Stone Addresses Media Monday
November 26, 2007 | Women's Basketball
Wisconsin women's basketball coach Lisa Stone addressed the media Monday afternoon discussing the Badgers' trip to Malibu, Calif., the season so far and the upcoming road trip east. The Badgers take on Virginia in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge Friday night in Charlottesville, Va., in a 6 p.m. game.
Below is the transcript from the press conference. You can also click here to watch the archived video of the press conference.
QUESTION #1: Lisa, Jolene is obviously your most consistent player so far this season. Besides Jolene in the guard position and in the post position, who are the most consistent and what attributes do you like'
HEAD COACH LISA STONE: Well, I think consistency is a statement that I'd like to say to our entire team, because, you know, you look at where we're at thus far and so forth, I think the fact that we, as a team, consistently need to take care of the basketball, consistently continue to play defense. As far as who that person would be, if you start in the post position, Mariah has been consistent one game and not the next game. Danielle has been consistent one game and not the next game. But instead of pointing fingers, what I like is the break-out of our freshmen.
I thought Lin Zastrow had a tremendous break-out game against Ole Miss. And that there, maybe a week, if you ask me the same question next week, that might be the person. But I like the development of our freshmen. I like what Alyssa Karel is doing. I think consistently she's bringing some energy. I think Rae Lin has shook off the summer is playing fairly consistently. Her turnover, assist-to-turnover ratio has improved since Marquette.
So I think, in all fairness, I really can't pinpoint one person, either post or guard, in terms of they've been consistent the whole time. It's early in the season. We're learning. We're trying to get better. And I like what I saw in our first game out in Malibu, and I was really excited to play the next game. Unfortunately, we couldn't. Had we been able to play that one, I think I 'd be able to answer this question a little bit more fairly because I really liked what I saw in that first game.
And backing up, the consistency would have been great for our freshmen to play another game because they got their feet wet against a very athletic SEC team, and we got some scoring going. I thought Janese played very well against Ole Miss. We needed that. So to answer your question, I can't really pinpoint one or two people. That's something that we're looking for for our entire team.
QUESTION #2: Lisa, if you'd take us back to Saturday, obviously priorities being in the right place, that you didn't play the game, were there efforts made to move it, play it on Sunday, do anything different, because I'm sure you would like to have played the game on your schedule'
STONE: No question. No question about it. Steph and I got up and ran at 6:30 in the morning, and you look right up on the mountain and there's helicopters flying around. They fly a DC-10 in to put the fire out. It 's two miles from the campus. I'm on the phone with a coach, and she 's saying, Lisa, we'd like to play the game, they, Pepperdine had lost, so they wanted to get back on the court to play again, and Julie Russo, she goes, this is way more important than basketball. They had evacuated the campus. Their student-athletes had to leave the campus.
It's a small campus, so in terms of, they checked out LMU, who was having a Thanksgiving tournament. We could have played the games at night. But they have to staff it, and that staff was getting their hands dirty trying to help the devastation that was going on. And it was, you could see it. I mean, when you're sitting outside your hotel room and you're seeing helicopters fly around and water being dumped and, I mean, it's, I've never been in a game, or a situation where they 've canceled a game due to wildfires, but it was scary.
It was two hours away, and Julie is on the other end, said this is a lot more important and didn't want to put anybody in harm's way, the air quality, etc. So they did try to move the game. It was just simply because all of their people were involved in the help of others around that area. So it would have been nice to play, but the right thing to do was to cancel the tournament. And as much as we wanted to play, in human interest, it was the best thing to do.
QUESTION #3: Did that just kind of cap off a bizarre weekend' I mean, it seemed like everything was kind of off.
STONE: Beyond bizarre. I even remember listening to Mike last week with their trip back from Colorado and getting back to the Rimrock Road and having to walk in and a circus, you know, the circus was there or whatever was going on at the Coliseum. But for us, it was an interesting way to start. We got up the next morning and our bus driver didn't know how to get to Pepperdine. We went to the satellite campus. And I'm climbing the walls because I want to get to practice, and we got there and made it, had a really, actually, very, very good practice.
The whole thing is our student-athletes were safe. I had them contact their parents right away, tell them that we were safe, you can see things going on, but we're all well, and we made the best of the situation, played very well. I really liked what our, the way that our team looked. I really did, played good defense, shared the basketball, had four in double figures. Did some really, really good things against a good team. That 's a very good basketball team, and we just wanted to cap it off with a championship, but what Pepperdine did was the right thing.
