TA Radio: Gary Blair
Gary Blair
Tyra White
Kelsey Assarian
Texas A&M Women's Basketball
* Maryland is a typical, high scoring ACC team that has a star player in Alyssa Thomas who is very physical. They also have Tianna Hawkins and Lynetta Kizer inside that will be tough to handle. They are a very big team and hopefully that doesn’t give A&M much trouble.
* Their two-guard is six feet tall and Sydney Carter will have to step up to the challenge of guarding her. What Carter bring in intensity during practice and games can’t be replicated by anyone else. Against Arkansas, she held her man to one basket and kept her from running the offense like she wanted to which is what she is good at.
* He thought the team had a good game plan offensively and defensively against Arkansas. They were in control of the game most of the way, even with Tyra White having an uncharacteristic six turnovers in the first half. Even though the team wasn’t shooting well in the first half, they were up by seven at the half, which should have been closer to 10 or 11. In the second half, he thought the team played well on the offensive end and built up a 14 point lead. Arkansas battled back though and made a run with less than six minutes to go and eventually took the lead. The team changed up their press breaker at the end and he instructed them to get the ball to Carter and let her make something happen which she was able to do.
* He had half of the state of Arkansas pulling for him to get the win the other night because of the success he had while coaching the Razorbacks. For the past nine years while he has been at A&M, he has received nothing but thank you’s from Arkansas fans while Arkansas has been rebuilding their program. There was quite a bit of animosity for letting him and his staff come to A&M which is why people were still rooting for him. Being at home, he wanted to win to also say thank you to the administration for allowing the women’s tournament to come to College Station. A&M had the second highest crowd of all the sub-regionals which he was very pleased with. He wanted to make sure the team got back to the Sweet 16 and would not have considered it a successful season unless they did.
* The Arkansas game was the first game he has won in four years with only having one kid in double figures. Adaora Elonu wanted the ball all night and stepped up when she hit her shots which was vitally important to winning the game. When she naturally reacts to the situation at hand, she is the best four-player he has had in his nine years at A&M. She’s a winner and the coaching staff has been so happy to be able to coach her.
* In order to make a run in Raleigh, the team needs to play hard and fast. They also need to be able to move on quickly and not let something like one or two turnovers affect how they play the whole game. The team needs to stay confident in their game and ride what has taken them to the Sweet 16. They have a lot of talent coming off the bench and the team needs to share the spotlight in order to succeed. One of the things he loves about this team is that you never know who is going to be the star of the game. All of the girls on the team are capable of making big plays and are not afraid to carry the team when the time comes.
* Adaora Elonu is sort of the kid that everybody forgets about. How many times are you going to win a ballgame when your three leading scorers aren't in double digits? But then Elonu gets 23 and you still win. Can't tell you with this team, which of those top four or which kid off the bench is going to be the particular difference-maker in that game. Elonu was solid.
There was a lot of pressure in that game for us to advance because we were hosting. We've been trying to for five or six years. We finally got the bid right, and the NCAA was extremely happy with how this regional was run. The second-largest crowd besides Notre Dame. Connecticut only had 4,800.
* Pushing the Tournament dates back (next year) will be good for women's ball. It won't be competing with that many other things. Moving everything back a week is good. People will want to make sure that they'll have the same seats for regional as they do for season tickets. The NBA made the greatest decision ever, starting later and pushing everything together. There's more interest.
It also means it won't conflict with Spring Break for the students. I tell our girls when I'm recruiting them that they'll never have a Spring Break as long as I'm coaching because we'll always be in the playoffs.
* It was just a bad ball game for Tyra White. I don't know if she wasn't involved in the offense enough to get her feet set. She played fine against Albany, she was 100 percent against Albany. No problems in practice the next day. She just had a bad game. Turn the page and move on — she had a good day of practice yesterday. People looking at her at the next level aren't going to eliminate her because of one bad ball game.
* You have to get physical with Maryland. The ACC is a very good offensive league. They like to outscore people. They have kids with very good ball skills that can create their own shots. It's more of a fast-paced league, where the SEC is more of a defensive league. Those two leagues are usually competing to recruit the same players.
They can go 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 along the front line. That's obviously larger than what we have, but Tyra can play bigger than she is at times. Maryland's Thomas just bullies her way in. She's going to take you, push, shove, find a way to score. She's not worried about her fouls because the depth of that team is really good. Extremely well-coached. They had the same problem we had, having to go against a former assistant from their coaching staff. If your name starts with 'College' — Park or Station — you just found a way to advance.
