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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: DALLAS

March 28, 2016

Dallas, Texas

Oregon State - 60, Baylor - 57

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by the Beavers of Oregon State, Coach Scott Rueck, his student-athletes, Ruth Hamblin, Sydney Wiese and Jamie Weisner. We're going to let you have an opening statement if you would like, Coach, and then we will go straight to the student-athletes.

SCOTT RUECK: Okay. Man! This is awesome! I couldn't be prouder of this group. For their belief in a really tough environment, and a tough -- just the most resilient, toughest group that is as galvanized as tight as a coach could possibly hope for, dream of. Withstood an incredible team, an incredible coach, an incredible environment today and came through victorious and believed when, you know, things started turning on us a little bit and we had our opportunity, you know, to let it get away from us, in my opinion.

I thought Baylor created a lot of momentum and they just made play after play to stay above water in this game. Hats off to Baylor and Kim and her program. We have ultimate respect for them and what they are and the way they do things and the team that they are, their fans as well. It was an incredible atmosphere out there to be a part of. This Regional has been run in a first-class way, and we're grateful for that as well.

I'm just the happiest, proudest coach that you could possibly imagine right now and I could go on forever about this group. So this is a great, great day, and I think that this day signifies just anything is possible. People who know our story and have been following this group, there is no other words to describe it.

It's a great sports story. It has nothing to do with women's basketball. It has to do with sports and the human spirit and that might be kinda deep, but that's what this is, a group that believed when there was no reason to, to see themselves through a Final Four, it's mind blowing. I'm just super happy!

Q. Ruth, going down the line, talk about what it's been to go through what coach mentioned the sports story this year and getting this far and seeing one week from tonight, you never know!
RUTH HAMBLIN: It's been an incredible journey. When you think of our freshman year you come in and win 10 games there wasn't a lot of hope in the room. We knew what we're capable of and I think our work ethics has just paid off, and all the hard lessons we learned, especially the losses down the stretch we learned from those and we built from there and we never let our hope die.

I think that just this career it's been amazing to be a part of this group and we've learned how to handle all the pressures and we've just always believed in ourselves, even when people didn't. That's really like the end tail of this story or of this team and that's what we are at the core.

SYDNEY WIESE: This journey has been incredible. When I first committed to Oregon State I knew I was going to go to great people, but to have the success with this group, we deserve it! We've earned it and we're so thankful for the opportunities that we've had and all the lessons that we've had to get to this point, and God has been so good to us. It's been an incredible journey, and I'm happy to have these people by my side!

JAMIE WEISNER: It's hard to put it words. There is one word to describe how I'm feeling right now! I can't stop smiling, but I wouldn't want to be with anybody else and that's who we do it for, this team. I mean, they're my best friends on and off the court and I just love 'em all.

Q. Ruth, I know some day you might be running -- or something and you've got this incredible knowledge and dexterity with math, but one of the things that Coach Mulkey was talking about is how smart your defense is on angles and everything else. Talk about that. Is that a big reason why you've been one of the best defensive teams in the country?
RUTH HAMBLIN: I think it's huge. It's something that Coach Scott Rueck has taught me over the year is playing the angles to force them into a tough shot because it's kind of an art down in the low post and I don't know if it is taught as much these days, but he's emphasized it over the years and I think I'm a lot better at it now than I was before.

Q. Ruth, can you talk about the battle down there in the post? They talked about your size but there are a couple of big people in green uniforms, too?
RUTH HAMBLIN: Yeah, they definitely brought a lot of size, they kept coming, rotating in, they have a lot of depth in that field and they got some good looks down low. They're very talented posts, definitely brought a challenge, especially in foul trouble had to be smart down the stretch and not foul when they got it down low.

Q. Sydney, talk about how you stepped up with 18 points and how clutch the free-throws were for the team tonight.
SYDNEY WIESE: Well, give credit to my teammates for setting awesome picks. Good passes, it was a team effort tonight. I think everybody stepped up. Marie hit big shots off the bench. Gabriella did her thing defensively. It was a team win tonight. The free-throws at the end, I missed my first one. I knew I couldn't miss anymore. So that's what was driving me to make sure to seal the deal on the line.

Q. Sydney and Jamie, they're a tough team in terms of forcing turnovers and they got a lot of points off turnovers but you guys didn't get rattled. Can you talk about not getting rattled even though they were forcing those turnovers as much as they did?
SYDNEY WIESE: I think this year and all three years for me, that's been a growth area and I've had a lot of great tests in our conference, especially this year. I think our conference has prepared us well for tests like that.

So that's been a big thing for us as a group is to remained composed and to keep our heads. I thought we did really welcoming together when it got a little tough out there and we might have rushed some thing, but I think at the end of the day we made the right decisions and we were able to come out on top.

JAMIE WEISNER: Yeah, I mean, they forced a lot of things. They closed the gap and they're very long and athletic as a team. So that made it hard for us, but like Sydney said, we've seen it all. And the Pac-12 definitely prepared us and just stay calm and stick together through it.

Q. I would like all three of you to answer this, Ruth, Sydney then Jamie, please. The other night you were talking about when you won you took a minute to enjoy and obviously you want to take a minute to enjoy, but clearly there is a big challenge ahead of you. We all know who is next. Talk about enjoying this moment but also the challenge that you face coming up next.
RUTH HAMBLIN: It's something that we have been getting used to the in this past month, winning the Pac-12 tournament. You enjoy that, then get back to work in the gym the next day. I think we're good at that now, and we're going to celebrate tonight, soak up this special moment and we're going to get back to work this week and we know what we have to do to play UConn because they're obviously a formidable opponent.

