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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: IOWA CITYMarch 20, 2015Ari BoothJen DumiakMegan GebbiaArron ZimmermanIOWA CITY, IOWA IOWA – 75 COACH GEBBIA: Seeing kids cry in the locker room is never an easy thing. I'm so proud of them; they have never been here before. They have never played in front of so many fans before cheering against them, and yet throughout the entire game, they thought. And if you told me we were going to shoot 44 percent from two, 43 percent from three, and 87 percent from the line and lose, I would have been shocked by that. I just think that this group represented American University extremely well and the Patriot League extremely well. Had three great seniors that have led us all year. Iowa is a terrific team. They just shot better than we did, which, credit to them, playing on their home court, home crowd, ready for the Tournament, you have to give them credit. But I'm just so proud of this team because they were able to keep it close the entire way. Q. You guys got behind by ten or 12 and then cut it down 69‑64 and had two possessions where you had 3‑pointers. Anything in particular that you were trying to get out of those possessions against Iowa's zone, it was tough to get shots it looked like. JEN DUMIAK: Yeah, it was tough getting shots. They are long, probably longer than most teams we've faced this year, especially in our league. We were just looking for an open shot, honestly, just a bucket. Ari was on fire. I think one of her rimmed in and out. We just wanted to score, really. Obviously they didn't fall and they were critical possessions but that's the way the game goes. Q. Ari, you seemed to have the really hot hand today. What was it about Iowa's defense that let you get such great opportunities? ARI BOOTH: I had a lot of space pretty much, and if you give me that much space, I'm going to shoot it. Again, I was getting great screens from my post players and I just felt good about it, had a clean look and was able to shoot it. Q. Following up to that, what happened in the second half? It took a really long time for you to get another basket. Were they just a little more cognizant of your position? ARI BOOTH: Yeah, they started pressuring me a little more and getting their hands up as soon as I caught the ball, so I had to either dribble or pass it. Q. It was a big crowd, kind of noisy. Did it cause any trouble as far as setting up the plays or directing the whole offense? JEN DUMIAK: Not so much in the first half, but definitely in the second half when it got loud in their zone, we were trying to call out plays. We have hand signals but I'm not the best as using them or remembering them. So that's kind of a problem. But yeah, I mean, it was great playing in front of the crowd, even though they were rooting against us, it's just a great atmosphere. For us seniors we've never really had that. To kind of go out with that, it was really nice. Q. If I may, as a senior, can you explain for the group the journey, the experience this week, the game today from your perspective as a senior? ARRON ZIMMERMAN: Women's basketball has never done that before, so that was just the start to an amazing experience. Got a chartered jet here, just something that so many people on our team have not ever had before. Most of us have never had it before. Just an amazing experience‑‑ thank you. It was just a lot of good things that we didn't even know that we would be getting and it's just been an awesome experience. We were so happy to play today. Just wanted to come out and give them a game, and we can go out saying that we did that. COACH GEBBIA: Jen, getting her three that she made, that was her 100th of her career ‑‑ so I was really hoping that was going to go in. Jen's Patriot League Player of the Year, Scholar Athlete of the Year, First Team Academic All‑American; what she's done for our program has been amazing. And as a head coach, you don't know if you'll ever coach another kid that can do both extremely well. So Jen, I'm going to miss you a ton, and I appreciate all the effort and energy you put in. She's really bought in. I don't know if most of you know, but she changed from a two guard to a point guard this year. So she's actually playing out of position‑‑ but maybe not. Looking back, I wish I would have last year put her at that position. She's been terrific. I think people that come in in the future can look at Jen Dumiak and say, I want to be like her, I want to play like her. That's a compliment to her and the effort and energy she's put into her game. Thank you, Jen. Arron has been‑‑ Arron's had an interesting senior year. Arron has not scored as much as she has in the past, at least from last year to this year but she's done so many intangible things for us. We've said it before‑‑ she finally showed up today. She's been struggling and been shooting the three a ton in practice, and it finally paid off for her at a big time. That's what seniors do, they show up when they need to show up, and I feel so proud those two because they were able to do that. And AB is called the 'Silent Assassin' for a reason. She's probably the quietest kid on the team, but at the same time she's got a bold confidence about her and you guys got a chance to witness that from her tonight, and I expect big things from her next year when she comes back. So really proud of the group and I'm just glad we could make it a game. Q. Arron, wonder if you felt like Iowa just wasn't quite aware of your 3‑point shooting prowess, and as you were able to get loose a little bit more as they were concentrating on Ari. And what was the discussion at halftime? You have a tie game at that point. ARRON ZIMMERMAN: Shooting‑wise, I probably wouldn't have guard me at the three‑point line, either. I have not been shooting well. But I hit fire and just had confidence in my shot and kept shooting. At halftime as long as we were down by a few or tied or up by a few, we felt confident going into the second half. We've been a second half team and we were just ready to come out and compete again. We knew the second half, they were going to come out ready to go. Maybe they were a little surprised by us in the first half. But second half, we knew we were going to have to come out strong and knew we were going to have to battle and that it was going to be another 20‑minute battle. I think they hit some big shots and we did what we could, but it was a game. Q. Why does Booth not start? COACH GEBBIA: That's a good question. Well, you know, we did start her earlier in the year one game. Just seems like she plays better coming off the bench, so that's why we went to that. We started our freshman, who pretty much was a little scared today I think. You know, since we had started that freshman, Emily Kinneston, we've been on a win streak. So it's kind of like a superstition and we also know AB likes to come off the bench and light it up. That's probably why. She'll probably start next year. We'll see. Q. The NCAA went back to this top seeds hosting again and it got the crowd they were looking for. Your kids seem to indicate playing in front of a crowd is big, even though it might be to your disadvantage. COACH GEBBIA: Yeah, I think that's a great point. I've been to the NCAA Tournament several times, and I've had the opportunity to do both: To play on a team's home floor and a neutral site location. I watch the men's tournament and I see how many upsets there are because all those games are at neutral site locations, yet I know they still get crowds. But I said to my team when I walked into the locker room, I said, if this was a neutral site location game today, there's a good chance we could have won this, because maybe they don't shoot the ball as well. It's disappointing, but I will never take away the fan support that Iowa has. It's impressive. Like I said, I've been to many tournament games and never played in front of this many people in a first round game. I've enjoyed it. The people are friendly here. I really like them; they are very nice. Yeah, it's tough. If I had to pick my poison, I'd probably choose neutral sites. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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