Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Hold Practice & Media Session in Columbus
March 18, 2011 | Women's Basketball
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team spent several hours at St. John Arena on Friday (March 18), meeting with the media before holding a 90-minute practice on the court. The Falcons are preparing for Saturday's (March 19) game vs. Georgia Tech, a first-round game in the 2011 NCAA Championships.
BGSU Press Conference Audio - Miller, Pontius & Prochaska
Friday Photo Gallery - photos by Brad Phalin, BGSU
Video: BGSU heads to practice
Video: Practice at St. John Arena
ESPN2 Coverage Maps for Saturday's first round (Note: BGSU-GT game is scheduled to be available on the following channels -- DTV 733, FullCourt 733, Dish Channel 148, Dish FullCourt 465, AT&T 606, AT&T FullCourt 4504 -- as well as on ESPN3.com)
Head coach Curt Miller, along with seniors Tracy Pontius and Lauren Prochaska, met with members of the media during the Falcons' press conference. Click the link above this paragraph for audio from that interview session. Additionally, a transcript of the press conference follows...
2011 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament
March 18, 2011
First Round Press Conference
Bowling Green
St. John Arena; Columbus, Ohio
REPORTER: I'll start with Lauren. Have you played in this building before?
LAUREN PROCHASKA: No.
REPORTER: Okay. When you found out you were coming here, what were your thoughts?
LAUREN PROCHASKA: I was very excited to learn that we were coming to Columbus. I knew we would have huge fan support not only from Bowling Green but, you know, from my town being close to here and also we have a lot of other players from Ohio. So I was real excited to know that we would have all of our fans here.
REPORTER: Good morning, ladies. Will you talk a little bit about Georgia Tech, especially their pressure defense? What kinds of things are you expecting?
TRACY PONTIUS: Georgia Tech's a very athletic team. They have a couple different presses, and they just are very athletic and have very good pressure on the ball and off the ball. So we'll just have to stay in control and be able to break their press.
REPORTER: Along those same lines, fair to say that you prefer a tempo different from what their tempo? For both of you to answer, please.
LAUREN PROCHASKA: We prefer to play up tempo and they play an up tempo game as well, but we can't get caught going too fast and get caught turning the ball over a lot and get in too fast paced of a game. We want to play our tempo but we just don't want to get out of control.
REPORTER: Tracy, have you played a team this year -- they were in here and they basically say they start pressing as soon as they walk out the locker room door to start the game and follow you as they're getting back to their own locker room 40 minutes later. Have you played a team like that and how do you counter that?
TRACY PONTIUS: We have not played a team that has full court presses the whole 40 minutes. I think we'll be able to do it as long as we just play BG basketball.
REPORTER: Tracy, how important is it, going beyond breaking the press? I mean, is it part of your style there to attack off breaking the press or is it just beating that and setting things up?
TRACY PONTIUS: I think it's a little bit of both. If we break the press and we have numbers, we're going to go and score. But if we don't, we're just going to break it and then half court, we're just going to run our man plays.
REPORTER: Lauren, for anybody, whenever they're playing a tournament game near their hometown, I know a big question is always tickets. Did you have a lot of people coming out of the woodwork asking you for tickets?
LAUREN PROCHASKA: I've had a ton of people contact me, not really asking me for tickets but just telling me that they're supporting me and they'll be at the game. That's been fun and exciting for me, to know that I'm going to have a lot of support from my hometown.
REPORTER: Lauren, watching the Georgia Tech team come in here, they came in the same way you did. They're really big. Have you looked at them on film yet? How do you play? How do you counter big teams like that?
LAUREN PROCHASKA: Yes. We started watching film yesterday and they are a very big team, you know, a lot bigger than we are. I think we just have to play smart and follow the scouting report and do what we can do to offset their size.
REPORTER: Just to piggyback on that, what is it -- do what you do? What is it exactly that you would do to offset that height? If you could kind of address that.
TRACY PONTIUS: I think just execute our plays. I mean, it's nice to play a team that doesn't know every single play, so we'll be able to execute.
REPORTER: How many folks do you figure will be here, will be wearing Bowling Green colors when you get here tomorrow?
LAUREN PROCHASKA: I'm not sure exactly how many, but I know that we'll have a bunch. We have great fan support and I'm real excited that we will have all of our fans here. They really help us out, so we're real excited about that.
REPORTER: Georgia Tech's coach was very adamant in the fact that despite the fact they were a 5 seed, she felt that it was somewhat unfair that they would have to come to Ohio and play an Ohio team with the possibility of then playing a second Ohio team. As you look at the way this worked out, could this have worked out much better than it has for a 12 seed to come in and play in your home state and only a couple hours away from campus?
