	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

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

March 19, 2016

Doug Bruno

Louisville, Kentucky

Q. Coach, it's been a few years when you've played a team, how far do you go back, do you look at videos or remember anything about Jeff's style?
DOUG BRUNO: Jeff is a great coach and they do a great job. His kids are ultra tough, ultra physical and they do a great job of intelligently trying to scratch where it itches on both sides of the ball. They do a great job of exploiting weaknesses, exploiting mismatches and defensively they will play a lot of games with you that -- you know that and you learn that from being in a league. When you're in a league with teams it's like a family. You're fighting with your brother or sister all the time.

So I think those tendencies we remember, but I'm not -- it's not really going to be very helpful for us or for me to go back and watch our match-up. We played them twice in that last year, and we jumped 'em pretty good in our gym in January. There was a snowstorm. There was nobody in our place because of the snowstorm. It was a 9:00 start and they were 7th in the nation and then we came back here and it might have been Senior Day and they put a fat waxing on us down here.

That's more about -- you just learn people through the years and I think Jeff knows what we're all about and we know what Jeff is all about, but still the game will be played between the lines and the it's an entirely different set of athletes and players, cast of characters out there and we share the All-American committee and this isn't the time to be announcing who is going to be on the All-American committee, who is going to make the All-American teams.

But we are watching the best players in America and she is certainly in the running to be one of best, she is one of the best in the country. She is the AAC Player of the Year, and she is special. But their guard play is special as well. They have great guard play and they can come at you in a lot of different ways in the backcourt.

It's a really, really good basketball team that we're playing against, and that's what it's all about this time of year. You get down to 32, you're going to play great teams and that's the beauty of this tournament.

Q. Following that same line in terms of talking about Jeff and this program, on a more personal level, what moments stick out from you? You've been around him his entire coaching career. You both coach on the national teams or in that program today. What moments stick out from you in watching Jeff and his career grow and what you've been impressed with?
DOUG BRUNO: Jeff is a veteran coach, but at the same time I'm an old coach. So I got to watch Jeff get hired by Paul Sanderford when his sister Jamie was a great player and she went to Western Kentucky, and I watched him get hired and work and stay a while to earn the right to become an assistant and go with Paul to Nebraska and watch him work his butt off to earn the right to become a head coach.

So it's one of those things when you are an old coach and you get to watch -- when you're young as a coach you get to watch those ahead of you, and as you get older you're watching those behind you. And Jeff is obviously one of the best coaches in America, and it's just been kinda fun to watch young people grow up.

One thing that I think Jeff's got really one flaw and I really remember it vividly, he couldn't hang with the best of the Big East coaches at our meetings. He couldn't hang! Other than that, he's a great coach, all right? You can figure out what that means, all right?

Q. How much time do you normally spend looking at film? There is such a short turn-around time what are you looking for.
DOUG BRUNO: You're looking -- you're nonstop watching video this that's what coaches do. I mean, it's -- when young coaches complain about the amount of hours that they work, I remind them constantly we're not working in a coal mine. We're not working out in the fields. We're not steel workers on the 95th floor trying to build a building. We were able to work with young people every day and part of our homework is constantly watching video.

You are watching videotape around the clock and you're constantly watching as much as you can watch, the real trick is it's not what we can know it's what we can get our players to know.

You can't overload your players' brains with all this information that you can put into your heads, so it's -- at this point in time of the year it really is true that teams are what they are and you have to be the best of what you are. It's not like we don't -- Jeff runs -- Jeff runs more sets. He's going to put in ten sets today that they're going to run tomorrow.

So you don't want to overload your players' minds. You just want to have a good feel, have the players have a good feel. They understand. They got to sit here yesterday and feel the environment. They got to see live -- I mean live scouting is no longer legal by NCAA standards or NCAA rules. So it's a joy for me to be able to sit there and watch a game, live, and see Hines-Allen live and see Jackson whip a pass to her half court that I thought was going to hit me in the head and her left hand came up and, whew, just sucked that ball in.

Those things are beautiful to watch! That's hoops. You can't get afraid of it, you can't overthink it. You've got to go out and be what you are be the best of what you are and he's going to the things and we're going to do things, but you still try and let the players to be in a great mental place to let them be the best they can be and his kids be the best they can be and throw the ball up, see what happens.

Q. You've been to 14 straight NCAA appearances, it's been a while since you've beep able to reach that Sweet 16. What would it mean to you to see this group make it?
DOUG BRUNO: It's not been that long, year before last we beat Duke at Duke and they were No. 2. So when you say it's been a while, that was one of the biggest upsets in the history of NCAA basketball. I'm a believer in our sport and I believe in helping grow our sport.

So I understand we need to be playing on home courts, so I'm one of the people that had to vote for being on home courts. I'm not sitting here complaining about being on a home court that's the just we have to -- if we weren't here we wouldn't have 17,000 or 10,000 or whatever is going to show up tomorrow. It's great that we're going to be here.

Yet at the same time, you just -- you just have to really -- our players have to be fearless, they have to -- I mean, that's what this is about, a belief system, a belief of self that you're equal to or greater than anybody else on this stage and you've earned the right to be here so let's come out and let it rip.

That's really where you've got to get your players' minds and get them ready to go. Once that happens -- there is no -- again, you just don't worry about the numbers. If you're going to worry about the numbers, it's going to be 32, 1, 1, 1, all right?

So, they're all great teams from this point forward, James Madison was a great team. They were a 31 RPI. We were a 29 RPI. So the committee -- is that really a 6-11? I don't know. You just have to tee it up and play. That's why Middle Tennessee men beat Michigan State yesterday. That's what this is all about. You just get on the court and play fearlessly and -- just the Cincinnati mens game last night. The Cincinnati men's game, if that was Megan making the layup it would have counted. She would have shot it from down here out of her hands. But because guys can dunk it's still in his hands. That's the beauty of this tournament. Balls bouncing off the rim, Providence, really?

I mean, that's what's so great about this tournament. You have to go out and earn it. You're excited for it. You're competitive about it. You're going to fight like dogs and cats and just leave it all on the court. And when it's all over, you're going to be a great dramatic play played out for the fans and media and that's what makes the tournament magical. So what does it take?

Yeah, are we going to stop Hines-Allen? I don't know that I've seen anybody in the ACC stop Hines-Allen. I don't know that that's a realistic possibility. She is just an absolute great women's basketball player.

But we still have players that are pretty good ourselves and we -- it's just going to be fun. I don't -- it's fun to be (indiscernible). But Joe is younger than me, and some of the stuff he preaches -- I've been using that for years and one of his great lines is, don't let the pressure -- don't let the pleasure exceed the pressure. Don't let the pressure beat you up. Enjoy it. We've been trying to tell our kids that forever.

What does it take to get -- and I don't want to be condescending toward the question, I try and respect the question, but you can't overthink and overplay it. You've gotta get your kids in a fearless place and they've got to come out and play to the best of their ability and let it rip, and Jeff's gotta do the same thing.

Tomorrow at 4:30 in the afternoon we will be sitting in here and one of us will be going to Dallas and one of us will be getting ready for next year. That's what the beauty of this great tournament is about. And I hope that was respecting the question.

THE MODERATOR: Anything else?

DOUG BRUNO: Thanks for covering women's hoops and there will be a day when all these chairs are filled before the tournament starts, all right? Thanks again.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297