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Air Force vs. Utah Post-Game Quotes
3/8/2006 12:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 8, 2006
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Utah
Coach Elaine Elliott: Well, I just love what's happened to Air Force. I think Ardie has done a great job. Their team is young, yet competing. The future's bright. Gone are the days when that's anybody's automatic win. I just think they play hard, smart. She's got some nice kids. That was a good game.
Question: Alluding to what your coach just said, could you talk about the progress of the Air Force program over the past few years? I can remember a time when this would have been a 55 point game.
Kim Smith: Yeah, I think in our freshman year, you know, it wasn't as much of a game. It wasn't because they would ever stop competing. They've always been a very tough team, always fought very hard until the end. They just have some really good players. They're really starting to work together. It is a tough team and you have to come ready to play every time you play them.
Shona Thorburn: Yeah, you know, like every team in the conference, we have a lot of respect for them. You have to have respect going in or you're going to be on the losing end against a team like them because they never give up. Their talent, just their overall play, we've been here four years now, has just improved greatly.
Question: You survived a scoreless stretch there towards the end of the first half. Was that more Air Force doing something to stop you or was that a Utah thing? What was going on there?
Kim Smith: You know, I think it kind of happens in every game. You'll go through a stretch where people just aren't hitting shots. Unfortunately, it was all five of us not hitting shots. I mean, if you watched it, we had a couple layups, even rollouts. It's just kind of in the flow of the game. Whether it was them or us, I'm not really sure.
Question: Your thoughts on a potential match up with New Mexico in the next round.
Coach Elaine Elliott: We're not talking about who we're playing till we know who we're playing.
Question: How significant was your finish at the half with an 8 R 0 run?
Shona Thorburn: Definitely momentum going into the locker room. This game is a momentum game. I think we did a good job of carrying that over into the second half and competing.
Question: Obviously Air Force has better players than they did, but what specifically are they doing better than in past years?
Coach Elaine Elliott: Well, they have better players. That's always a great job. She put together a great freshman class a year ago. Those are the kids. There's at least four of them, if I'm not mistaken, Castillo, Jaeschke, Findlay. It's just a great class. That's how you get it done. You get a class of kids or a couple, two kids that you really can then build around. She's done that with those kids. That sophomore class is just more talented. They've won more games because of it. There's no secret. It's about the players.
Question: Can you talk about your defense. It's always been the strength of your team. Seemed like early in the game you had a lot of turnovers. Talk about the significance of that.
Coach Elaine Elliott: Well, you know, you just have to remember what that does to a game, to put your efforts into the defensive end of the floor. I wish I could say that we never lacked in that, but we did. Trying to keep that focus is really important. It just dictates so much about what happens on the floor, if your kids will play intensely and aggressively at the defensive end.
Question: Can you talk a little about what Kim Smith has meant to you, particularly this year down the stretch, her scoring has picked up in conference play? What does she do for your team and how important is it for her to perform at this level?
Coach Elaine Elliott: Well, yeah, she's extremely important. She's been so consistent, it's really been phenomenal. Kids feed off that. They get comfortable when she's comfortable. There's so many "kudos" to her, I just can't talk. I've been coaching a long, long time, and have never had a player play with the intensity and commitment and relentlessness that she plays with. She deserves everything she's gotten.
Question: If she happens to have an off game or off stretch, is it tough for the other players to rally around? How do you keep that continuity going? They almost watch her play at times.
Coach Elaine Elliott: That's true. You have to deal with that. You have to make sure that people that your kids aren't standing, watching. We have to deal with that. We sometimes get stagnant. Kids just aren't playing aggressive around her. It's just something that we are aware of. We try to address it as best we can. Our kids have had a good season and there's been a good support group around here. She hasn't done it all alone. She'd be the first to tell you that. Yet what a kid like that means as your center and your core is obviously undeniable.
Question: Do you like the way your team is playing right now? What could you be doing better at this stage?
Coach Elaine Elliott: Well, I just think as a coach, every game I think you look at, you know, you never feel like you had 40 minutes of all the things you wanted. Even if there's one defensive breakdown, one rotation somebody misses, a block out. It's like any game, we had our ups and downs. In terms of the season itself, I do think we've grown, I do think that we are, you know, in the best place we could be for now. I mean, I think that we kind of have attended to that. I give credit to the kids for moving forward, playing our better basketball at the end of league play, without a doubt.
Question: You had a young player step up in the second half there, Sasha, and was 3 3 from the three point line. Is that nice to see from a young player in a big game?
Coach Elaine Elliott: It is. It's especially important if your starting kids are struggling from there, which they are. Heidi and Julie didn't get much to fall tonight. Sasha got a few the second half of the season, we've gotten her more game time. Tonight was a nice comfortable feel for her, I think.
