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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: BRIDGEPORTMarch 25, 2017Kelly GravesOti GeldonRuthy HebardSabrina IonescuBridgeport, Connecticut Oregon - 77, Maryland - 63 KELLY GRAVES: I just want to congratulate Coach Frese and her team. I'll tell you, I have had zero sleep over the last four days, and a lot of it is just because I've been watching film of them. They're so impressive, and she's got a great team, and they had an awesome season. Also, obviously very happy that we're moving on. I continue to be amazed at this team. You know, just the fact that over the last five days we went cross-country twice, had final exams, played a great team -- three great teams in this tournament. And you know, they continue to show poise down the stretch, and I'll tell you, it's just impressive to watch. We continue to get better and better as a basketball team. We're excited to move on, regardless of who we play next. Q. Sabrina, how were you guys able to control the tempo of this game and keep them well under their normal scoring average? SABRINA IONESCU: Well, we just buckled down on defense, and we got back in transition and tried to stop their easy transition buckets. But we did what we do offensively. We got it side-top-side, pounded it down low to the bigs and did what we usually do. Q. Oti, obviously you've had one of your biggest games of your college career here on this level. What does it feel like, and what was your mentality coming into this game when Mallory picked up her fourth foul? OTI GELDON: It felt great. Coming off the bench, I just had to make sure I did whatever I needed to do for the team, which was defense and rebounding, so I just had to make sure I kept doing that. Q. Ruthy and Oti, it seemed like it was sort of a team effort to slow down Bri Jones. If you could take me through what the mindset was going in, how you go about doing that, and when you knew it was working the way it ultimately did. RUTHY HEBARD: Yeah, she's an amazing player. We definitely scout her a lot, how to guard her, how to try to stop her. I think we just focused on getting low and trying to force out of the paint, which was definitely tough, but I think we did a pretty good job of it. Q. Sabrina and Ruthy, can you talk about how you guys have evolved in your freshman year? Do you think you're at a point now where -- obviously the team is playing its best -- that you've gotten over whatever freshman things you might have had, and has that helped during the tournament? RUTHY HEBARD: Like Coach always says, we're not freshmen anymore, we're 30, 35 games in. So I think once we step on the court, we're all just ball players. It doesn't matter grade you're in, how young you are, so I think we just go on the court every day wanting to win, and we try our best. SABRINA IONESCU: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I mean, 30-plus games in, we're not freshmen anymore. Especially now, this late in the tournament, we've just got to come out every game and work hard and try and get as many wins as we can. Q. Coach Frese talked about how this team, the Oregon team, reminds her of her own National Championship team in 2006, as you guys start mostly underclassmen. What has it been like playing in the tournament and that experience and having this type of run? SABRINA IONESCU: I mean, we're blessed. We're blessed to be in this position, and I think we're just excited about everything. No one's been here. None of our kids have ever experienced anything like that. So I think we're just excited to be able to advance and play another day and see where that takes us. RUTHY HEBARD: Yeah, it's an amazing feeling to be here, and I think every day we just go out and work hard and try to win the game so we can get another game. OTI GELDON: Yeah, piggy-backing off what they said, it's really exciting. We just need to make sure we stay focused and continue to do what we're doing offensively and defensively. Q. This question is for Sabrina: You were hitting your shots. You were clearly hitting clutch threes, but also No. 10, Lexi Bando, she was seeming to have like an issue missing the three. But you guys never quit on her or gave up on her, and she answered and responded later in the second half. Did you say anything to her or did you guys just -- it was just kind of a rhythm thing, we're going to keep coming to you until you get on fire? SABRINA IONESCU: I definitely said a few things to her. Sorry, just saying. But she's the best shooter in America, so we all hold her to a high standard, and I definitely hold her to a high standard. I told her before the game, if she stops shooting, she's being selfish. She needs to let that ball fly, and I told her she needed to quicken her shot up a little bit. I think she was taking too much time to get it up and thinking about, you know, she wanted this to go in. So I told her just quicken her shot up and just let it fly, and she did. Q. Brenda Frese said they don't know any better, that they should be nervous at this time because you have such a young team. What do you think about that? She has that experience with having a really young team go all the way to the Final Four. Do you know any better? Are you at all nervous about the fact that you're now in the Elite 8, one step away from the Final Four? RUTHY HEBARD: I don't think so. I think Coach said it before the game that it's just another game. We're just on a bigger stage, but it's still the