SYDNEY WIESE: Yeah, it's awesome to be able to celebrate with this group and I'm looking forward to reminiscing about the whole season tonight. But like Ruth said, it's back to the drawing board tomorrow or whatever is in store this week. We're excited for the opportunity to continue the season. We're exactly where we want to be. To go against UConn it will be a fun challenge for us. I know that our coaching staff is going to have a good game plan and it's all about going out there and executing.

JAMIE WEISNER: Yeah, we will enjoy this one. But I mean, it's fun to have UConn. That's always been my dream, you know, to be the best, you have to beat the best and that's what's next for us. I think all year we've prepared very well and we'll prepare for them and we've been in this position, we've been doubted before. So we will just prepare and be ready for them.

THE MODERATOR: Ladies, congratulations on the win. We will take questions for Coach.

Q. Coach, I think you're right there is no way to put it in words, but when you took over this program I think most people thought it was hopeless and here you are at the Final Four. I know you talked about the different things you had to do. But can you put that into perspective going to the Final Four?
SCOTT RUECK: Hmmm, no. You're right, when I accepted this job I had friends tell me they were scared for me! The worst job in America at the time anyway! Those things are fuel for me, someone who went to Oregon State and believes in the university, believes in the people and the community. You know, experienced Oregon State as a winner, at least on the men's side, I was a student when Gary Payton played, and it was packed every night and it was the place to be!

It was either Oregon State men's basketball or the Portland Trail Blazers in our state at that time. So I had that vision when I took the job over, and I also had the experience of winning at a school that previously had not won, where I was before Oregon State and we got that team to a national championship when it was initially a really hard place to recruit to, and other things.

This one is the same. I knew initially we had to find -- you don't win without great players and I don't believe that you win without great people. This team -- you know, I think they're a great basketball team, I think they're better people. I think what people saw tonight was the tightness of the group and the resiliency of a family that's been formed, you know, over these four years and a culture that's been formed over six years, all the people that have come before us. So when you put those things together that's why I could say anything is possible and I have experienced that before. So for this group to have that belief that's been preached to them from day one, that's what this thing has been built on and it's the reason they chose us. They shared that vision and that's who they are as people before they even came to Oregon State.

So to watch them believe in each other and come together to take on the Pac-12 and overcome the Pac-12 from a standpoint of, we deserve to win even within our conference, you know, and that gave us the confidence to go on the national level and win. I can think back to a game last year at North Carolina, the first time I think a lot of people really had seen us play. It was on ESPN 2, I believe, and they went in there and beat Carolina who was ranked 6th at the time by 15, and the belief started to grow. Today was a culmination of all those experiences over the last few years.

Q. You just mentioned a lot of firsts, and that's happened a lot with this group. This is without a doubt a great quest that y'all are on right now. You just mentioned the North Carolina game. Before that time when you got this group together, this base group what stood out as a "first" that you saw they were getting the light not just you?
SCOTT RUECK: Notre Dame three years ago. It was Sydney's freshman year, the last game before conference. I believe it was December 29th at our place. We had suffered several close, tough losses to begin that year. And this was the year before Ruth had alluded to winning ten games, that was Ruth's freshman year. So Ruth was a sophomore. Jamie a sophomore. Sydney a freshman, and we had lost a couple of really tough games that we thought, man, we were in it. We led I think Penn State. We were up 30 minutes in that game. Florida we were up 35 minutes and couldn't close them. We go home for Christmas and come back and here is Notre Dame coming in, and we had 5,000 people there that day because we had hyped that game because everyone wanted to see Notre Dame coming off Final Four.

And this team went toe-to-toe with them that day. Ruth was two rebounds short of a triple-double that day in that game. We had the ball down 4 with two minutes to go. We turned it over. We ended up losing by 11, I believe. We didn't know how to win yet, but that was the day that this team believed.

From that day forward, there was a core belief that we could play with anyone and the Muffet after the game said, "That's a tournament team." She is the first person to say it, "That's a tournament team." We're like, really? Maybe we are a tournament team!

Next thing you know, during -- down the stretch of that season we won 11 straight games and absolutely became a tournament team, and that really was the beginning.

Q. Scott, you guys have always been a team that has a lot of players play and everybody has their role and tonight you had four in double figures and it wasn't one person. Is it more gratifying that everybody played their part and you guys were able to come out with this win?
SCOTT RUECK: Absolutely, and I think one of the big stories of this game was battling adversity. We were one foul call from I don't know what, Ruth and Deven, we had to roll the dice and put them and leave them out there in the fourth quarter when I didn't want to, you know. But when you got Kalani Brown on the floor you need Ruth on the floor. We had to roll the dice with that and credit Ruth for staying out of foul trouble and maintaining her spot on the court. The same with Deven.

But through that, Marie had to play big minutes today. Sam played huge minutes for us today, and Gabby, who we don't normally -- you don't think of Gabby when you think of scoring and production offensively, other than assists, hit maybe the three biggest shots of the night. I don't know how many total field goals she had. It felt like three, I guess four. But those were four huge buckets and I thought the baseline jumper might have been the shot of the game to be honest. That's when I said, this is a team. This is a team -- this is a team that -- there's people that don't get their names mentioned that have vital roles to our success. They just bring a great attitude every day and go to work and they're not getting in the game.

That's when you have something really special and nobody cares who gets the credit. This is just a really special group, so this was a great team win today and I agree with you completely.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, congratulations on the win. Good luck next week.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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