bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the Nevada loss on Saturday. The game was really a tale of two halves but the first half showed the potential of your team.
Darin Spence: It's so us. I chuckle about it now but I assure none of us were at the time. It was one of those best of times worst of times situations. It showed how good we could be and the reason we were able to play so well in the first half is we defended. We got out and defended and everything came off our defensive effort. Our easy baskets, our defensive rebounding, forcing turnovers, making them shoot tough shots. This team really just grasped the idea and the concept of defending first and it really shows that if we can do that and be committed to that, what we can do and what level we can play at. Nevada is a really good team. They're explosive, they do a lot of good things, good weapons, good experience. But then if you do that you go into halftime and you're thinking "how are we going to keep this going?" I'm a big believer that teams and players always go back to their percentages in shooting, so we're trying to get across to our players that we don't need to match that, we just need to play well and limit our mistakes in the second half and just play with some energy. But it's really hard to duplicate that effort for another 20 minutes especially when you know the other team is going to come roaring back. It just seems like we came out in the second half and did a complete 180. We tried to outscore them which led to a lot of bad shots, quick shots, wrong people shooting. Our floor balance wasn't good so they would get runouts and easy baskets and we just didn't have that same mindset we had to start the game out with which was defending and then letting our offense come. That was disappointing. Even through it all we had a chance to win the game, we gave up two late rebounds off their missed free throws. It was just a very disappointing end for all of us.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the Idaho loss?
Darin Spence: We showed a sign that we hadn't shown in a long time. Our kids watched tape of Idaho and came away with the wrong impression of the team we were about to play. We hadn't done that since we played North Dakota. By that I mean they watched the tape, looked at the team's record and thought we'll just show up and we'll be okay. It directly affected our mental preparation and our focus during the game. We played in way too many spurts. We'd go on a run and get a lead and then we would take steps backwards and let them back in it and we did that all night long. We could never get in a positive flow which is why we let them back in it and ended up losing the game. It was disappointing to see our team do that. It had been a long time since we'd done that. It was obviously something we had to correct.

bc.net: In the couple days leading up to your game against Utah State what did you see in practice that gave you a better feeling about the team than what you had immediately after the Idaho loss?
DS: After the Idaho game we stayed in the locker room for a long time. We talked about a lot of things that can go wrong that are out of our control so we just have to focus on the things we have control over. The biggest issue for that three game stretch that we had lost, we weren't playing offensively as well but we had stopped defending how we're supposed to defend. We had taken a really big step backward in the defensive effort and a lot of that I think is the result of us being able to score points this year. So we entered games where we thought we'd just go outscore people. We had to get our minds redirected. So we came back on Thursday and practiced really hard and all of it was defensive play. It was just the fact that we had to get out and compete harder and pressure the ball and get in the right spots. We had to work harder defensively. We didn't practice at all on Friday. We came into the gym on Friday morning and shot the ball and then traveled and got in there late and then went to Utah State's arena and shot for about 30 minutes and that's about all we did. It was a matter of us fixing ourselves and getting back and defending harder. I thought we did a really good job of that during the Utah State game for the most part, we had some breakdowns but when you've got your confidence down after losing three in a row you always have that moment of "Here we go again" kind of a thing. We had a few of those bumps but overall I thought we defended really well. We defended the post well and we got good backside help and we needed to because we didn't shoot the ball very well. It was a good grind out win for us.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the Fresno State game last Wednesday?
Darin Spence: It was not one of our better efforts. I think a lot of the reason was I think mentally we were drained and we played that way. We played hard but mentally we were a little fatigued. I think a lot of that has to do with we had won six in a row, we had won some big games and we were riding them hard to try to keep that going and get better but if you look at the makeup of our roster, we've got a lot of kids who have not been through that yet nor have they been through that kind of a thing together. It's something we're still learning, how to keep a winning streak going. But a six game winning streak is good especially with some of the teams we beat. I thought mentally we were a step behind. But we still competed, we gave ourselves a chance down the stretch but we just didn't play the way we envisioned ourselves playing that game. Fresno has got a lot of experience. Their juniors and seniors, all they know is winning WAC titles. They knew that was a big game and they came in and really did a good job. It was something we can learn from without question.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the Boise State win, you erased a late seven point deficit to force overtime and then won in overtime.
Darin Spence: That's a game where we played both poorly and well in long stretches and it just seemed like early in that game I think we thought we were going to just go ahead and outscore them rather than defend them and playing like we like to play. Once we got it figured out just under the last media timeout we figured out we better start guarding and getting some stops and we did that and that just created some better scoring opportunities for us as well. We challenged them a little bit at that last timeout and they responded and got it into overtime and then just took the overtime over.