Air Force
Coach Ardie McInelly: Well, we just got beat by a really good team. I'm extremely proud of our players. I'm proud of what we've done this year, how far we've come. We're certainly not satisfied. We think that with the youth we have on our team, we can hopefully do better next year. But it's a great start for us. University of Utah has an awesome group of young women that play for them. Kim Smith was just outstanding today. I mean, we tried to switch on every screen. We would just fall asleep just for a second and she'd be behind us and already scored a basket. She's just an incredible player. Shona Thorburn, the same. She does a very good job of distributing the ball. I thought one of the key plays today, I thought Jessica Perry stepped up and had a nice game for them. Elaine Elliott, she's a woman who I admire greatly, and I want to wish her and her team the best of luck. Hopefully we can, you know, keep our players together and continue to grow and become a team like University of Utah or a team like New Mexico. I mean, those people at the top of the conference, that's what our players are striving to do. I think that we can do that.
Question: Can you talk a little bit about how far you think you've come this season and just the fact that you got everybody coming back next year.
Alecia Steele: I think we've come a very long way this season. We've improved. We have more confidence. We've worked together to build our program. We're looking forward to next season so that we can do more, we can achieve more.
Ellen Jaeschke: I'm happy. I'm not happy that we lost, but I'm happy because we know we have everyone coming back. We just have so much potential. We're going to really come out and show everyone what's up next year. I'm really excited.
Question: Elaine was in here and really gave you a lot of praise, said that this is not an Air Force team that you can just put that W on the schedule. It has to really feel good to accomplish what you've accomplished this year, but also you have to be thinking that you can be better. Could you talk about that.
Ellen Jaeschke: Yeah, like I said before, I'm real excited for next year. We have everyone coming back. We're just all coming together right now, we're starting to click. It's just going to be a great year next year. Teams can think we're the underdogs and come out and kick their butts (smiling).
Question: Ellen, you had your high game of your career today. Seemed like you were able to get inside against Utah, who is one of the better teams. Talk about that.
Ellen Jaeschke: Well, the last two games against Utah, I did absolutely nothing probably. But this game, I think the guards did a great job of getting us the ball inside. It was just overall good. I was seeing the basket. Coach has been yelling at me all season, and finally was just making my layups and putting them in, so...
Question: A couple years ago I remember Joe Legerski sitting in that same seat. They were going through about the same thing as you. Could you make any analogies between their program and your program? Seems like you're on the same sort of path as they were three or four years ago.
Coach Ardie McInelly: I just wish we had as good shooters as Joe has at Wyoming. His players can shoot the lights out. We kind of struggle from there. I just think, you know, whenever you recruit, you're in a program, especially at the academy, you have to start from the bottom up. I've said this many times before, we can't get a quick fix. We can't get a foreigner. We have to start with freshmen. That means no junior colleges and no one from out of the United States. So, we have to start with freshmen. We have to try to go out and convince young women to come to the Air Force academy, the ones that maybe someone overlooked or maybe there was something about that player that just didn't make it, you know, was recruited by someone else. You have to have a vision when you recruit. Hopefully you can then develop those players. That's what we're doing. We're finally developing the players that we've recruited. That's why we're so young. We have lots of freshmen, sophomores and juniors. We have no seniors. That's been all because of the recruiting. It is going to take us longer. I think that we have a great start. Like you said, Joe was that way a couple years ago. He's watched his players develop and become a very good shooting team. We've got some pieces of the puzzle still to put together, but I think that we're on our way. As I said before, the important thing for us is for our players to stay together. Again, I don't mean to say woe is me, but at the academy they can leave their freshman and sophomore year and there is no penalty. You have to continue to recruit them. You not only recruit them to get there, once they're there, you continue to recruit them. It's not until they become a junior that you can finally relax on that person. It's a very difficult place to go to school academically. It's very challenging. Militarily, there are so many things they have to do. Our job is extremely difficult. So, with all that in mind, I'm hoping and praying that we can continue to keep this group of people. I know that both Ellen and Alecia are key members of that. I feel very confident in them. If we can keep the key people, I don't know, I guess I shouldn't say this, but you know what, I wouldn't know if it's next year or the year after that, we could win this thing. That's our goal. We tell our players, "You better have a goal." I think as a coach, I have to have a goal as well. So, sorry about the soapbox.
Question: Could you talk about five or six years ago, there was a feeling, there's no way the Air Force men's basketball program could ever compete in this conference, win a conference title, go to the NCAAs. Has that helped, the fact they've come up and established themselves as a contender in this conference?
Coach Ardie McInelly: Well, I think it does. I think it helps all programs because the cadets at the academy see firsthand someone being successful, someone doing something that can't be done. You know, you have a young man named Antoine Hood that leads the way, the charge. He not only leads the men's basketball program, but he leads the cheers at the football. He started a section, what is it, Section 8. The guy is unbelievable. He's contagious. His enthusiasm is contagious. I think our players, Letricia Castillo, she's the same way for us. It's a very close knit family group at the academy. I think because of the success our men have had, thanks to Joe Scott and Chris, all those people, it makes it easier for our players to see that, yes, it can happen. Now we have Jeff Bzdelik leading the charge in the men's program. Who knows what will happen.
Players Mentioned
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