Texas Players & Coach Aston React To Big NCAA Tournament Win
It’s all about surviving and advancing in the NCAA Tournament at this stage of the college basketball season.
And, Texas Women’s Basketball did just that in a Second Round NCAA Tournament victory over North Carolina State Sunday in Austin.
The formula was great team basketball, amazing play from star players Brooke McCarty and Joyner Holmes, and Coach Karen Aston having to find different ways to win with all of her pieces.
After the win on Sunday, the Big 12 Coach of the Year (Aston), Big 12 Player of the Year (McCarty), and Big 12 Freshman of the Year (Holmes) talked to the media about what it took to win. (TexasSports.com)
Karen Aston On Needing The Whole Team
Texas head coach Karen Aston was forced to change things up when her team got into foul trouble. So, she turned to young players that did amazingly well in the first quarter before falling off in the second quarter. That led to halftime adjustments to find a way to win in the second half.
"“Really proud of our team. I wrote on the board ironically enough today before the game that it didn’t matter what it looked like that we just needed to win. That was a good thing to write, probably, today. But our group never gave in. They showed a lot of resilience and toughness and just really proud. It was a complete team effort, I think, from our part.” – Karen Aston"
Brooke McCarty on Trusting Her Teammates
Brooke McCarty identified a turning point in the season when she stopped trying to do everything herself and decided to bring everyone together.
As the point guard and engine running the offense, this represented a big change in how Texas attacked other teams.
"“I just listened to my teammates talk to me. Some games I didn’t fully hear them. I wouldn’t tune them out, but some games I wasn’t happy with myself or my teammates. So I think I put off listening to them and them holding me accountable in practices and holding me accountable for whatever is going wrong and I listened to them and I went into practice with a different mindset. Ever since then I think we all pulled together and we’ve been playing hard and we pulled it out today.” – Brooke McCarty"
Joyner Holmes on Her Individual Plays to Seal The Win
To win an NCAA Tournament game, sometimes you need a star player to make an individual play that decides the outcome. Holmes made two in the last 10 seconds of the game.
First, Holmes perfectly positioned herself to take a charge when North Carolina State was driving to the hoop down by only one point. Then, she grabbed an offensive rebound on a missed free throw for the game-deciding two-point putback.
"“I knew after multiple plays of them going downhill – I just knew that her (Dominique Wilson) going downhill as fast as she was coming I could have blocked the shot, but I just didn’t think that was the right decision at the time and just letting her body fall into mine and I took the charge and I don’t do that often. It was a surprise for me. So when I took it and I fell and I looked at the ref I thought they called a block at first, but I looked to the ref at my right and he called a charge and it went from there.” – Joyner Holmes on taking the charge"
"“From the first shot it was great, so I thought the second one was going to go in. But I know we do have a method on a free throw line and me and Jada (Underwood) talk to each other and tell each other who is going to go first and second and they came off my side, and I saw the defender. She didn’t box me out, so I tried to save it on the first one and it didn’t go in so I grabbed it and I put it in on the second one.” – Joyner Holmes on the putback"
Texas Ready for Sweet 16; Want More!
Coach Karen Aston also identified the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament being the standard for Texas Women’s Basketball. Anything short is not acceptable.
Now in her fifth year as Texas head coach, Aston believes she has built a culture that understands what it takes after reaching this point in three straight seasons.
"“You can have it as a coach and Texas can have it as a university and as an athletic program, but when you recruit players that that’s their personal standard to be the best they can be then it helps you get to where you need to be from a program perspective and she (Brooke McCarty) along with many others that we have on our team have a personal standard.” – Karen Aston"
Texas fans want to see if Texas can take the next step reaching the Final Four. That will require two more big team victories against tougher competition.
Next: Here's All The Streaks Texas Broke vs. Baylor in Waco
The Longhorns finally beat Baylor earlier this season. We’ll soon find out this coming weekend if Texas is ready to reach another major milestone for the first time in the Karen Aston Era.