Blue Raiders begin NCAA Tourney vs. Florida St. Saturday

Saturday, March 19

12:30 PM

Middle Tennessee

Florida State (ESPN 2)

3/18/2016 8:01:00 PM | Women's Basketball

MT opens play in Dallas Regional

By: @MTAthletics

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Middle Tennessee will begin play in the Dallas Regional when it faces No. 5 seed Florida State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Texas A&M Saturday.

The No. 12 seeded Blue Raiders (24-9) are making their 18^th NCAA Tournament appearance all-time, and their ninth in 11 seasons under Head Coach Rick Insell. The Blue Raiders have won six straight and 17 of their last 19 overall.

Florida State (23-7) comes in ranked No. 10 in the latest USA Today Coaches Poll and No. 17 in the Associated Press poll. Seminole Head Coach Sue Semrau says her squad will not overlook the Blue Raiders.

"They're solid," Semrau said. "They have been here nine out of 11 years (with Rick Insell). That's something phenomenal. You look at a program like that, that has been able to have this kind of sustainable success, and you have to be good at what you do. They are very good at what they do. We have to find a way to be really good at what we do and see how it matches up on the floor."

The Seminoles are making their 35^th NCAA Tournament appearance. They reached the Elite 8 last season. They were 13-3 in the ACC this season. Florida State is 15-1 at home this season, but it is 8-6 away from Tallahassee.

"We know what a good team Florida State," Insell said. "We also know what a good team we have. I have brought some good teams to the NCAA Tournament, but I don't know I have come into a tournament with a team playing with as much confidence is this one is. I'm very proud of this team."

Following are quotes from today's press conference:
Q. Abbey, with you, during the conference tournament you were pegged to guard their best player and not only were you guarding the best player throughout the conference tournament, but you also were the only player to score double figures in all games. What does that speak about your game offensively and defensively?
ABBEY SISSOM: Coming into this year I didn't know what my role was going to be, honestly, and it's kind of grown as the season's went along and I've been asked to do some things that I didn't expect to be doing this year. I've just kind of had to push myself to step up, and I'm really happy that I've been able to play a role in all of this.

Q. Ty, you've been on championship teams before, what do you think about the makeup of this team and where you stand?
TY PETTY: I'm just proud of the way that we have been playing. Just building our chemistry and not getting complacent. That's the main thing that coach has been preaching to us about. So I'm very proud of this team and how far we have come.

Q. Brea, for you, now that you guys -- we talked at the watch party that you didn't know much about Florida State. Now that you got to watch some film on them, what do you expect from this team?
BREA EDWARDS: From watching film, we expect them, just like any other team that we have come across, they're big in the post and we expect them to rebound. But I think that with our scout and the way practices have been going, our team, Middle Tennessee, we know what we need to do, and I think we're going to go out there and do it.

Q. We played several teams in the ACC before, and I don't think we played Florida State. How do you feel about this matchup with this ACC team?
COACH INSELL: Well really and truly with our non-conference schedule and as many teams that we play in the SEC, the ACC, and across the country in different conferences, I mean, we try not to run from anybody and I think that helps prepare us for the NCAA Tournament. Because when we get here, it's not like we have never played an ACC team. It's not like we have never played a PAC-12 or Pac-10 or whatever it is now, or an SEC team. So we really, our program never gets intimidated by some of those larger conferences. Because we play them all the time. Now, we don't win every game, but we win enough of them that they know we're around.

Q. Ty, you've broken the single season record for assists, putting you at the top for Middle Tennessee. But coming into the tournament, now that that record's broken already, does that kind of feel like a relief off your shoulders to keep continuing to go out there and not only score baskets for your team, but get them shots and assists as well?
TY PETTY: That was never just on my mind going into a game. I'm just going out and being the point guard that I need to be and finding the open shooters. So if you say relief, then, yeah, I guess so, a little bit.

Q. Abbey, you're a sophomore this year, Middle Tennessee has a long history of NCAA Tournament appearances, nine in the last 11 years. What does that mean to you at this point? Are you excited to be here, is it still kind of a new experience on you or have the upperclassmen kind of helped you along with how things go?
ABBEY SISSOM: Yeah, all the upperclassmen are great about taking us under their wing about things that we're not accustomed to like this. We didn't get to be here last year, so this is my first time here, and I'm really excited to be able to be a part of this. And it's really exciting for all of us, some of us it's a lot of our first time, so we're really excited about it, to just come out and play ready tomorrow.

Q. You said you have enjoyed coaching this team as much as any that you've had. What makes this team so enjoyable to coach?
COACH INSELL: Well, really, if you look back at what they had to go through, we got -- some time in January, the preseason conference player of the year left our basketball team. At that point we were 7- 6. We led Conference USA in scoring and were second in rebounding last year. And a lot of people would have thought, heck, this is going to be the doom to this program and to this team. And I think there were some people that were even on our side that felt that way. But 17-1 later, that kind of gives you an idea of what I've been dealing with every day in practice. It's a joy to walk up the ramp, to have to practice and deal with these young ladies. They're very invested in what we were doing, they're very focused.
It's just a total, total change of chemistry from that point to this point now that they like being around each other, they rallied each other's side on the floor. They don't really get overly excited when they're behind. They don't really get overly excited when they're ahead. They just keep doing their thing. And I've had very few teams like that. I've been doing this for 40 years, so they have become one of my favorite teams.

