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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: ALBANYMarch 23, 2018Joanne McCallieAlbany, New York THE MODERATOR: Coach, congratulations on making it to Albany and the regional. Would you give an opening statement, please. JOANNE P. McCALLIE: Yeah, just our team is a special team. It's been an amazing ride thus far. Really had great trip to Athens playing two very, very different teams. Belmont was a very tough team for us for a lot of reasons, because we play from the outside in. Then Georgia was tough in their own right because they played more from the inside out. Then, of course, Connecticut does just a little bit of everything. So we're excited to be here. Got a great group. I'm proud of the team in terms of handling our injuries. We've lost three point guards, Kyra Lambert's out, Haley Gorecki is out, and Mikayla Boykin is out. It was devastating to lose Haley and Mikayla because those came at different times of the year. I also want to say that we are the only team I've ever known to have three graduate students in the Fuqua School of Business at Duke. That is a Top 10 business school. And Bego, Lexie and Becca have had to navigate the waters, an incredible academic experience while being pushed on the court as well. So we've had a lot of interesting challenges this year, and obviously a great challenge of playing the best team in the country by far. But we're excited and happy to be in Albany. Q. If you could talk about the teams you faced being very different. In the UConn game, Saint Francis stayed true to who they are and was a difficult game. Quinnipiac changed their approach to control tempo and kept it competitive. So are you somewhere where you think, listen, this is who we are, but we have to tweak things a little bit? Will that be your approach? JOANNE P. McCALLIE: I think you have to -- I played Connecticut before, I think once beating them. I think I'm 1-9 or something pathetic like that. But I will say that you have to respect the talent and ability of the team you're playing. And I mean respect it properly so you can plan properly. I would never try to run with them. They're basically a WNBA team. Sometimes I wonder if they're getting ready for that season, the way they played this year. No, possessional basketball is incredibly important. To me it's just playing basketball the way it should be played. Move the ball around, look for your best opportunity, and take it and get after it. But certainly I would suspect the ball would have to be in our possession longer in order to be successful against a team with so many great players that can do so many great things. So I'm a coach that believes in doing whatever it takes. We played all man against Belmont. Every minute of that game was man, because we couldn't find these shooters that were everywhere, I mean, just absolutely everywhere. We played match-ups against Georgia for different reasons. I believe you put your student-athletes in a position to be successful, regardless. I think it's important to have a program philosophy. I respect that. But you play to win. You play to win. You play to be successful. You've got to handle that, and best I can tell, possessions are extremely critical. Live ball turnovers might be the stat of the game of this game, live ball turnovers, and certainly rebounding. We rebounded okay in the first couple of games, but nothing to brag about, and I think that will be substantial as well. Q. When Azura transferred, you made remarks critical of UConn accepting transfers. Do you still feel that way? JOANNE P. McCALLIE: I did not make those remarks. That's what the media wrote. Q. So you were misquoted? JOANNE P. McCALLIE: Oh, completely. Completely. Completely. I guess that happens sometimes. All I'll say is I'm very proud of Azura. What she's done is amazing. She's a very, very good player, and she's going to be a big headache for us tomorrow. Q. Can you talk a bit about how her game has evolved over the last couple years? JOANNE P. McCALLIE: Oh, gosh, stronger. She just works hard on her game. She's a very committed student-athlete. What I can see from film and that type of thing is her inside game. Her presence on the inside, what she's doing now in terms of paint points and paint opportunities is very, very significant, not to mention her defensive presence. She's a special, special player. She's doing a very hard thing. It's hard to be new in any program, and I think it's hard to be new in a program with such great stature. Q. Can you address what you've gotten out of Odom in the postseason. She's averaged about ten points a game during the regular season. She's over 20 during the NCAA Tournament. Where has she shown the most growth? JOANNE P. McCALLIE: Nay is again, sophomore, developing, getting better and better by every game. I think she's beginning to understand how she can control the game at times with her shot selection, with her rebounding, with her defense. I think it's just a matter of experience. She's constantly gaining more experience. She plays with a great deal of confidence. And I think at times she's deferred a little bit in a way that's not good to players like Lexie and Becca, and I think she's learned that's not a good idea. If we're going to play at the highest level, everyone's got to bring their A-game, their specialty, bring what they can do. And I think that's what she's really getting into is bringing what she can do. I'm excited for her, because she's very, very athletic, and might be one of the most athletic players in the country. Certainly you'd have to argue she was in that category. Q. You talked about how you have three grad students on the team and how impressed you are with them. How about as players, how much does it help you to have a back court that has that much experience as well as talent? JOANNE P. McCALLIE: Oh, they're terrific. Fifth-years -- the thing about it that's interesting is Becca is the true fifth-year. She's been in our program that long. And she's gotten better every single year, whether she's coming off the pass, off the bounce, or defense or rebounding. When we're at our best, Becca is rebounding. She's a terrific rebounding guard. So to coach her and be with her all of the years has been phenomenal and just an amazing experience because of her competitive nature. You feel a little bit cheated with Lexie, because as she came in, you had the sit out year. This is really only her sophomore year relative to playing in our program. So you feel like, oh, you get pretty excited about it. We've tried to -- she's been amazing in terms of what she's done in such a short period of time. I'm really struck by her beating Alana Beard's single season steal record, because we all know who Alana Beard is, and that's pretty impressive for her to be the kind of All-American who plays on both sides of the ball like Lexie does. So, yes, I've been spoiled with some tremendous back court mates, Splish-Splash, whatever they call them, that's a media thing. But to me they're just really two good players and they work very, very hard, and they're both competitive. I know they're going to be ultimately challenged. Connecticut defense is not talked about as much as it should be