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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 2, 2018Kenny BrooksRegan MagarityTaylor EmeryGreensboro, North Carolina Louisville 73, Virginia Tech 70 KENNY BROOKS: Obviously we're very disappointed, very proud of my kids. I thought they played hard enough and well enough to win the basketball game but I guess you need a couple breaks to go your way in situations like this. We just didn't get them. But they gave a great effort. We talked about the fact that we're building something, and I think we definitely can build it off of effort like this. These two kids to my left, played their hearts out, left it out there and I'm extremely proud of their effort, watching them grow up the last two games, it's been a lot of fun. So disappointed but I thought we gave them everything that they could handle. Just disappointed. Q. You're up at halftime, only down by a point with six minutes to go. What do you take away from this game? What's kind of your mood as you leave this game here? MODERATOR: Taylor, let's start with you. TAYLOR EMERY: It shows how good we really are. We've had some ups and downs this season, but we can hang with the top in the league, and I think we are one of the top teams. We just didn't show it throughout the entire season. We hit a lot of adversity. We lost a lot of people trying to find our new identities, but the way we played tonight, I think we are going to be very dangerous in the future. REGAN MAGARITY: We're obviously very disappointed, but I think it showed how hard we fought. We just had some mental mistakes throughout a stretch of the game. But the girls, we fought really hard, and I think we had the right intent. It just didn't all show and it didn't come up our way. Q. You had an incredible three-point shooting performance in the first half out of the team. What happened in the second half? Was it more of Louisville identifying the shooters or any changes that happened in there? KENNY BROOKS: I'm not sure. They did put more pressure on us in the perimeter and we were just really trying to take what the defense gave us. We were not really trying to hunt the three point shot specifically but we were kind of taking what they gave us. Throughout the first half, we hit some -- because they were backing off of us, but they did a much better job. They kind of face guarded our shooters and kind of made it tough for us to really get free like we really wanted to. But I thought we did a good job of taking what they gave us. As Regan mentioned, we just had a couple spurts. It wasn't one, it wasn't two, like maybe three or four where we just lost them and they kind of got off to a good lead, a stretch where they scored in bunches. But again, great effort. I thought the kid did a good job of executing the game plan. Q. Having that halftime lead, obviously third quarter, they took the lead back. Were they defending you guys any differently? Were their legs starting to go because you played yesterday and they didn't? What was kind of the difference in the third quarter when they took the game back? AMY YAKOLA: Taylor, let's start with you. TAYLOR EMERY: I think it was mostly us. I mean, they did pressure us a little bit more but I think we just lost our focus. We weren't exactly ready on defense, and that's when they started coming at us, and on offense, we weren't going at them and it worked in their favor. Q. Coach, you held Asia to a pretty miserable shooting performance. What was your game plan going in to defend her and how do you think you executed it? KENNY BROOKS: Have fun with it. We know she's going to score. I mean, she's a terrific player. Player of the Year for a reason. We played them at their place and the first five, ten minutes we played them, I thought I was watching Michael Jordan. She just went off and hit shots in a variety of ways. I think when you try to go out and guard a player of that talent, you can't try to shut them down. You've just got to go out there and try to make everything as difficult as you can, be there, make sure she understands that you're there every time she shoots it and you're contesting her shot, whether she makes it or whether she doesn't. I thought Rachel Camp did a tremendous job all night, because she chased her the whole night. Rachel did a tremendous job because she chased her the whole night. She came out there, she ran her offense, she scored, she rebounded, she did so many different things. I think Rachel will be the first one to tell you that she doesn't think she did it by herself. When Asia got free a little bit, we had somebody else running at her, and I thought we did a good job of just kind of making sure she knew we were there. Q. A few minutes earlier, Coach Walz indicated that he thought you all were a tournament team and he basically played for you all to be included in the tournament. Your resumé on that, what do you think about those words? KENNY BROOKS: Well, obviously, they are flattering, coming from somebody of his his magnitude. But I definitely think that we are a tournament team. I don't know if the Selection Committee will say we have "the resumé," but we are a tournament team and kind of what we've done all year long, but especially the last few games, where we had to -- we had someone who really dominated the ball for us for probably 30 minutes a game, and then all of a sudden, we had to go without that. And if you look at my roster right now, we don't have a point guard on my roster and we're playing and Regan has done a tremendous job and Rachel has done a tremendous job and we've thrown Shepp in there a little bit and Taylor has even brought the ball down a little bit. I think if we got in the Tournament, we would be capable of winning games, so I think that makes you a tournament team, tournament-calibre team. I just don't know what the committee looks for. I thought we did a good job of going out and when you can come out, I think our strength of schedule was like one of the top 40 in the country and we've done a good job of playing. We just