Joanne Boyle Quotations

We're just inconsistent-that's the biggest thing. Even though we've set goals, we've been inconsistent with them. We have to be more consistent with all these things to make some noise here at the end.

We're banged up about as much as we can be and they don't complain. They rallied for our last night here at Haas (Pavilion) in the regular season and the chance to go to the (NCAA) Tournament. They put everything out there. This is probably one of our best wins of the year.

We have to go with the flow here. We might have to practice early one day this week, kind of prepare them. But the little things like that, you just have to go with.

The fact is, we've been in every game. We expect more now. Our defense is what's gotten us to win games, and Arizona was our worst defensive game of the year. We just didn't defend in that game.

She's probably our most consistent player, and when she has a bad game offensively she doesn't let it affect her defensively, and vice versa. Her potential is unlimited. I don't think she's touched what she's really capable of.

If we had won that (Arizona) game, maybe we wouldn't be feeling like our backs are against the wall. But I feel like our backs are against the wall as far as our team taking care of business on the road. We need to go into these games ready to compete.

I don't know why this team wants to face challenges when they don't have to, but time and time again we do it.

If one's not having a good game, someone else picks up. I don't know what it is. They have found this chemistry between them, and hopefully we can keep it going.

(Free throws) is where our youth is showing. It's stepping up and understanding that these are free points. We work on them on practice. Kids typically are confident.

I don't think it's necessarily game prep as it is the outside and this stuff that they haven't experienced. You have to let them experience it because that's part of the process.

For the program, for the school, it's our biggest win. It's going to wake some people up.

We talked about that. There are certain kids who take over the game and she's a gamer. She hit that three and they got the momentum back. That was the key right there.

We talked about taking advantage of their size. They're undersized and they've got players out so our strength was in the middle tonight.

I think we're in the running, but I don't want to put a number on it.

I think there's a lot of people who thought we might get too much too soon, and what we've always tried to talk about is why wait until next year.

Our practices are brutal. We set up every drill to be competitive. We have to have a winner or loser or you're going against the clock. We're always putting them in situations like that.

Our backs have been against the wall all year. We were put in a situation where it was a must-win for us today. They knew in the back of their minds what was at stake.

Our offense has been struggling. I'm going to challenge the kids and get our defense to create offense for us. We have to have the ball to have a chance to score.

Some of these kids are just gamers. They have found this chemistry between them and hopefully, we can keep it going.

I think how those kids have reacted to that is the best lesson. It's tournament time and they've got to step it up. When the ball is in the air, they've got to bring everything they can bring and they can't wait five minutes to settle in. I think us going through it, seeing it and understanding it is very valuable.

I think I was the first one out of the seat. I started jumping. It was out of control in the locker room. I think it took us all a couple of seconds to process it because there were only a couple of seeds left. When we all registered it was us, it was mayhem.

I think I was the first one out of the seat.

We end up running a lot of two-man game stuff for them down the stretch and in certain situations and they really feed off each other. It's a comfort zone that you've been playing with somebody for four, five, six years. It makes you a better team because of that.

We could have helped ourselves. Now, it's a wait-and-see.

We could have helped ourselves by far with a win. And now we have to wait.

We fought at the end, but we didn't come out and play 40 minutes. We were trying to do it all in the final 3:45 and that wasn't going to work.

We are playing well defensively, but people are getting more shots than we are. We are not taking care of the ball, and that's all us. It's not a case of the other team dominating us.

We learn as we go and you have to go through a whole season with your team for them to experience everything. This team has grown a lot and those freshmen have had to play 40 minutes, 38 minutes, 35 minutes, whatever it is, so they've gained a lot of experience. I don't think they're typical freshmen.

(UCLA) worked on all cylinders today. They're senior-heavy, they're focused and we didn't grind it out in the defensive end.

UCLA understands what it is to play in this tournament and to have to win that first game. They came out with intensity and I don't think we had that intensity. I don't think we understood what it takes to take a game like this and leave it out on the floor.

This was a great game for us coming off what happened against Oregon State.

When the going got tough, (St. John's) stepped up with some huge shots.

We all saw the board, but it took a few seconds to register. You get down that far and you don't believe at that point that it's going to happen. I don't think the kids knew what to do. It was out of control.

To get that many teams in, to get that much respect really makes people recognize this conference as a force.

You have to stop their transition game and you have to make them take tough shots. We gave up 20 points in transition in the first half in that (loss). You just can't do that.

There's so much on my plate right now, I just take it a day at a time. If I didn't approach it that way, I think I'd lose my mind.

A lot of people were telling us to not expect too much. We've been blessed to be able to get that spot.

A lot of people have talked about our youth, but they've worked through the chemistry issues. They're young, except for Renee, so our chemistry has had to develop all year long. I feel like we're maybe peaking at the right time.

A lot of people have said, 'You're laying a great foundation,' but why shouldn't we be working toward this now? I want the kids believing that we don't have to wait until next year.

They got a lot of threes in transition (last time) so we focused on that today. Our biggest thing was stopping the ball and not letting them penetrate and kick out for three's. We got a lot of stops on the defensive end and that created a lot of transition buckets for us.

They do a great job. They're up-tempo, they're physical and they get right up on you. Turnovers have been our biggest downfall. I can say it over and over again, but part of it they are just going to have to learn as they experience it.

This morning, when I walked into the office, there was this strange feeling that someone would come tell me that it was not true. It's the lingering effect of being on a high for so long. It doesn't feel real.

They played zone the entire game so we got into a rhythm with it-it's something we've been working on for 3 days. Still, we had 11 turnovers in the first half-there's no excuse for that.

They're a transition team-they key their offense off their defense. That's an experienced team. We could've been blown out by 30.

It's great! I'll get to see cousins that I haven't seen for years. I don't think I'll have enough tickets, actually. During the selection show, it never occurred to me that we would be going to Pennsylvania. I never checked where we were going. But today, after the fact, I know that being able to share this experience with my family will be an added bonus.

That's still out there for us. The way for us to approach it is-just focus in on Arizona State right now. They're very tough at home, very dangerous. It's going to have to be a tough defensive game.

It's been good for us, having a young team, to have those four hours. Lately, we've been moving from conditioning to more basketball. We spent some time together in the summer, and it's given us a great baseline.

It's been time consuming, but in the end, it's worked.

I want them to be excited about being there, but not satisfied. It's like what (athletic director) Sandy Barbour told them, 'Go in there and participate. Just compete.' We will prepare them the best we can.

They just seem to do better when there's less pressure. I figured that out through the course of the year. They just need to go out and play and have fun.

The kids really felt like they could have won this game. We came in with a game plan and we felt like we were ready to go.

I just want them to realize that half the people in the country aren't playing for anything and we have an opportunity to play for something. This is a great chance and I know my kids will get up for it. We'll be there. Where the game will go, who knows? But we will be there.

I'm trying to make the practices fun. I want them to really enjoy this week.

I know what the committee looks for and I thought we had good top-50 wins, they look for that. I think those wins were huge with the committee.

I knew they were going to do it. That's the most focused team to walk into this gym.

I knew from the get-go that they feed off of transition. Some of their points came from forced turnovers, but a lot of them came on unforced turnovers.

For the next three years, those freshmen are going to remember that last half-hour (of the selection show) and remember what it's like and what it means and start owning their team and buying into what we're telling them.

These are going to be tough games. UCLA's got their big three kids. We are going to have to make them work for their shots. We want them to take tough shots.

The less said the better right now. I don't have to tell the kids the importance of this. They just seem to do better with less pressure. Maybe it's their youth. They want to play and have fun and keep it at that level, and I'm just going to go with that.