Texas Basketball
Postgame Quotes
No. 4/4 Texas 75, Iowa State 54
Texas Head Coach Karen Aston
“I thought our team, once again, really got off to a great start. I love our energy right now
defensively. In league play, as we begin each game, we seem very focused, defensively in
particular on whatever the game plan is that evening. I think it helps us get off to a confident
start, and then obviously we shot the ball well tonight. There’s a lot of people that shot the ball
well. Brooke got us off to a good start but everybody kind of had a hand in that. I thought we
played really good as a team, really good. I was very pleased, but they’re a hard team to play.
It’s one of those matchups that’s been difficult for us in the past, and it was pleasing to be able
to defend them a little bit better than we had in the past and attack the areas that were open.
Which, last year if you look at both of the games, we at times struggled with what was the open
shot. I thought we did a pretty good job of that tonight.”
On the maturity of the team tonight…
“I think the example I can give you the best is not necessarily even something particular that is
happening in a game. Our approach to practice is pretty mature right now. I think the
preparation, even as we watch film, they seem to have a better grasp of what we’ve been
looking for and how we’ve been preparing for opponents. So I think some of it is having players
that have been in our system now for the fourth year, and they really understand what is
expected. So the leadership is good on a daily basis, and I think that’s what shows up in the
games right now.”
On the third best start of the program…
“I think this was a big game, and every game is big. One is not more important than the other.
But, I didn’t say anything to the team, I’m sure they knew that we were playing a team that this
was the exact same spot that we were in last year. We were 13-0 and lost to Iowa State, so I
didn’t really say anything because I figured I didn’t need to. I was concerned for a number of
reasons. That one, would it affect us mentally? And the other piece is that this has just been a
difficult matchup for us. I think that there are certain games where you sort of feel like that
was a big game, even though they’re all big. The win at West Virginia was big, even though it
was just the first one. So as we go along there will be different reasons why each game is big.”
On the shooting performance tonight…
“I thought we would have open shots. There’s no question that there’s a pick your poison type
of philosophy with some of the teams that are approaching our team right now. If you look at
the past history of the way that they play us, then yes I thought we would have open shots.
But, I thought the critical part was that we made extra passes and we worked inside out. When
I look at both of the games last year, our decision making was not great. We rushed things, we
got anxious and as Imani said, the anxiety led into not playing defensively the way that we
needed to. I thought we were very relaxed and we make good decisions. When post players
were open we threw it in there and when the skip passes were open we threw those. So I
thought our decision making was better.”
On the comeback of sophomore guard Ariel Atkins…
“Well, she got into foul trouble, though she did come out really well. I thought she was sharp
when she came in in the first half, and then she got the two quick fouls so that had a little to do
with her minutes. We will monitor the players on the court and at one point she asked to come
out in the second half. She is not quite there yet in wind perspective of being probably able to
play more than, well she played 15 minutes tonight and that was with the foul trouble, about a
20-minute conditioning pace. That’s okay. The amount of minutes are players are able to play
right now gives them the ability, because of our depth, to play at their maximum potential
instead of pacing themselves. Especially these seniors. They had to learn that at a pretty young
age to pace themselves when they got here, so we are trying to retrain all of them to max
yourself out and then somebody else can come in. I am pleased where Ariel is. She is in a good
spot.”
Senior Center Imani Boyette
On the feelings of last year’s Iowa State game…
“Yes, I’m fun fact girl. So, fun fact. They’re winning the series overall. They’ve beaten us the
last three consecutive times and I’ve only beaten them once in my entire career. So we all
talked about it and we all knew that they snapped our winning streak last year and we thought
that this would be a real ‘gut check’. Every game is big in the Big 12 but they do well when we
guard bad. We knew that this would be lockdown defensively. If we can hold certain players to
under their average or under where they do best then we know we’re on the right track. So we
just kept reminding each other, ‘They’re going to come back. They’re not going to die. Keep
fighting, keep fighting.’”
