George Washington University Athletics
GW/Richmond Post-Game Quotes
2/26/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 26, 2010
NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL February 26, 2010
Richmond 78 @ GW 54
Postgame comments
GW Coach Mike Bozeman Opening statement
"I had a plan to take away Shells, who is their all-Conference guard and we let [Abby] Oliver go nuts. That was a step back for us in terms of mental toughness. Richmond did a good job of adjusting to what we were trying to take away. We didn't do such a good job of sticking with the plan. When you do that and turn the ball over 22 times--although we forced 14 turnovers--you end up losing by the margin that we did."
"I'm not at all happy with performance. We shot 52 percent in the 1st half, turn around and shoot 23 percent in the 2nd half, it does not equal out to a very good day."
Was the sloppy play due to players having to put in a lot of minutes?
"I'm so tired of the word `injuries.' I'm so tired of fatigue. This time of the year is when your depth really comes into play. As the wear and tear is building on us, it's really affecting us physically. My expectation for them is to be tougher mentally, but the reality is we're playing with 7, 8 players. I can't accept 22 turnovers, but then again, I understand."
Neither team scored in the first four minutes of the game; what caused that?
"My strategy was great on defense. [laughs] We implemented something in practice yesterday, and the girls responded to it well for the first 5 minutes. The problem was that my execution was failing on offense...That negated the effectiveness of our defense. I couldn't run that defense so long because it was wearing out my kids. So the issue was we were focusing so much defensively, that offensively, we got tired trying score."
What allowed Richmond's Abby Oliver to have such a great scoring day?
"Part of the defensive scheme was to take away their main scoring threat...If we take the element of Shells out of it, the gamble is that it discombobulates them to the degree that someone has to step up who's not comfortable in that role. I guess this sends a message to the rest of the league that Abby Oliver can step up to that degree."
Having to play two games back to back, how do you get your players to put this game behind them and focus on Temple?
"Before this game, you tell them this is a tournament-type format. You win this game, you play another one the next day...That's how you go into it. You don't expect this kind of letdown in the first half of that. But we have to do what we can to pick them up. Their memories have to be short. We've faced this kind of challenge all year...This is nothing new, it's nothing larger than anything else we've gone through."
What can you do to inspire your players to be an upset team if you make the tournament?
"You get to the tournament, the records are 0-0. And it's one loss and you're out. That's the same thing that happened to us last year. We'd beaten Rhode Island convincingly during the year, then we go to the tournament and Rhode Island comes in with a plan. We're going to sit down, watch a ton of film when we find out who we play, and we'll come up with a plan and go at it that way."
