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PAC-12 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 4, 2017Scott RueckMarie GulichSydney WieseSeattle, Washington Oregon State - 63, UCLA - 53. SCOTT RUECK: Well, shoot, that was incredible. I mean, UCLA, I told Cori, my rule is to say good game afterwards. You can't lose there. You can lose if you say any more than that when you shake a coach's hand, win or lose. But tonight was different. I've got so much respect for her and for this program, and they are coached so well. They are so hard to play against. That's a team that absolutely could see a Final Four, without a doubt. You look at the point guard they have, look at the center -- Cole and I were sitting last night watching, scouting them, and it's like, look at the point guard; look at the center; they've got two elite shooters; look at Burke. I mean, they have so much ability and so much talent, and to beat that team takes everything you have, and it takes a big-time performance, and if you look at this box score, that's what you see. You see an unreal performance by our team tonight, and I'm so proud of the guts and the resilience and the courage that it takes to make the plays that they did. We're shorthanded without Katie. That meant some long minutes for people, and they really came through in a big way. You look at Marie with 16 boards; I thought Gaby Hanson's second half may have been one of the best halves of her career, offensively and the defense that she played on Jordin. To hold Monique scoreless in the second half is a monumental accomplishment for our post players. Beaver Nation was unbelievable tonight, and it was a great combination and a great relationship on the court and in the stands, and it was a great win for our program. Q. To have Gaby Hanson not on the floor for a lot of the second quarter and then have her come back in in the third quarter and do what she did to really give you guys a lift, can you discuss that a little bit? SCOTT RUECK: I think everybody saw her impact. If you wonder who Gaby Hanson is to our program, you saw that. They were able to get out and go. It's kind of like when a smaller post player comes in to defend the center, how confident a center will get. A year ago, as soon as Ruth came off the floor, everybody went straight to the post and they were so confident against our other posts, and Marie and Bre would hold their own last year, but it was just different than Ruth. Ruth just had that presence about her, and that's what Gaby does to the guard spot. Jordin doesn't want to see Gaby; Kelsey Plum doesn't want to see Gaby; nobody wants to see Gaby. Jamie Weisner didn't want to see Gaby in practice every day. And so she changes the game just by her presence and her impact defensively, and then tonight we saw her offense emerge, and she's 5 for 10 with two huge threes in this game where points were at a premium. Her leadership was at its best tonight, and so it was just a -- it was a classic Gaby Hanson performance. Q. Scott, Jordin went off in the second quarter, and then in the third quarter you guys held their entire offense to eight points. How did you guys -- what adjustments did you make and how did you manage to do that? SCOTT RUECK: We put Gaby in. I mean, and I really mean that. That was a big difference. This team, we came out of the locker room -- we were on our heels in that second quarter. Give them a lot of credit. They really knocked us heels, forced us into turnovers in the first half, got us out of rhythm, and our offense really struggled. Gaby gave us control, and we controlled the tempo, and we were in control of everything from that third quarter on I felt. And so it started there, and I think it ends there with Gaby. Q. Coach, you talked a little bit about Gaby. You've mentioned several times whenever you guys needed those big buckets Gaby was there, Baylor last year, now tonight. How big was her offense? SCOTT RUECK: Yeah, I thought they did a nice job taking the basket away. I think we had four interior points in the first half is what it felt like anyway, at least from our posts, and I think actually one of those was a jump shot, so they really did a nice job taking the inside away. We shot it okay, but we didn't shoot it great from the perimeter. We needed that, and so when you're getting that from a place where it sometimes comes but we needed it, as soon as that shot went down, everybody relaxed, and so it was nice that it wasn't just Syd. Mik wasn't hitting initially, and then she stuck with it and then hit a big three in the fourth quarter, but it was Gaby that gave us that spark on the outside, and you're right, every time we've needed something, she's provided. You know, she hadn't shot the ball particularly well the last four games overall. Tonight, like I said, it was a classic performance by Gaby, and it was on both ends of the floor. Q. Syd, you hit some big shots, too. You hit a three with about three minutes to go. Right before you hit it, Jordin motioned to UCLA's bench and said, "I need a sub." Did you notice that and did you call a different play? SYDNEY WIESE: Yeah, I could see that she wasn't pressuring as much towards the end of the fourth quarter, but Coach Rueck made the call, and Gaby was the one that made the pass happen. And so I told Coach, we had a time-out like right after that possession, and I told him that she was getting very -- she was working her butt off all game, offensively, defensively. Of course you're going to hit a wall. I think I got loose on that possession, but I didn't see her, I didn't see her pull her jersey