
On Style of Play:
“Probably about three years ago we decided to change the way we play. We decided we wanted to be a more up-tempo type team but in order to be a more up-tempo type team we needed to be a better defensive team. The more we can pressure a team and the more we can cause a team to turn the ball over will give us more opportunities to run and be a better transition offensive team. We play 40 minutes of what we call 'tenacious defense'. Some teams say that they press, but you're only a pressing team if you do it for 40 minutes. We press on a made basket, on a missed basket, on a made free throw, on a missed free throw, on a dead ball—it really doesn't matter. We will press, and we will press the whole game.”
On Team Strengths:
“When we are flying all over the floor, it means everyone on the floor is very active. We're in the passing lanes, we're getting steals, and we're causing the other team to turn the ball over. If you look at some of our stats, we've had other teams turn the ball over 25 or 30 times. That's when we're at our best because it gives us more offensive opportunities to score at the other end. And then like other teams, we're at our best when we're making shots. When we can get a steal and push it down in transition, we like shooting the three in transition because that's actually when we make most of our threes is in transition.”
Senior Tia Magee
On the Big East Conference:
“Personally I love being in the Big East. I think the Big East is the hardest conference in the country. It's one of those things you love to hate because you have such hard games. Sometimes it's tough because you can't take a day off but at the same time you love it because you have to come prepared every game. We've played the best teams in the country already so I feel like that prepares us to play anybody.”
Junior Sugar Rodgers
On NCAA Tournament Experience:
“I think [past NCAA experience] prepares us because we already know what we need to do to advance to the next game. We've got to go play hard every time because if you lose you're out, and nobody wants to lose. “
