Taylor's Aggies pack bags for Thanksgiving tournament in California

Joni Taylor, the head coach of the Texas A&M women's basketball team, joined TexAgs Radio on Tuesday to chat about Monday's convincing 80-35 victory over Houston Christian ahead of the Raising the B.A.R. Invitational in Berkeley, California, on Friday and Saturday.

Key notes from Joni Taylor interview

• I'm excited about this week. it's another opportunity to be together over the holiday and to test ourselves on the road. We need to get our road legs under us, so I'm excited for the opportunity to play another Power 5 opponent in Cal after we take care of business vs. Winthrop on Friday.
   
• Purdue is an experienced team, and they do what they do. There were no surprises. They're solid, and they don't beat themselves. We were exposed last Thursday. I'd rather know that in Game 3 than in Game 11 or 12. We got after it in practice, and you saw some results of that last night vs. Houston Christian. We're still learning how to be consistent for 40 minutes, but you saw some positives last night.
   
• Timeouts depend on what they're about. Last night, I took one in the third quarter because we didn't start it in the right way. We turned it over twice, and we needed to regroup to not allow them to go on a run. That timeout was pretty intense and heated, but others are not. It just depends on what our team needs in that moment.
   
• Janiah Barker is someone who wants to be really good at what she does. When you can coach your best player the hardest, it makes it easier to coach everyone else. She's a great leader and a great teammate. Where she has grown is understanding shot selection. As excited as I am about her offensive production, I am more excited about her willingness to make the extra pass and get her teammates the ball.
   
• We didn't get a road win last year. The two we got were on a neutral floor. Our challenge is to get that figured out. When you're on the road, everybody has pride playing on your home floor just like we have pride playing at Reed Arena. You're walking into that environment on the road, and we like to tell them that you're 10 points down on the road. How do we drown out the noise and make sure we're more alert defensively? Defense travels. You can't make a lot of mistakes on the road.
   
• We will enjoy Thanksgiving on the road. We will have an activity where we talk about what we're thankful for. We want to celebrate the holidays, and we don't want to get caught up in what we're doing that we forget about life. We will have a good meal. We will sit around and talk about everything. We always want to integrate life into what we're doing because we're always together for all of the major holidays.