March 5, 2007

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PURDUE BOILERMAKERS

THE MODERATOR:  We'll open to up with general comments from Coach Versyp and then we'll go to the student athletes for questions.  Sharon?
 COACH SHARON VERSYP:  Well, this is an unbelievable evening for Purdue University and this group of young women.  You know, it's amazing what they have gone through in order to be in this position tonight, being Big Ten champs, and I can't say enough for them and what their dedication and their belief in me and my staff, to go through this journey together and just be able to end it this way. Obviously ending the Big Ten championship but going on to the NCAA and hopefully doing some really great things.

 Q.  Katie, did you have any sense before the game that you guys would get off to that kind of a start?
 KATIE GEARLDS:  You know, we talked about wanting to get off to a good start in the first two games we got down by nine, ten points and we really wanted to focus on getting a good start because it takes so much energy to battle back when you start off like that.
 To start off 21 0, you can't say enough about our defensive job, finishing the plays with rebounds, and we just pushed the ball in transition.  You know, sometimes we can kind of struggle if we have to set up in the half court, and I thought we did a great job of really pushing the tempo and finding some good looks.

 Q.  Katie, your dad was saying that this is why you went to Purdue.  Did the reality look a lot like the dream?  And secondly, what did you say to the bench after you hit that one shot?
 KATIE GEARLDS:  You know, you talk about going to Purdue and wanting to win championships.  You know, we felt like we were in the position this year; we started off really well in the Big Ten and had two losses on our home court that we let slip away.  Both games we should have battled and won those games, but we didn't.  Those things happen for a reason.
 To come back here and win a championship in my hometown is something really special.
 The shot, it was a step back, and as soon as I released it, coach said, "It's off, it's off."  And I just turned to her, and I said, "Nope."  And that was it (laughter).

 Q.  Lindsay, could you talk about the fact that Ohio State has beaten you guys a few times in a row and a lot of talk may be about how dominant they had been?  Did that motivate you guys at all knowing that maybe they were favored?
 LINDSAY WISDOM HYLTON:  Definitely, yeah, they were favored, and yeah, they beat us at home and that hurt and we used that as motivation to come out and be aggressive and be strong.  We had lost to them last year, a year ago.  They came back beat us here, and we were able to come back and we kind of fell short.  But we used that as motivation to come through with a great win tonight.

 Q.  Erin, just the feeling.  You guys have not had this experience since your freshman year.  Just talk about the emotion and the feeling.
 ERIN LAWLESS:  You know, I had a great feeling when I woke up this morning.  I just felt the same way I did my freshman year.  I woke up, and I was like, I feel great about this game, I feel great about this team's confidence.
 The emotions are just all over the place.  There's excitement, there's joy, there's every kind of emotion, it's overwhelming.  It's just happiness all over right now.  It's fantastic to know we fought those first two games, and to come out to a 21 0 start is something you just can't stop smiling about.  It's just    you know, we got it done.  We went out there, we played, we got that championship.

 Q.  Lindsay, there was a point there in the second half where it looked like you felt like you could do just about whatever you wanted to offensively.  Were you feeling pretty comfortable at that point with your ability to get some points on the board?
 LINDSAY WISDOM HYLTON:  Definitely.  I was starting to hit a few shots and I kind of felt like I was unstoppable so I kind of kept going at them.  I missed a few shots and then we were able to run through some of our offense, and Katie and Erin were stepping up and hitting shots.  We were playing great team basketball, and I think that's what pulled us through with the victory tonight.

 Q.  Katie, as you're standing there with the trophy and taking pictures, any particular thoughts go through your mind?  Also, you've had a lot of injuries and a lot of rehab.  Did you give any thought to what you've been through to get to this point?
 KATIE GEARLDS:  The only thing that was going through my mind was how special this feels, but most importantly how much further we have to go this year.  This is a great building block right now to really grab onto this momentum and carry it into the NCAA tournament.
 One thing I wanted to say, we're hoping we've got six more games left and that will put us in the National Championship.  We're going to take it one night at a time, and from here on out it's one and done, and I'm hoping and I know Erin is hoping that we've got a lot more college ball to play.