Haven't played Maryland since having a second round-record 39 turnovers in a game against them. Then they turned it on Texas and made it to the Final Four. Very frustrating, one of my most embarrassing losses.
* Each day we put a thought on the board. The thought on the board yesterday was, 'Are you satisfied?' As coaches, we're not. Coach Schaefer's still here working. When you have five seniors ... they don't want to be remembered as juniors on that championship team. They want to be remembered for what they did their senior year. These kids are on their way to successful careers, but they want to leave this team with their legacy and their thumbprint of what they did.
* Sydney Carter has been the face of this team. I take her to every press conference, win or lose. Her voice, people want to hear from her. You guys want to hear from her. And she speaks from the heart, with passion. She might not be as funny as Sydney Colson, but she speaks like she plays — with passion. Someone will give her a chance at the next level. She's been the face of this program.
Kelsey Bone has also been a face of this program in front of microphones, because she is so good. I listened to the TexAgs show today and her interview was great. I wish I could talk that well. We've got people stepping up. When you've got kids like Carter and Bone who can speak that well, other kids on the team are learning how to by hearing them.
* Bone has to shoot the shots that are in her wheelhouse. Shoot the shots that are better-suited for her early. If she can hit a few of those putbacks, then her outside shot will develop. She won't be trying to duplicate what the kid on the other team is doing. Offensive putbacks, being able to score on the first play, hitting the first free throw, making the first defensive play. She played pretty well defensively against Arkansas relative to other nights. She was very active. She just missed some shots because she's got to learn how to score easy. She's got all the shots. The hook, the fadeaway, everything. But sometimes I just want the simple shot. That will give her the confidence to use all her other moves.
She misses that 18-footer and puts pressure on herself early. But it's hard to tell a kid not to shoot. I've seen Kobe win ballgames shooting 6-for-24. Sometimes you've got to give them the shots, and we're doing a pretty good job of picking up her misses. She's improving, it just doesn't show on the stat sheet. She's going in practice, taking good criticism in the film room, and she's asked more of in practice than anyone else on the team. She's an easy target. For the last eight years we had nothing at the five position, and now we do and y'all want her to be Shaq. Sometimes she's just Kelsey. She's getting better ... still almost had a double-double in the game. Eight points, 10 boards. She played well enough. But we all expect more. To whom much is given, much is expected. And she has to live up to that.
* We're more relaxed this week than we were last week because we were playing at home. This week we're getting to finally leave the State of Texas. Last year we played well in Shreveport and Dallas and Indianapolis. This is a good road team. This team is looking forward to going to Raleigh. It's one of my favorite towns. We played in the Jimmy V Tournament there. They love their basketball there. NC State, Tobacco Road down there ... North Carolina is a very underrated state in terms of a place to live.
Our team is going to go in prepared. We practiced well yesterday, we're going to look at film today and see how physical Thomas is on film. This will be one of the taller teams we play, as far as the guards are even taller. When you're trying to break a 2-2-1 press, our smaller guards are going to have throw over it and do a better job than they did against Arkansas.
* We always find a way once we get to March. Eighteen games is a whole lot, and to play 21 against conference people with the non-conference schedule we played, there was no easy night. We only play two guaranteed games a year. Other than that, we do home-and-homes or go to neutral sites, play the right tournaments and face people on the raod, and Iowa and Temple were the two we faced on neutral sites in the Bahamas. Next year we go to Vegas. We're opening up with Louisville on the road, come back and play Penn State on a Thursday, and then on Sunday we have UConn in a nationally televised game. Who is football opening up with?
We've earned the right to take those chances. This is what A&M has become. We've become like Tennessee in scheduling opportunities. People want to come here. They want to see if A&M is for real.
* Thomas is going to be a load, Hawkins is going to be a load, and you've got to stop their shooters. Everyone has to realize that this is a national champion that wants to get back. They recruit well every year. I'm excited. I'm just glad it's going to be in Raleigh and not College Park.
Tyra White
* I don't think the foot bothered me. I was just probably trying to do too much, leading to some bad turnovers. I just have to watch film and hold myself accountable, then take that into the next game. It really motivates me to get in practice, work hard, cut down on my turnovers and be ready for Maryland on Sunday.
* Sydney Carter means a lot to this program, just for being the leader she is on and off the court. She's very vocal and we feed off her.
* We're getting better chemistry than we had in the beginning. These are just things that we learn from. Kelsey will tell you that she learned a lot in the Big 12 Tournament and coming into the NCAA Tournament. We're all maturing and being accountable and the sky's the limit for us.
* Arkansas came out and pushed back and we always try to attack before they attack us. They did a good job, and we made some bad mistakes. They pressured us and scored easy baskets. Our mentality is on rebounding and attacking before we get attacked.