or anything, but then after that I could sort of tell that she was a step slower. Q. Scott, you said that this is the kind of game where you had to say more than "good game" to Coach Close at the end of it. SCOTT RUECK: I just told her that. I just said, she did a phenomenal job with her team this year, and obviously they've got a lot more to do, but they've done a phenomenal job. I just feel like they're just extremely well-coached. They can hurt you in so many ways different looks given us defensively, and I just think that she's -- they adapted very well this year. They were really hard to guard. So many misdirection plays, so the scout was very difficult. Coach Holsinger had that for us, and it wore him out. Wore him out. The scout is crazy. To go through and kind of decipher the main points to focus on, there were a lot with UCLA. So I just think that that team is very well-coached and extremely talented, and I told her that in as few words as I could. I said, I would love to see them at the Final Four unless they're in our region. Q. Marie, career high, 16 boards, got the double-double. Talk about your performance tonight and what it was like going up against Billings inside. MARIE GÃœLICH: I mean, she's a very, very athletic player. It's tough to play against her, obviously. She's fast. She's explosive, and you just have to have always good position, and obviously she got me sometimes. It's fun, though. Like I like the challenge, and yeah, it's been -- it was hard to start off, but then once we got in a rhythm and we got poised and the game was flowing, it got easier and easier. Q. Syd, how is this a different experience tonight to hit here knowing you're going to the final than when you haven't won one before? SYDNEY WIESE: I mean, you're in the same position where you still have to prepare and you still have to win the game. I think the experience that we had last year going to the final and then even freshman year being in that same position, so we have all types of experiences that have led us to this point, and so I just think that we focus on what we need to do as a group, take care of ourselves tonight, and then come back, just have fun with it, and we're fortunate to be out there for 40 more minutes. Q. Syd, you talked about the big three you hit, but just overall as a team you guys closed the game on a pretty good run. What was the difference when they made their spurt? SYDNEY WIESE: Yeah, I think we've been in this position so many times this year where we've been forced to make these types of plays, and so it was just another game, another day, another dollar. People were stepping up big throughout the game. Mik had crazy drives and finishes. Marie had huge rebounds, and she was a defensive presence tonight, and then Gaby obviously on both ends of the floor came in aggressive and really changed the game for us. Super exciting to see how many people stepped up, and they weren't afraid of those big moments. Q. Looking ahead, how are you guys feeling heading into the championship? SYDNEY WIESE: Well, no matter who we play, it's going to be a tough match-up. We played both these teams twice, and it's tough to go against a team three times in such a short span of time. So it's a grind. Conference tournament is always a grind, but we're going to do whatever is necessary to cut down on that. Q. Coach, was there anything in particular that you guys did to make it so difficult for UCLA from three-point range, only going 4 of 23 on the night? SCOTT RUECK: That's a big number. They shot a lot in the fourth, I know, and so I thought they got some better looks than I hoped actually at a couple of moments. That's what I'm talking about, their misdirection offense and different things that they do to free up shooters. But I just felt like we played with a great intensity overall defensively, and they demanded that, and so it was 5-on-5 every possession. None of those threes I don't believe came out of transition, which was a big part of this game and maybe our No. 1 focal point going into the game defensively anyway. And so it was 5-on-5, and I thought we were on point tonight. We closed out very well to shooters. We challenged well and didn't give them looks, and that goes back to the scout. I thought we switched when we needed to, and we were close, and so we were -- we challenged and then I guess in some cases you're fortunate they miss. Q. No matter who you play, as Syd pointed out, you've played both these teams twice and it's been a war with both of them, especially Stanford. In a game where every possession counts, how are you going to be mentally prepared? SCOTT RUECK: Well, that's what this game is probably going to be like, as well, out here tonight. So we'll be on equal footing there. This team, they love the challenge, just like Marie said. It was a fun challenge, and that's how we view it. It's fun to prepare for. It's fun to play in. It's fun to be challenged by great teams. These -- the four games we had against those two teams in particular were probably the best scouted we've been I would say all year long. Oregon certainly was ready for us. They know us inside and out. Stanford, I mean, Tara, they prepare as well as anyone in the country for you. So that's why they were all low-scoring games. They were kind of like this one out here, just a slugfest basically, and the team that executes the best down the stretch is going to find a way to win, and that's what I would anticipate tomorrow being like no matter who it is. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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