	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: LEXINGTON

March 24, 2017

Lexington, Kentucky

Notre Dame 99, Ohio State 76

THE MODERATOR: Thank you for joining us for the press conference for the Ohio State women's basketball team. We're joined by head coach Kevin McGuff and students Kelsey Mitchell and Shayla Cooper. We will begin with an opening statement by the head coach.

KEVIN McGUFF: We can take questions.

THE MODERATOR: Okay. We'll go straight to questions. Questions for our student-athletes.

Q. Kelsey, did this Notre Dame show you guys anything you weren't expecting? Was there anything you guys didn't see in preparation that that team brought out?
KELSEY MITCHELL: Everything they did today was something our coaches touched on, and we harped on for a whole week. I just think they outplayed us defensively and offensively.

Q. Kevin, from a program standpoint, is this a good measuring stick of really where you want to go still? Because they had an answer for everything, and they were just a buzz saw at the end.
KEVIN McGUFF: Yeah, Notre Dame played great. They really did. They played an excellent game. Give them all the credit in the world. Any mistake we made, they made us pay for. They executed on offense extremely well and clearly shot the ball also extremely well.

They played a great game. They were certainly the better team today and deserved to win. As we aspire to continue to grow the program, that's what we kind of want to look like in a game like this.

THE MODERATOR: If we can stick to questions for the student-athletes, then we'll open it up for the head coach.

Q. Kelsey, did this game have the feel of maybe reversing the Maryland game, where maybe you guys weren't necessarily playing poorly but the other team was just hitting a lot of consecutive shots?
KELSEY MITCHELL: Yeah, exactly what you said. They kept getting possession after possession, and after a while, they got themselves in a rhythm, and we couldn't run them off the three like we needed to, especially in the clutch time. Like the second quarter was really important and crucial because that's when they kind of took it away from us.

Q. Shayla, with the way that Notre Dame can move the ball, how difficult was it to close out, especially on threes and long jumpers and things like that?
SHAYLA COOPER: It was not as difficult as it may have seemed. It was just knowing the scout a little better, knowing where the shooters are, knowing who's on the floor and who's going to shoot it. I think we could have done a better job with that.

Q. Shayla, how would you describe and maybe summarize your Ohio State career with all that you've been through the last couple of years?
SHAYLA COOPER: I would summarize it as a great experience. I've grown as a person, as a player.

I just want to thank Coach McGuff for giving me the opportunity to play here and my teammates for picking me up when I was down and the coaching staff for making me a better player.

Q. You described this group as a special one since the start of the season. I know it's still fresh, but when you look back on this group and what you guys were able to accomplish this season, what were your initial thoughts?
KELSEY MITCHELL: We've been through a lot as a team. We've been through everything. From the ups and downs, the losses, the crazy practices that we have sometimes, to the arguments among teammates. I think it's made us great people. I think we can only go up from here. I think this game has taught us a lot about ourselves and where we need to grow as players and as people in general. And specifically, as a culture and as a team and as a program, Notre Dame is a fantastic team. I think they've done a great job with the things they've accomplished.

I think us playing them tonight can only show us where we need to get better at. I just want to say thank you to my teammates and this program for supporting us.

THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for the student-athletes?

Q. Coach, how much was a load was (Arike) Ogunbowale tonight?
KEVIN McGUFF: Arike played great tonight. She's an outstanding player. What she did tonight, she scored from the three-point line, she drove the ball, she posted up. She really showed her versatility, and that really gave us problems.

Q. Kevin, it seemed like the response was a little bit better to start out the third quarter. What do you think changed over those next six, seven minutes that kind of put the game out of reach?
KEVIN McGUFF: Yeah, we had a great start to the third quarter. I really liked what we were doing on both ends of the floor. We started defending better during that stretch, but then we quit rebounding, and I think ultimately they've got some easy put-backs and kind of got the momentum back in their favor. I think that's what really kind of put them on that path to pull away.

Q. Kelsey said this was sort of a gauge also of where the program is. I guess it's dangerous to take one game as a barometer, but what can get better? How do you get to that level?
KEVIN McGUFF: We have to continue to evolve. We've grown as a team and as a program, but we're not there yet. I think, culturally, we've taken some great steps, but we're still not where we want to be. Hopefully, this game will give us some experience that we need, and we can carry that forward to next season.

I told the team afterwards that, when I was an assistant coach at Notre Dame, we lost in the Sweet 16, then we lost in the Sweet 16, and then we won a National Championship.

So a lot of this is you've got to stick to it. You've got to keep fighting. You've got to keep grinding. Year round, you've got to make sure you continuing to get better. You've got to evolve culturally, and that stuff takes time. I think we've grown leaps and bounds, but we're not there yet. Hopefully, this is another experience that will help us continue to grow to get to where we ultimately want to be.

Q. Do you have a comment on Erin Boley and how much of a load she was to handle tonight?
KEVIN McGUFF: Yeah, she shot the ball really, really well. For someone her size, she's kind of a unique player that way. Her three-point shooting was really hard for us to handle. Our post players kind of tried to chase her around on the perimeter, and it was a problem for us.

Q. Coach, you return a lot next year. Obviously, lose Shayla, but kind of going off what you just said, how encouraging is it to know that you return nine players who played significant minutes? And then could you just touch on what Shayla meant to the program and to you.
KEVIN McGUFF: Yeah, Shayla, it's been really fun to see her grow. She's grown off and on the court. I'm excited for her because she's got a great future ahead. She's done a great job academically. She's a really bright kid. She'll play basketball for a long time, and after that, she'll put herself in position to have a great career, whatever it is she chooses to do. It's been really fun to see her grow. That's the biggest thing.

We have a great opportunity. We return a lot of great players and a lot of good kids. Hopefully, as we continue to get experience in games like this, that can be really valuable for us. It's a big off-season for us. It's hard in women's basketball to really jump into that elite group at the top. Notre Dame and Connecticut and Baylor, they've been doing it for a long time. They're not going to go anywhere. You have to really, really fight and scratch and claw, and we've got to have a phenomenal off-season.

But I think we have the right kids in the program to do that. So I'm encouraged about that. We'll get back. We'll get a little bit of rest, and we'll put a plan together to make sure we have a great spring, summer, and fall, and we'll be ready to go next year.

Q. Obviously, this is a disappointing game, but how do you compare that with some of the successes you've had this season?
KEVIN McGUFF: It's tough. It's really hard because our kids have really invested so much in this season, and all of a sudden it comes to a screeching halt when you lose.

It's hard to reflect back right away. We won the Big Ten. We got to the Sweet 16. So we've accomplished quite a bit. It will probably be a little bit easier in the coming days and weeks to really reflect. Right now it's just so tough after this loss.

Q. Early on in the game, the three-point game is what kept you guys in it. Was that something you practiced on or prepared for? Was that part of the game plan?
KEVIN McGUFF: Yeah, I knew they were going to play a lot of zone. So we were going to have to hit some shots on the perimeter. I don't want to totally rely on that because I thought with Tori (McCoy) and Alexa (Hart) and Steph (Mavunga) we'd have a size advantage. So we trying to get some balance in what we were doing. So we shot the three well early. Now, we missed some shots early that we normally make, and Notre Dame got off to a really good start, and I thought that kind of affected us a little bit. But we certainly did shoot the three well.

THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for the head coach?

KEVIN McGUFF: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297