same game. We're all comfortable playing, and I think we're just going to take it game by game and keep doing what we do. SABRINA IONESCU: Yeah, I don't think we're really nervous. We have nothing to lose. It's kind of fun to see. We all laugh and giggle and just are really excited to be here and enjoy this opportunity that we have. So I think we continue to enjoy this opportunity and work hard and good things will come to us. OTI GELDON: I think the Pac-12 prepared us well for this tournament. Maryland was definitely a really good team, but we've played Stanford and UCLA and teams like that, so I think we were prepared for them when we came into this game today. Q. Sabrina, you spoke yesterday about saying you didn't know what to expect come March, this being your first time in. But here you are running this team, talking to Lexi through her shooting problems. You're going to coach the 3-on-3 team coming down. Obviously leadership is not an issue for you when it comes to that and making those series of threes in the first half of this game. Here you are for the first time; how comfortable is it? How much does this fit and how much is it you as a player now? SABRINA IONESCU: Yeah, basketball is basketball regardless of really what stage you're on, and I hold these kids accountable, preseason and now. I want everyone to try their best, exceed all the expectations that people have for us, especially as freshmen. So I think that just builds into the leadership that I have for this team, and I think our coaches do a really good job on setting a vision for us, and we're trying to achieve everything that we set out to achieve. Q. If UConn manages to beat UCLA, you're going to face UConn. It's going to be the potential for one of the greatest upsets in history to cap off this run. Have you allowed yourself to think about it in those terms? SABRINA IONESCU: I mean, regardless what team is going to win tonight, we're going to be prepared. So whatever is going to happen, when that ball goes in the air is going to happen, but I know that we're not going to go down easy. We're going to give every team a fight. We're going to play our hardest, and if that means we upset the No. 1 team in the country, then that's what's going to happen. Q. Sabrina, how eager were you to face Destiny, obviously one of the top-rated point guards in your class, and based on the numbers you outplayed her. Was that even more satisfying as a part of the win? SABRINA IONESCU: No, not at all. It was my team versus her team, it wasn't me versus her. The numbers and all that doesn't matter to me. I think I was just excited that our team withstood their run and we withstood what they had to offer and got the win. Q. Ladies, can you talk a little bit about some of the aspects of the Oregon game that you'd like to see maybe tighten up or really hit strides a little sooner for the next game as you advance in the tournament? SABRINA IONESCU: I think we need to take care of the ball a little more. We got a little bit careless with it there in the second half, so I think we just need to take care of the ball, continue to move it side-top-side. We'll hit shots. We do that pretty well. We keep pounding it in down low to our great post players, we'll hit the mid-range shots. I think if we continue to do what we're doing, we'll be fine come Monday. RUTHY HEBARD: Like she said, take care of the ball, making sure you hit every rebound and definitely get a fight up there in the air, and I think with that, we'll definitely be ready. OTI GELDON: If we continue to do well on defense and transition, stopping them in transition, I think we'll continue to do well. Q. Sabrina, on the flipside of you guys playing so loose and care-free, when you are in control of the game whether it's against Duke or tonight against Maryland, can you feel the other team kind of crumbling under the weight of expectations and getting tight? SABRINA IONESCU: I don't think a lot of teams are really prepared for us to come out how we did, and the atmosphere was great. It was loud, and I don't think they were really prepared for what we had to offer that late. But no, we're just excited. We get the ball to the people that need to have the ball in their hands that late in the game, and we do what we do. Q. You had mentioned yesterday that these guys probably don't realize what they're doing at this point; can you just address the poise and that whole aspect of this? Are they playing with house money at this point? Are you surprised at how loose they are and what they're doing? KELLY GRAVES: Yeah, you just said all of it, really. I think it's all in the attitude. I think they are playing loose. They're a loose team, so it's not like we're -- we try to make them that way. They just continue to show great poise, and I think Oti had a great response to a question. I think the Pac-12 has really prepared us for this moment. Whoever we play in this next game is going to be like our 11th game against a team on the 1, 2, or 3 seed line. And we've played three or four against 4 seeds. So we've played against a lot of really good teams. We've played them tough. We've won a few. So I think our kids, the more you win these close games and these big games, they start to believe. Like they said, they really don't have a lot to lose. Q. Coach, most people get one 40-year-old freshman point guard in a generation and you had Vandersloot. Talk about what it's like to have somebody like Sabrina. She acts so much older than she is