UAPB's Dawn Thornton, Zaay Green on Big Win
Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions coach Dawn Thornton and Zaay Green after beating the Arkansas Razorbacks 74-70 on Sunday afternoon at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark.
Transcript
00:00 University of Arkansas Pine Bluff beats Arkansas.
00:02 How big of a win is this for this program?
00:04 - We made history.
00:08 And I think anytime that you have an opportunity
00:11 to do that, you have to celebrate it.
00:14 Coach Neighbors is a wonderful coach.
00:18 He's a legend.
00:19 And never could I have imagined what that feel like
00:22 to be able to beat Arkansas.
00:24 I've played them every year that I've been here
00:27 and it's been tough.
00:28 But one thing that we've done is shown improvement
00:31 every year with this basketball program.
00:32 And I'm just so excited to be able to celebrate this
00:36 with my team.
00:38 My staff, everybody has locked in to the mission.
00:41 We've been so close with a lot of other games.
00:44 And so to be able to be here in our state,
00:46 in front of our fans, our six men,
00:49 they were here, our six men were here.
00:50 It's just, it's surreal.
00:53 It's just surreal to me.
00:57 - And coach, I mean, on the offensive glass here,
00:59 I rebounded them 22 to nine.
01:00 How did you guys manage to do that?
01:02 And how much of a difference did that make in the game?
01:04 - You know, I thought that we talked about limiting them
01:09 for having second chance opportunities.
01:11 One thing that they do a really great job of
01:13 is rebounding the ball and kicking it out,
01:16 getting another three.
01:17 And so that was something that I thought that we allowed
01:20 to kind of get out of hand the first two quarters.
01:23 So we really wanted to buckle down
01:25 and be able to put a body on somebody to rebound,
01:27 to limit them to one shot.
01:28 We pressured up on our defense,
01:30 pushed them out a little bit more.
01:32 And so we understood that those shots
01:33 was going to fall short.
01:34 So just being able to lock in defensively of what we do,
01:37 I think we've talked about this before, Tanner,
01:39 where we want to be able to hang our hats defensively.
01:41 That's what we want to be known for.
01:43 And limiting teams to one shot is something
01:46 that we want to take pride in.
01:47 And I think that the girls, when they cut the lead down,
01:50 I think it was right there to six,
01:52 we can kind of see the finish line a little bit more,
01:55 but we locked in to do those things that we needed to do.
01:57 And making that adjustment for the third and fourth quarter
02:00 speaks volume of the commitment of these young women
02:03 and what they want to be able to accomplish.
02:06 - And Zae, if I can ask you one,
02:07 then I'll let the others take over.
02:09 When Arkansas came to Pine Bluff last year,
02:11 you were out injured.
02:12 Today, you get to play Arkansas, 21 points, get the win.
02:15 How much did this mean to you?
02:17 - It meant a lot, not just me, but the whole program.
02:20 You know, we're going to keep this win and keep it going,
02:22 especially going into SWAC, getting ready for that.
02:25 Like Coach said, it's surreal.
02:27 It don't feel real right now.
02:29 - Zae, do you just remember anything?
02:32 I know y'all were down at halftime.
02:34 Anything that was maybe said
02:35 or something that kind of helped rally y'all?
02:38 - Honestly, it wasn't really nothing that was said.
02:42 It was how we moved.
02:43 It was like, we kept our composure.
02:44 Like, we didn't really let the game bother us to score.
02:48 We didn't let the score bother us.
02:49 We just kept going.
02:49 We didn't give up no matter what.
02:51 And I think that's what's always going to help us.
02:53 Our grit, our fight, our passion for it every time.
02:55 - And then you talk about that fourth quarter,
02:57 I mean, defensively for y'all,
02:59 just kind of how y'all buckled down
03:00 and had that big defensive quarter.
03:02 Just how'd y'all kind of have that result?
03:05 - Like I said, we really wanted to win.
03:08 I feel like everybody on the court definitely wanted to win.
03:11 So it was like, don't give up no matter what.
03:14 Play till the end of the fourth quarter.
03:16 - Coach, I think Scott had 21 points
03:19 after 14 minutes or something.
03:20 How did you get a handle on her?
03:23 - You know, I think it was the biggest thing is my staff.
03:26 This was Coach Mee-Lin Scout and Coach Bree
03:29 works really, really hard with us defensively.
03:31 And we knew that we needed to make an adjustment.
03:34 I thought first we talked about crushing ball screens.
03:38 That really didn't work out the way we wanted it to do,
03:40 but we've worked on different actions
03:43 with players coming off of ball screens.
03:45 And that was a minor adjustment,
03:47 but we needed to be able to be in the locker room
03:50 to kind of walk through it, to go over it.
03:51 So when the girls could see it being done in halftime,
03:55 they just came out and executed.
03:57 So it's nothing that we don't teach
03:59 and we don't preach every day.
04:01 It was just something small that we needed to do.
04:03 We understood what needed to happen,
04:05 but they just needed to see it.
04:07 And we actually walked through it.
04:08 - For either of you, just what's going through your mind
04:12 whenever Arkansas hits that three to close to one,
04:14 and then you see Demetria hit that three in the corner.
04:16 What was, I guess, that moment going through your head?
04:19 - Well, one thing about it is we talked all summer
04:22 about Demetria Shepherd, Kariah Beck being shooters for us.
04:26 Dede is deadly from the corner.
04:31 There was no doubt in my mind
04:32 that that shot wasn't going to go in.
04:34 That is her shot.
04:35 She practiced that shot with Coach Meehlin and Coach Bell
04:37 every single day, relentlessly in the gym.
04:40 So there was no doubt in my mind
04:42 that that shot was going to go in.
04:44 So it was just a matter of time.