QUESTION #4: You mentioned before about Zastrow maybe having a break-out game. You've talked about Alyssa Karel and some of your other freshmen. Is it more difficult maybe to make an impact right away or get comfortable as a guard as a freshman or maybe as a post player, one versus the other'
STONE: I really think, Rob, well, I think it 's hard for both of them. You've got to, Alyssa Karel, you throw her into the fire against returning Wyoming team, and they're going to pressure you. You 're the point guard, and they've got the heat coming at you. You played against Ole Miss, they send the house. They put five on her. They sent five players right to Alyssa. It was good for her to experience that. You know, you don't want to be in that position too often, but it's hard for the person handling the ball.
I also think it's hard for a post player, getting used to the physicality of Division I basketball. And for Lin, she's very capable, and she's an unbelievable talent. And, you know, and she's, she didn't realize she 'd be this scared, so to speak, but I think that's over with now. We all, the first shot, finally the ball went in the basket, and it's like it opened the floodgates. So not only her ability to score, but rebounding, and she did a really, really good job on a very physical post player.
And that was good for us as well because we need that. We needed it to this point, and I would have, again, I would like to play another game just to back it up because she gave us great minutes, nearly had a double-double, she and Mariah both. And that's exactly what we need right now, particularly out of two young players.
QUESTION #5: Your team has embraced your concepts and philosophies. What are the most positive aspects you've seen through four games and maybe some concerns that you have'
STONE: Well, I, the chemistry is at an all-time high. I'm very excited about that. They're understanding what we need to do. They're disappointed with some early, some things that didn't happen the way we wanted them to happen, in terms of practice to games, etc., but on the other hand, it's early and we're continuing to learn, and I like that. They 're still students. They're listening and they're learning. As far as things that we need to work on, we need to take care of the basketball. That 's just the way it is, and shoot free throws.
We had the same issues last year early in the season, and we want to make sure that we can address those things. There's certain things we do in practice to work on, you know, pressure passing, etc., because with Virginia coming up, that's going to be very important that we take care of the basketball. Free throw shooting has to improve, and if it's us taking more time in practice or outside of practice, then we 'll do so. But those are two areas I would like to improve on.
QUESTION #6: Coach, can you talk a little bit about your team's chemistry, I mean, a lot of them have played together . . . for a couple of years now, and how the new ones fit in as well'
STONE: It's just, it's at an all-time high. I mean, when you go on a nice trip and you went, we went a long way for a long time for one game, but we spent a lot of time together, get back to work now, and again, that's, this non-conference is the time we've got to make some, for us to make some noise, and the players know that. They're hungry for that. They want to contribute. I think understanding of roles are starting to fall into place, and I think they're bonding together.
And that's what you hope as a coach. They need to work some things out themselves and not have us walk them through everything. And I think I'm starting to see some of those things. I'm excited about that and looking forward to another trip yet this week.
QUESTION #7: You mentioned free throw shooting. Last year, your team was particularly good with free throw shooting. I think about Janese in particular. Danielle has always had troubles. But Janese is having some issues with free throw shooting so far. Do you just practice more, or can you talk about what you do when players have issues like that'
STONE: I think the whole thing you do is you don 't make a mountain out of a molehill, for one. Janese Banks is one of our best free throw shooters. She shoots nearly 100 more free throws than anybody else on our team. I want her at the free throw line. I want Janese to play to her strengths and get on the offensive boards and get to the line. I'm not at all concerned about Janese. She has confidence up there. She's had a rough start of it, but it's not due to lack of practice. She, probably out of anybody, is in the gym outside of practice working on those types of things.
And it's, you know, I reference a lot of times with our players, you step up to the line, you want to, I'm going to make this shot, instead of a, oh, I hope I don 't miss it. It's a mentality. And you know, you want to play to win. You want to play, you don't want to play not to lose. And those are just some things that you can talk from a standpoint of building confidence. I don't think that confidence is an issue.
I think it's right now that you don't want to, again, make it bigger than it is or any smaller than it is. We continue to work on it, and again, keep believing. I want her to get fouled and get to the free throw line because she's our best free throw shooter. And the more she hears that from me, we'll see what the result is percentage-wise. But we're getting there.
We're going to shoot 100 a day this week in practice, and then they'll shoot outside of practice as well. But it's, again, it's mind over matter, confidence and stand up there. You know, you're 20 years old, and how many free throws have you shot in your life' You've made more than you 've missed, think of it that way, and stay positive.
