|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: SPOKANEMarch 23, 2018Muffet McGrawArike OgunbowaleJessica ShepardSpokane, Washington THE MODERATOR: We'll get going here today with Notre Dame. We're joined by head coach Muffet McGraw. At this time I'll open up the floor for questions for coach. Q. Can you talk about Chennedy Carter, what you see looking at film, how she's changed from early in the year maybe till now? MUFFET McGRAW: She's a phenomenal player. I remember watching her on the USA team. She has really transformed her body. I think she looks terrific. She single-handedly won the DePaul game, great play at the end of the game. She's really hard to guard because she can put it on the floor, get it to the rim, pass, she can score from just about anywhere on the floor. She's really, really dangerous. I think she's going to be a huge challenge for us. Q. How is Kathryn's ankle? How has she recovered from playing as much as she did in the second-round game? MUFFET McGRAW: She's been in a boot all week. She's not expected to do much today. She'll be another game-time decision. Q. How have you been able to persevere through all the injuries and things this year? MUFFET McGRAW: You know, it's been a challenge. I think basketball is a great way to teach your team about life lessons. These are some life lessons that they're going to need, that are going to help them for the rest of their lives. You're going to hit adversity, there's going to be bumps in the road along your life, no matter what you do. How you handle it determines a lot about your character, how you can move on. I think they've handled it really well. There's been some difficult situations come up. They've persevered. They haven't let it get them down. I think they've been knocked down a couple of times. They keep getting back up. They've really stayed together as a unit. Q. Have you had to change the way you practice to keep girls fresh? Do you do anything different to avoid foul trouble? MUFFET McGRAW: Practice has been different. That's the hardest thing, when we lost Lili first game of the ACC that put us at seven players. We had the entire conference season to go through. We looked at some things that we could do differently. We definitely practiced shorter, tried to be intense, try to go for an hour and 10 minutes. Any time somebody was in a collision, we'd panic a little bit. After practice, when somebody would say, how was practice, we would say nobody got hurt, it was a great day. We changed a lot of things. Sometimes it hurt us a little bit. It was stressful to try to manage their legs, make sure that we were getting enough reps, but not too many so we got tired. That was a challenge, I think probably the biggest challenge. We've really talked about how we had to be smart and not foul. It's hard for competitive women to let somebody score on them. That's what we had to work on, was their times when you just got to get up the shot, the layups, whatever it was, especially early in the game, and just be okay with that. That was a challenge for some of them. Not so much for others, but for some of them, they really hated to get scored on. Just being a little bit smarter, just getting out of the way, and wait until the second half to be a little more aggressive, so we would do different things in the second half depending on the foul trouble. Q. When you saw A&M in the Sweet 16, did you at any point think back to the 2011 matchup? MUFFET McGRAW: Yeah, it's hard not to. That was a tough one for us. Nobody is the same. None of our players thought of it at all. Some of our coaches of course thought about it. But just another opportunity for us to face a really good team. Q. Could you talk about the fact that in your coaching career you've been there and done that when it comes to playing with injured players. Talk about what that experience has lended as far as how to handle this situation. MUFFET McGRAW: I think it was great for us to be able to look back at the '97 team and see what we did at the end of the season. But the difference in that team was people would get hurt and then come back. We had a broken thumb; she came back a month later. We had somebody go down in the Big East Tournament, which was very close to the end of the season. We didn't really get down to seven till the very end of the season. This was a little more difficult in having to manage it throughout the year. We only talked about the positives, we didn't talk about the timing of it. We talked about, we've done it before, we've been there with seven, we can do it again. Q. You touched on Carter. They're not very deep as you are. What do you see as maybe a couple keys for the game tomorrow? MUFFET McGRAW: Well, I think Carter is clearly their best player. But I love Howard. I love the energy she brings. I think she's the heart and soul of their team. Fantastic rebounder, one of the best rebounders I've ever seen. I just love the energy she brings to the game. She's relentless on the boards. She is just somebody that will not be denied. She can will them to victory. She's going to make big play after big play. I really think she is probably the key to the game. Q. You once recruited out this way back in the late '90s. What do you remember about recruiting Kari Hutchinson, somebody from such a small school, gauge where she was from a competitive standpoint? MUFFET McGRAW: Yeah, she was a great player. We didn't come west that often back then. It seemed like a long way from home when you didn't have the ability to be in touch with your parents as much. She was a great