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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: LOUISVILLEMarch 17, 2017Shauna GreenJenna BurdetteJaVonna LayfieldLouisville, Kentucky MODERATOR: Questions for the Flyers? Q. JaVonna, for you personally, the excitement, I've seen your team pop up on the screen, but then finding out that you're going to Louisville, here, your hometown. Just talk about that feeling and what that experience is going to be like tomorrow with family and friends? JAVONNA LAYFIELD: It's an amazing feeling because what are the odds, you know? I'm really excited for the family aspect because it will be the first time a lot of people get to see me play. I just think it's going to be a really cool thing. It's going to be a great atmosphere in general. I'm pretty excited. Q. As a follow-up, how many people are we talking about? JAVONNA LAYFIELD: Well, I know 16 certified tickets from the student-athlete passes, but my mom bought about ten tickets. Probably maybe like 30-plus. Q. Jenna, this team has already won a regular season and a tournament championship. How do you guys stay hungry and motivated going into yet another postseason experience? JENNA BURDETTE: I don't know. I think we're just always motivated because we just have a fire in us that just keeps wanting to win. We talked about our goals at the beginning of the season, which two of them were to win the regular season, the tournament title, and we had a goal for this postseason. Now we're here, and we have to make it happen. Q. Jenna, you were a freshman when they went to the Elite Eight and played every minute. What would you say is the biggest difference in your game between the Elite Eight run and where you are now? JENNA BURDETTE: I'd say I'm a lot less nervous. I just have a better feel for things. My freshman year I was a little bit of a mess, kind of. So I've calmed down a lot and just let the game come to me instead of worrying too much. I'd say that's the biggest difference. Q. What advice have you kind of passed on to the girls that weren't on that tournament team heading into this weekend? JENNA BURDETTE: Just that this feeling only comes once in a lifetime. We're lucky, JaVonna and I, to get to be here twice. So just not to take anything for granted because you never know if you're ever going to come back. Q. With the schedule that you guys have played, is it getting to the point where it's easier now to kind of just view Tennessee as another team compared to looking at the history of Tennessee, having played UConn and playing Stanford last year and some of the teams you guys have played; that you just look at these guys as another opponent now? JENNA BURDETTE: Yeah, we do. I think it helps us with the way our coaches prepare us, too, because they prepare us the same way going into every game no matter who we're playing. I think that's the mindset we have to have coming into this game. JAVONNA LAYFIELD: Yeah, I would have to agree. The schedule that we did, the schedule has prepared us as far as the preparation and what we do before every game. So we just have to go out there and execute. Q. When you guys turned out 3 and 6, did you think you'd win 19 of the next 22 games and win an A-10 title and be sitting here? Was there a moment in the season that you were like -- everything kind of clicked and you were like, wow? JAVONNA LAYFIELD: Yeah. JENNA BURDETTE: Yes. JAVONNA LAYFIELD: Yeah, I would say when we had that week break from traveling and right before we went down to Florida, I'd say the A&M game is when we were like, all right, this is what we needed. This is who we are. We've got it. From that point on, it was like: We're here. We're not going anywhere anytime soon. Q. Jenna, you've played a lot of basketball. He mentioned being a part of that Elite Eight run as a starter, freshman, sophomore year. This year you have to deal with that injury. You're out quite a few games in February. What was that experience like being on the bench? And more importantly, coming back against St. Louis and then to the Atlantic 10 tournament? Was there something that you maybe thought of or maybe something that changed from just your time on the pine? JENNA BURDETTE: I don't think anything really changed. It was kind of a wake-up call because I had never been injured before. So it made me think about like I can do this rep a little harder because I might not be able to do the next rep. I'd say it was a wake-up call that anything can happen. Q. JaVonna, with your ability to bring energy to the game, outside of a lot of people think of scoring as how many points somebody had, you're able to put the ball in the basket. But for you now as also a member of that Elite Eight run, from a leadership standpoint, where do you feel like your game has sort of come from your freshman year to where we are here now as a junior? JAVONNA LAYFIELD: So I feel like I (indiscernible) since my freshman year because I was a mess too. I've gained a lot of confidence that I didn't have before. I feel like my work ethic has grown and I've found ways to get the job done other than, you know, if I didn't have confidence in scoring or something, it was like, all right, you've got to bring it on defense, then my defense would create my offense, or, all right, get this stop, dive on the floor for the ball. Just working