 Q.  Lindsay, I'm wondering about your fearless nature.  There were back to back to back situations between  you and Jess.  Just talk about what a rush it is maybe to take it to the hole strong against one of the most celebrated players, and you scored on her twice in three plays there.
 LINDSAY WISDOM HYLTON:  Some of our offense was run toward me because I was kind of hot, just like any other player was.  But she's a great player, great defender.  But I couldn't be scared.  I just had to take it at her and be aggressive, and I think that's just what Erin and I and everybody else was doing on the court.

 Q.  For any or all of you, when you get out 21 0 like that, how hard is it    you've got to remind your self there's still 30 minutes to play.  How hard was it to just I guess stay about your business and realize that you still have a lot to game to play?
 ERIN LAWLESS:  I don't think that was hard for any of us at all.  We understood that it was a 21 lead but any team is capable of coming back from a deficit like that.  It's happened before, and we were trying not to have that happen to us.

 Q.  How important was it in the second half to not let to lead get under ten?
 KATIE GEARLDS:  We talked about it at halftime, same thing, coming out and really dominating the first four or five minutes like we did the first half.  And you know, we kind of traded baskets back and forth, and we didn't let that lead get under ten.
 I think one time there was a chance, Jess was at the line and I think she could have knocked it down to nine and missed one of the two, so it never got to single digits.  We knew they were going to make a run, and we knew we just gave up a 17 point lead to Michigan State a month ago, so we knew we had to maintain our momentum and keep attacking offensively.

 Q.  Jim Foster was in here a little bit ago reminding everybody that Lindsay has got game.  Could you tell us what a rush you got watching her?  I think she's too modest.
 KATIE GEARLDS:  You can't say enough about her.  Lindsay is so athletically gifted.  She pulled out this left handed baby hook.  I was like, oh, my goodness, if she pulls that out, she is unstoppable, because the next play I think she turned left and just kind of went for it, and Lindsay went to the right hand with a bank shot.  She's so physically gifted athletically, you can't say enough about her.
 She rebounds the ball off the rim, changes shots.  She's one of those really rare players that can dominate on both ends of the floor, and we try to tell her every day how good she is, and I think she's finally starting to believe us.  I promise you, I'm not lying though.  She is one of those really, really special players, and really glad to have the opportunity to play with her for three years.  She's going to take this team a long way next year, too.
 THE MODERATOR:  Questions for Sharon?

 Q.  Was that the game plan to get off to a 21 0 lead?
 COACH SHARON VERSYP:  Absolutely.  We wrote it up just like that.  No, we just discussed the last two games, we got off to a slow start and got behind by 9 or 13 and you just can't do that.  Again, it would be very hard for us, even though we probably could battle back, but we just did not want that to happen.  I said that both teams are really tired, but we're in better shape.  Let's get up and down the floor and show that, and that's what got us started in transition.

 Q.  It looked like defensively your players stuck to the game plan pretty well, let them shoot from the outside and passing on the inside.  Just talk about that strategy.  It seemed to be really effective, especially in the first half.
 COACH SHARON VERSYP:  They only took about five or six threes total the last two games, and if you're going to get beat, you've got to see how they're playing, and we're just like, let them shoot from the outside.  Packer is a three point shooter, 00 is a three point shooter, and we just kind of played in and sagged in and did not want Davenport to get off to a great start, and I think we did that exceptionally well the first half.  I knew she'd end up scoring the second half because we were banging and you wear her down.  Erin did just a phenomenal job and everybody helping in.  The game plan worked and our kids stuck to it, and we got to play zone the whole night and not play man.

 Q.  It was either yesterday or earlier in the tournament you said that you knew how good these kids were.  Is 21 0 what you meant?
 COACH SHARON VERSYP:  Yeah, I mean, hindsight is 20/20.  I just know how special a group this is.  I've said that from day one, and I told them that.  I thought when it was 10 0, I thought, that's pretty good, and I thought it would start going back and forth.  And then we just kept rolling and rolling and I told them you can't let them get back in this game, you can't let them get under 10 because once you get under ten, then things happen, then the momentum changes.  We just really gutted it out.  I had three kids that played 40 minutes, and they wanted to get it done for their teammates.