because there are so many other things to talk about. It's a terrific defense, and it's going to be a big problem. The way they go after Lexie and Becca, trapping, denying, things of that nature. So we're going to have to be very patient, and Lexie and Becca are going to have to be patient too and allow us to work things a little bit and not try to force things, because the defense is excellent. Q. As a basketball fan, how fun would it be to be at this regional given the schools that are here and seeing the match-ups that we see? JOANNE P. McCALLIE: Oh, gosh, I'm sort of partial to women's basketball overall. I think it's a fantastic time of year in women's basketball, and there are so many great teams. I have to give a shout out to Felisha at Buffalo because she was one of my assistant coaches back in the day. She helped recruit the team that we went to the Final Four with at Michigan State. So to see Buffalo get here under Felisha's leadership has been a remarkable thing. I've just been talking to her the whole time, and here we are at the same regional. I was kind of hoping I'd bump into her, but I guess we have different schedules. South Carolina has recently been so fabulous, they won their title, and it's just amazing what they've done. Of course Connecticut's the best there's ever been. So it's an interesting regional. I just think for a lot of reasons people would want to come out and see the games and support women's basketball. Q. This might be a bit of a reach. I know it's a different year and different players, but can you look at, say, tape from last year's Mississippi State-UConn game and say, you know, with the talent we have, here are a couple things that they did, we might be able to exploit these types of things? JOANNE P. McCALLIE: Fair question. Tough answer for me because we can't create what they created. The full-court pressure that they created is a very good thing and something that is pretty important, I think, if you're going to be successful against Connecticut. Just that sheer, in-your-body pressure. The taller player, I'm forgetting her name right now, the center for Mississippi State, having that kind of height to be a presence around the rim, there are some really key qualities there. Vic is an amazing coach, and he's done incredible things. If you look at his journey from what happened to -- I mean, it's an incredible story, really. I think I couldn't look at that film and totally get a lot relative to things that we do. Some ideas, yes. What's evident when you talk to anybody that's been successful against Connecticut ever, and it's a pretty small club by the way -- talking to Tara or Vic, it all goes back to turnovers, possessions, ball control, playing precisely. That's obviously a very important piece of it. To their credit they try to get you out of that, and they run and do the things that they do. You know, it's great for women's basketball to have that level of excellence. It really is. It takes it to another level. I know the whole John Wooden thing and all the championships and all that. But I think it makes people see what the game can be at the highest level. I think for the rest of us, you're motivated by that to see how you can keep chipping away. I'm sure Vic in that first meeting never thought he'd beat Connecticut, right? I got to believe that's what he was thinking at that time. So my point being that it's really, really -- you can't have the moments that we had last year, that incredible game, you can't have those kind of moments without a team being superior and dominant, and that's exactly what's happened. Of course Connecticut continues to be and they have been this year, and nobody's really done much of anything against them this year. I mean, that's what makes those moments possible. I think fans get excited about that. I think it's great for women's basketball. For us it's the ultimate challenge for us. We've got to really come together with a special team game. Q. This is 25 straight years for UConn in the regionals. How impressive is that? Is it good or bad for women's basketball if they're so dominant? JOANNE P. McCALLIE: Well, that's incredibly impressive. Not really surprising, but very, very impressive just because their success has been so extraordinary. I think it's excellent for women's basketball. I think the only thing we have trouble with is where we play, the neutral court versus the home court versus the regional. Because we've got to draw fans. I think eventually that would be the next step. Our tournament is being more neutral where we play. But right now we've been trying to grow that, and that hasn't totally happened yet. But I think it's pretty extraordinary what they've done. Again, I'm not surprised. I've seen Connecticut through the years. Even when I was at Maine we played the team that made their first run. I thought we did well in that game, FYI, by the way, for the record, way back in that Maine game. I was also part of -- I saw the beginning of Connecticut when I was at Auburn. Auburn years ago -- years ago Auburn came up to play, and that was before Connecticut was really hitting the scene, and we lost that game. It was a very big game. It was prior to all the big stuff that Connecticut did. So I've kind of seen this and been able to witness this whole thing. It's remarkable. Again, there is no question it's great for women's basketball. That would be a very odd belief system. The better you are, the better things are, the more challenge there is, the more competition, the more you're trying to aspire to the higher level, yeah, that's better. That's certainly better in life. It's something you welcome. I mean, it's just something you welcome is to get that opportunity to play against that kind of team. I guess I answered your question. Yes, pretty impressive. I'm sure they'll do many impressive things in the future. Q. I was there when you showed up at Auburn to do your interview and did it when they were in the Final Four. JOANNE P. McCALLIE: That's right. Gosh, Mel, we're getting old, man. We're getting so old. Q. You just talked about the neutral court, the home court. Do you favor what Debbie Antonelli has been pushing about playing a whole Sweet Sixteen out in Las Vegas? JOANNE P. McCALLIE: Well, I don't know. Gosh, I'm not a Vegas girl. I don't know much about Vegas. But I will say it's hard because when you can get the amount of fans that will be here tomorrow, how do you walk away from that? That's a really, really good thing. But ultimately you'd want to be on neutral something. I don't know if it's Vegas. I don't know if it's Tampa. I don't know what it is. But ultimately you'd like to do that because that's where the equal opportunity comes in. Excellence is excellence, and there is no argument to the excellence, but that's where it gets a little bit tough is the environment. I don't know when women's basketball is ready to move to that, and there's been a lot of discussions about that. Perhaps they will, and I think that would probably make the ultimate tournament to have that kind of setting. If we could draw the fans, get the support, and forward women's basketball from that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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