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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: SPOKANEMarch 23, 2018Kelly GravesSabrina IonescuRuthy HebardMaite CazorlaSpokane, Washington THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Oregon head coach. Questions for coach, please. Q. (No microphone.) KELLY GRAVES: Yeah, a little disappointed we couldn't get out yesterday, but those kind of things happen. I reminded our team and sent them a little text today about our core values and principles. Number one on that list is we choose to be positive (smiling). So we were positive about it and got here. I was just hoping to get here last night so I could visit with friends and things like that, being back. But, no, it was all good. Those things happen. Q. What is it like being back in Spokane? They were shouting you out on the news last night. You're a pretty popular guy here. KELLY GRAVES: Yeah, coaches come in terms of their popularity and go. Depends on the outcome of the previous night's game. It feels great to be here, honestly. I went for a great walk down along the river, through the Gonzaga campus this morning, remember how beautiful this place is. I loved my time here, 14 years. It was all during the time my kids were growing up. We made some of our very best friends here. Yeah, it was special. I know it's not about me this week, it's about my team. But I was really hoping we would draw the Spokane regional, and indeed we did. Q. In watching the Central Michigan game, I noticed not only did they hit 14 threes, but their big hit a number of them. What kind of challenge does that present for you guys defensively? What would Ruthy's responsibility be on that defense? KELLY GRAVES: That's what makes them so formidable, they can put five players on the floor that can make threes. They're an 11 seed, but it's in number only. This is a much better team than that. They've obviously shown that. Yeah, I mean, Ruthy, she's capable of playing a guard. We've switched defenses enough this year where she's had to play that position on a smaller player if need be. Yeah, I mean, this is a formidable team. We're going to have to be on point, not just Ruthy, but everybody. What I love about Moore inside is she's inside-out. You can't lose her. Two-time Player of the Year for a reason. Yeah, we've got our work cut out for us. I think that's going to be a key matchup tomorrow, Ruthy and Moore. Q. They rely heavily on their starters. The two people coming off the bench played a total of 10 combined minutes against Ohio State. How does that affect the game plan? Is there any thought to kind of trying to tire them out? KELLY GRAVES: Well, I think at this point in the season, you kind of are who you are. We're not changing. We might tweak the game plan a little bit, try to focus in this area or that area. But we're not going to change the style with which we play. I think we're difficult to play against if you don't have a bench, only because we make you defend. We get up and down the floor okay, but I think in the halfcourt, we make you guard. We try to get it to the third and fourth side of the floor. I think over the course of a 40-minute game, that can be difficult. They've obviously proven they can do it. They won two great games in Columbus playing a limited bench, so... I think at this point in the season, the adrenaline is also going to help. I don't know if the conditioning is going to be much of a factor either way. Q. Ever since the home game against UCLA you won, shooting numbers are way up. Is this a factor for that? KELLY GRAVES: Lexi Bando. Truly, with having Lexi out there, that gives us four shooters on the perimeter. Before you could maybe play off one of our players at that four spot. Satou, they could put their best defender on Satou out there in terms of somebody who is going to be spotting up. Now they can't do that with Bando back. That means Satou is getting a little bit more room to get those looks. Plus she's a freshman. Freshmen continue to get better and better and better. That's what she's doing. Her confidence right now is really high. I think she could be an X factor for us not only tomorrow but hopefully beyond. Q. It's not only a return to Spokane for you, but for Oti, as well. How excited has she been to come here? What has her role been? Because of the plane, you missed a food gathering at her parents' house? KELLY GRAVES: Yeah, and I've eaten there before. It's impressive. I knew they had a big old slab of ribs ready for the team last night. Yeah, she was disappointed because I think she was really excited to go home and show off her family to the team and everything. In these parts, Oti is a really popular player only -- not only, but because she was a successful player, two state championships at Gonzaga Prep, two undefeated seasons, but she is just a well-liked person, just a competitor, great personality, an awesome teammate. What I'm really proud of Oti is she's in our student-athlete leadership. She has really developed into just a strong, confident woman. As a player, man, I'm telling you, she gives us a lift. We kind of kid with her Miss March. She had a great March last year. She's already had a good start this year. We hope that continues. We need that spark. Q. You were an 11 seed in this position before. What advice would you give to an 11 seed that's playing in a regional semifinal? KELLY GRAVES: Well, I'm not going to say (smiling). You know, I think I would say the same thing I would say to anybody else. Just play, be who you are. I don't think at this point it helps anybody to change or to add new things or anything like that. I think at this point pretty much every team has seen everything. They're not running anything tomorrow that we haven't seen before. I think just kind of be yourself, have fun with it. I think at this point in the season, just having fun and enjoying the experience is important. But, you know, I've been fortunate to be in this