hard in all aspects of the game, even if somewhere on the spectrum I'm falling short, just continue to give all my effort. I think I've gotten better at that throughout the year. Q. You guys had that terrific win against Texas A&M, and a lot of people saw that as the turning point. Was there another game in conference, or maybe it was not even a game, to where you had that long winning streak, it was like the ball rolling down the hill from a momentum standpoint? Is there another point in the season where you felt really good about where you were going, and having that idea that this is a championship-caliber team? JENNA BURDETTE: I would say it was off the court. We had a big team meeting and we got to know each other on a personal level, and I think that helped us grow together on the court, just seeing what we've all been through. I really think that helped us to be where we are right now. JAVONNA LAYFIELD: I definitely agree with that. Our closeness off the court has helped with our chemistry on it. Q. Do you have the watch party set up for the UD men's game tonight? JAVONNA LAYFIELD: We'll watch them, sure. JENNA BURDETTE: We'll watch them. Q. Either one of you, I wanted to know what the team's perception is of Tennessee. You look at their resumé, and they've got some really big wins, but also some really bad losses. What is your perception of the opponents you're facing? JAVONNA LAYFIELD: Well, we just go into it, and first we focus on what we can do in order to win the game. But they're just another team. I mean, they're a great team, you know, but can't get too caught up in how many wins they have, how many losses they had. You just have to focus on yourself, go in and execute your game plan and whatever we have to do in order to win the game. So they're a great team. At the end of the day, it's what we have to do. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Green. Q. Coach Green, you were on staff two years ago with the team when they went to Regional semifinals -- I mean Regional finals, excuse me. Can you take anything from that experience with this team into coming into the tournament this year? I guess it's a two-part question. How are you feeling as first-year head coach of this team going into the NCAA Tournament? COACH GREEN: Yeah, definitely I learned so much in those three years of making the NCAA Tournament as an assistant, and obviously the run that we had in 2015. You learn just how we approached each game, how our prep was. But, again, like J and Jenna said, our preparation has been the same. We're not going to change how we prepare, how we do things or really anything just because you're in the NCAA Tournament now. I think that's something we did a really good job of on our run. Whether it was UConn, Louisville, Kentucky or Iowa State that we played, our preparation or mindset was the same. That was number one, to focus on Dayton and what do we have to do. Because at the end of the day, it's about us and our execution. I think that was something really big. I think you can sometimes get caught up in when you're in these tournaments and, oh, it's Tennessee; oh, it's UConn. Yeah, they're great teams. Every team you play this time of year is a great team. But you want to approach it with the same mindset so your players aren't thinking "It's UConn" or "Oh, we're playing Tennessee." That's really -- and, again, our schedule has helped prepare them for that as well. So I learned a ton. To answer your second part, it's kind of funny because it doesn't feel that different. It really hasn't felt that different all year. Yeah, I'm the head coach now, but I'm really just in-the-moment type of person, so how do we approach it, what is my mindset going into practice, what's our mindset going into the game, how do we prepare, do we have everything that we need to have done. So that's my mindset. I'm not thinking big picture, like, oh, we're in the NCAA Tournament. I don't think that way. I'm just really focused on our players and our preparation and are we going to be ready to go tomorrow at 4 p.m. Q. You guys have the one common opponent in Texas A&M. What is it from watching A&M film when they played Tennessee and you guys played Tennessee? What sort of things do you take away that is a positive for you and maybe not so much of a positive for you? COACH GREEN: Yeah, we're different than Texas A&M as well. So they play kind of a different style than we play. But I think we can say, I think from our players' perspective, it kind of helps, like we beat Texas A&M and they beat Tennessee. Even though at the end of the day that doesn't matter. From the players' perspective, you can maybe look at it that way. As a coaching staff, obviously, Tennessee has a lot of weapons. There's a lot of things that we have to be really, really sharp on tomorrow to put us in a position to win the basketball game. But just from a rebounding perspective, and Texas A&M does a really good job with that, and that's something we've prided ourself on, is defending and rebounding. I think we play a much faster pace than A&M plays. But the emphasis of our defense, the emphasis of our rebounding, that's something that they'd really do a great job of. We've really tried to take down that persona as well. So I think that's a similarity. If we can do that and get out and run, hopefully we'll