March 21, 2014
Jim Foster, Chattanooga Head Coach:
On what makes Syracuse’s zone so effective and if they have seen a defense like that this season…
“I can answer the first question tomorrow and yes we’ve seen a lot of zone. We’ve seen people that have attempted to play zone against us through the course of the season. At this stage of the season there’s nothing you haven’t seen. It’s all relative. Early in the season, you might see something for the first time, but you have a frame of reference for just about everything today.”
On leading his fourth different team to the NCAA Tournament…
“There aren’t many gyms nor referees nor coaches that I haven’t prepared for, so I’m just looking forward to another opportunity with another school and a great bunch of players who work very hard and fun to be with.”
On Ashlen Dewart’s status for the game…
“I think she’ll be alright. She was on the floor with us a little bit today and it’s a day-to-day proposition, but I think she’ll be fine. She’ll give us minutes.”
On if the team has developed any superstitions during the winning streak…
“No I don’t think so. At this age, if someone doesn’t text it to them they really don’t know what’s happening. If you hang out with this generation, you find out about a lot of things that they know and don’t know.”
On if he’s sensed his team tightening up at the end of the season …
“It’s amazing sometimes what you guys think that these kids are like. They just don’t operate like that. And, probably the only time they think about it is when someone proposes questions to them. But, they don’t play like that, they don’t think like that. We had some overtime games and they didn’t come into the huddle thinking we got to keep the streak going, they just come into the huddle thinking we got to make a shot and we’ve got to get a stop. That’s the way this group approaches it. I’m coaching two teams. I’ve got a group of seniors and I’ve got a group of freshman. The seniors have done a great job guiding the freshman. The freshman are clueless anyways, so they just watch the seniors and the seniors act accordingly and the freshman thinks ‘OK, that’s the way I need to act.’ And then you just keeping forward.”
On Syracuse’s guards and what he sees …
“Well, they’re from Philly. I’m from Philly. It takes me about two minutes to figure out their game. (Brittney) Skyes likes to take it to the hole and (Tasia) Bulter likes to get the 3 up and loves to go left.”
On what makes this team different from last year …
“We run a lot more two-guard offense. There was a lot of four around one, and we’re not a four around one team. I made the point guard the two guard, I took the center off the block, moved her away from the basket and made Taylor Hall a point forward and proceeded. We move the ball and we take pretty good care of the ball. As Taylor said, we go 13 deep. We play 11 a lot and if we can get 12 and 13 in, they can help us, it’s just sometimes tough to get that many players in the game. We have a lot of pieces and we’re willing to use them.”
On advanced scouting …
“Yeah, everybody’s got a game, but at this point in time that’s very overrated. We’ve played 33 games. We’ve played three SEC teams, we’ve played a Big 10 team. We’ve played very highlevel teams. We’ve played good basketball teams. There’s only so many ways to play the games. We have played against most of them this year. I haven’t seen anything new from anybody. So, it’s a fun time of year because you do have those frames of reference and you can always pull one out and just play.”
CHATTANOOGA PLAYERS
Taylor Hall, Chattanooga, Forward
On entering the tournament on a winning streak …
“It gives us a lot of confidence but, at the same time, we know that this is a bigger stage, a different type of game, and they present some challenges that we haven’t faced before, so that is something new for us. It’s nice to be on a win streak like that – just some momentum behind us.”
On what stands out in watching Syracuse game film …
“The zone defense (stands out the most). They will run and jump you at all times it seems like. You just need to be prepared for that – stay calm and just be ready and know they are going to come at us.”
On whether they were under-seeded heading into the NCAA tournament …
“I believe the projected brackets actually had us as a lower seed, so the 11-(seed) was somewhat of a shock to us. But we know the conference we are in that it is hard to get much of a higher seed than an 11. I think we are happy with what we got. It is a good situation – we just want to take advantage of it.”
On being ‘go-to’ player on team …
“I believe that role just kind of came about due to our offense. It is a new offense for us this year. I happen to be up top with the point guard so that gets the ball in my hands a lot more than in previous years. I’m confident in all of our players. We play 10 or 12 (players) each game so I don’t feel any extra pressure. I know that we have multiple ways to attack teams.”
Alex Black, Chattanooga, Guard
On facing the Syracuse zone…
“It has definitely been a big focus because that is what they do, so we spent a lot of time on it. As far as being familiar with it, we don’t usually face teams that usually do that so it is definitely a new challenge. But I think we are excited to face something a little bit different.”
