|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: DALLASMarch 26, 2016Scott RueckSydney WieseJamie WeisnerRuth HamblinDallas, Texas Oregon State - 83, DePaul - 71 THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by the Oregon State, Coach Scott Rueck, his student-athletes, Jamie Weisner, Sydney Wiese and Ruth Hamblin. Coach? SCOTT RUECK: First of all, it was an honor to play against DePaul and get to play that team. Coach Bruno who has become a friend does a phenomenal job and that team is as hard to play against as anybody. The way they move the basketball, the way they shoot the basketball, the way all of them shoot the basketball, they had an answer tonight and got good looks against us, and we are a team that doesn't typically give many people good looks. You know, I thought it was just a great basketball game. Teams answering each other back and forth. So fun to be a part of, fun to prepare for, you know, but a war for those forty minutes. So proud of this group right next to me. The team in the locker room, what a battle. This team prepared all week like they have all year and got ready to play this game. We understood that this was a team that was going to make runs at us. They're tough. They expect to win. They've battle tested. They've played everybody this year. Their schedule is unbelievable, and we knew it would be like it was. I'm just really proud of this group for being as resilient as they were and for finding a way to win. Jamie put in 38-something. I thought the team did an amazing job finding her and getting her the basketball. So from a basketball standpoint I thought it was just an amazing game and what a special win for our program, certainly. Really impressed with Beaver Nation for traveling like they did and seeing so much orange in Dallas. What a blessing that is to have a following like that and fan support. They've been with us from the beginning and from the beginning means a long time ago, not just this year! I'm as happy for them as I am for any of us, so this was a great day for us, a great win, couldn't be more proud and excited that we get to continue on. Q. What did you have for breakfast and lunch today? JAMIE WEISNER: I think I just had eggs and oatmeal for breakfast and lunch was normal pregame, some salad and pasta. Q. You took your first three shots and you got going after that. What happened at the start and then did you just feel like you were on today? JAMIE WEISNER: Just getting my rhythm to start with. There were a couple of awkward shots and then I settled in and found my rhythm and once I was hot just kept shooting. Q. Ruth, can you talk about what Jamie meant tonight, on the biggest stage she's been all year, but to see her be able to step up and hit big shots almost every time you guys needed one? What was that like being out there on the floor with her tonight? RUTH HAMBLIN: It was awesome. She made my job easier, and another thing she did really well was rebounding, she made a double-double tonight. She willed us to win tonight and so to have a competitor and a teammate like that, it makes you want to work harder and to do more for her and for the team. SYDNEY WIESE: She set the tone for us offensively, making plays and hitting shots and that was contagious for the rest of the team. Q. Ruth, when you're playing a team that executes offensively as well as DePaul does and they lit 11 threes and you're still able to beat them by double digits, is a lot of that offensive execution and your ability to beat them on the boards? What do you think is the main thing to be able to beat a team that executes that as well? RUTH HAMBLIN: They got a lot of three looks. You don't always see five that stretch the floor like that, but I thought we were able to get into our plays and execute really well and also defensively we made them take really hard shots when they did take other looks. So I think we gave up the shots that we wanted to give up tonight in some regards. Q. Ruth, 6 points in the first half and 7 in the third quarter. Did you feel yourself getting into a groove in the second half? RUTH HAMBLIN: Just, just wanted to be more physical and demand the ball down low and I think the guards did a great job of getting the ball to me in the third quarter there. Q. Jamie and Ruth, you guys have been here for four years and this was the dream that you guys had to be on the stage and I know you want to go farther, but what's it feel like to get to this point to be one of the last 8 teams playing from when you guys got here to this point? RUTH HAMBLIN: I think it's a lot of fun! It's cool to have your hard work play off and to be able to play against the best and this is what everyone wants and it's really cool to be a part of the it, especially with this group. I wouldn't want to be with anyone else. JAMIE WEISNER: Ditto. It's fun, enjoying every moment of it, keep working and keep going. Q. Jamie, Steve mentioned the big shots you hit in the second half. Is that something you just know how when your team needs a big bucket and that's second nature when you are like, I need to make something happen if DePaul started to make a little bit of a run? JAMIE WEISNER: Yeah, I think so. I'm always looking to score. That's my mentality, and I'm a shooter first and I look for that. And my teammates found me, so when I needed to hit those shots and I do they find me. THE MODERATOR: Ladies, congratulations on tonight's win. We'll see you tomorrow. Questions for Coach now. Q. Coach, could you speak to what you feel are the three most important factors in turning a program around the way you have at Oregon State the way you have in the last few years? SCOTT RUECK: Well, I think the right people is number one. You have to build with character and you have to build with people that share your vision, and that's what the people that just left the stage, we all have that in common. I think you have to be pretty courageous. There is a lot to overcome, and that's the interesting part of our story. Nobody knows, really, anymore how hard it is -- I mean, when Jamie and Ruth were freshmen they lost 10 straight Pac-12 games and we couldn't believe that Utah shots missed the last couple minutes to get the one we won down the stretch in that season. That was just four years ago. To overcome all those mental hurdles of believing that you belong takes a lot of courage. You have to believe things that aren't really believable. You have to believe in yourself and each other, and the last thing is I think you have to have a plan that works. You have to coach to that plan. I think you have to really know who you are and so there is a core belief and a confidence. Going into this situation I was fortunate enough to be a head coach for 14 years already and had been through all those things. I knew myself well and I knew what worked with me and then I tried to find people that could help me continue that. Certainly it's been a progress and it's changed, it hasn't been exactly like we hoped, but