get some easy transition baskets that can help us. Q. Do you think the depth of your team may be a key factor in this game? Will you continue to push that tempo throughout with being able to go to your bench? COACH GREEN: Yeah, I think that's key. When you look at Tennessee and the players that they have, you have to use your strength and try to get any advantage that you can against a great team like they are. So, obviously, it's something we've done all year, and something we pride ourselves in is our pace and our depth and trying to wear people down. Pushing the pace no matter what. Make or miss, we're trying to push it. We're getting up the floor and trying to score in six seconds or less. So that's what we do. That's who we are. That's not going to change. Hopefully we can use that to our advantage and wear them down. But that's a tall task. So we've got to be on our game. In order to run, you need the basketball, so that's where the rebounding part is the biggest key, I think, to this game. Q. We've talked this year about the fact that JaVonna just brings a ton of energy to the floor every time she steps on the floor. How much has her progress and her emergence with how she's played this year, how much has really kind of fed you guys? Talk a little about her contribution. COACH GREEN: J's huge for us. She's one person. I'm all about just the energy and the intensity and digging down and defending and rebounding and doing all the little things. That's what we preach. That's what I really want out of our players, to have that pride and that passion and play with that heart. So she's kind of a kid that I love how she plays. You could look at a stat sheet after the game, and you may not see this padded stats, but she does so much for us. She's our glue. She keeps us -- she does all the dirty work. She has to be out on the floor. If you look at her -- I don't know how many minutes she even averages, but there are certain games that I don't like to have her off the floor just because of that. She's also someone that I trust. She'll run through a wall for you. She'll do anything for you. I think her confidence has grown so much. She's the type of kid I'll say: Ja, you need to pick it up. We need to go get some offensive rebounds. And she'll literally go in the next however many possessions and get three offensive boards. I wish she'd do that from the start and I didn't have to yell at her to do it. But she does it. She's that type of a player. I love that about her. Q. Talking about Jenna's injury in February, your team was also trying to win an Atlantic 10 regular season championship, and you did fairly well without your point guard. But were you able to see sort of what she brings to the table in the Atlantic 10 Tournament? For your squad, though, did you learn something about your unit without your starting point guard? COACH GREEN: Most definitely. Because when Jenna -- when our trainer came in and told me that Jenna was hurt, your mind just is like, okay, this is our starting point guard that's been the starting point guard at Dayton since our freshman year. Played every minute. She missed one game her freshman year when she had a broken nose. The kid's tough as nails. She didn't want to stop that game. And she played with a mask the rest of the game. Losing her, you just lose so much. So as any coach would be, you're a little concerned. We don't have necessarily a true point guard as our back-up. So I learned so much. Our team, they're such a team. What I tell them is our strength is our strength because we're so together. One person is having a bad day, well, someone else will pick it up. You can see that throughout our games. We've had someone different off the bench always have a good game. I give so much credit to Lauren and to Kelley that stepped up, especially Lauren, and started at the point guard for that span of, what, five games. We had tough games in there. To be able to go out and sustain and win games with not having a so-called true point, and losing, really, the motor behind everyone and your leader out on the floor, that's a testament to our players and their togetherness. No one ever felt sorry for anyone, and it was never like, oh, what are we going to do? Is this what we're doing? Is this how we're playing? We do what we do. We do what we do and go out there and get it done. I think they really rallied around it and they played for her. In hindsight, I think it made us better. It gave a lot more people confidence and more minutes, and I think we're better because of that. You saw in the A-10 Tournament, I thought we played our best basketball of the season. Everyone was really, really together, just really knowing their roles and accepting them and doing them at a high level. Q. With really not having a big go-to scorer like those two were, does that make this team -- does it make this team that much tougher to guard, different look? COACH GREEN: I think we're a different look than we have been all year, and I think that's why you saw early on we were running some of the same action and offenses that we ran and what I ran when I was here as an assistant. But after learning our personnel, and that's where the timing was a little bit harder when I got the job, because I didn't have that time to really evaluate and say, okay, this is what we should run. After