COACH MILLER: Well, we were very genuinely excited to win the MAC tournament and have an opportunity to come back to the NCAA tournament for the fifth time in seven years, but back to back years with this current team and very, very talented senior class. We dreamed of the opportunity of getting to Columbus or Cincinnati for these rounds. So when our name went on the board and we saw Columbus, it was fantastic. When we drew Georgia Tech, you took a big gulp because you knew how big, how athletic, how strong they are, and their ability to press you from start to finish. So it is a great location. It is not the dream match-up, but it is a dream location for our fans. We have one of the best Mid Major fan bases in the country. It would be shocking if we didn't have 2,000 plus fans down here from our program supporting us.
REPORTER: Have you played in this building? I guess, one -- the noise level in this building -- I understand that they're selling tickets up in the upper deck now. They have been selling them. But the noise factor in this building, have you played in a similar building this year even?
COACH MILLER: We have not, and I have not coached in this building. Been here for many state championships through the years. It's a fantastic building. We refer to St. John Arena as Anderson Arena back at Bowling Green on steroids. It's just a bigger version of Anderson Arena. Our arena is one of the loudest arenas in the country. We just closed our arena for the last time this year, but we're used to playing in front of a crowd that's right on top of you, an incredibly loud environment at home. It's just not as big a venue as St. John is. So we're going to enjoy the environment. We hope to adopt a lot of OSU fans because of Lauren and because of us being in Ohio, but because we're the underdog. And significant underdog. We hope if we can hang in there early, not only will our fan support help us, but we hope to adopt the Ohio State fans throughout our game.
REPORTER: Through the course of this, do you get to watch teams like Georgia Tech play? I mean, do you catch them on TV and whatever so you knew exactly what you were getting, or did you have to look at them later to know what you were getting?
COACH MILLER: Well, certainly we had to get more into detail, but you see them play. You know their players from the national recruiting trails. You have ultimate respect for MaChelle Joseph and what she brings to the table, her intensity and focus and what she's done to Georgia Tech to build that program since taking over. But not until you get to the details that you realize how hard they play. They're very, very talented, and Alex Montgomery has a chance to be a WNBA player. But not until you really dive into them do you really appreciate the intensity that they play at for 40 minutes. And I think that's the big difference. We've played teams in all the power conferences through the years. We've had success on and off through power conferences through the years because we're going to spread you out. We're going to do a lot of things unconsciously to try to bother them. But we have not seen in our tenure a team that's willing to press with the intensity to press for as long as they press as we are going to tomorrow afternoon.
REPORTER: You talked about your senior class. How much does it help to have that kind of veteran leadership when you're going against a team like them?
COACH MILLER: I think the number one thing when it comes to veteran teams is they're going to turn us over. They're going to go on runs on us. But you hope with a veteran team you can stay in attack mode but have composure. Every team you watch, it doesn't matter if it's Duke in the ACC, Maryland in the ACC, nationally ranked teams in the ACC, they've been able to go on significant runs with them. The teams that have had success have been able to regroup and keep their composure and limit the amount of those poor situations or negative segments in games. We're going to have ups and downs in this game, and we could have a lot of downs in this game, but with a veteran group you hope that you can keep your composure. And when we turn it over once or twice in a row, that it doesn't turn into five or six times in a row, and that we can go back and keep aggressive, stay in attack mode, but with the proper composure to be successful.
REPORTER: With the amount of pressure that they play with, is conditioning at all a problem, simply because they maintain such a high motor on everything?
COACH MILLER: Conditioning for us? Certainly depth will play a factor. They're used to playing their deep roster. We're going to have to probably play deeper into our roster than we have down the stretch. But we also have a deep roster and we're confident. But how we ultimately handle the pressure is going to be a big story. Can we score? The offensive end is the question mark. Can we score? Can we keep our composure? Defensively, I will tell you I'm confident that we can get first shot misses. Doesn't mean we're ever going to get a rebound, but we're going to get first shot misses. Defensively, our key is can we complete that defensive play by a defensive rebound? Because we will create some defensive misses. But offensively is the big elephant in the room. Can we score? Can we keep our turnovers low enough in order to make a run at this very talented team?
REPORTER: The president has filled out a bracket and he likes the Falcons to beat Georgia Tech. What does it mean to you that, you know, the guy that leads the country likes the Falcons?
COACH MILLER: Well, I was told that this morning. That was flattering. You know, we're a sexy pick because it's the 5-12 game. If you break down film, we're very much an underdog. But we're going to try to use that to our advantage. We've got six seniors that we're going to have fun with until our tournament run ends. It could be tomorrow; it could be later on. But we're going to have a blast. We're not going to put pressure on ourselves. Our fans are here to cheer on that amazing senior class one more time. We would like to take another step. We feel like there's a reason we're one of the top five winningest programs in the country over the last five years. We're not a flash in the pan. So we're going to have a lot of fun with it. But when outsiders like the president picks us, it puts a smile on our face but it really doesn't mean much. We're going to have to be the better team for the two hours tomorrow. We're probably not the better team overall, but all we've got to do is be the better team for two hours tomorrow.