Q. Going off of that, losing a player, there's some adversity going with that, but then you mentioned the record you go on to win the conference championship. What does that speak about your team to handle adversity and also to be led by veterans like Ty Petty and Brea Edwards along the way?
COACH INSELL: It takes a lot to be a Lady Raider. There's a lot of things that are expected of you off the floor. You take the leadership that Ty Petty and Brea Edwards have been able to give us, but you look back there's two other seniors that have done a great job too. They may not have been the show pups on the floor, but behind the scenes and coming off the bench, TiAnna Porter and Caroline Warden have done tremendous jobs for us, and we're not afraid to use them at any time. You take the other night during the championship game, and Brea looked like she might be out for the rest of the game and they got the momentum and who comes off the bench and gives us a big push is Caroline Warden. And who came off the bench early was TiAnna Porter. So they have been doing things like that for the last two months and that's kind of exciting for me as a coach to be able to just watch that. Sometimes I get caught up into watching instead of coaching, and I probably shouldn't. Or maybe I should. (Laughter.)

Q. You gotten more film, you guys had a film study before coming here. What can you expect from this Florida State team, both offensively and defensively?
COACH INSELL: Well, they're a very good basketball team. They are well-coached, they rebound the ball extremely well, they run the floor, they have got a great, great point guard in Romero. She's a fine player that's come in here. All she's ever done is played basketball. Tremendous basketball IQ and savvy. And I don't know that we can match that. And we have got to be careful and try not to match her savvy, because she is so good. We just need to go out and kind of play our game and, hopefully, let them try to match what we do or stop what we do or get involved with what we do. And that's kind of what we're banking on. But they got a good basketball team. They're not ranked. They didn't get a No. 5 seed for just getting up in the morning. They played a tough schedule, and they play in a tough conference. They did what body of work they had to do to get a No. 5 seed. Somebody said, well, they got beat in the tournament. Well, they did what they had to do before they got to the tournament to take care of all that pressure and all the things that come with going in on a shot, a rebound, a charge, in the tournament puts you out. In our case, with a one seed conference, it makes a big deal. In their case, you got to do that body of work beforehand, and if they do, that pressure, that doesn't come with the conference tournament pressure.

Q. When the Dallas regional is unfolded, you see where you are at. How did you feel about the matchups, how did you feel about your placement against these three and then overall in the Dallas regional?
COACH INSELL: I feel like -- of course, Texas A&M playing at home has got to have an advantage. And then Florida State coming in with their body of work, again. But Missouri State's a very good basketball team. We played them this year. They shoot the ball extremely well from three, they're probably going to put up 40 threes if I had to guess. If they're knocking down threes, it can be tough on Texas A&M. Florida State, on the other hand, we came out of a pretty tough conference ourselves, Conference USA, and the schedule that we have had to play late on the road, where we have had some success on the road. I think we're in great shape. So, the four teams together, I think might very well be four as close-matched teams as you can possibly get, even though we're setting at a 12, and I think Florida State is a 13, maybe. Or I mean Missouri State? What are they? They're 13. So, you know, I'm telling you right now, I'll bet you that if you ask Coach Blair, if he would like to go play Missouri State on their home court, he would probably say, I'm not playing them. So, you've got four pretty evenly matched teams.

Q. You mentioned Romero for Florida State. In the conference tournament Abbey guarded the best player on the other team, can we expect that going forward as far as against Florida State?
COACH INSELL: I don't think so. They have got -- their players are so well rounded. Romero's a point, so you're probably going to end up with Ty on her. But, you know, it wouldn't bother me to change that out if we had to. And Abbey, really, Abbey's kind of a sophomore, she's kind of a young colt in the field. She really doesn't know what she's doing, she just plays with that toughness that she's got and that grit that she's got and she's just relying on that and she does a great job. Now, you take next year, when she's a junior and she's gone through her strength conditioning program, she's a year older, you're going to see a different young lady a year from now than you're seeing right now.

Q. You and Coach Davis have worked together now since you've been there at Middle Tennessee, can you sort of talk about your relationship?
COACH INSELL: Got a great relationship. I hear horror stories all the time about the coaches having to work with their men's coaches, and I'm very close with a lot of the women's coaches around the country, been close with them for 40 years and I heard those stories years and years and years and years. I don't have that with Kermit Davis. Kermit is, we have to practice on the same court, we have, of course we have a practice facility also, but I'm sure it's like this here at Texas A&M, just like it is at our place, we don't control Murphy Center, we give them our practice times and if they're bringing in some group, whatever it may be, concert or whatever, then we're out of the gym. And so therefore we got to work hand in hand with our scheduling. Our kids pull for his kids. And his kids pull for our kids. Just look at the other night, they could have easily, they won the conference, got on the bus, two and a half hours and back to Murfreesboro. Instead, they went back to the hotel, they changed clothes, took a shower, cleaned up, and came back and sat through our whole game and celebrated us winning the conference championship. Now, they didn't have to do that. Kermit didn't make them do that. Kermit was there also with his wife and his family. And much like his family's a basketball family, my family's a basketball family, and we both are very supportive of each other. And if you want to look at that, that's got to come through our leadership, which is our administration Sidney McPhee, Chris Massaro, we can come right on down the line with all of us that work together. We have very few problems in that situation. Same thing with football. Kind of what we all bank on at Middle Tennessee when we're out recruiting is all about family, because at Middle Tennessee, that's what it's about.