Kelsey Assarian
* The job Coach Blair is talking about is in Dallas for Lockheed Martin. I interned with them this summer, so I'll start that in July. I'm taking grad school right now, but it's kind of just non-degree-seeking school to just keep playing. I'll be done in May.
* Maryland is a bigger team, they're athletic, they have athletic posts down low. We also know that their style of play, based on the ACC, will be fast. They push it a lot down the floor. We have to come out ready for that and play our defensive game and push it right back at them.
* It's exciting for us to hit the road. Playing at home is great, but it felt a bit like we may not have started the Tournament right away. When we travel, we have our schedule and everything's planned out. When we play here, we're still at home and it's a little looser. We're still focused, but when we get on the road it feels a lot more real. We know we're in the NCAA Tournament and it's a big thing for us to travel with our fans and people that are coming with us. It'll be exciting to go to a pretty place like Raleigh.
* We were expecting to win. ESPN and Obama had picked us to lose in the second round, but we didn't expect that in the slightest bit. We can make it to the Final Four and we have confidence in that. If we play our game, this bracket was a good spot for us to be in. We're not stopping; we're not satisfied in any way.
* We're a little more on people's radar now that we're defending National Champions. We kind of creeped in. People didn't see us as much last year and we're a little bit more on the radar this year. I think that we feel like we have the ability to make it to the Final Four if we just play our game. We feel confident in our abilities.
* Every senior class wants to leave that legacy. As a senior class you don't want to leave after winning a title without accomplishing great things again. As seniors it's important to us to achieve something after being juniors and leave the program in a good spot. It's one of those things where you could be like, 'We've won a national championship, no big deal.' But we want to keep the program strong and keep the winning tradition alive. It's important that we keep that going and don't settle for anything. We know it's possible to keep pushing and do it again.
* Rebounding is something we've been focusing on in the past few weeks especially. It's not exactly our strongest point this year but we've been focusing on it a lot in practice. It can win or lose games. We just have to go in there and focus, get those boards and make it one-and-done when they shoot and not allow offensive rebounds.
Blair, seniors looking for second straight Final Four run
Notes from "Talkin' Hoops" with Gary Blair on TexAgs Radio
* He’s ready to keep the season going. Raleigh is a great town and will be good for the team. The team will be working out at the North Carolina State facilities on Saturday and expects the whole regional to be a good experience for the team. The team is really looking forward to playing this weekend. They loved what they had in the sub-regional and now they get to go to the Sweet 16 which is where A&M should be.* Maryland is a typical, high scoring ACC team that has a star player in Alyssa Thomas who is very physical. They also have Tianna Hawkins and Lynetta Kizer inside that will be tough to handle. They are a very big team and hopefully that doesn’t give A&M much trouble.
* Their two-guard is six feet tall and Sydney Carter will have to step up to the challenge of guarding her. What Carter bring in intensity during practice and games can’t be replicated by anyone else. Against Arkansas, she held her man to one basket and kept her from running the offense like she wanted to which is what she is good at.
* He thought the team had a good game plan offensively and defensively against Arkansas. They were in control of the game most of the way, even with Tyra White having an uncharacteristic six turnovers in the first half. Even though the team wasn’t shooting well in the first half, they were up by seven at the half, which should have been closer to 10 or 11. In the second half, he thought the team played well on the offensive end and built up a 14 point lead. Arkansas battled back though and made a run with less than six minutes to go and eventually took the lead. The team changed up their press breaker at the end and he instructed them to get the ball to Carter and let her make something happen which she was able to do.
* He had half of the state of Arkansas pulling for him to get the win the other night because of the success he had while coaching the Razorbacks. For the past nine years while he has been at A&M, he has received nothing but thank you’s from Arkansas fans while Arkansas has been rebuilding their program. There was quite a bit of animosity for letting him and his staff come to A&M which is why people were still rooting for him. Being at home, he wanted to win to also say thank you to the administration for allowing the women’s tournament to come to College Station. A&M had the second highest crowd of all the sub-regionals which he was very pleased with. He wanted to make sure the team got back to the Sweet 16 and would not have considered it a successful season unless they did.
* The Arkansas game was the first game he has won in four years with only having one kid in double figures. Adaora Elonu wanted the ball all night and stepped up when she hit her shots which was vitally important to winning the game. When she naturally reacts to the situation at hand, she is the best four-player he has had in his nine years at A&M. She’s a winner and the coaching staff has been so happy to be able to coach her.