as a freshman, the way she takes responsibility for things and the way that she seems to conduct herself and take care of business. KELLY GRAVES: No doubt. Good comparison. Her and Courtney share a lot of the same traits that have nothing to do with skills on the basketball court. They're great leaders. They're hard workers. They have a competitive spirit that defines them. I think they give their teammates a lot of confidence knowing that, hey, tonight we're going to have the best player on the floor, and all those things are so valuable. And then you add to that all the things she can do on the court, a diverse range of talents. It's not just the shooting, it's the penetration, it's her elite vision that she has, especially in transition, her ability to scrap out rebounds for a 5'10" slow kid. You know, she's the whole package. She truly is. Q. Kelly, two-part question. Maryland came in averaging 90 points a game, best scoring offense in the country. You hold them to a season low 63. What was working? KELLY GRAVES: Well, that was the key to the game. I think we did a few things well. Number one, early on, we just tried to go to 2-2-1, just a little tempo press to slow them down. I think, number two, we didn't turn the ball over a lot, so they weren't able to get out and get easy baskets in transition. Thirdly, I thought we shot a decent percentage, especially in the second half. We shot the ball really well, and we played the game at our tempo. Offensively we wanted to, like Sabrina likes to say, side-top-side. We kept moving the basketball and making them defend. You know, we just -- really, I thought defensively and tempo-wise, we played about as good a game as we can play, because to beat them you've got to lessen the number of possessions. Q. We had talked the other day about trying to counteract Maryland's experience. You hold Shatori 6 for 18 in shooting, Bri missed a bunch of lay-ups. What were you able to do to frustrate them? KELLY GRAVES: Well, you know, we're big. We're taller than the average team, so that helps. Even though we committed some fouls that I wish we wouldn't have, and we'll talk about that in the day in between, we can match teams' size and make it difficult for them to shoot over us. I thought inside, playing them to a one-rebound difference was key. They've been crushing people on the boards, and we did a good job there. They didn't kill us on second-chance points. And I think lastly, they didn't make a three. And if you can make these guys shoot twos, you've got a chance. Q. Just to jump off that point, not just the fact that they had no made threes, but they only attempted six. What were you doing schematically to chase them off the line? KELLY GRAVES: Well, that's just what we were doing. We were trying to chase them off the line. You can't leave No. 12, and I thought with Walker-Kimbrough, we did just a really good job of getting over the top of screens. I thought consistently, defensively, our team did a great job of staying focused. You know, sometimes you might go under a ball screen and that gives her license to take that shot. We consistently went over the top, and they really played it well. I think it's just kind of a focus thing. And again, they didn't get a lot of opportunity in transition, which is where they get it. Slocum and Walker-Kimbrough, they do a good job of probing and pushing the ball in transition. That's when they get those kick-out threes, and we just didn't allow a lot of that tonight. Q. You guys have been a pretty good transition defensive team all year, but you actually are 236th in the country in terms of the half court. That's the whole season, though. Is there a dramatic difference in how well you played defensively in the half court? What is responsible for this run in large part? KELLY GRAVES: No doubt. That's the area we've improved the most from day one. I don't know if you have any game left, but if you'd played us early in the season, you'd have been an All-American. We couldn't guard anybody, and we've gotten better and better and better, and I think that's where our team has shown the most growth. Your defense is what's tested in the tournament, and we've passed it three times, those tests. Q. What was the locker room like? Obviously Mark Campbell's birthday and he's now got that winner stays shirt going, you guys got the mojo in the locker room. KELLY GRAVES: I gave them double trouble tonight. I did the same thing. It was pretty euphoric. It was pretty euphoric. We had a lot of fun, and I'm just excited that they're excited. I'm wet all over the place here, but it's really worth it. There's nothing sweeter than victory. Q. You had five players that went into double digits. Just talk about the distribution of the ball on offense. KELLY GRAVES: I thought offensively we were on point tonight. We had a few too many turnovers, as they already talked about, but I thought we had long, drawn-out possessions. I thought in that stretch in the third quarter we started to separate a little bit. They were switching up their defenses, and we were able to hit Lexi Bando a couple times in that corner, and those are big lifts. You know, she can get three at a time, it just makes us a lot tougher to guard because we've got Ruthy inside that demands some attention. We have Sabrina, who can just do a lot with the ball in her hand, and I thought Maite Cazorla tonight was tremendous. She rarely gets the attention she deserves, but she had an excellent game, excellent floor