Everything TCU's Mark Campbell, Hailey Van Lith said after losing to South Carolina

South Carolina women’s basketball beat TCU, 85-52, Sunday evening in Fort Worth, Texas. Following the game, TCU head coach Mark Campbell and guard Hailey Van Lith spoke with the media. Here is what they said.

Mark Campbell: Well, that was a tough game, you guys, but this game served its purpose. You schedule South Carolina in order to test yourself and learn where you’re at, at this point of the season, against the best program in college basketball.

And this game, we learned a lot. Just the physicality, the toughness. They impose their will on you, and to feel that and go against it, it lets us know, between now and March, we’ve got to get a lot better, and we’ve got to grow in those areas. And credit South Carolina for doing a heck of a job today and playing a great game. And they made us uncomfortable, and they imposed their will, and we couldn’t get in any offensive rhythm. We’re one of the best passing teams in the country, and we never got settled enough to truly create for each other. Everything was just really, really difficult today.

So, great learning lesson. I’m thankful for this opportunity. I’m thankful for Fort Worth and the basketball community that came out to support this team and create a great environment, and we’ll watch the film and learn and grow and get better and keep moving.

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Question: It’s really hard to prepare for that level of physicality. What adjustments do you think you can make going forward as you look ahead?

Mark Campbell: Yeah, it is really hard. I mean, we played NC State and Notre Dame that are two really good teams, and they weren’t this. And so, you can’t really, you’ve got to go compete and lace them up and play against it and feel it. You can’t duplicate this in practice, especially their depth. They’ve got 10 bodies that are all big, strong, and talented, and deep. And so, the only way to really learn from it is to play these kind of games. And so, I’m thankful that Coach Staley was willing to bring her team here on a neutral site and come compete, even though it’s not a neutral site.

Question: You mentioned the physicality. South Carolina’s length also looked like it was pretty disruptive. They had 20 turnovers, and they got 30 points off of those. Again, what was it about that length that made things difficult tonight?

Mark Campbell: Yeah, defensively, one, they do a great job, obviously, preparing their team. They’re long and athletic, and they got all sorts of tips, deflections. Those things lead to transition buckets. But that’s controllable. They expose something. It’s not going to be easy. You do got to pivot. You’ve got to ball fake. You’ve got to be able to get open and swing the ball. And we weren’t able to do that. And that’s credit to them. At the same time, that’s controllable. That’s an area we’re going to get better at. And so, I’m thankful for that learning experience. Even though it’s painful and no fun, I’m thankful for that.

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Question: Sedona (Prince) didn’t have kind of her normal stat line. Was it something that they were doing? You mentioned the physicality and things like that. Or did you just feel like she just wasn’t on tonight?

Mark Campbell: Yeah, Sedona struggled. I’ll take the blame. Obviously, didn’t do a good enough job finding ways to get her the ball. We didn’t do a good enough job helping her. And so, we need her to play better, but I’ll take the blame and got to figure out how to use her better in these type of games so that she can have a bigger impact.

Question: Hailey, you guys have a long time, a week before you play another game. What’s kind of your message to your team? How did you guys bounce back after this?

Hailey Van Lith: Yeah, we have to have a positive response. It’s early in the season. And we had a lot of self-inflicted wounds in this game that were us just – we just played on our heels. And we let them be the aggressor all game long. And that’s something we can fix. So, that’s the good part about it. We can have a mindset shift. We’re going to watch the film. We’re going to learn from this. And we’re going to get better. And hopefully we get another shot at a game like this later down the road.

Question: You talked about playing on your heels. Why do you feel like you guys were on your heels and not able to, like, take a step forward?

Hailey Van Lith: Yeah, it was a big game. It was on TV. We have a new group that hasn’t experienced a ton of these moments together yet. And so, I think we got a lot of actions that we normally get and we just were a little off. Our shots were a little off. We threw the pass a little too late. Just things like that where I think the moment got the best of us a little bit, too. But they’re a really athletic, defensive team. And they caused some problems for us. So, it was a combination of them and us. But we need to control what we can control on our end.

Question: Hailey, the physicality has been mentioned. From your standpoint, just what did you see and experience with the physicality side?

Answer: Yeah, they made all my catches tough. They got in me. They were trying to displace me all game. They were trying to speed me up. And I figured it out a little bit in the second half. Obviously, not enough. But it happens, and all I can do is learn from it and be better for my team. I can’t have five turnovers in the first half. I can’t do that for us to be good. So, I’ll get better. I’ll learn from it. I had some good reads and some bad reads. So, we’re going to take the good with the bad and get better and move on.

Question: Mark, you talked about watching the film, getting better for this game. How do you make sure you don’t overcorrect or spend too much time after a loss like this?

Answer: Yeah, whether you win this game or lose this game, it’s one game. And you got to show up and keep working. And so, very realistic of where we’re at 10 games into the year with six new players and realistic of we got punched in the mouth today. And you take it with a grain of salt, and you learn from it. But it’s one game. And so, you don’t overanalyze it. But to get to where I think this group can get, this is a great experience to get to learn from it. Again, you can’t duplicate this in practice. So, this is healthy. It’s good for our growth and for our journey this season.

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