certainly this is beyond maybe even what I thought in year 6. Q. Can you elaborate on Jamie's performance, biggest game of her career, 38? SCOTT RUECK: Well, she is the ultimate competitor. That's just -- she gives everybody in the room confidence. Her confidence is earned. We all know what this individual -- how she is, how she lives, why she can walk on the floor and say, okay, if my team needs me to have 38 tonight I'll get it. She hasn't just made shots lately. She's been making shots like that since her freshman year. When you have somebody as willing to invest as much as she does the confidence uses off you, you know the ball is going in, you know it's going in and you are shocked like we all are if she misses, like what? Tonight after we established a defensive presence which took us a few minutes in this game and we realized we could slow 14 down, and I'm sorry I'm going to go numbers now, but 13 down, we can stick with 30, and we can stay with these players and it is going to have to be 34 knocking shots down to beat us, then that defense allows you to get into a groove offensively, and I think that's what you saw from our entire group. Grant and Grays, we were going to make them have to beat us and to their credit, my gosh, I was starting to think they could the way they shot the ball in the first half especially and opened up the third quarter. But Jamie's confidence oozed off on to this team and she is somebody we know, if she wants the ball, get it to her, and she is going to make a great decision and usually that's shoot it. Q. To follow up, do you ever as a coach step back and just -- I don't want to say enjoy, but you're just watching what she is doing or you're so dialed in to what you're doing you don't realize she has 38 points? SCOTT RUECK: Every day. Every day. How can you not love watching that? Every day. What a joy, you know, to be around this person as a person first off, she just brings this infectious energy to every situation and you felt it in here just a minute ago and that smile lights up the room and she wears that smile every day. She is the same every minute. To get to watch her play and watch somebody that's -- it's their craft, what they do and who they are. It's her identity, not completely, but it's what she does. You just want to be around it, so you would be crazy not to just smile and enjoy it. So there was a couple moments tonight where it made me smile I'm on the sideline watching that ball go down and we're under duress in this game and it was never over -- when they hit the 3 with 40 seconds to go it's still 11 and they can score 11 points in 15 seconds, you know. So it's still a stressful situation and you could still just take a moment and go, man, that's amazing. What I'm seeing is amazing. How many players in the country are like that? There's not very much that can just do what they do at that level no matter the circumstance. Q. Scott, you talked about defensively they hit shots in the first half and then in the third quarter they hit those first two threes and I think they had 2 points up until that three at the buzzer in the final 9 minutes. What did you see what your team was able to do to get that and you were able to take a lead that way? SCOTT RUECK: This was my favorite moment of the night that nobody would know about. You know, we played really well first half and we shot really well and we have 45 points on the board and we're up cep, 7? It reminded me of our UCLA game, Pac-12 Tournament where we came out and we're lights out and we're up 25 or 27-something in that game. Tonight we're up 7! There is a little bit of uh-oh in that. Seven points in this game felt like nothing and against them it feels like nothing, and I was like, man, they're -- their top players haven't done much yet and yet their bench has kept them and peripheral players. I walk in the locker room, and I'm, hey, let's go. This is going to be a flat out war. What are you guys feeling? And Jamie says, I think we can crank it up a notch. I think we can crank it up a notch, and that put everybody at ease. Okay, there is another gear for us to hit, and I thought we had played a really good half. So when they hit those shots to start the second half you just smile again. Oh, my gosh. This is phenomenal what we're watching tonight. Then our defense became -- Ruth, changed. We started pressuring Grant more. We got to the 3-point line. We made her put it on the floor, granted it cost us a foul with Ruth. It cost us a couple fouls. But we picked up our intensity and pressured the three. Okay, if you're truly going to make those, we're going to have to come get you. And now you've got 6'6" out on the 3-point line closing out like a guard, and Ruth is an amazing athlete. I've been waiting to so it, and we finally got to see it tonight. We've got to talk to her about her hands when she does that from now on. Q. Coach, Oregon State has developed a representation, certainly in the Pac-12, if not across the nation. But I think an argument could be made that tonight you won the game in part because of your ball handling skills especially down the stretch when they brought the pressure and the ability of your bigs, even, successfully to handle and pass out the ball. Is that a point of emphasis for you in practice? What do you do to really capitalize on those skills? SCOTT RUECK: I'm glad you asked that. That was a point of emphasis at the beginning of last year, so it's been a two-year progression. We got beat in the Pac-12 Tournament Championship game by USC three years ago now and it was because we wouldn't handle the press second half. We were up 7. Everything was rolling and they pressed us and we did not handle it very well. So that was a focal point. So since then I've heard it as kind of a reputation. Oregon State may not handle pressure. Even two weeks ago, Troy, they said that in their news conference. We don't think they like pressure. So this team has taken that personal for a long time. You know, that's something that -- I don't know if anybody is perfect at it, but it's something that we've really grown in. What Deven Hunter did tonight against the press was phenomenal at the 4 position. Marie Gülich can do the same thing. Samantha Siegner the same thing, and Sydney is an outstanding ball handler. Gabby does a phenomenal job, and that's one stat line that's pretty amazing in my opinion, 6 points, 6 assists, 7 rebounds, 5 steals for Gabby tonight. That's a remarkable line. Then Jamie does a good job as well and off the bench we have other people. So it's something that we have focused on in our conference. You have to because of the athleticism throughout the Pac-12 that more and more people are getting to know recently. So it's something that we've really worked on, and it's become, in my opinion, no longer a weakness but maybe a strength. THE MODERATOR: Coach, congratulations. We will see you tomorrow afternoon! SCOTT RUECK: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|