NCAA Press Conference Quotes: Dec. 6
December 06, 2012 | Women's Volleyball
Dec. 6, 2012
2012 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship
Austin Regional | Hosted by University of Texas
Pre-match Press Conference | Gregory Gym
** Transcription courtesy of Texas Athletic Media Relations **
USC HEAD COACH MICK
Opening statement
"We're very excited to be here. This is a special time of a year. Playing in the Pac 12 Conference is really brutal. We go back and forth and it gets to be really hard. You're playing for position and you're trying to win. You're doing all of those things. You finally get in the tournament and it changes. You're excited because you know there is an end to that. There are six matches. If you can win out, you have a chance to win. We have to look at each one as the last match we're going to play. So, we were very fortunate to do well in Los Angeles in the first and second rounds, so we're excited to get a chance to play here in Austin. It's another chance to win a match and try to move forward. That's why we're here."
On how he feels returning to Texas
"It's a heck of a lot better than going to Hawaii like last year. For me, it's really special. For my team, they haven't been here. This is just another place for them to come and play an opponent. I need to keep it at that until we're finished here. Certainly, this is like a second home."
On his relationship with Texas head coach Jerritt Elliott "Absolutely. When you invest in a program for 17 years and it continues to flourish and continues to get better, you just have to feel really good about that and I do. I think we're all very proud that some of our former players were out there for practice to say, "Hi." It's kind of nice that they still have ownership, that they still care and that they're here supporting the Longhorns, as they should. It's nice to see them. It's fun to see the program continue to grow and get better."
On Friday's opponent Wichita State
"I think this is a really good team. And guess what? They're really hot! The last three weeks, they have been playing extremely well. They have a very good coach. Why would he stay at Wichita State?...because he's developed the community. He and several other coaches in that conference have a really great volleyball conference. That conference plays volleyball to 3,000-4,000 people nightly. Their communities are very supportive. Their coaches just try to kill each other. They work so hard at winning in that conference. I have to tell you, we have the utmost respect for Wichita State and what they've done and how their coach brings them along. They have a number of players that maybe got overlooked by some of the bigger schools and they're here to make a name for themselves. They're coming to play. We think they have a system that you really don't want to focus on. You want to try to focus on the concepts of what they do. We're working our tails off to get ready for these folks."
On Wichita State's system of play
"Their coach is kind of like a mad scientist. He'll flip the lefts. He'll flip the right and the left. He'll flip the middles. Anytime that you go in and try to say, "OK, you want to block this person this way in this rotation, he'll flip it and change it on you." If I draw a correlation, it's like the basketball teams that now don't run any set plays. They penetrate and try to read and feed and then they throw it back out if they don't get what they want. They do it again and reassess it. What you have to do is play concept defense against something like that. You have to know tendencies of certain people. You may see them one rotation but not again the rest of the game because he changes them up. We're not going to get caught into that kind of a thing. We think we know from what we've been able to ascertain what they would like to do. It's really going to come down to fundamentals. Our players are ready for a real battle."
On the uniqueness Wichita State's style of play
"I think it's starting to follow some of the basketball concepts where they were always set plays. You know how (Bobby) Knight used to run the motion offense all the time. Then some other people wanted to beat that so they started created chaos out of the game against that. Then you have Syracuse with the zone concept. You have to keep growing or the big schools will continue to get talent and you won't be able to compete. So the good coaches out there are starting to create different ways to play the game. Now we're seeing three, four or five different styles. You're seeing 6-2's, 5-1's, you're seeing smaller middles who are quicker. You're seeing fast to the outside--almost 1.1 seconds to the left side to try to accommodate the size of the players and the things that are happening. I think you're seeing a new wave in the tournament right now with some of the upsets that have happened. Traditional volleyball, unless you do it really, really well isn't going to hold up. You have to be creative with the talent you have. I think that's the next level for us. Our junior coaches across the country are doing such a good job in the preparation phase with the recruits that we have that it behooves us now to be able to think a little differently about playing freshmen. We have two freshmen in the lineup and a first year setter and they're out there competing with seniors on a pretty even level. I think that's why you're seeing some of this. It's pretty healthy for the game. It means that anybody can win. We've always wanted a tournament where anyone who gets in can win. So, we'd love to have the excitement of basketball and we're starting to get that in the first and second rounds. I think we had--I want to say 12 teams advance that maybe shouldn't have advanced according to the way they were seeded. I think that's pretty interesting."
On the problems presented by Wichita State's middles
"A lot! They can pass the ball. 28 (Ashley Andrade) is lighting it up. Have you seen her numbers? That's phenomenal what she's doing. She's just bouncing balls. It all goes through their setter. You have to give their setter credit because she's delivering the ball. You have to treat her as an attacker because if you give her an opportunity, she'll try to score. You don't get the advantage of trying to overload on their two hitter system when they're up there with the setter. I think that's another thing--you asked me about changes in the game--having setters be weapons and attacking the second ball, you're going to see more of that in the future. But the really critical thing for them is going to be being able to pass."
NATALIE
On the challenges presented by Wichita State
"They're a great team. It's really fun to play a team like that. It brings a test for yourself to see if you can adapt to it quickly. It brings out the best in a lot of really good volleyball players, just to show that they know how to play the game and they can adapt to certain things. They're a great team. We'll see (what happens) tomorrow night."
KATIE
On how her team will play against Wichita State's unique style
"For us, it's really just focusing on what we do and focusing on our side of the net. Then, really just knowing their tendencies and kind of using the first couple of points to adjust to see how they are going to come out and play us, and then get after it."