bc.net: You won that game against Boise State despite being outrebounded by 14 but you guys did a great job on the fast break and a great job on turnovers.
DS: Yeah we did. I'm one that I don't get too crazy about did we outrebound somebody or did we not outrebound somebody because a lot of times that's not a true indicator of how the game turned out, just like there are games that are closer than the final score shows. If I miss a lot of shots yeah there are going to be a lot of rebounds and the other team is probably going to get them. Our tradeoff is we want to be a better defensive rebounding team. Sure, we want to get offensive rebounds but by defensive rebounding you're going to limit the other teams shots. We might not get on some nights a lot of offensive rebounds but that doesn't mean that it's really hurting us a lot. You just find a way and we got out in the break and that's just the way we're trying to get this done, just find a way, no matter how long it takes or whatever we need to do, we're just trying to find a way.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the game against N.M. Highlands, you went in with a 10-point lead at halftime but then put together one of your best defensive performances in a half and they didn't make a field goal until there was 4:35 left in the game.
Darin Spence: When we went into halftime of that game we weren't upset with how we played in the first half but we just thought something was missing. Of course human nature, you have a little letdown because you're not playing an opponent who you think is at a higher level. We talked about that at halftime and we just discussed the idea that what we're doing now is going to help prepare us to play for a WAC title down the road and so it's all connected. The kids did a really good job of playing in the second half and playing more to our identity which is our team defense and making people play defense on the other end and moving the ball. I thought we took a huge step forward in that game and just kind of pulled away. Of course the talent level is different but Highlands they do some good things, they're gonna to win some games in their league with the way they play. I thought they battled and just kind of ran out of gas.

