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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: LOUISVILLE

March 15, 2018

Louisville, Kentucky

Q. JaVonna, I already talked to you a little bit about playing in Louisville, your hometown, but you're here again. You were here last year. What does it mean to be back on this court with another chance?
JaVONNA LAYFIELD: It means everything. We come here to get the job, try to get a win. That's really what it is. It's not about me playing at home, it's not about me being in front of family. I mean, it's exciting, but at the end of the day, I have a job to do, and that's what we're here to do.

Q. You've had a terrific senior season. What's been the biggest change for your game from the standpoint of rebounding the basketball and what you were able to do this year at 5'10", 5'11"?
JaVONNA LAYFIELD: Just me having confidence in myself, my team having confidence in me, and just pushing myself to the best of my ability. I just found my niche, and just the best I can.

Q. JaVonna, how many people are you expecting to come watch you tomorrow?
JaVONNA LAYFIELD: Probably 30, 33 people, quite a bit.

Q. Jenna or Alex, you've seen some film on Marquette now; what do you see on film?
ALEX HARRIS: As you said, they like to push the pace a little bit. Their main thing is just to get in the paint and that just coincides with our key things, to keep them out of the paint. We don't really have to really change anything.

JENNA BURDETTE: Yeah, they like to run and so do we. I don't think they've faced a team that runs as hard as we do or gets out in transition like we do, so I think that's a good thing for us. I mean, no one really likes to play against pace teams, so it'll be fun.

Q. This question is addressed to all three of you. What's the biggest difference from last year's team to this year's team and sort of being in the same spot, but also sort of some of the same pieces but sort of a different squad?
JENNA BURDETTE: I think this year we just really pulled together and had a tremendous A-10 season. I think it's carried us through to where we are now, and just off the court we're really close, and I think that helps us on the court, just to have good -- I don't know, we just work well together. Chemistry, thank you.

ALEX HARRIS: Like Jenna said, we're very close. Last year we were close, but I believe this year we've grown a lot closer, and age is a big difference. We're kind of veterans that have played on a playing field like this, and we have no pressure.

JaVONNA LAYFIELD: Just what these two just said, I just think that our chemistry on court has grown tremendously in the past year, and we're all great friends, and we just really work well together. We're all veterans, so I think that plays a big part in the difference between last year and this year.

Q. This is a very experienced team. We talked about the seniors being here three years. Do you even have to talk to them about the pressures of playing here, or are they just so used to it you don't have to worry about that?
SHAUNA GREEN: We don't really talk about that in any game, whether it's the A-10 championship or whether it's the NCAA Tournament. I mean, they know. I don't have to tell them what's at stake here. I don't have to tell them really anything about that. They know what's on the line. They know what has to be done. Now it's just a matter of them coming out really, and like I told them today, the main thing that I want to see, I just want us to play as hard as we possibly can play. I want to see us leave everything out there, every ounce of us, just leave it on the floor and have no regrets. Whatever happens, I want to walk off that floor with zero regrets, especially these seniors. I want them to leave it all out there really. We don't have to get into too much about that with this group because they are, they've been here. I mean, two of these seniors have been to the NCAA Tournament three out of their four years, so they are experienced, they know what it's about, and they know what it takes to win here, too, because their freshman year they were part of our Elite 8 team.

We're coming here not just to be happy to be here. We're coming in here with a goal and a task at hand to accomplish.

Q. In the way that Marquette plays, can you look back this season and sort of compare them to a team that you've already played?
SHAUNA GREEN: I mean, they're different than probably any team in our league, but Richmond plays similar to them that we've played more recently. But they're different. They're very athletic. They have a couple -- I mean, they're just a very good team, number one, overall across the board with a really, really good player in Brockton, who was Big East Player of the Year. I have a ton of respect for them and how they play, the pace at which they play, and that's going to be -- it's not -- you can't really simulate that, either, in a practice. Luckily we play really, really fast, so we play against it every day, in terms of what we do. So I don't think that they're that similar to any team in our conference, but like I said, we play like that, too, so it should be an exciting game really for people to watch I would think. It's not going to be a walk-the-ball-up-the-floor type of game, so it should be entertaining.