 Q.  We've seen moments when Katie will lift the team on her shoulder or Lindsay or somebody else, but for Lindsay and Katie to do it both in the second half, what kind of statement did they make today?
 COACH SHARON VERSYP:  I think, like Katie said, we're hopefully playing exceptionally well and getting every ounce of every player right now.  I think every kid stepped up, KiKi knocking down the two free throws, Erin having a fantastic game tonight, Lindsay having a great game, and I thought FahKara had a great court game.
 Danielle, our entire bench, whether they got in or not, what they do for us every day is huge.  I think when those three obviously are hot    I thought Jodi Howell played with so much guts tonight, was able to get some offensive boards.  Again, we talk about individuals, but this was a total team effort.

 Q.  You coached against Katie last year.  This year you've coached her.  Have you developed a different kind of appreciation for the type of player she is?
 COACH SHARON VERSYP:  I mean, I always appreciate players that are Katie's caliber, and to be able to coach her, me and my staff are very blessed that we've been able to coach Katie and Erin.  I think that hopefully through this experience Katie will have learned a lot more basketball because it's a new coach, just a different philosophy, and hopefully mentally    physically and mentally I try to make my players tougher.  You know, for us it's just been a complete pleasure.

 Q.  You said in your office the other day that you felt like you were pretty well set for the No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament.  After this, playing like this on national TV, what do you think now?
 COACH SHARON VERSYP:  Depends on what the committee thinks, but whether we're 3 or 2 right now, this is just a great moment, and we're not going to worry about that.  If the committee thinks we deserve a 2, they'll give it to us.  That's totally out of my hands.

 Q.  I suppose you don't mind when a player talks back to you when she's just hit a big three pointer like that?
 COACH SHARON VERSYP:  She turned and smiled.  She said it was in the whole way.  It just had a funky spin on it.  I was just trying to make sure we got the offensive board.  That's what it's all about, when you can have that kind of fun relationship with your players.

 Q.  How important was it for you to have such a strong fan base here tonight?
 COACH SHARON VERSYP:  Well, it was huge.  You know, the community is amazing, the pep band, the Gold Mine, I helped get them here, I helped pay for their tickets.  They're so important.
 You know, again, I really like to reach out to everyone that's important to our program, and I think for them, they had a blast.
 THE MODERATOR:  Thanks, Sharon.  Good luck in the tournament. 
 
 
OHIO STATE BUCKEYES

THE MODERATOR:  Open it up for an opening statement from Coach Foster, then we'll go to the student athletes.
 COACH JIM FOSTER:  I'd just like to congratulate Purdue.  I thought they played very sound, a well played game.

 Q.  Jessica, obviously you're not going to make excuses, but was there fatigue after that game with Penn State?  Were your legs a little heavy?
 JESSICA DAVENPORT:  Maybe a little bit, but like you say, you can't make excuses.  It's the championship game and you go out there to play, play to win.  I mean, they were on fire in the beginning, and we couldn't throw a rock in the ocean.  That big lead they got really hurt us early on.

 Q.  Maria, could you speak to what was going on in those first 10 or 11 minutes and what was going wrong at that time?
 MARIA MOELLER:  Well, first couple minutes like Jess said, we couldn't make a shot.  We were just trying to execute, get the ball, have some inside outside game and just cut into that lead, the 21 0 lead.

 Q.  Jess, that feeling when a game starts off like that, how often in your career at Ohio State have you had a feeling like that? On the court, it must feel like everything is going right for them and nothing is going right for you guys?
 JESSICA DAVENPORT:  It might have been the first time.  You have to give it to them.  They came out hitting shots.  I don't know, it was kind of frustrating when the shots that you usually make don't go in.  I don't know, we still have the NCAA tournament to play, so we're going to get ready for that.

 Q.  Jess, did you ever feel there was a point when you were ever going to get back into the game, or did they just control the whole thing?
 JESSICA DAVENPORT:  There was definitely points like that going back in the game.  I think the whole game we had a lot of fight in us.  We never gave up, and we kept playing hard no matter what the circumstance was.  I give a lot of credit to our teammates, especially Maria Moeller.  She played every minute of this tournament and she still pressured the ball for 40 minutes; I went to the floor.  That type of leadership at your point guard position really makes you look forward to the next round of tournaments.

