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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: LOUISVILLE

March 18, 2016

Louisville, Kentucky

DePaul - 97, James Madison - 67

THE MODERATOR: Welcome the Blue Demons to the interview room. Coach, congratulations.

COACH BRUNO: We have a great group of seniors and a special junior here. They did a lot of good things this season, but for them to focus and to bring what they do at the right moment, that's what they did today. So just the readiness they had to begin this game today. Again, I've been preaching to them, and it's been kind of our theme, big tournament, big event. Everything's big about this except you have to do little things, and I thought we did a lot of little things.

This is a dominant rebounding team. Statistically, they're third in the nation, and we outrebounded them. I think pretty substantially. So I just was proud of our players brightness to battle on the backboard. Again, it's always the players. Great job.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Chanise, the last couple years, last year, it was the really back and forth game with Minnesota, and then you had two years ago the Oklahoma game that was really close. What made this game so different today that you were able to win in such a commanding fashion in the first round?
CHANISE JENKINS: I think because it's a new team, we have a new identity. And it's a new year, obviously, so we can't rely on what we did in previous years to help us this year. Even though it was a confidence booster, it was still a brand-new year.

Everyone came out so focused and we were energized and competitive, and I think everyone was just believing that we could get the win tonight.

Q. How big were those early threes in building confidence? I know you guys were trying to get on the road there in that first one.
JESSICA JANUARY: Yeah, I think they were huge. Being able to knock down shots was really hard to do, and I think everyone on the team was really confident and we did do that, so it was really big.

Q. Megan, you folks were plus 16 on the rebounding edge tonight. What was some of your philosophy or why were you so successful inside tonight?
MEGAN PODKOWA: I think that was one of our major keys coming into the game today. And definitely in our practices this past week, it's been all about the rebounding. So I think just being focused and knowing they were going to come at us on the glass and we needed to outrebound in order to win.

Q. A lot has been said about just kind of their style of play and how it was similar to yours. Did you notice that playing them? I mean, you really shut them down.
MEGAN PODKOWA: They were definitely a really physical team. They're still really hard to guard. You saw Gwathmey got off on us. I mean, they're a good team. It did kind of resemble playing us, but I think our pressure was a lot more physical against them.

Q. Jessica or Chanise, Coach Brooks, when he was up here before you folks, talked about how much your press wore them down. At what point in the game could you sense that was happening?
CHANISE JENKINS: I would say probably the second half. I can name Jess and everyone else who guards the toughest players and we couldn't win those games without them, just playing hard defense and shutting them down.

So definitely, in the second half, you could see them huffing and puffing, and we tried to take advantage of that.

Q. If you guys were to play Louisville, they haven't won yet, but what do you think of that potential match-up?
COACH BRUNO: There's nothing to talk about. Central Arkansas has a right to be in this tournament, so there's nothing to talk about. We'll be glad to answer the question if Louisville wins the next game, but not now, we're not going to answer that question.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Bruno.

Q. Coach, Coach Brooks had talked about wanting to run you off the three-point line. How were they able to not do that? It seems like you were getting open looks in transition pretty early.
COACH BRUNO: I'd like to think that we're a comprehensive offensive basketball team, that if you run us off the line that we still have the ability to score the basketball. So we were very prepared. We understood that they're holding people to 23% shooting from three, and that they watched tape and that's a very obvious aspect to what they're trying to do defensively is to run you off the line.

But we also do have four of our starters that can make pull ups, too. And people like to say you can't win basketball games by making tough twos, that's correct, but you can still win basketball games by making open twos. And it's a forgotten part of the game.

So we were prepared for them to run us off the line, and I think our shot-fake game was brilliantly played today.

Q. Coach Brooks mentioned your passing game there and how effective that was. From your perspective, how big was that for you to open up shots and allow you to do what you did?
COACH BRUNO: It's one of the foundations upon which our program is built. Really, the media from DePaul knows this, they hear it all the time, but I think it's the foundation and the essence of what basketball's all about is sharing and sharing and sharing. So, yes, the only offensive goal we have is to lead the nation in assists. We really pride ourselves on assists. It's really a simple game. If you're open, shoot it. If you're not open, share it. That's what we try to do, and we try to recruit people that value sharing the basketball.

I think you saw that today. I think our players were also very intelligent in handling the ball screen. I mean, JMU was switching ball screens, so our players did some nice jobs of slipping those screens and reading the openings.

Q. Coach, are you able to talk at all today about the play of Jacqui Grant and Mart'e Grays?
COACH BRUNO: Yeah, it's very important that those players rebound for us. So much was made going into this game about how great a rebounding team James Madison is, and, you know, Mart'e did have the ten rebounds and Jacqui had nine rebounds. So I just think that was really, really important that both of them held their own inside, and they're going to have to continue to hold their own inside. I mean, it's just very, very important that those two really rebound the basketball.

So I think that was really huge. Then they both knocked down a couple. Jacqui got some good looks around the bucket and Mart'e knocked a couple of threes. It always helps if you're not going off the glass from straightaway, to be able to take it. That's basketball. But you have a lot of shots that go in, that don't go in that you think should go in, and then you knock one in like that, it doesn't hurt. That's great.

Q. You've been here for 13 years in a row, but what is it about this group that maybe has the potential to advance as far as you want to advance?
COACH BRUNO: It's really always about staying focused on one game. You can't play this tournament thinking about six games. You have to think about this tournament as playing one game. So it's all about the next game, whoever that opponent is. That's really what this is about. So these players can stay focused.

They've had some good road wins this year against some really quality, high-level teams. So we should be prepared to play whomever comes out of this next game right here in the Yum Center. Plus our seniors did play the freshmen. Don't forget DePaul has a long history with Louisville. We were together in the Conference USA for ten years. We were together in the Big East for eight years. So we were together for 18 years. We've been coming down here and playing Louisville for a long time. So there is a little bit of a familiarity, even though it's a couple years removed.

Thanks everybody for coming for women's opening day. Thanks for being here. You've never seen a woman's media room, huh? How about this? Thanks for those of you that do come for women's hoops. Appreciate it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297

NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: LOUISVILLE

March 18, 2016

Doug Bruno

Jessica January

Chanise Jenkins

Megan Podkowa