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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: SIOUX FALLSMarch 27, 2016Quentin HillsmanBrianna ButlerCornelia FondrenAlexis PetersonSioux Falls, South Dakota Syracuse - 89, Tennessee - 67 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Syracuse University. We'll start with an opening statement from coach and then take questions for the student-athletes. COACH HILLSMAN: Well, just an amazing game for our kids. We just had a game plan again. Our kids really did a very good job of just following what we needed them to do. Just a very, very talented and tough Tennessee team. We go from game to game in this tournament, you really figure out how good women's basketball is and how great the coaches are, and the schemes they employ to beat you. We just did what we had to do. We knew we had to control the paint. We did a very good job of that. We knew we had to make threes. To be 14 for 30 in the arc, knocking down shots, making them come guard us was the key to the game. Man, you just got to give Holly so much credit because she really stuck to what she does. They tried to throw the ball inside. There was a spurt where they made two or three threes in a row. Like last game, we had to make a decision, we were going to come out or stay in. I had to go to my inner Boeheim and stay in the zone and not panic. That's what we did, stayed in our zone and didn't panic. I can't say enough about our team and our players collectively as a group because they believe. I just try to keep telling them just to believe, stay together, let's be a team, let's just do what we do, and that's press and shoot threes. If it's not enough, we'll go home. But I can tell you, they some tough kids. Come tournament time, it comes down to toughness and hard work, great attitude, and they did it. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student-athletes. Q. Brianna, they knew you were going to shoot a lot of threes. No secret. How did you get off so many threes against a team that knew you were going to take them? BRIANNA BUTLER: We're just a real big three-point shooting team. Coach has always given us confidence to shoot the three, influencing us to shoot them. It's something we've been able to do the whole season. We faced a lot of different types of defenses, so it wasn't anything too much different for us. Tennessee did a good job of making it difficult for us. Q. You were talking about the three-point shooting. Cornelia and Alexis, address the way you were able to go to the basket. Didn't seem to be intimidated by Tennessee's size. CORNELIA FONDREN: I just was in attack mode, taking advantage of the size matchup. I had Bashaara Graves on me. She's a really good defender, player. She's much bigger than me. I just wanted to attack and get to the basket. I felt like no one could stop me if I tried to go to the basket. Coach Q really trusts me to get to the basket. He tell me to go left all the time, don't go right. I did that today and I was successful. ALEXIS PETERSON: Yeah, just kind of going off of what Cornelia said, we wanted to take advantage of the defense. We knew they would kind of switch out. We would have a 1-5 matchup. We wanted to take advantage of their switching, play aggressively at the rim. We didn't want to be passive and settle for jump shots when we had the matches that we wanted out in the perimeter. Q. Brianna, they had cut the lead very early in the fourth quarter, then you came and hit those two threes back-to-back. They never got closer than 10 after that. Talk about your mentality of being confident. This was your season high today with the number of three-pointers you hit. BRIANNA BUTLER: I just have to give the credit to my teammates and coaches. Without their confidence, setting me up and finding me, I wouldn't be able to hit those shots I've been able to. They helped us take the lead, take away Tennessee's chance of coming back. It was just a great experience. Q. Alexis, at the end of the first quarter, you stumbled and fell down. What was going through your mind? What were you feeling? ALEXIS PETERSON: I drove to the basket, got knocked down and fell on my hip. But I looked at my team. They said, You got to suck it up, you got to play tough because we need you. It's 40 minutes. If I have to play through, you know, being hurt or being injured, that's what I was going to do. I didn't want to let them down. So at that point it was just a will, overcoming everything I was being faced with. Q. Alexis, fourth game of the year, what do you remember about Washington? You're getting them again now. ALEXIS PETERSON: I remember they're a good team. Obviously they have great players, Kelsey Plum, Talia Walton, Osahor. They have a lot of size. They can really shoot the ball. They're a great team. We have to be ready to come out and compete again for 40 minutes. Q. Alexis, how much was that hip bothering you after the end of the first quarter? Did it bother you the rest of the game? ALEXIS PETERSON: Yeah, it was something that was definitely sore. Coach Q just told me, Everybody's banged up. If you can go, go. If you can't, sit down. This time of year, you just have to give it all you have. It bothered