On Texas’ ability to dominate despite being under pressure…
“I don’t think it’s any pressure because we’re not playing anxious. Last year we were really
excited to win like ‘wow we’ve never done this before.’ Now we just try to keep our head down
and go to work. If that comes out with a win that’s awesome but we’re making sure our effort
is the same regardless of the outcome.”
On Texas’ ability to react to diversity and whether she thinks it has improved…
“We’ve always been a type of team that even though our defense is our best. We would let our
offense dictate how we would play defense, which is generally why we would lose our leads
against Iowa State. Today we’ve been stressing, ‘next play, next play’ and just trying to play
free and it helps because our coaches let us play free. If we miss a shot they don’t care, they
just want us to stop on defense.”
On pride of your defense versus your offense…
“I consider myself a defensive player at the dismay of my coaches. I have been working on
being better on offense. Today I didn’t really shoot well, but that’s one thing that I always want
to control is how I rebounded and play defense. I didn’t know that I had that many blocks or
rebounds. I was trying to be in the right place and do the thing I needed to do. My first instinct
isn’t to score, but I am working on it.”
Guard Sophomore Brooke McCarty
On the defense from Iowa State…
“I think that we’ve been preparing for that defense in practice so I knew that my teammates
would have open shots, and I’d be open to shoot it. We’ve been working on it all weekend and
we knew what to do when they came out in it.”
On the 14-0 mark…
“I think that’s just motivation for us. Motivation for coming into practice every day, working
hard, getting better at what we are good at, and getting better at what we are not good at.”
On the shooting performance…
“I think it was the rhythm. Everybody was just relaxed and they came out there and took the
open shots that they had. We just got into a rhythm and we were comfortable.”
Iowa State Head Coach Bill Fennelly
On Texas three-point shooting …
“We’re not a team with great size or depth. We didn’t want to get in foul trouble and let them
pound it inside on us. We tried to hopefully chase them off the three a little bit better. We were
late in our rotations in some of it and Brooke McCarty hit some shots on us early. They’re a
hard cover for us, and a lot of people, but we were going to give up some threes and hopefully
keep them off the free-throw line and defensive rebound the ball a little bit better than we
did.”
On Texas out-rebounding Iowa State 48-40 …
“We did get worn down a little bit. Their size, athleticism, they just keep bringing bodies at you.
When you’re getting beat and you know you’re not going to win the game, you’re not as
motivated. We rested Seanna [Johnson] and Jadda [Buckley] the last five minutes because it’s a
long season for us and we weren’t going to win the game. No one gave up, but you have to err
on the side of being smart. These guys are fighting through injuries and we have a tough game
Saturday night at home. But I think that’s a credit to Coach Aston and the way they do things. If
you’re playing a team like this and they have a lot of good players, when you get in the game,
you better do something. You earn your minutes. You can tell, some of those kids came off the
bench and were attacking the glass. It looked like there were seven white jerseys a couple times
around the glass. That’s a credit to their staff and to their kids. They’re going to be a tough out
for a lot of people.”
Iowa State Junior Guard Seanna Johnson
On what makes it hard to score on Texas …
“Coming into the game, they were really aggressive, especially on me and on Jadda [Buckley],
too. I tried helping Jadda out as much as I could, if it was back-dooring; I knew I wasn’t going to
be able to get the ball off the dribble, but I knew they’d leave me open for the three-point shot.
I worked on it quite a bit the last couple days. Four-for-9 when I’m usually 0-for-3 helped me
build my confidence a lot. When you go into a game like this, you’ve got to have the mindset to
shoot the shot. You’re in the Big 12; you’re not going to have any shot wide open. With that, my
teammates found me the ball throughout the game.
On the difference between this year’s Texas team and last year’s …
“They have a lot of depth. Like Coach said, we only dressed eight players. Down the stretch,
they have players come off the bench who play really well. They’re a bigger team, a stronger
team. I think they fought, but I think we fought as well. So, I give credit to them, but I also give
credit to us.”