happened to play in, by far, the best conference in the country and night-in, night-out, everything's a battle. You go through some adversity, you don't have a reprieve. You don't have a breather, but you can say, okay, well, we go get two right here. Everything is really difficult. The fact that we had to reinvent ourselves at such a late stage in the season, and we did it and we came through, and you know, you could arguably say we are playing our best basketball right now and I think that we could go in and make some noise. I just don't know what they look for. I've been on this -- on the other end of it far too many times when I was at James Madison, and I had a selection committee member tell us one time, we were there and we were 29-3 and she told us after the fact that if we didn't win the tournament, we weren't in. So at that point, I don't know what they look for. So I think we're worthy. I just don't know what they look for, but we would love an invite and we would go and I think we could be that tenth team, that ninth team, that could be a member from the ACC. Q. For the players, obviously first half, you guys had the lead. What did you like about your play offensively and defensively in the first half? REGAN MAGARITY: I think we did a really good job defensively of helping each other. As Coach said, Rachel did a good job on each other. We were just on the same page, and then offensively, we had a good flow. We were hitting open shots. We were having fun. So it was just playing together and enjoying the moment. TAYLOR EMERY: I mean, yeah, to what Regan said, we flowed really well offensively and defensively and we really had our minds into it the entire game. Q. If it not the NCAA Tournament and it is the WNIT, how important would it be to make a postseason tournament and continue to build what you're trying to build here? KENNY BROOKS: Last year was important for our program, obviously No. 1, for notoriety. The first year, me being here and just trying it continue the postseason or get to the postseason. And it was a way to honor our seniors that we had. They were very dynamic seniors. I was very appreciative of their efforts and we want to try to continue it as long as we could. I think we made it to the quarterfinals of the WNIT which was very important for us. We used that in recruiting. If it not the NCAA this year, I think the WNIT would be very important because we have this whole group back. We have the whole group back and for them to gain some valuable experience and continuing on, because I think we're learning right now how it play with each other, how to win and develop that winning attitude. And so for different reasons, I think it would be very important for us to continue on, have some success in the WNIT if that is the case. But you know, it would be disappointing in a sense because we feel like our goal is the NCAA, and I don't want to discredit anyone else or try to make it sound like that someone else is not worthy. But I've just got to think that we've played in a lot of different conferences right now, Power Five conferences, we could be a tournament team because there's just so many good teams in our league right now and we just happen to be on the outside of that bubble, but we'll continue to fight. And I think the WNIT, if that is the case, will help strengthen us and get some valuable experience to that next year at this time, we can position ourselves. Because if you look at our resumé, and I think we talked about resumé earlier, we lose to Virginia by two and we had to leave with one minute. We get that win, our resumé is tremendous right now. We lose to Miami at home by I think it was two points. We go on the road, we play at Wake Forest and nothing against that game, but I don't think Regan practiced before that game. She had an IV before the game; we had so many different things, and that's the adversity we talked about. I think we're one or two games away from definitely solidifying a place in the NCAA Tournament. So just a little bit disappointing because we know we're worthy but whatever the case will go, we'll go and we'll fight and we'll prepare and we'll get better. Q. You're down by a point with six minutes to go and you actually have the ball at that point. Did they do certain things better than you down the stretch or what did you kind of think of your play in the last six minutes there? KENNY BROOKS: Well, I think you would even go further than that. I think we had the ball down one with a lot less time than that. And -- or even three. I think Rachel probably passed up a three-point shot that I wish she had of taken with a minute -- a minute and some change to go because I thought she could have really knocked that down. Down four, and Taylor gets a shot over on the wing. And so we had -- we had opportunities, and I thought -- I'm very proud of their effort down the stretch because although it wasn't perfect, we had perfect intent. We had a couple -- we had a bad bad stretch where we were down I think one or so and we turned it over a couple times and they got some points off of that and I think it ballooned to seven. But we never hung our heads and we fought back and got back in it to the point where we had a chance. It could have gone the other way but they did a great job all year long of just continuing and persevering through rough times. So I was proud of the way we played down the stretch. And again, you look at the situation, and sometimes you can get away with it in some leagues but this league is so good, and to try to do what they are doing, all of us, all of us, without a point guard, you know, without a point guard right now and the way that they have all slid over a point, I'm very proud of them, because they could have said -- they could have tanked it. They could have said, things aren't right, they don't feel right but I have watched them grow tremendously over the last few games and I'm very, very proud of them. AMY YAKOLA: Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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