me for the rest of the game. I couldn't think about it. I'd rather win and be advancing than worry about a minor injury. Q. When you climbed the ladder and cut down the net, was it anything like you ever imagined? CORNELIA FONDREN: It's a different experience, I can definitely tell you that. Never been in a championship a day in my life. Never been this far to even cut down nets. It feels great being here. Coach Q really prepped us for this moment. All the big fights we were in pre-season, we managed to get through it. He really have so much faith in us as a team. He tells us every day that he's proud of us. We're just proud to have him as a coach. BRIANNA BUTLER: Pretty similar to what Corn was talking about. I really never had the opportunity to cut down nets. Coach the whole tournament was telling us how great of a feeling it is. It really lived up to that expectation of what he had told us. ALEXIS PETERSON: Yeah, I mean, kind of going off of what these two said, to be able to do this as this level is something that you can never forget. You can't really put the words in order. We're so fortunate, we're so blessed to be here, four teams standing. To walk up that ladder, I mean, you just think about everything you went through to get here. It's a great feeling. Q. Looking at the four tournament games you played so far, it stands out, your ability to get it done, be tough. Where does that come from? CORNELIA FONDREN: You just have to have that heart. Coach Q talks about it all the time. We have to be tough as a team, as individuals. We got to have the heart to even win, to even want to play this game. I feel like we came out with a bunch of pride, so much courage, just wanted to play today. It feels good just to even be here. BRIANNA BUTLER: I really think our toughness stems down from Coach Q. He's always talking about having that heart, like Corn said. Our toughness determines our destiny, and so far our toughness has gotten us here. Q. Cornelia, do you think you became a better team by beating South Carolina? That's a team that's been right at the top of the country all season long. CORNELIA FONDREN: I think coming into the season, I feel good as a team. We had a couple downfalls, we lost a couple games. That didn't matter. Once we got into tournament time, it was either win or go home. We're not ready to go home. We're just taking it game by game, remain humble, finishing it out. Q. Brianna, you made it 76-61 with a three and cracked a smile. What was going through your mind? BRIANNA BUTLER: It was just a great feeling, you know, going up against a great team, taking that huge lead. For me, it was an almost unbelievable experience, that we had a chance to advance to the Final Four. Q. Alexis, end of the game, the buzzer goes off, you run to mid-court, drop to your knees. At that point what is going through the mind? ALEXIS PETERSON: I was just thinking about how good God is, how far He has brought my team, my coaches. It was an unbelievable experience. We just can't thank Him enough. The favor this team has is unreal. It was a great feeling. My team, our coaches, our trainers, we have all worked relentlessly to get to this point. I was just overcome with emotion. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies. Congratulations. Best of luck next week. We'll continue with questions for Coach Hillsman. Q. Could you further break down against a defense that you knew was going to take a lot of threes how you got off so many? COACH HILLSMAN: It was a number of things. We had a pretty good feel on the defensive calls. They had two or three calls that we knew, we knew what they were going to be in. We were able to get into an offense to combat the defense. I thought we had some opportunities when they were switching a lot of screens. It's tough to switch multiple screens. So we started setting some screens and some flares. We started to split some of the screens, and it's tough to split screens when you don't know where they're coming from. We just kind of took advantage of some of the stuff we knew we would get from them. Vonn Read is amazing. He had every call down. Little piece of paper, put it on the side of the bed. You don't sleep much. Five a switch. Just knew them. When they called the defense, we knew what package we needed to get into. Just great game prep by Vonn. Q. Coach, at the end of the first quarter when Alexis came off the court, she looked like she was hurt. What was going through your head then? Were you scared that it could be serious? COACH HILLSMAN: Well, she missed two games this year. We won both of those games, obviously not to this magnitude. As a freshman, Cornelia was our starting point guard. We have a lot of depth on this team. Obviously you don't want to play the game without her. I just knew the way she fell, I knew it was probably just something minor. At that point, you know, what do you do? You here playing for the Final Four. Do you find a way to get it done or lay down and say it's over? Those kids just found a way to get it done. Q. Q, were you expecting the Gatorade bath at all? COACH HILLSMAN: Actually, I told Tammi to tell them not to get me because I had to go to the press conference and I didn't bring any more