Coach Lisa Stone talks about upcoming Big Ten play
December 30, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 30, 2009
MADISON, Wis. - Wisconsin women's basketball coach Lisa Stone addressed the media on Tuesday, talking about her team's play in Big Ten Conference action. UW, which is coming off a 62-54 win over No. 16 Michigan State this past Monday night, is tied for fourth in the Big Ten standings.
The Badgers (11-2 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) take to the road for the second time this Big Ten Conference season on Thursday, playing at Iowa (7-6, 0-2). Tip off is at 5 p.m. from Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa.
A complete transcription of Stone's quotes can be found below. You can also watch the news conference, which also featured men's hockey coach Mike Eaves here.
Opening Statement: We’re fresh off a big win last night. I’m very proud of our players. And something unique was that, at the end of the game, I went into the locker room and I asked the players how they felt. And I said, it feels good, doesn’t it? And they said, yeah. And I said, why? And they said, because it was hard and it was hard work. If we can maintain the intensity that we had and the energy and the focus that we had from shoot-around all the way through the end of the game last night, I like what I see.
But we’re back at it. We’ve got a very tough opponent in Iowa. We leave already for Iowa City tomorrow and then off to Illinois on Sunday. They just keep coming at us and we’ll learn from this game. We’ll watch some film. We have practice here shortly and we’ll continue to grow and get better, but if we can keep that energy and that intensity, we’ll continue to get better.
Coach, after a win like that and you talked about keeping up that intensity, is it a good thing or a bad thing to mention an NCAA tournament berth, to say, look, these are the kind of quality wins that would get us in?
Well, that’s a goal of ours. That’s something we talk about, that our non-conference season is season one, now you have the Big Ten season, and then you have the post-season. And our goal is to get to the NCAA tournament. And when you look at a Michigan State team who made the Sweet 16 last year and has everybody back … (a) big, strong, physical team, a very, very good team and they’re going to do well. We have to play them yet again. We have to go up there.
We need to just stay focused on the next opponent and the next opponent is Iowa, who is a very high-scoring offensive team. They’ve been strapped with some injuries. They lost a great player in Theairra Taylor just about a week ago. But they went to Penn State last night, in double overtime and put up over 70 points. So it’s a concern of ours. That we just move on to the next game.
And the Big Ten is where we have to make a statement and to get off to a good start yesterday was encouraging, but we’re not going to celebrate. We’re going to stay focused on the next game in hopes of our goal an NCAA tournament.
You’ve had some success so far on the road. Is that a sign of just the maturity of a team or how do you read it?
What I like and I had mentioned this last night after the game, we went to Marquette, to NC State and to Oregon, three very, very good teams on their home floor and were successful. We’re nowhere near where we need to be yet. We’re getting better. Our bench has been contributing. Our starters, our returning players have been in those venues. They’ve been in Iowa, they’ve been at Illinois. I’m hoping that our experience coming into the season as well as what we’ve done in the non-conference season is advantageous for us. I’m going to lean on that, to be quite honest, Dennis.
Tomorrow, when I talk to our team, when we get down to Iowa City, that’s something you have to talk about. You’ve got to play with a high level of confidence. Our defense has to show up every single night. We need to continue to rebound the basketball like we did last night and find opportunities to score. I’m hoping that we can lean on that and less about years coming to this year, more about this current team and what they’ve done thus far.
With last night’s win, playing a team that went to the Sweet 16, a good team like Michigan State, having a long layoff that you had off, there’s a number of things I guess built in where there might have been teams in the past that could have said, well, just playing them tough would have been nice or an excuse or something to fall back on. Is there something you see with this team, whether it’s mental, physical, that that’s not good enough for them or they’ve got that something extra that says we can turn that into a win instead?
