Stone addresses media Monday
December 06, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 6, 2010
MADISON, Wis. - Wisconsin women's basketball coach Lisa Stone addressed the media Monday as her team prepares to travel to Drake for a game on Thursday. The Badgers (2-7) are looking to break a seven-game losing streak when they face the Bulldogs (5-2) at the Knapp Center in Des Moines. Wisconsin returns home to host Milwaukee (3-4) on Sunday in the Kohl Center. Tip-off is at 1 p.m.
A complete transcription of Stone's comments is below. You can also watch the video here.
Opening Statement: Well, here we are after a tough week. A great Duke team came in last week, and we felt that we turned the page with our program in terms of shoring some things up. Defensively, (we) had an outstanding game plan against Duke, but we didn’t rebound the ball very well and we turned it over.
Yesterday, we played at Oklahoma State, an undefeated team. Great game plan, once again, I thought defensively we were very solid, hold the team to 22 percent from the floor, hold them to 50 points, and you come up short. (We) rebounded the ball well, played very good defense, but turned it over 25 times. They shot 27 free throws, we shot four. Kind of hard to overcome that.
We’re back to business. ... We’ve had a very, very rough schedule. We are full strength now. And it’s something that we’re looking forward to forging forward. We’ve got to keep our noses up and our chins up because this is a good basketball team. I believe in them. I know that we can get better. I know that we can shore some things up. We can control some of these turnovers. And we’ll get ready for the next game. That’s all we can do right now is try to keep getting better.
This will be a ongoing issue probably all year because teams will see what happens and you’ll keep getting pressed. What do you do when you have a problem that’s repeating, and how do you go about fixing it either strategically or in personnel?
Well, that’s good, that’s two-fold there, Dennis. That’s a very good point. I mean, we work on press break. We did it the other day for about an hour-and-a-half of practice. That’s it, against guys, five vs. six, five-on-five, our players against five male practice players and there’s no fear.
Right now, we get in the game and it’s not necessarily the press offense, it’s our mentality. And we broke it early last night against Oklahoma State very well, got good looks, broke it cleanly. But then later on, we ended turning it over just in the half court.
There’s a sense urgency. There’s also a sense of confidence with the ball and not fearing failure or fearing making a mistake. And that’s something right now that we’ve talked a lot about as a staff. And my approach to those players is that, we believe in you, we know you can do this. And we have to continue to uplift our players.
On the way home on the flight last night, I went to the back of the plane and worked my way up through the players, and they’re like, even if a team doesn’t press, they’re going to press us. That’s what you do and that’s why you watch film. And we want to invite pressure. We want them, we want to invite that, because we’re better than what we’re showing. We need to attack, look, and go over the top. Looking for some leadership on the court right now.
And we’re going to give Tiera (Stephen) a look. You talk about personnel. Both Cassie Rochel and Tiera Stephen will, you’ll see them start to emerge. We need to take a little bit more pressure off of Alyssa (Karel), and we’re going to give Tiera a shot up at the one (position). Cassie Rochel has grown to give some looks at us in practice that, and last night played very few minutes, but was comfortable and did some good things. So we’re going to try, we’re going to look at some other kids too. And continue to get better, continue to be confident with the ball, and got to cut these turnovers down, just have to.
Coach, you said you believe in this team. Have you sensed at all a wavering in their attitude or what’s the attitude of the team?
The attitude of the team is very good in terms of the team, and the belief in that we can get this thing turned around. Really, truly, I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t believe it.
The team is all in. You know, if you have a boat, everybody’s in the boat. There’s no one wavering out on the lily pad. They’re all right in the boat. What’s wavering right now may be their confidence. And that is something that we need to continue to drill and find success, have some fun, lighten it up a little bit, but continue to put our players in a pressure situation in practice so it carries over to the game. And it becomes contagious then. It really does. I mean, making shots is contagious, getting stops is contagious, taking care of the ball is contagious.
