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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: DALLAS

March 26, 2016

Dallas, Texas

Oregon State - 83, DePaul - 71

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by the DePaul Blue Demons and Coach Doug Bruno, his three student-athletes, Chanise Jenkins, Jessica January and Megan Podkowa. Coach, your thoughts after the game?

DOUG BRUNO: First, I just want to acknowledge how good of a basketball team Oregon State is. It's a talented basketball team that we played tonight. They're the No. 1, 2 for the reason, and they have very talented players and a very well-coached basketball team. So we lost to a very good team tonight.

I have been blessed to coach many, many great and talented players through my life as a coach at DePaul, and I've also been blessed to coach some very, very good people. Sitting next to me here, this is the true Senior Day. Everybody has Senior Day at campus, but this is true Senior Day, the last game of the seniors' careers. So Chanise Jenkins and Megan Podkowa are sitting next to me and they're two special seniors and Jessica January is a special junior.

I just think I've been blessed to coach these very special people and DePaul has been blessed to have them in our program. I just can't say enough about what they've done for our program. They are the first set of seniors to graduate that's helped our team go to two Sweet 16's. So they have done something that nobody else has been able to achieve.

As I told them a few minutes ago, they've given themselves, they've given each other and they've given DePaul a very, very great season. We wish we were playing on Monday night and make no mistake about it, it's not fun to be on the bottom side of a score. But at the same time, they've left it out there tonight and I'm really, really proud of them as people. It's going to be hard to replace these two special seniors.

Q. Megan, are there any particular reasons why you weren't able to get going offensively tonight, you personally?
MEGAN PODKOWA: Yeah, I think I wasn't really looking for my shot. I just wasn't focused.

CHANISE JENKINS: I think she was focused. Megan did a great job playing defense. She had a hard match-up. It was not like she didn't want to take the shots. They had a good defensive team and as Coach said we all left it out on the floor and the reason we're crying is we can't come back with the team next year and we're going to really miss this team and Megan should never feel like she played any part in this loss.

Q. Chanise and Megan, as you look back on your career at DePaul do you have any what we used to call "Kodak moments" that moment that 20 years from now maybe you want to describe to your daughter that was really special in this career? Chanise first then Megan?
CHANISE JENKINS: Special moments, I think myself first committing to DePaul, being in the conference room with the current DePaul players that were there and verbally committing to Coach Bruno and the team and just every game we've won, every behind the scene party or action we've ever had in our dorm rooms, every single moment that I've had -- doesn't matter if it was sad or happy or anything like that.

I cherished every single moment with my teammates and I couldn't thank them enough for the amazing five years I've had at DePaul.

MEGAN PODKOWA: I think my career has been amazing here with the Sweet 16s and tournament championships. But like Chanise said, everything that happens behind the scenes that you don't get to see.

Q. Jessica, Chanise mentioned that Oregon State is a very good defensive team. What specifically is it about your defense that's tough to score against?
JESSICA JANUARY: First of all, I would say their length, they're obviously a lot bigger than us and it made it difficult to get to the rim as we have in other games. Just a good team all around, they own their match-ups and they're just really aggressive.

DOUG BRUNO: Before the players leave, I just want to make sure that I'm -- this is a player question and I want Megan to hear it, that's why I'm answering before she leaves. This is a really, really good defensive basketball team and they have the ability to not have to help because they have a 6'6" person back in the middle of the paint that can really protect things. So when you asked a question what made it so difficult for Megan to get going tonight that's a really pretty simple reason.

Basically she had to play against two people because anytime you get anywhere away from you're own man you got the 6'6" man waiting for you. I think Chanise did a good job of helping with that answer.

THE MODERATOR: Ladies, thank you very much. We will now take questions for Coach.

Q. Doug, Jamie Weisner scored 38 points tonight. From your perspective, what was she doing well throughout the game to get her shots?
DOUG BRUNO: She got off to great start. We were sitting on 9-5. They stuck us on 9 and she got off to a great start and we were trying to do everything in our power to not let her have open looks. She and Jamie Weisner both got off to great starts. I think they had 33 or 30, something ridiculous like that.