clothes. I guess they didn't listen it. I'm going to run or take it (smiling). It's a great feeling. These kids work so hard. It's just a great feeling. They deserve to have all the fun they want right now because they're just some hard workers. I don't take credit. I don't get confused about it. I don't think it's my scheme. It's them. Once they start playing hard for you, once they had enough, they lay down on you, you're done. They never have done that. They just continue to fight, play hard, continue to let me push them to get to this level. So I'm very grateful for that. Q. Much like Tennessee, Washington was a long time ago. What do you remember about that game that you might be able to use on Sunday? COACH HILLSMAN: We were up by like 20, then they came back and cut it to two. I remember that. They're a very tough team, very explosive. They score the basketball from all five spots on the floor. They are very much a contrasting style from the way we play. They get up and down and play fast. They really want to run offense. We got to find a way to combat that. I can tell you right now I'm not really worried about that. I want to enjoy this moment with my team, our family, our administration, our fans, friends. When it's time, we'll get on that. Q. On Friday you gave the team a lesson on how to cut down the nets. How would you evaluate how they did? What was the reason behind you teaching them so early? COACH HILLSMAN: It's part of game prep. You got to start two days out (smiling). We started prepping on how to cut the nets on Friday. We went through it yesterday and this morning. Everybody did a good job except for Corn. She struggled a little bit. Give her another lesson. Hopefully she can get another chance at it. Q. Did such a big win Friday night over a great team, was there a concern your team might suffer a letdown, the manner you won it? COACH HILLSMAN: No, I didn't think we would have a letdown. Our kids understood what the moment was. We discussed coming to this tournament and winning six games. We didn't talk about winning two or three. Once we got to this moment, I knew our kids would play hard. We knew we were playing a very good team with a lot of talent. We knew that we had to play well and make some shots. So I wasn't worried about a let down physically, emotionally. A lot of times you can't control whether the ball goes in the basket or not, but I knew we were going to play hard. Q. What is there to cutting down nets? Did you actually cut down the net for real on Friday? COACH HILLSMAN: No, no. We had lessons with the scissors. I think Gina Castelli at Siena College, our first lesson, we won the MAC, we were struggling some. You really got to get down to the edge of the scissors, turn your wrist, snip hard. It's not like high school. These are nice thick, nets. You have to turn your wrist, get into it. Corn, left hand, right hand, I knew she was struggling. She struggled at the net cutting. We got it done. It's just an amazing time. Honestly, you know, sitting up here right now having an opportunity to coach such a great team at such a great university, you know. When you're a young coach you come into this business, you got the job the way I got the job the way I got the job, late into the summer. I thank Dr. Gross and Nancy Cantor so much for giving me the opportunity to coach at such a great university because Daryl really believed in me and gave me a great opportunity. He always just said to be extraordinary. We did that. Now moving forward with Mark Coyle, our new AD. We have such a great administration. I'm grateful and honored to have them behind me. Q. You talked about knowing a couple of their calls going in. Is that commonplace to know what they're calling on defense? Did that stem from playing Tennessee earlier or was that part of the scouting report? COACH HILLSMAN: A bit of both. It is very common. (Indiscernible) we were calling, they were calling them out, and they were switching stuff, too. It's very common. We watch way too much tape (laughter). We have to have some things. It's really about at the end, you can guard the action, but you got to guard the player. We still had to take advantage of it and we got some opportunities. Q. How big of a boost does Brianna Butler give when she makes shots like tonight? COACH HILLSMAN: It's everything. She has to be aggressive. Every time she catches the ball, faces the basket, I think it's going in. I think so does the opposing coach. She's a remarkable shooter. She's the best shooter in college basketball right now. She proved it in this tournament. She had two big games. Q. Corn was going to the basket real hard, picked up those two quick fouls back-to-back. Any reason why you didn't take her out after the third? COACH HILLSMAN: We had to continue to play our team. We had to continue to play our roster and get our regular rotations. (Indiscernible) a chance to get her in the game. She came through. She was really, really big for us. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you. Congratulations. Best of luck next week. COACH HILLSMAN: Thank you very much. Appreciate it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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