And it’s just, we’re playing a tough schedule. And this tough road right now is something that, this storm that we’re in, we’re going to come out of it, and we’re going to be better for it. And I believe that, and so does the team. And, again, it starts with me. I can’t waver, and I’m not wavering at all. I’m not wavering in my confidence in my staff or myself or the team. And the team isn’t either. And that’s important.
So we get back at it, another game, get down to Drake, and pick up a win and get a good feeling inside you, and build some momentum as we go into conference play. But there is a belief. The team is not, no one’s jumping out of the boat. Everybody’s in there because they know that we need each other to lean on.
Offensively, you’ve had some scoring droughts. You had one in the last eight-and-a-half minutes, you had a couple against St. Mary’s. Is there a common thread to those issues?
I think what ends up happening is the rushing from the pressure and the turnovers is causing us to rush our shots. I thought we got some really good looks early in the first half. We got the ball inside, got it outside. Obviously, they’re going to key on Alyssa, but other people are stepping up.
It was nice in the Duke game to see Taylor Wurtz get going. Lin Zastrow being back certainly anchors our defense, but we need to get her going offensively as well. That will then relieve the pressure.
If you can break pressure, come down and get a good shot, that will end the droughts. But even against Oklahoma State, we came out firing out of the blocks, got really good shots, broke pressure handedly, and then went on about a six-minute drought. And a little bit, a lot of that actually had to do with the pressure that we were facing. And they switched to a zone.
We got to get an attack mode back, and we’ll get that back. That’s, it’s more fearlessness. We need to play with less fear and more attack, and we’ll get that solved tomorrow in practice.
Can you talk about what it’s going to be like for you to go back to Drake after being at Wisconsin for eight years, and Stephanie (Janke) as well?
You know, I didn’t think about that until someone said, Coach, you‘re going back to the school you came from. And I, I’m just, I’m looking for a win right now, doesn’t matter where we play. And, certainly Drake is, fond memories there. Last time we were there, we went to the Sweet 16 and Stephanie was our point guard. And there’s been a lot of changes in all of our lives since then. That was eight years ago. But it will be nice to be back and see some people.
The Knapp Center is a very, very nice facility. I’ve never been in the visiting coaches’ locker room, or the visiting locker room, so that will be new. But it will be nice to go back, but right now, it’s more about us playing a good team. They’re a very good team. They’ve got a really good guard in (Kristin) Turk. And (Rachael) Hackbarth is from Wisconsin, the senior. Those two seniors are very talented. And we’re on to the next game. But it’s about us right now taking care of some things that I know we can get better at.
When you’re on a stretch like you are, people want to harp on the negative things. Do you have to continue to pick out the positives and remind the kids that, you know, we’re rebounding the ball well, we’ve done other areas well, to kind of keep that attitude up that you’ve talked about?
There’s no doubt about it. I mean, we talked, we had three game goals yesterday, no lane, rebound the ball, and take care of the ball. Two out of three happen. The third one, you take care of that, and we win the game.
Same thing went with Duke, and you can go back to a lot of different teams that we’ve played, but, yeah, you have one choice. You either harp on all the bad or you look at the good and keep on moving, and grow, and learn, and find a way out of this storm. And we will. I guarantee it, we will.
I know you have your own issues to deal with, but the Big Ten, Big 12 challenge, I think most people might have thought the Big 12 would dominate that, and that didn’t happen, which is maybe good news for your conference and bad news for what lies ahead. Was there a game that opened your eyes, surprised at the outcome?
Well, I think, I just know our conference is very talented. There’s some teams also in our league that have struggled early, and they picked up a win the other day on the road. And that’s good for our league overall. That’s where we hope to be at the end and it’s something, right now we’ve got to get out of what we’re in right now, get out of this rut, start taking care of the basketball, and control the things we can control, and get some momentum going, back our direction, as we head into conference play on the 30th of December.