 Q.  Jessica, when you guys did come back, I think you got within ten a couple times in the second half, just talk about what it was that Wisdom Hylton and Gearlds did to extend the lead back up for Purdue.
 JESSICA DAVENPORT:  They were hitting shots.  There's not much more you can say.  They had a big lead and they wanted to make sure we weren't going to cut into that lead.  As much as we tried, we just couldn't go over that ten point hump.

 Q.  For both you guys, can you talk about how much this is a motivating factor for you guys going into the rest of the season and obviously the NCAA tournament?
 MARIA MOELLER:  I think it's a motivator just because losing this game is going to want us to get back in the gym, get better each and every day and prepare ourselves for the NCAA tournament.
 JESSICA DAVENPORT:  I mean, like she said, we had kind of a good run and it was you know, sketchy in this tournament, but we have lot to look forward to.  I don't know when the NCAA tournament starts, but we have time to get out there and prepare and rest our bodies and get ready for a deep run in the tournament .

 Q.  Maria, could you talk about how you guys felt physically after the long game against Penn State?
 MARIA MOELLER:  We might have been tired, but Purdue was just as tired as we were coming in.  They didn't go into overtime, but just needed to pursue through that fatigue and just play, just go out there and play.

 Q.  Maria, can you talk about some of the pressure they put on you guys, putting the ball the length of the court and what that did to you guys?
 MARIA MOELLER:  Well they did a 1-2-2 press and then just slowed down our offense, took some time off the shot clock, and that's basically what the press was.  I don't think they were looking to pressure, like get the steal as much as they were trying to get the time on the clock and get the ball away from Jess.

 Q.  Maria, was it hard to get the ball into Jess in the first half?
 MARIA MOELLER:  I think in the first half it was because when me or Shavelle had the ball in the perimeter they were just sagging, they had a girl in front and behind Jess, but once we got the ball into Stephanie or Packer's hands or A.T.'s or Ashlee Trebilcock's hand, they had to guard them and we got the ball into Jess, and when we reversed the ball we were able to get the ball to Jess, too.
 THE MODERATOR:  Questions for Coach Foster?

 Q.  Was there anything that you saw in pregame warmups, anything that gave you any indication that your team might start off like that?
 COACH JIM FOSTER:  I don't watch warmups.

 Q.  Is there anything that you can do?  I know you called some timeouts.  Is there anything you can do when another team is on a run like that to try to slow it down?
 COACH JIM FOSTER:  Well, timeouts are a good start.  They just    they played very, very well and we had a couple players not at their level, not at the intensity level that's necessary in a championship game.  You know, we kept looking down the bench to find people, and we found three freshmen.
 Well, we knew Maria Moeller.  We know how big her heart is, and I thought Shavelle Little came in and did a great job, and Andrea Walker came in and did a great job, so we played a lot of that second half with three freshman on the floor and they were terrific.  They gave us the energy that we needed.

 Q.  How tough is it when you fall behind 21 0, just the energy to get back into it, were you demoralized at all?
 COACH JIM FOSTER:  I think    all these things just make excuses.  I mean, there's four two minute timeouts.  There's plenty of time to get back in the game.  The game is set up today where you've just got to keep battling and keep getting after it.
 We had three or four opportunities to get it in the single digits, and I think psychologically that would have been a big deal, and we didn't execute necessarily the way we needed to and maybe take the shots that you would like to take, but that's the price you pay with three freshmen on the floor.  They may not understand that.  This is a big possession.
 But they played with such spirit and such heart.  I really think our guards rebounded well. Little goes out there and gets six and Moeller gets four.  I think that's a big deal.

 Q.  Did you ever get the feeling that just today maybe wasn't your guys' day?
 COACH JIM FOSTER:  Well, no.  I mean, you just keep pushing buttons.  You know, I'm just happy we came back competitively and that we had a group out there that was forcing the issue.
 I'm happy that Katie Gearlds had to work her tail off to get her points, and she made a couple of incredible shots, big time shots, but I thought Shavelle Little really did as good a job of guarding her as you can do.  Katie is a great player, and she made the little fade away on the block, and then the three that she made going left.  I mean, that's big time stuff.
 Shavelle really came out and changed the tempo, and I thought Walker did    as I can say, Moeller played every minute of every game and the Malone kid is aggressive, she led the league in steals, and Moeller's got five assists and a turnover and handled that situation very well.  I like the feistiness of a freshman, and it allowed me to stay feisty.

