What Becky Burke, Lani Cornfield and Achol Magot said after Arizona’s win over Cal State Bakersfield

Arizona women’s basketball improved to a perfect 6-0 in the month of November with a 78-63 win over Cal State Bakersfield on Saturday evening. Though Arizona got the win, there was plenty for Wildcats coach Becky Burke to critique postgame.

Burke was pleased with the way the Wildcats started – the UA jumped out to a 22-13 first quarter advantage – but wants to see the team be more aggressive when holding a lead.

“I thought we could have taken that 22 to 13 lead in the first quarter and probably stretched it to 30 or 40. And ultimately, we did not,” Burke said. “And so I think that just shows we let up a little bit, maybe a little bit of immaturity here and there, lack of focused attention to detail through 40 minutes, which we absolutely need moving forward.”

Our recap of the game can be found here. Below is what Burke, guard Lani Cornfield and center Achol Magot had to say after the game.

Burke on Arizona Athletics’ recent all-around success: “Always these days, need to start out with kudos to the other programs, football, obviously, with a huge win the other day, volleyball, finishing out their season at home with a win men’s basketball earlier today. So just another week in Arizona athletics that we’re proud of. And I also do want to just shout out our leadership. I think a lot of times, athletic departments have a lot of success, and the head coaches and the players get a lot of credit. We have tremendous leadership here at the University of Arizona, obviously, with Desiree and you have Morgan, and you have Rachel, and you have Kristin and coach Candrea. So we need to take a moment and recognize what Desiree has done here in this athletic department, because we’re rolling right now because of her leadership and and the momentum she’s created here. So shout out to Desiree.”

On her overall thoughts on the win: “Excited for this win today, and to be able to go 6-0. I’m happy with some things. I’m excited to have an opportunity for us to correct some things. I didn’t think we were sharp defensively tonight. I thought we got a little bit loose with some stuff. And, you know, So like I said, that was an excited, happy locker room, but I think we’re mature enough to know that there’s a lot of things that we could have corrected in that game, a lot of a lot of ways we could have stretched that lead a little bit further, but ultimately, we’re a team that’s just wanting to win games and and we did that today. So super excited and proud of our team.”

On Arizona getting off to a lead in the first quarter but not extending the lead: “Yeah, it was great, but I don’t think we handled it very well. I mean, you thought the game was over after the first quarter because we played so well. We were flowing, we came out aggressive, and that’s a lesson learned. We didn’t handle that first 10 minutes very well from a maturity standpoint. And we probably let it get us lackadaisical a little bit here and there. So like I said, instead of stretching that lead, I think we rested on it a little bit. So lesson learned. But now we know we’re capable of a 22 point first quarter. Now we know we’re capable of starting a game the right way. So I think lessons learned both ways from that.”

On her halftime message: “Yeah, my halftimes are pretty much one of two things. Like little bit of criticism or a lot of criticism. Like, I never go in, like, ‘Yay, we’re up.‘ So I think today it was just like adjustments, and it was just feedback on the first half. We went from a 22 point first quarter to a 13 point second quarter. So a lot of offensive adjustments, making them aware that we went away from the game plan a little bit, but also, giving them credit for coming up at halftime and coming into halftime with a lead. But you know, this team just we’re growing. We’re learning, and so going in at halftime, and I just don’t feel comfortable ever just resting on anything with this team. I’m going to continue to challenge them and push them and tell them the things that need to be corrected, and act like, even with 30 seconds left, this game is not won yet, because that’s, that’s the kind of edge that we need to play with this year.”

On the progress from the first game until now: “Yeah, I feel really good about our trajectory. And it’s not just gonna be straight up. There’s still gonna be some lulls, there’s gonna be some things that happens. There’s gonna be a couple games here and there where we take a couple steps back. But everybody wanted to sit here at our first exhibition game and, like, fire the alarm and sound the alarm. And this takes time, like it takes time. We are six games in, and you’ve seen the amount of improvement. Imagine when we’re 20 games in. Imagine when we’re in year two, like it just takes time. But credit to our players for just coming in every single day and just continuing to want to get better. And it’s not for them big picture we need to go in 25 games this year. We need to go do all these things. It’s like, come into practice, and let’s get better at this today. Come into practice, let’s get better at this today. So you’re seeing the trajectory, you’re seeing the time spent together. You’re seeing you need game experience with one another. No matter how many scrimmages you do, no matter how many times you go against your scout guys, they need game experience together. So six games times 40 minutes. I mean, that’s been invaluable. And you just see the improvement game by game by game. Achol is going to get a tremendous amount of experience from her time on the floor today. So it just takes time. It’s not something that you can like just rush or speed up. We’ve we’ve been patient. Luckily, we’ve been winning along the way. But the goal is, every single game just continue to get better.”