They’re different, Rob. It’s a completely different look in that locker room. Let’s just take Ohio State, for example. We went to Ohio State, the number three ranked team in the country, in a Big Ten opener, early December, an unusual time in scheduling. However we go in there and we’re up 29-20 at halftime. We’re up on Ohio State, one of the best teams in the country. (In) the second half, we had about a seven minute lay down, where Ohio State was able to take over. After the game, different from the past, it wasn’t like ‘We played pretty well. We lost but we played pretty well.’ Our team was disappointed they lost the game. So there is a different feeling in that locker room. This team is very hungry and if we can maintain …
That’s my goal and that’s my job is to continue to get this team prepared, up and ready for every single game. Not looking too far ahead or not looking backwards, staying right on task. There’s things we have to shore up today in practice. We’ll get ready for the scout tomorrow. It’s Iowa that’s next - a young team that’s very, very good. But our expectation level is high.
We’ve got a very hungry team and that’s what showed it to me at Ohio State. After the game was over, it wasn’t like “Well, we played really well for a half and that should be pretty good because they’re the second-ranked team in the country.” No, we were disappointed we lost the game and we’re looking forward to them coming back here – we get to play them later in the year. I’m encouraged by those young women that sit in front of me every day. They inspire me to continue to work as hard as I can and stay focused and keep that energy level going as we go into this Big Ten.
Talk a little bit about the development you’ve seen in Anya Covington over the last year and a half.
Anya is, in fact I just walked by her – she’s on her way up to shoot free throws. I think our entire team knows they’re going to shoot free throws today so they’re already up there. But Anya Covington has a personality of a leader and she’s a captain for a reason. She developed this leadership ability as a young girl. As a freshman last year, fell right into that role. The team will follow Anya. She has a presence about her, she has an intelligence about her that ‘Let’s get this thing done.’ What she’s done now is taken her experience from her freshman year to her sophomore year and it’s been steady, steady improvement.
She’s getting better and better offensively on the block, taking what the defense gives her, not settling for a fade-away, trying to be more of a power player and going to the basket. Defensively, she has grown leaps and bounds from day one to right now. She still has a ways to go but she is one of our best rebounders, her strength and her presence inside is the same as it is off the court. The team leans on her that way. What I like and what I saw last night, was improved passing. She made some great passes last night. Alyssa had a nice slip to the basket. We mishandled it but that was a great pass by Anya. Her entire game has grown as she’s matured and that’s nice to see from that freshman to sophomore year.
You mentioned before about Michigan State that it was hard, that the team and the players were talking about how hard it was. There’s a story with hockey that you can always tell the winning locker room by the one that has the more ice bags, the one that looks more beat up afterwards. There’s a price to be paid for winning. Do you see that with your team – mentally and physically, there’s a price to be paid with success?
It’s unbelievable and you’re right, we’re loaded up with ice bags in there. We’re relatively healthy but … Rae Lin D’Alie played 40 minutes in one of her best games as a Badger, in my opinion. Despite her free throws, her line was amazing and her energy, she was a coach on the floor and that’s what we need. And when I said that in the locker room, Rae Lin said ‘Coach, it wasn’t me. The team followed me.’ So, we were all in this together. Their voice, their actions – it was not celebration in there last night, it’s on to the next game. We’re getting this done, coach. We have to maintain that. We have to continue to maintain that on a daily basis. The bench was electric yesterday. Not everybody played - there’s eight players that didn’t hit the floor – and they were screaming the entire game. They’re calling out screens, they’re pumped up, they’re jumping off the bench. All of those little things help you stay focused in that time out. And then in the locker room, they felt good about it but we know we’ve got a long way to go. That was just one game and now we’re on to the next one.
After a hard practice, they’ll sometimes thank you and that’s an odd thing that a player will thank you for whether its running or conditioning or how hard it was. There’s a sense of accomplishment ‘Hey, look what we just did.’ So, we have to continue to build on what happened last night into our next game and continue to keep that hunger and that chip on our shoulder because it’s a long season yet but we have to continue to get better and maintain that on a daily basis.