game. Didn't come out I don't think, and just solid at the point. I think that's just kind of how we play. We share the ball, and I think we play the right way. Q. What is it about Oti that you think she's raised her level on the biggest stage to help you guys advance? KELLY GRAVES: Well, she's fearless, won a couple of State championships in high school. She gives us an energy that others don't, and let's face it, we got in some foul trouble inside, so she had to play a little bit. But I completely trust her. She's so versatile and attacks the rebounds with abandon. You know, and her confidence, you can see, her confidence is just rising game in, game out. Q. You guys have shot the three well all year. What were you able to do, especially second half, to open things up for yourself inside? KELLY GRAVES: Well, I think they may have pressed a little bit. They started to pick us up full court, put some pressure on us. That spreads out the defense, and we were able to reverse the ball quickly and find that shooter in the corner. They switched a little bit more to a zone in the second half, and again, tried to trap ball screens, and when you do that on us, we have elite passers, Maite Cazorla and Sabrina are great passers, so they'll find Bando over there. They know where she's at. Q. You talked about experience. Your players talked about experience. Would you say that was the answer, because it seemed like you had an answer for every time Maryland shot a switch, whether they went to full court, whether they went to zone, whether they double-teamed a player. You guys always had an answer. And the second question is do you think that gives you an advantage against a top-ranked team like a UConn or a UCLA or whoever wins today? KELLY GRAVES: Well, you know, the experience thing now, the point is kind of moot because we have three games of experience now in this tournament, like I said, plus a tough, tough Pac-12 schedule. Yeah, I think in our league, if you knew our league, there's different teams, different styles. We've got the teams that slow it down and really focus on defense. We've got the athletic teams that like to push tempo and pressure-defend. So we've kind of seen it all at this point, and now it's just a matter of our players executing, playing smart, and we have really smart players, and it helps to have two elite play makers in Maite and Sabrina who have excelled on an international level. I think we're prepared going in, and my staff does an awesome job. I'm blessed with the best assistant coaches in the world who prepare these guys for game situations. Q. No matter what happens in this game that's being played right now, you're going to have a chance to make some history, either by being the lowest seed to ever make it to the Final Four or a chance to have the type of upset victory over UConn that no one has ever done. No one has ever stopped a streak that long. Have you given yourself a chance to think about that in these moments afterwards, and do you think a team like this, a team on a roll, and a team that doesn't have enough experience to necessarily know what they're doing is the best position to do it? KELLY GRAVES: I don't know. I don't know. You know, we obviously haven't been in this situation. These guys haven't. It's going to take -- either UCLA or UConn, it doesn't matter. It's going to take our absolute best performance of the year to move on. And quite frankly, I haven't really even thought about it yet. I'm kind of taking this win in. Just happy for my team. I truly am. I'm proud of them and just happy for them. I mean, they've worked really hard, and I know, so has Maryland, so has everybody else has worked hard, but this is a really special group, and they're showing that right now. Yeah, I'll enjoy it. Talk to me tomorrow. I might have a different answer for you. Q. One other person that doesn't seem to get enough credit around here is you. You are now the first person to take two double-seeded teams to the Elite 8 in the history of the tournament. Let's talk for a second about you and what you're doing to get these teams prepared and why this doesn't seem to be a problem for you. KELLY GRAVES: Well, I wouldn't say it's not a problem. I mean, you know, I don't know. I think I just have -- I'm able to compartmentalize. I'm able to put things in perspective. I don't really ever get too high or too low, try to keep the kids focused. The one thing I have been able to do over the years, I think this is my ninth or tenth win as a double-digit seed. I think it's just throw out the seeds, who cares, we're a good team. We are a good basketball team, we're in the field, we're a good team. And I always say a good team with nothing to lose is a dangerous team. I think our kids just can play loose because they don't see me uptight. I'm not going to overplay the next opponent's hand, just like we didn't overplay this one. I just think that's what you've got to do. I think kids like the consistency. If you build every team up and they can't play, you start to lose credibility. I think consistency has always been the best medicine. Plus we let them know that we've had success as a lower digit so that they can believe in their coach a little bit. You know, you kind of play on any advantage that you can have. But listen, I've never scored a basket in the NCAA Tournament. It's all about the players. It truly is. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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