Golden Nuggets: Joanne Boyle Wants Her Team to Toughen Up

After her team lost to UCLA in the Pac-10 tournament semifinals, Joanne Boyle continually brought up an issue that has plagued the team all season: lack of toughness.

"I want to give credit to UCLA. I think Nikki has got them in a great place. They are really playing hard and getting ready for a championship game and a probably a really good run into the NCAA Tournament. For us, I thought we had a really good two games coming in. Today, I was disappointed with our effort. Just trying to get our team to compete. It kind of tells the story of our season. How we'll compete and then we will shut it down. How to compete day in and day out for forty minutes, I think we need to learn how to become that team."

"To be a championship team, you have to wear that jersey with pride and you have to walk into practice every day and compete. You have to have a passion for your sport. You have to look at it as an opportunity a lot of people don't have. You have to value the fact that you have been given the opportunity. We are not always on the same page with that. That is my biggest frustration."
...
On whether fatigue was a factor in the game

"I didn't see my team tired. I can tell when my team is tired. I think it was how we started the game. We got punched in the head a little bit and we just deflated. We didn't respond to it. When it comes easy, we're good. When it doesn't come easy, that is when we have to find that 'it factor' that teams have. We need to find the 'it factor' when things are tough." 

After the jump the Cal ruggers continue to show no mercy, baseball plays a marathon at AT&T Park, and men's basketball prepares for the NIT.

Basketball

• The Bruins' pressure-heavy defense forced Cal to turn the ball over 19 times in a 50-63 loss in the seminfinals of the Pac-10 women's tournament.
• Cal is a 3-seed in the latest NIT bracketology.
• The US Basketball Writers Association named Jorge Gutierrez to its District IX Team.