QUESTION #8: Did you get more of what you expected going into the year as far as scoring balance against Ole Miss'
STONE: Absolutely. Absolutely. The played behind us in the post. We were able to get it inside. I think some folks broke out. You know, just we had, we just had really good balance. What we did is we shared the ball really well. Our assist-to-turnover ratio was very, very good. And we just, we moved the ball very well. We were patient, got the ball to the hot hand when it was there and found open shots. So it 's something that I, it wasn't a surprise to me. It's what you 're looking for, and I hope that we see more of it.
QUESTION #9: You've been talking about the turnovers. Why do you think this team has had trouble taking care of the basketball '
STONE: Well, we're going too fast. I think we need to slow down, be a little bit more patient, more deliberate, and we 're just, we're in too much of a hurry. And we, it's something that we're aware of and we'll address and hopefully improve on.
QUESTION #10: Looking forward to this challenge that may be long overdue'
STONE: Oh, absolutely. This is great. This is, you know, the men are going to Duke. We're going to Virginia. These are big-time games and a game that we're real excited about. They're coming off a Hawaii trip. They got back late last night, lost to Hartford in the championship game, Virginia did, and they're playing at home. They're very good. They 're very talented.
Zoll, Littles and Wright are three players from last year's semi-final game with us, great, great players, very, very athletic, to the basket, can score inside and out, etc. And then they've got a player that was in dress clothes with us last year. Her last name is Mohammed, a real big post player inside, that we'll need to be aware of as well. And just making sure that we do what we do.
You know, take care of the basketball, out-hustle, out-work, out-play teams. Those are some goals that we have each day. And prepare for this opportunity. It's a great opportunity for us and a game that I think on the women's side has been long overdue. I think this is great for our league, and it'll be good to see how the Big Ten faces up with the ACC.
QUESTION #11: Back to Zastrow for a second, I think, if I'm not mistaken, in high school she handled the ball a lot for a player for her size. How does that benefit her now as she gets to this level' And I guess on the flipside, where Mike Eaves might talk about a player having to learn to play without the puck, does she also kind of have to make that adjustment, learning to play without the ball '
STONE: Lin has a great feel for the game. She has a great feel. It's right now she has to stop saying I'm sorry for not shooting. She'll look, I'm sorry, and it, we've got to stop saying I'm sorry. And we joke about it, the whole team does, because Lin is, because she's able to handle the basketball, she's one of our best passers. She can pass the basketball as a post player, and that's huge.
When you're 6-4 and you can look over the top of people and pass fake and deliver the basketball, she's a great passer, handles it pretty well. She does not have very many turnovers. We just have to have her be a little bit more selfish with her because she can put up a double-double. She's capable of it.
And it's, I think these trips are good for her. You know, her first flight was to Cleveland State, the first time on an airplane, so you've got to go back to some of these, you know, a lot of us have traveled a lot. It's her first airplane ride, was to Cleveland State. So we're growing, we're maturing, and watch her grow. She's going to be fun to watch. She's already made some significant impact for us.
QUESTION #12: Lisa, talk about that Big Ten/ACC challenge. I know we're going to find out over the next few days, but the ACC, widely regarded as maybe the best conference in the country, how do you think the Big Ten does stack up with the ACC'
STONE: Well, it's a different kind of basketball, Mike, it really is. I think we all know that. You know, I think there are stereotypes of the Big Ten on the women's side for being, you know, maybe more high-low, more banging, physical, a slower game, and the ACC being a little quicker, more athletic. I think that these games will prove that I think there's, that some of those stereotypes are incorrect, and then again, some of them might come true as well. So I think this is why we play these games.
You're going to look at, you know, everybody in our league is playing someone in the ACC. And in fact, Michigan has already played one. We're up one, I believe. And so it, you know, when you look at this, you look at our league and we want to represent our league. This is good for all of us. It's good for RPI. It's good for strength of schedule. You know, the fact that we have to go on the road, and the home and away, it'll balance out eventually, this is good for us. We need to go on the road and play well.
We're coming off a good performance but are a week away, so a lot to work on this week. And, you know, a lot of things that we can answer ourselves by taking care of business, both demonstrated athleticism and power and fundamental skill and things of that nature and play some defense, because they're going to be, it's going to be transition basketball, push the tempo and get to the rim on the offensive glass. And we 're going to have to make sure that we control some of the things that we can control and do what we do.