Notre Dame kid. I thought she fit in well with what we did. Great family. Loved coming out to Spokane to visit with her. It's a beautiful area. Glad to see the sun shining today so we can really enjoy it. Q. I know South Carolina wasn't thrilled to be the 2 seed in UConn's region. When the bracket came out, were you pleased to come out west as the No. 1? MUFFET McGRAW: You know, I will say I'm never pleased because you look at it and say, Wow, it's going to be a tough region. We thought we would go west. We also thought we could be a No. 2 seed somewhere else. I think we have not been west in a while. It's kind of our turn to go out west. We were probably the fourth overall No. 1 seed, we were going to go the furthest away. It's a tough region. Everywhere is a tough region by the time you get to Sweet 16. Everybody is good. It's a little bit more travel, but it is what it is. Q. Do you stay in touch with Kari? MUFFET McGRAW: You know, not as much. She hasn't been back to campus. Really it's been a while since she's been back to campus. We haven't been out here for quite a while. But big events. Haven't really seen her back on campus much. Hoping to see her family. Q. Could I get your thoughts on an upset, like Buffalo, Central Michigan, what does that do for the women's game? MUFFET McGRAW: I think it's great for the game. I think it is so exciting. I think the MAC was a little underrated this year. I think both teams were 11 seeds, their conference was ranked sixth in the RPI just behind the power five. I thought they probably had something to prove. I know both coaches pretty well. Very happy for both of them. It's fun to see that in the women's game, just getting a little bit more like the men's game. We're approaching parity, maybe not so much at the very top, but certainly throughout the rest of the tournament. I think it's exciting. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. We are joined by Notre Dame student-athletes. At this time we'll open it up for questions to the floor. Q. Arike, could you talk about your matchup with Chennedy Carter. ARIKE OGUNBOWALE: I wouldn't say it's a matchup with me and Chennedy. It's Texas A&M versus Notre Dame. We have to play team basketball and they have to play team basketball. And just the best team wins. Q. (No microphone.) ARIKE OGUNBOWALE: She's a great player. She can take over the game whenever she wants. We have to be focused on her as a team. We all have to know where she is at all times. Q. For both of you, how difficult is the idea that because you have so few players right now because of injuries that sometimes you have to give up layups, avoiding foul situations? How much of a challenge has that been this year to I guess play in that sort of style? JESSICA SHEPARD: I think for us it's not really necessarily looking at it like we can't give up a foul here and there. It's playing the principles that the coaches have taught us every day at practice. Just being smarter about it. I think everybody on this team has done a great job of it. I think for us it's not looking at we don't have a sub; it's looking at what we can do while we're on the court. ARIKE OGUNBOWALE: I agree with her. I mean, we have to of course play smart. Then again, we don't have to play soft. We have to keep being aggressive. If we do pick up fouls because we're being aggressive and smart, then that's going to happen. I think we have enough smart players on the team to know we can't get too many fouls. Q. Jessica, on film when you look at A&M's inside play, what sticks out to you? JESSICA SHEPARD: Yeah, I mean, I think Texas A&M is a great team. They have good outside players, good inside players. But they have a big, physical post player. For us, it's just going to be kind of like Arike said, focusing on what we can do, just going into the game focused on what we can do, how we can stop them defensively. Q. You have traveled all the way out here to Spokane. It's your first two games on the road. How has that changed your preparation for this week? ARIKE OGUNBOWALE: I don't think it's changed anything. I mean, we've had many road games. We just came from the ACC tournament. Even though we had two games for the first and second rounds, we're used to on-the-road games. So is nothing different. Q. Jessica, you played the toughest schedule in the country. How do you feel that prepared you for the NCAA tournament? JESSICA SHEPARD: I mean, I think for us, it's prepared us definitely. But I think going into every game now you know you're going to get every team's best shot. If you lose, you're out. I think for us, it's just focusing on what we can do. Post-season is a completely different season than what we did in the regular season. Q. You play for a Hall of Fame head coach. What is that experience like for both of you? JESSICA SHEPARD: I think for us, all of us, every day at practice, just to go in knowing that we have the best coach in the country, a Hall of Famer, is something special that we don't take for granted. I think just to learn from somebody that knows so much about basketball, just also what she does off the court for us. It's a blessing. ARIKE OGUNBOWALE: Yeah, I think it's important to focus on, like Jess said, the off-the-court stuff. A lot of coaches can give you on-the-court insights to everything. But being able to learn life lessons from your basketball coach for off-the-court stuff, and graduate, becoming women and all that. I think it's just helpful. It's just amazing to be able to have her there with us every day. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|