On the importance of her familiarity with Cornfield from last season at Buffalo: “Yeah, I’m on the sideline, and I have a tremendous amount of relief anytime the ball is in Lani’s hands. I know she knows exactly what I want. I breathe easier knowing that’s my dog. And, like, somebody that’s extremely loyal to me and has my back. She knows I have hers. And so it’s just, I think when you take over a new program, I think taking people with you that are your people is really important, from a staff standpoint, from a player standpoint. I think the world of Lani. I trust her. I think she trusts me. And so just having that relationship, when you look out there and you have somebody that’s been there with you, like her and I won 30 games together last year. You know her and I went through a lot last year together, and we’re very close because of it. So to just have somebody that knows me, that I know, it’s like extremely comforting, and that’s why it was really, really important. And I’m super thankful that she decided to join us here.”

On benching Cornfield for the first quarter last game vs. Northern Colorado: “Yeah, just Lani being competitive, me holding people to a standard. Like, there was no bad intentions or anything. But I hold a standard in this program, and how I hold one player accountable is how I hold anybody accountable. Do I want Lani on the bench for a quarter? Absolutely not, but I’ll hold Lani accountable the same way I’ll hold Achol and the same way I’ll hold a walk on. You know what I mean? And so as we’re building this here, culture, and Lani was so mature about it and handled it extremely well, and came in the second quarter and played the rest of the 30 minutes and kept it moving. But I’m gonna send a message to our entire program about how I’m handling things with one player is how I’m gonna handle them with every player. So nothing serious, but a moment where I had to hold her accountable, and she took it and was mature about it, and we moved on from it. But it’s the message that you send to your program that it doesn’t matter who you are, we are building a culture here and we’re gonna stick to our standards and our values.”

On getting out-rebounded: “I thought it was a little bit of the effort piece. Just a little bit of lackadaisical moments that I was talking about. I just didn’t feel great about some moments in the game. But there was a lot to clean up, and we’re going to watch it and we’re going to clean it up, and they know, like they knew before I walked in that locker room, ‘Man, we weren’t great defensively today. We had some loose balls. We weren’t first to the floor.‘ And like to Lani’s point, if we’re not that gritty dog, you might squeak by Cal State Bakersfield, but we’re not going to do what we ultimately want to do, which is compete with the Big 12. So we have some stuff to clean up, and we will.”

On Freddie Wallace not being on the team anymore: “Yeah, Freddie’s no longer with the program, and we wish her the absolute best moving forward, and her future endeavors.”

On whether there was a breaking point with Wallace: “Yeah, I think since then, obviously we just, we’ve progressed to the point where she’s no longer with us. Really wishing her the best.”

Cornfield on the team’s mindset when the game got tight in the fourth quarter: “Yeah. I mean, the only reason, the only way they’re really scoring buckets was us fouling. So every huddle, we just kept talking about, we need stops, three stops in a row. Three stops in a row. We got to stop fouling. No more, no more. I mean, my close outs were bad today. jJust, you know, like coach said, take it to the game plan. I mean, we got to have big gaps. We got to stay solid. And that’s not what we were doing. We were just fouling from everywhere, helping from everywhere. It was just undisciplined.”

On playing for Burke for a second year: “Yeah, just like what (Burke) said, our relationship, you would think I’ve been playing under her for years. I have utmost respect and trust for coach Burke, and so coming into Arizona, having a whole new team, I tried to have as many teammates as possible, just letting them know, like she’s not about no bluff. Call it, we’ll see it. Like she’s all about what she talks. She walks what she talks, she lives what she talks. And she just wants her standards how she lives life, exactly how she wants us to live ours on and off the court. And that’s what I’ve been trying to emphasize and tell the other players. Like, we have to be this, because that’s how we win, not because, oh, coach Burke, is this, coach Burke is that. No, that’s what we got to do to win. And we were a small team at Buffalo, and so being small here, it’s the same mindset, same mentality, like we got to come out, we got to be dogs. Our first exhibition game, y’all saw us like puppies, and we just were growing and growing and growing every game. And so hopefully by the time we need it, we gonna be there.”

On her thoughts about not playing the first quarter against Northern Colorado: “I don’t really have a take. I’m right with coach Burke. Over my year at Buffalo, she knows who I am, and she knows exactly how to go about things with me. We can talk about things one on one, hear each other out. But at the end of the day, she’s a coach and I’m a player.”

Magot on her successful night: “It feels great. My aunt’s back in town, my whole family’s here watching me, so it feels good. I mean, just doing the stuff we practice every single day. Like finishing in the paint. That’s what I do.”

On being patient to see time on the court: “I’m always ready. I know like the matchups are not always going to work out for me. And I understand because when Big 12 play comes, like I was going to need to show up and I’ll be ready.”