Dec. 22, 2011
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Complete Coach Bluder Press Conference Transcript
Opening Statement
COACH BLUDER: Glad to come out of here with a victory tonight. It was nice to have five people in double figures, that’s always nice because obviously we are harder to guard, so very happy about that, and it’s something we are going to have continue to work on, very hard to prepare for the Big Ten season.
You were so successful first half from three point range, did you fall in love with the 3 pointer too much in the second half?
COACH BLUDER: I feel like we probably took a few many threes, but you know, they were open and they were open threes that we put down. Really, when I watch the film, I don’t think I’ll see that many bad three point shots that we feel that we shouldn’t be taking. I mean, this team decided to give that away for us, the three point shot, and we are good three point shooters. We need to be able to step up and take that. We didn’t get as many looks in the paint, only four in the second half, which we only got seven field goals in the second half; so we probably should have went for a higher percentage shot, as well.
What’s bothering you most, the shooting percentage or what?
COACH BLUDER: Coming into this game, they were shooting 30 percent, and what did they end up shooting, 58, 59 percent against us, you know, doubling what they have done against anybody else. That’s disappointing. They shot the ball better from the three point range than they usually do against anybody else. Yeah, our field goal percentage defense, it’s got to improve. It has to.
Overall, was it just kind of a helter skelter game, offensive rebounds.
COACH BLUDER: I’m not sure if it was a helter skelter game. I’m not sure if I felt it was that.
In my mind, we have got to become a better defensive team, and we have got to figure out how we are going to get it done.
Can you talk about how maybe Jaime played down the stretch, a big three pointer and drive in the lane?
COACH BLUDER: And the free throws, too. She went to the free throw line and nailed the free throws. That’s nice to see, is that you can seal a game with good free throw shooting and both Jaime and Kamille did that at the end.
How about this as a springboard into the Big Ten season?
COACH BLUDER: We are on two wins in a row going into the Big Ten season, so that’s great. I think we would have been better, had we felt better about how we played tonight going into the game against Northwestern but can’t do anything about that now. We just have to come back and be ready to work hard on the 27th.
Are you worried at all about the appearance of this victory?
COACH BLUDER: Absolutely, yeah. Absolutely. It worries me a lot. Why I don’t sleep at night, the way we are playing defense.
Have you started preparing for Northwestern yet?
COACH BLUDER: I haven’t. I’ll probably start that tonight, tomorrow working on Northwestern, but I haven’t seen them yet.