seeing that and then the girls talk about that 11-day span where we kind of called our new season, and we're 19-3 since then, is when we changed our offense. I think our offense fits our personnel a lot better. We don't have an Andrea Hoover, we don't have an Ally Malott where if you need a basket they're going to break you down or Ally can go inside out. We have our bigs, and they don't shoot threes. We have guards that are good coming off screens and coming off staggers to shoot. So we put them in a position to have the most success. And that was by what we're running now. So in a way, you could look at it that, oh, you don't have your star players, but we've also had a lot of success as a true team and not knowing who is going to pick it up. But we also have our staples. Jennifer, that's our staple. Saicha's been a staple, J's been a staple in her own regard. And you have Kelley Austria who at the end of the day has been one of the best players to ever play at Dayton. If she wants to score, she can score whenever she wants to. She just sometimes needs to be encouraged a little bit to shoot, where you don't have to tell Andrea Hoover to shoot that much. Kelley, I'm still telling her every day: Shoot it, shoot it, be aggressive. So I think we're different, but I think still you've got to pick your poison with how you guard us. We hit shots, and we have a chance to compete with anyone. Q. With coming in late and getting rolling right into the season and everything, what kind of a whirlwind it's been, have you had a chance to take a breath and go "wow" at everything you guys have accomplished in the season so far? I mean, is it still kind of middle-of-the-cycle type of thing? COACH GREEN: It's kind of middle of the like what do I have next, like grind mentality. Having the time off after the A-10 Tournament, we haven't played now in, what, almost two weeks. I told the team to really enjoy it and to take it in, because that's something. To win the A-10 regular season and to win the A-10 Conference Tournament, it has not been done at Dayton. We've done a lot of really good things in this program in the past. There's been great players, great coaches that have built this into what this program is, but no one has ever done that. I think that's -- I wanted them to truly understand what they did and to truly be proud and enjoy it. Because sometimes it's all: Well, we've got to do this next or we've got to do that next. I really want them to enjoy this. This is not something -- maybe for your Tennessees and your UConns and whoever of the world, this is every year they want to be in the Final Four, in the Elite Eight. It's special to be in this tournament. It's not a right. It's a privilege to be here, and they earned it. I mean, they worked hard for it. And they went through a lot of adversity this year that a lot of people don't know, from personal stuff to team. They've been through so much. So I told them: Enjoy this thing. Enjoy every second of it. We'll get back to work. I sometimes maybe should take my own advice and enjoy it a little bit more. But I've really been on the grind mentality. I think after the season is when myself and our staff, they can step back and say, man, we did a lot this year when a lot of people didn't expect us to do that. People kind of, I think, have not given us, you know -- I don't want to say respect, but maybe they didn't think that we could do this. So I'm really proud of our team. Really, really proud of our team. Q. You mentioned the fact that it's been sort of a whirlwind. But you were involved in this program throughout a lot of wins, NCAA Tournament trips. Then you spent a year at Northwestern. Is there something in particular that you've been able to take away from your experience at Northwestern that you've been able to bring here to Dayton? COACH GREEN: Yeah, that's a good question. I think, number one, to appreciate what we have at Dayton and how Dayton does stuff. Just the high level of commitment they have to women's basketball too. I'm not saying that because of Northwestern. Absolutely great administration. I absolutely loved my time at Northwestern. But just the fans and the support, it's really, really special. It's a really, really special place to come out and play in front of 2,500 to 3,000 people every night. Not everywhere, I know -- Louisville does well, and a lot of the Power Fives do well, but that's special to have that. So I really appreciated just the tradition that we have here. And I think that's the biggest thing. Just really you kind of -- we didn't make the tournament last year at Northwestern, and Dayton didn't either. But that was something that you go there three years in a row and you kind of get used to it and you think, oh, you're just supposed to be here. You don't have that for a year, and you're like -- you want it. You get that taste. Especially after the Elite Eight, you want to be back there. Once you get in, you never know what happens. So I think that's just appreciating it and the opportunity to be here. I also learned from a great coach in Coach McKeown who has won over 600-some games and has been to the NCAA Tournament a lot of times. I've learned a ton from a veteran coach that helped me a lot. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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