* In order to make a run in Raleigh, the team needs to play hard and fast. They also need to be able to move on quickly and not let something like one or two turnovers affect how they play the whole game. The team needs to stay confident in their game and ride what has taken them to the Sweet 16. They have a lot of talent coming off the bench and the team needs to share the spotlight in order to succeed. One of the things he loves about this team is that you never know who is going to be the star of the game. All of the girls on the team are capable of making big plays and are not afraid to carry the team when the time comes.
Notes from A&M press conference
Gary Blair* Adaora Elonu is sort of the kid that everybody forgets about. How many times are you going to win a ballgame when your three leading scorers aren't in double digits? But then Elonu gets 23 and you still win. Can't tell you with this team, which of those top four or which kid off the bench is going to be the particular difference-maker in that game. Elonu was solid.
There was a lot of pressure in that game for us to advance because we were hosting. We've been trying to for five or six years. We finally got the bid right, and the NCAA was extremely happy with how this regional was run. The second-largest crowd besides Notre Dame. Connecticut only had 4,800.
* Pushing the Tournament dates back (next year) will be good for women's ball. It won't be competing with that many other things. Moving everything back a week is good. People will want to make sure that they'll have the same seats for regional as they do for season tickets. The NBA made the greatest decision ever, starting later and pushing everything together. There's more interest.
It also means it won't conflict with Spring Break for the students. I tell our girls when I'm recruiting them that they'll never have a Spring Break as long as I'm coaching because we'll always be in the playoffs.
* It was just a bad ball game for Tyra White. I don't know if she wasn't involved in the offense enough to get her feet set. She played fine against Albany, she was 100 percent against Albany. No problems in practice the next day. She just had a bad game. Turn the page and move on — she had a good day of practice yesterday. People looking at her at the next level aren't going to eliminate her because of one bad ball game.
* You have to get physical with Maryland. The ACC is a very good offensive league. They like to outscore people. They have kids with very good ball skills that can create their own shots. It's more of a fast-paced league, where the SEC is more of a defensive league. Those two leagues are usually competing to recruit the same players.
They can go 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 along the front line. That's obviously larger than what we have, but Tyra can play bigger than she is at times. Maryland's Thomas just bullies her way in. She's going to take you, push, shove, find a way to score. She's not worried about her fouls because the depth of that team is really good. Extremely well-coached. They had the same problem we had, having to go against a former assistant from their coaching staff. If your name starts with 'College' — Park or Station — you just found a way to advance.
Haven't played Maryland since having a second round-record 39 turnovers in a game against them. Then they turned it on Texas and made it to the Final Four. Very frustrating, one of my most embarrassing losses.
* Each day we put a thought on the board. The thought on the board yesterday was, 'Are you satisfied?' As coaches, we're not. Coach Schaefer's still here working. When you have five seniors ... they don't want to be remembered as juniors on that championship team. They want to be remembered for what they did their senior year. These kids are on their way to successful careers, but they want to leave this team with their legacy and their thumbprint of what they did.
* Sydney Carter has been the face of this team. I take her to every press conference, win or lose. Her voice, people want to hear from her. You guys want to hear from her. And she speaks from the heart, with passion. She might not be as funny as Sydney Colson, but she speaks like she plays — with passion. Someone will give her a chance at the next level. She's been the face of this program.
Kelsey Bone has also been a face of this program in front of microphones, because she is so good. I listened to the TexAgs show today and her interview was great. I wish I could talk that well. We've got people stepping up. When you've got kids like Carter and Bone who can speak that well, other kids on the team are learning how to by hearing them.
* Bone has to shoot the shots that are in her wheelhouse. Shoot the shots that are better-suited for her early. If she can hit a few of those putbacks, then her outside shot will develop. She won't be trying to duplicate what the kid on the other team is doing. Offensive putbacks, being able to score on the first play, hitting the first free throw, making the first defensive play. She played pretty well defensively against Arkansas relative to other nights. She was very active. She just missed some shots because she's got to learn how to score easy. She's got all the shots. The hook, the fadeaway, everything. But sometimes I just want the simple shot. That will give her the confidence to use all her other moves.
She misses that 18-footer and puts pressure on herself early. But it's hard to tell a kid not to shoot. I've seen Kobe win ballgames shooting 6-for-24. Sometimes you've got to give them the shots, and we're doing a pretty good job of picking up her misses. She's improving, it just doesn't show on the stat sheet. She's going in practice, taking good criticism in the film room, and she's asked more of in practice than anyone else on the team. She's an easy target. For the last eight years we had nothing at the five position, and now we do and y'all want her to be Shaq. Sometimes she's just Kelsey. She's getting better ... still almost had a double-double in the game. Eight points, 10 boards. She played well enough. But we all expect more. To whom much is given, much is expected. And she has to live up to that.