Q. We already know JaVonna is going to have a good fan club there, but some of those home games toward the end of the season we've had really good crowds at Dayton. Are you expecting a decent crowd, and talk about how that can give you a little bit of an advantage or home-court advantage being so close to Dayton?
SHAUNA GREEN: Yeah, I mean, last year we were down here, and we had a really good crowd, and that was with our men playing the night before, so some people had to choose where they were going. So hopefully with us just playing tomorrow, hopefully we can get a good crowd down here from Dayton, and I would assume it is, only two and a half hours away, so hopefully we'll have a good following. Like you said, our crowds really the last month have been unbelievable, which hopefully that can carry over and to come down here. Last year, too, a lot of Louisville fans stayed for our game, so it was a great atmosphere here, and these guys love their basketball in this town, so I know it's going to be full. Hopefully it'll be full of Louisville fans and then Dayton fans, and hopefully Marquette doesn't travel as much so we can have a full amount of red in here.

Q. And then with the way Tiaera is really developing her rebounding, what added dimensions does that give to the team's balance?
SHAUNA GREEN: It's been huge, and last year she did it at a high level, and this year she's been rebounding at an elite level. When you talk about her being in the top four or five in the country of rebounding at 5'10", which I just -- we just measured ourselves in the hallway, and I am taller than her. I'm six feet, so she's under my size. It's amazing. What she does is amazing at her height. It's really -- I've said it all year, but it's all part -- I can't teach it. I wish I could sit here and say that we taught her it. We didn't. She has an innate ability to pursue the ball, and she has an unbelievable knack for just making a read. We need her to do that at an elite level in order for us to win games, and we're going to need her to do that tomorrow if we're going to win this game.

Q. Obviously you were an assistant when the Flyers made that Elite 8 run. Can you talk about JaVonna and Jenna and their development from then to where they are now?
SHAUNA GREEN: Yeah, it's been night and day. I mean, it feels like longer than four years. It feels like 40 years ago. But you know, Jenna was our starting point guard as a freshman on that team, which is really remarkable, and for how much she's grown on the floor, off the floor, as a basketball player, as a human being, it's just been night and day. She was a little quiet kid that was probably just in awe back then of even playing with Hoover and Ally and all them and starting, and now she's taken this team, and it's her team, and she's the heart and soul of our team. She still doesn't say that much, but she leads by example, and she leads by how she comes out every single day.

And then J didn't even play hardly at all her freshman year, so how she's developed and now into these last two years being a really critical part of our success has been absolutely amazing, and her growth, obviously, as a player, but then I look at her growth as a person has just been -- I mean, we laugh about it. You've got to laugh now because we weren't laughing at the time. She's really grown into an unbelievable person. It's cool to have been able to be here and see their growth, both of them, to this day.

Q. You don't play a deep rotation, but how important will your bench be in a game like this?
SHAUNA GREEN: Yeah, you're right, and that's something that obviously we're used to playing, 40 minutes a game with most of our starters, but this is going to be at a whole 'nother pace, and defensively, as well. So our bench and the couple people that will come off of the bench are going to be big. They need to come in, they need to bring energy, they need to be solid defensively, and they need to be able to manufacture some points. We don't need them to be anything that they're not. We always talk about that, just add some fire, add some energy, but do what you do and be who you are. But we need a little bit of production in terms of offense, and then we need them to be really, really solid in terms of taking care of the basketball and playing defensively very solid.

Q. Is there a benefit to being back here and playing in Louisville for the second time in two years?
SHAUNA GREEN: Yeah, I mean, I looked at it from the positive side of we know. Everything is familiar to us. The arena, we've been here. We have the same locker room, everything we're used to, and I think that that's definitely an advantage. It's not something that we can bus down here, it's not like we've got to get in a plane and fly. I think that definitely helps us.

Last year us losing that game, they know, like I said, this is a veteran team, and yes, we learned a lot, and I had told them two weeks ago after the A-10 Tournament, and we had planned on getting in, getting an at-large, we're happy and we're very excited to be here, but we have business we want to take care of. We're not just happy to be in it. We want to win a game, and all we focus on is one day at a time, so we'll focus on the next game after that, but we want to come here and get the job done and win this game tomorrow.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: LOUISVILLE

March 15, 2018

Shauna Green

Alex Harris

JaVonna Layfield

Jenna Burdette