 Q.  You touched on Gearlds when it got close there at the end, what she did.  But what Wisdom Hylton did..
 COACH JIM FOSTER:  They're terrific players.  I'm on the selection committee for USA Basketball, and Wisdom Hylton was    she wasn't there for the first couple days, wasn't doing the stuff she normally does, and I kept telling the committee, "Wait a minute, this kid can play, just be patient, she can play."
 I wish she would have played like she did the first two days, but she played like she did the last day.  She's got a game.  She's got a game.  She's got a little face up, she can drive it.  She's got a style of how to play.  It's not just about talent.  She's a very, very intelligent player.

 Q.  We asked the players earlier if they faced a deficit like that before.  How often in your coaching career have you faced a deficit like that, faced a start like that right away?
 COACH JIM FOSTER:  Maybe my first year, second year.  We played Old Dominion with Nancy Lieberman and Ann Donovan when I was at St. Joe's.  They won the National Championship.  So that's 28 years ago.  I'm glad    if it's 28 years before it comes around again, somebody else is going to be getting it because it's not going to be me (laughter).

 Q.  You talked about the energy your freshmen brought you.  Why did you need that from them?  How did that happen that the people you would normally look to for that energy didn't bring it?
 COACH JIM FOSTER:  Good question.  We'll try to figure out some of it, and hopefully they're going to try to figure it out.
 But the good news is we really liked our freshmen class coming in, and they have done nothing to disappoint that excitement when they came in, and I just like their upside, I like their competitiveness, I like the way they get after things.
 I think you need very competitive people to be a very, very good program, and I like the corps of competitive people we have and I like the corps of competitive people we have coming in next year.  Some people have got to get their act together, which is a lot of competition in the gym.

 Q.  Can you gauge the disappointment level of a conference tournament loss as opposed to maybe an NCAA loss or a loss that would throw you out of the loop for a conference championship type deal?
 COACH JIM FOSTER:  Well, we won the regular season, and the NCAA tournament ends the season.  We're still very much a factor.  We're still very much alive.  You know, our body of work is what it is, you know, and for a ten minute blip today we were not where we would have liked to have been.  But that doesn't negate the rest of it.
 If this was the last game of the season, you'd be sitting there being very optimistic about your freshmen.  But it's not the last game of the season.  I think it bodes well for our next ten days of practice that we've got that feistiness and that spirit.

 Q.  Obviously Star and Ashlee bring some things offensively when they're in the game that when they're not in the game you didn't have that tonight.  How much of a concern is it going forward to make sure that they're back where you want them to be?
 COACH JIM FOSTER:  Well, we shot 62 percent without them in the game in the second half.  So, I mean, I agree with your assessment.

 Q.  But they've been two players who have...
 COACH JIM FOSTER:  Yeah, but the assumption was that we're not a good offensive team without them, and the fact is we shot 62 percent without them.  We're getting some mileage out of other players.  Any game you can look down and say Erin Lawless usually scores more than six points.  Games always take their shape and form and somebody steps up within the framework of the game and has a bigger day.

Q.  Purdue has closed the season with obviously a big win here, a very strong schedule throughout, they're the No. 5 RPI, do you think they make a case for maybe a No. 2, maybe even a No. 1 seed?
 COACH JIM FOSTER:  You know, there's a lot of discussion at this time of year by people that really should have no business discussing those things.  There's a tournament committee that's in place, and their job is all year long to evaluate teams.  They work very hard, they're very good at what they do, and I'm satisfied that they'll make good decisions relative to the body of work that's presented to them.  That's their job.
 My job is to coach my team.  Too often today people try to do other people's jobs.
 THE MODERATOR:  Thanks, Jim.  Good luck in the tournament.
 COACH JIM FOSTER:  Thanks.
 
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