04:45 I thought that she passed up another one
04:47 actually kind of a little earlier
04:48 that I thought that she should have taken also.
04:50 But understanding time management of the game
04:52 is something that we've been talking about.
04:54 She embraced that and then she just do what she does.
04:58 And I was proud of her for that too.
04:59 - Hi, Coach.
05:01 You mentioned the fans earlier
05:03 and they were pretty audible towards the end of the game
05:06 when it became apparent that y'all were going to win.
05:08 Just kind of talk about kind of their support
05:11 and them coming down and sticking with the program.
05:14 - You know, we just got back from SMU in North Texas.
05:18 We had a hundred fans that came out in Dallas with us
05:20 and they were loud and representing.
05:23 And I think in order for us to continue
05:25 to have the type of win that we need to have,
05:27 the type of winning that we want to have with the program,
05:29 we have to get our six men to show up and travel with us.
05:33 There were a lot of people here from Pine Bluff.
05:35 You know, Kariah Beck's father, Corey Beck,
05:38 is a Razorback and you know,
05:39 Kariah had 20, 30 people on the ticket list for sure.
05:42 But our fans, our family and friends
05:45 come from all over to celebrate with these young women.
05:48 It's just, it speaks volume of the growth.
05:52 And I don't know how long you all have been following us
05:54 playing the Razorbacks, but you know,
05:56 I can kind of remember three or four years ago,
05:59 it was like five people here at AD and that's kind of it.
06:02 But you know, to have the fans to follow us
06:04 the way that they've been doing
06:06 will always give us that extra boost
06:08 when we can see wins within reach.
06:11 - Coach, these games didn't always happen.
06:13 They're relatively new.
06:14 And I mean, Coach Nabors brought his team down
06:16 to Pine Bluff last year.
06:17 What do you just think about, I guess,
06:18 the way that Arkansas has been willing to play these games
06:21 against Pine Bluff?
06:22 - Well, you know, it's a little bit different
06:25 with all due respect.
06:27 You know, if you see my roster,
06:30 my roster matches any other Power Five roster
06:33 in the country.
06:34 And so I don't think that Coach Nabors
06:36 scheduled this game as a guaranteed win.
06:38 I thought that this was something that he wanted
06:40 to be able to see a gritty team,
06:42 team that plays really, really hard.
06:44 I thought that it was a great opportunity
06:46 to host them last year to see what it's like.
06:49 You know, all of the stuff that's here in Fayetteville
06:54 and the things that we don't have
06:56 with a lot of our HBCUs that they don't have.
06:59 But you know, the old saying my dad used to tell me
07:02 when I was playing college basketball,
07:04 they put their pants leg on one leg at a time like we do.
07:07 But I have so many of these young women
07:09 that have transferred from a lot of these
07:11 Power Five conferences that's played in the SEC.
07:14 I have two players on my team that played in the SEC.
07:16 And so I think it's great for Power Five schools
07:20 to be able to come to see what it looks like
07:22 on the other side.
07:23 One thing about it is, you know,
07:25 it allows them to appreciate the things that they have,
07:28 because there are teams that's out here
07:30 that doesn't have what they have.
07:31 And we don't even come close.
07:34 We don't even scratch the surface
07:35 of what they have in Fayetteville.
07:37 But one thing that we do have is a big heart.
07:39 And we have young women that don't really care about stuff.
07:43 They just want to come out and play hard
07:45 and make a name for themselves.
07:46 That's why we get the transfers like a Zay Green
07:48 or a Mo Davenport, a Star Jacobs,
07:51 because they want to know, you know,
07:53 they want to feel somewhere where they feel like family,
07:55 and people want to come back and come around
07:57 and support them and love on them a little bit.
07:59 And so that's just kind of, you know,
08:01 we host Ole Miss in two weeks in Pine Bluff.
08:04 So we're excited about it, and I'm looking forward to it also.
08:09 [silence]
08:14 Tanner?
08:15 I was just going to do one more if no one else had one.
08:17 You mentioned the Ole Miss game.
08:18 You got about a week and a half before that game.
08:19 You guys have been playing nonstop on the road a lot.
08:22 How are you going to spend this next week and a half
08:24 where you have some time where you're not playing
08:25 to kind of get ready for that one?
08:26 Rest, yep.
08:29 Well, I wanted -- you know, I think the way
08:30 that the schedule's been done,
08:33 we were -- we wanted to jump into the tournament
08:35 in Thanksgiving to kind of give us a feel
08:37 of what the SWAC tournament will feel like,
08:39 our conference tournament will look like.
08:40 We turned around and we played four or five days out of that.
08:43 We wanted to see what it feels like to come off of a win.
08:47 Unfortunately, we didn't, but to see what that feels like
08:49 to play what it's going to feel like
08:50 after we win a championship,
08:51 and you have to play four more days --
08:52 four days after that for the first round
08:54 of the NCAA tournament, you know,
08:55 if that's what God has for us.
08:57 So I think that the schedule was designed perfectly.
09:00 Wanted to have a big break before we get ready
09:02 to fine-tune some things before we go home for Christmas.
09:05 So I think that everything has just kind of been
09:07 strategically laid.
09:08 I thought that we jumped out in the fire so early
09:10 with the Oregons and the Oregon States,
09:12 but that prepared them for this game tonight.
09:15 So it's just a matter of time.
09:17 The future is bright.
09:18 We're excited for the University of Arkansas
09:19 Pine Bluff Women's Basketball.
09:21 I'm excited. I'm going to celebrate with them.
09:24 Hopefully, I can get them some ice cream or something,
09:26 or something, I guess we can get some ice cream or Chipotle.
09:29 She wants Chipotle for sure, but, yeah,
09:31 we're excited about it.