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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: DALLAS

March 25, 2016

Dallas, Texas

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by our student-athletes from DePaul, Chanise Jenkins, Megan Podkowa and Jessica January. Ladies will take questions from the floor.

Q. What's been the vibe of the team since landing?
MEGAN PODKOWA: I think we just are excited to be here. It's a new opportunities for us, and I think it's a new experience for a lot of the girls on our team. So I think we're all just really excited.

Q. Megan, you just mentioned this is a new opportunity for a lot of players, but this is a program that's been to the NCAA Tournament 14 years in a row. How does that experience of consistently being in the tournament, how does that help going into the Sweet 16 now?
MEGAN PODKOWA: I think it helps us definitely in the first couple of rounds having Chanise and Jessica and I here. We've been here before, three for me and Chanise and two for Jessica, and I think we weren't nervous going into the first two games and we knew what it took to win.

For experience for the Sweet 16, my sophomore year we went and it wasn't -- we didn't perform how we wanted to and I think we were too excited from just being there that we weren't really focused on the game. So I think the experience that we have we will be able to teach our younger players and try to get them ready for this game.

Q. For Chanise and Jessica, Chanise first. Just the mind-set goes with, you know, you guys averaging more than 20 assists a game and sharing the ball. Coach Bruno was talking about it's not just pushing the ball, but it's making the right pass at the right time so somebody can convert. How has that worked into your style of play this year?
CHANISE JENKINS: It's played a tremendous part in all of our success this year, even in lost games we still have a lot of assists and I think Coach has done a great job of instilling into us to be selfless and to be unselfish and to share the ball because the more you share the ball the more yourself and your team are open. It is kind of confusing for the guard, really, but at the same time I think no one really wants to take all of the light as you would say, to score all the points. Everyone is pretty much unselfish and willing to share the ball and that's what DePaul ball is all about.

JESSICA JANUARY: Like Chanise said, Coach told us we have the greenest green light in the America. But if we're not open we shouldn't shoot and that's what DePaul ball is and that's what we try to do.

Q. Megan, talk about you've played against some of the top players in the country, you guys' schedule is pretty impressive, but talk about Ruth Hamblin and what you've seen on tape, her defensive style and really the whole defensive style of the Beavers.
MEGAN PODKOWA: They're an aggressive man-to-man defense. They're really good at running their own match-up and from our defensive perspective, obviously Ruth Hamblin is a really great post. I'm sure any team in the country would love to have her. She cuts it high. She keeps it high. She finishes and she is going to be a tough match-up for us, as are all their players and we are going to try to make them own their match-up and hopefully we can get around and find some shots, create some open shots for our teammates.

Q. Jessica and then Chanise, talk about you guys have faced three of the No. 1 seeds in this tournament at some point this year. Talk about that experience and how that helps when you get to this time of year having played those kind of teams?
JESSICA JANUARY: I think it helps a lot we played those teams earlier in the season and I think it gives us those experience of playing those types of players and how good they really are and just the confidence in ourselves. When we played Notre Dame we lost by 5. We played Baylor pretty close even though we didn't perform as well and we were pretty even with UConn at half. So I think that let us know how good of a team we can be when we play as good as we can.

CHANISE JENKINS: Just to branch off what Jessica said we definitely know that we can play against the best teams in the country. We're just trying to prove that to ourselves and to our team and everybody that is watching. To realize that even though we lost those games there were definitely learning experiences that helped us gain confidence like Jessica said, and to move forward now we realize what we have to do to get to the next level.

Q. Chanise and Megan, what do you remember about that Baylor game? Obviously your focused on Oregon State, but Coach Bruno was talking about how he was referencing Kennedy's assassination on that day or something like that. But I wanted to know what you remember about playing Baylor and any lessons from that game?
CHANISE JENKINS: From playing Baylor, I sort of remember that we didn't really execute what we were set out to do. I think Baylor got a lot of second shots, a lot of rebounds that we could have gotten which was a lack of rebounding, boxing out and focus and that played a part. We didn't specifically or individually own our match-ups at the time. Nina Davis got off. Alexis Jones got off. The point guard had a very good assisting game and the bigs killed us.

So moving forward we know that when we play Oregon State we have to rebound. We have to box out. We have to own our match-up and we have to execute offensively and that's what we're going to go focus on.

MEGAN PODKOWA: Like Chanise said, I remember them getting a number of second shots that we could have prevented and the rebounding was huge in that game. Then on offense we were stagnant. We didn't move on offense to create second shots for ourselves, so I think we can learn from that to know what we need to do in other games in order to win.

THE MODERATOR: Anything else? Okay, ladies, thanks very much. Good luck tomorrow.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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