bc.net: Yesterday you hosted No. 21 Kansas and it was a huge opportunity for your team and in the first half you didn't let them get out of reach in the first five to 10 minutes of the games and you really started to force them to play your kind of game.
DS: I noticed that when our players are really on top of things we've got a chance to be pretty good on both sides of the ball in all aspects of the game. Kansas made the choice that they were going to guard tight and they were going to stay tight on Madison and Danisha and they were not going to let them be the scorers. So that left of course Crystal and Jasmine and Tabytha one-on-one with their defenders and they did a good job of shooting good shots. Of course sometimes Crystal gets carried away with some of her shot selection but she did a very very good job of taking good shots and of course she made them. But she also played very good defense and she rebounded defensively and that kind of fueled her energy on the offensive end. Jasmine got in early foul trouble and picked up some interesting calls so she didn't play quite as much in the first half and we went back to Madison playing the point in a long stretch towards the middle and end of the first half and we just did a good job of recognizing who was scoring and played against their pressure. I just thought we battled really well defensively, we rebounded okay, good enough. I just think our kids are starting to understand where to be defensively and how to help and recover and we just took a big big step forward. We weren't in awe of them and we battled toe-to-toe.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: You had a nice week and picked a couple of good wins over Alcorn State and UTEP especially given the fact that it was the holiday break.
Darin Spence: We've taken some small steps forward. The Alcorn State was an interesting game because you had the Christmas break coming and everybody was going home the next day and you're just coming off the New Mexico game and you've got UTEP right around the corner. It was one of those games that you worry about. We could take it for granted or we could get out and compete. I thought for the most part our kids did just that. We found ways to play in spurts and took care of business and then turn around and bounce back with the game at UTEP after being off a couple days, it's always nerve wracking to see if your timing is going to be back and will you settle back into what you were doing before. We had some moments offensively down at UTEP where we were trying to score too quickly. We were just kind of going to fast. Once we settled in and moved the ball and made them play defense we were shooting high percentage shots and getting to the free throw line. I thought we defended really well for the majority of the game down there and came out with a really big win.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the UTEP game? You had a strong first half and had a 13 point lead and then jumped ahead by 21 then UTEP made a comeback and took the lead but you held on for the win.
Darin Spence: Yeah, that was definitely the rollercoaster ride there. We came out of the gates and played really well on both sides of the ball. I think we kind of smacked them in the nose and surprised them a lot. We executed offensively and defensively and had to play through some early foul trouble as well through the game. It was very encouraging to see how we started the game, moreso how we started the second half. I thought we came out and really took it to a whole other level. But at that point in time they called a timeout we were so emotional, it's like we shot all the water out of our water pistol. Then it was like, "uh oh" they started to come back on us. It was a real interesting game but I was happy to see us hit a level as the games move on we can play at for longer stretches and for a lot more games in a row.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the big win over North Dakota State on Saturday?
Darin Spence: The art of scheduling is quite challenging. You're going through finals week, you can't play through finals week but I've learned that you've got to make sure the team you're going to play is coming off of finals week too. North Dakota State is a good team, seniors, they were bigger and a lot more physical in person than I realized just watching them on tape. Of course, they played two games during that weekend prior, they played a Saturday and a Monday. They won two road games in league play, they had their mojo going and they had pretty good rhythm. I think in future years we've got to find schools that are in the same finals exam schedule as we are.

It was a good win for us. I was really pleased with how our team kept fighting. We got down 11 early and we were struggling to get back into our rhythm we had the week prior. Our kids hung in there and come second half just started doing little thing, ball pressure, screening and cutting better on offense and it just turned the game around in our favor. That was a big win against a pretty good team.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net will be conducting weekly in-season interviews with Aggie head women's basketball coach Darin Spence. Coach Spence and the Aggies are looking to end a lengthy postseason drought and take aim at a WAC Championship during the 2009-2010 season. This week we talked with Coach Spence about the team's loss against in-state rival New Mexico, the play of Jasmine Lowe and Tabytha Wampler and look ahead at Saturday's opponent, North Dakota State.

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the New Mexico game?
Darin Spence: My thoughts are varying looking back on that one. We had a chance, we played some good basketball. I think we shot ourselves in the foot on a couple defensive possessions where we lost a couple of their shooters. We had things going the way we wanted as far as the defensive gameplan but we just didn't hold to it on some of their other kids. I think we let it get away from us. We blew a chance to beat them.

Our kids fight, we have a group of competitors, I know that. We gave ourselves a chance against a good basketball team. I just feel like we just didn't finish the deal. We gave that one away.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the Long Beach State game. Before that game we had talked about you wanting your team to come out with the same level of intensity in the second half as they do at the start of the game and in that particular game you did just that opening the half on a 7-0 run and then going on an 18-2 run after that to essentially put the game out of reach.
Darin Spence: This team, we've kind of been both ways. We've started a game well and then didn't do the second half well and then we've had a game where we didn't start well but then played well in the second half. It's been an interesting phenomenon with this group. We're always trying to put longer stretches of quality play together and we're getting closer. Long Beach had a very experienced team and they did things that really made us have to play. They had good size, they're athletic and played pretty well but our kids came out and really brought some energy and found ways to get defensive stops and then to get some easier shots in transition and we ran our offense a little bit better.  Continue Reading This Post >>