At the end of the game with chasing, she probably picked up another 9 once the game was out of hand, but the only way we could get it back was to chase, and we're going to leave people open at that point. That is the gamble you are going to have to make when you are chasing 10 inside 6,7,5 minutes.

So I think she picked up a good, strong 9 at the end there. She is a very good player, Player of the Year in the Pac-12 conference for a reason, and it's just a -- not an easy match for us when you gotta to try to guard the 6'6" at the basket and come back out and make sure that the perimeter doesn't get off on you. We went to some zone early and that didn't happen. Our pressure was designed to wear them out I feel like we finally got to two of them to miss some shots. They weren't shooting with the same proficiency as the game moved along as they did when the game started, but they were just two very, very good basketball players.

Q. Coach, you went to the zone early on and stepped up the pressure late in the game. Were you surprised with the ability of this team to pass out of that pressure successfully?
DOUG BRUNO: I wasn't surprised. They're a good team. These are good guards. They're big, long talented guards so it didn't surprise me at all. We've moved away from our pressure this year because this team has defined itself assist more of an execution-based team, our team.

So we went to the pressure late in the game and, you know, you're at that point in your mind where at what point in time do I want to start scrambling this thing and as it's getting into 12 and 14 in the second half, if you -- you still want to try to chip it back and at the same time there comes a point in time where you have to try to chase it back and they're just really, really good guards, really talented guards.

Q. Doug, Chanise Jenkins had a tough time getting going offensively. How much was that was Hanson and Oregon State's defense?
DOUG BRUNO: Again, they have the ability to guard you without help and that's the best way to play defense. If you don't have to help then every player can own their own match-up, and Hanson is a really, really good defensive player. And, again, I keep coming back to the presence that they have in the middle. When you get to the baskets -- we got to the basket a couple times early and didn't have the patience to use Ruth Hamblin's shot-blocking ability against her to show the ball and get it back out to an open player and that's really what created so much offensive difficulty for us.

Our attacking later was -- don't forget Hamblin was out of the game later, too. We are going to the basket late and everybody says why didn't you do that all game? Well, Ruth Hamblin wasn't on the floor. Hamblin was on the floor much more of the game. She is a very, very big player and that's why it matters in the game. Our own started all this. Post players are starting to become sophomore guard-skilled that you don't think about them, and coaches lament the fact that we've lost the traditional post. I don't lament. I think it's made the game better that post players have guard skills. But still big is big. 7-footers in men's basketball, 6'6" in women's basketball is a great advantage.

I think she was key to the game. I think she is totally the key to their defense. That's why their defense is so good because they can guard their own and own their own match-up, and Jamie Weisner and Hanson and Sydney Wiese are all really good defenders and they are a good basketball team.

Once again, there are four number one's in this tournament and the 5th team is Oregon State. So you've got the 4th No. 1 and the 5th No. 1, not the 5th No. 1, but the next best team in the tournament as the committee decide and had put it on the S-curve, and you can correct me if I'm wrong out there, Leslie.

But that's all private stuff, so you guys don't have to tell us any of that stuff and Baylor has big players, too. And Baylor has got great guard play, too. So it should be a really good game on Monday night and then those two teams are going to get to go to the Final Four in Indianapolis and look at Connecticut.

Q. Coach, with the proficiency in the first half and Oregon State seemed to cool off beyond the arc, it seemed to me no lead was completely safe. Was there a sense of your team feeling defeated?
DOUG BRUNO: These players were working their butts off. When we had the two time outs right around the media, to get the two time outs to get us some rest in the second -- in the fourth quarter, we were chasing 10. We were chasing 5 baskets and these players knew we were chasing 5 baskets and they never acted or felt -- there was no bad body language. This is a good group of people I'm coaching and I'm blessed to coach good people, and when you're coaching good people there is no sense of any quit or when adversity hits people they often act out in negative ways and there was no negative acting out. This is a good group of people that I coach. They really are special.

THE MODERATOR: Anymore questions?

DOUG BRUNO: There was going to be no questions then we got the Mercy questions, that's okay.

THE MODERATOR: Anything else?

DOUG BRUNO: Thanks to the city of Dallas and all the hard work you do to make this a great tournament. It will be a great game on Monday night. Thanks very much. Thanks for covering women's hoops.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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