* We're more relaxed this week than we were last week because we were playing at home. This week we're getting to finally leave the State of Texas. Last year we played well in Shreveport and Dallas and Indianapolis. This is a good road team. This team is looking forward to going to Raleigh. It's one of my favorite towns. We played in the Jimmy V Tournament there. They love their basketball there. NC State, Tobacco Road down there ... North Carolina is a very underrated state in terms of a place to live.
Our team is going to go in prepared. We practiced well yesterday, we're going to look at film today and see how physical Thomas is on film. This will be one of the taller teams we play, as far as the guards are even taller. When you're trying to break a 2-2-1 press, our smaller guards are going to have throw over it and do a better job than they did against Arkansas.
* We always find a way once we get to March. Eighteen games is a whole lot, and to play 21 against conference people with the non-conference schedule we played, there was no easy night. We only play two guaranteed games a year. Other than that, we do home-and-homes or go to neutral sites, play the right tournaments and face people on the raod, and Iowa and Temple were the two we faced on neutral sites in the Bahamas. Next year we go to Vegas. We're opening up with Louisville on the road, come back and play Penn State on a Thursday, and then on Sunday we have UConn in a nationally televised game. Who is football opening up with?
We've earned the right to take those chances. This is what A&M has become. We've become like Tennessee in scheduling opportunities. People want to come here. They want to see if A&M is for real.
* Thomas is going to be a load, Hawkins is going to be a load, and you've got to stop their shooters. Everyone has to realize that this is a national champion that wants to get back. They recruit well every year. I'm excited. I'm just glad it's going to be in Raleigh and not College Park.
Tyra White
* I don't think the foot bothered me. I was just probably trying to do too much, leading to some bad turnovers. I just have to watch film and hold myself accountable, then take that into the next game. It really motivates me to get in practice, work hard, cut down on my turnovers and be ready for Maryland on Sunday.
* Sydney Carter means a lot to this program, just for being the leader she is on and off the court. She's very vocal and we feed off her.
* We're getting better chemistry than we had in the beginning. These are just things that we learn from. Kelsey will tell you that she learned a lot in the Big 12 Tournament and coming into the NCAA Tournament. We're all maturing and being accountable and the sky's the limit for us.
* Arkansas came out and pushed back and we always try to attack before they attack us. They did a good job, and we made some bad mistakes. They pressured us and scored easy baskets. Our mentality is on rebounding and attacking before we get attacked.
Kelsey Assarian
* The job Coach Blair is talking about is in Dallas for Lockheed Martin. I interned with them this summer, so I'll start that in July. I'm taking grad school right now, but it's kind of just non-degree-seeking school to just keep playing. I'll be done in May.
* Maryland is a bigger team, they're athletic, they have athletic posts down low. We also know that their style of play, based on the ACC, will be fast. They push it a lot down the floor. We have to come out ready for that and play our defensive game and push it right back at them.
* It's exciting for us to hit the road. Playing at home is great, but it felt a bit like we may not have started the Tournament right away. When we travel, we have our schedule and everything's planned out. When we play here, we're still at home and it's a little looser. We're still focused, but when we get on the road it feels a lot more real. We know we're in the NCAA Tournament and it's a big thing for us to travel with our fans and people that are coming with us. It'll be exciting to go to a pretty place like Raleigh.
* We were expecting to win. ESPN and Obama had picked us to lose in the second round, but we didn't expect that in the slightest bit. We can make it to the Final Four and we have confidence in that. If we play our game, this bracket was a good spot for us to be in. We're not stopping; we're not satisfied in any way.
* We're a little more on people's radar now that we're defending National Champions. We kind of creeped in. People didn't see us as much last year and we're a little bit more on the radar this year. I think that we feel like we have the ability to make it to the Final Four if we just play our game. We feel confident in our abilities.
* Every senior class wants to leave that legacy. As a senior class you don't want to leave after winning a title without accomplishing great things again. As seniors it's important to us to achieve something after being juniors and leave the program in a good spot. It's one of those things where you could be like, 'We've won a national championship, no big deal.' But we want to keep the program strong and keep the winning tradition alive. It's important that we keep that going and don't settle for anything. We know it's possible to keep pushing and do it again.
* Rebounding is something we've been focusing on in the past few weeks especially. It's not exactly our strongest point this year but we've been focusing on it a lot in practice. It can win or lose games. We just have to go in there and focus, get those boards and make it one-and-done when they shoot and not allow offensive rebounds.
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