position before. I've had the team prepped for this. We're not looking at a seed, that's for sure. I think my teams have been fortunate enough to win nine games in this tournament as a double-digit seed. I'm not sure anybody else can say that. We've been in the position before, yeah. Q. Being back in the place you coached at for 14 years, I'm sure you've had a lot of people reaching out to you. How many texts have you gotten? Have any stood out to you? KELLY GRAVES: No more than normal. I think, you know, my friends usually text after every game anyway. It's not just because they're here. I think most who know me and know me well enough to be texting know that, you know, this is a business trip. That's why I was really hoping to get here yesterday, because the day before the game and the day of the game, you know, my friends know not to really hang around too much. I stay pretty focused on the task at hand. No, this means a lot to me personally, it really does. I love Spokane. I loved Gonzaga. I'm proud to have been the Zag coach for 14 years. I tweeted out today, one of my fondest memories right here, seven years ago. We made that run to the Elite 8. It happened right here in Spokane, so that was special. Q. Going off that experience of being on the other side, is it any different now that you're kind of expected to get to this point? KELLY GRAVES: No. You know, not internally. Externally, people may be predicting we're going to do this, we're going to do that. Internally, wait till you see the three up here, if you come watch us practice, we're the same loose team we've been all year. I haven't noticed anything different in how we're going about things this year as we did last year. This is just a fun group to be around. They're very loose, so... No, I think the external pressures are different, but we try not to let that affect our team. Q. You talked about fond memories here in Spokane, Gonzaga. What do you think of the job that Lisa has done, being an assistant while you were here in Spokane? KELLY GRAVES: She's been great. Just picked up right where we left off. She was part of the success before. I think she had been on my staff for seven or eight years prior. As I get older, I kind of forget those kind of details. A long time, she helped build it. She's just taking it over. They continue to do great. They're recruiting well. She obviously is a great coach and has an awesome staff. Gonzaga supports women's basketball, you know, as much as anybody in the country. I'm really proud of her. I think it's great. She's still a young coach. She's got a bright future. Q. I know you loved playing at Matthew Knight last weekend, home-court advantage. We talked to people here in Spokane who say they plan on becoming Ducks fans this weekend. How big an advantage would that be, to almost have a second home court this weekend? KELLY GRAVES: Yeah, well, I sure hope that the Spokane fans come out in force, yeah, cheer for the Ducks. Why not? We're a Northwest school. I'm sure if they didn't go to the school themselves, they know people who did, have friends whose kids went there. It's a popular school in the Northwest. I think any time you have a crowd cheering for you it's a positive. It's human nature to root for the underdog. Right now Central Michigan would be considered the underdog - not in my view - but in terms of the seed and maybe nationally. Yeah, so, come on Zag fans, let's cheer for those Ducks. Q. There's not the chaos on the women's side that the men's bracket has, but how important is it for there to be two 11 seeds in the Sweet 16? You say you're not the underdog, but to have some sort of parity in women's basketball? KELLY GRAVES: Again, I think it's great. I think it's good for our team. Think one of the knocks for years in the women's game would be, especially with the top four seeds hosting, maybe 15 or even 16 of those top-seeded teams move on. There wasn't a whole lot of drama in the early rounds. That's what makes the men's tournament so special. So, yeah, I think it's great. Again, you guys, listen, I've seen I don't know how many games of Central Michigan, these guys can play. They actually remind me a lot of our Zag teams in the past. They can play fast, they can all score, they play good defense, they play really hard, they play with a high IQ, they have great leadership. I think Coach Guevara is a good coach. I think this is good for everybody. Hopefully it's not good for them tomorrow, but it's pretty neat what they've done, that whole league. THE MODERATOR: Thank you for your time, coach. Good luck tomorrow. KELLY GRAVES: Thank you. THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by Oregon student-athletes. Questions, please. Q. Sabrina, I know you have had some plane issues yesterday, but what have the last 24 hours been like? What have you been doing? Just hanging out in Eugene? SABRINA IONESCU: Yeah, we've just been hanging out in Eugene. We came back from the airport when we had to deboard the plane. We hung around for a few hours, then found out we were going to come back here in the morning. So slept for the few hours that we were able to, and got back here. But, I mean, we're excited to be here. The hotel is nice. The beds were amazing. We're just excited to be here. It's just going to be a fun experience for us regardless of the plane issues. We got here. Q. Sabrina, I heard you got some advice from Courtney Vandersloot and John Stockton during your trip to the great state of Washington. What kind of wisdom did they share with you? SABRINA IONESCU: I think Courtney talked to us as a team, I talked to her a little bit. Just to keep working hard, take the criticism Kelly gives me, because he gave it to her, as well. Then John actually is probably one of my favorite players of all time. I was looking for him in the stands before the game started, trying to find him. I hope he comes out, you know, this weekend (smiling). But he didn't talk too much about basketball. He's pretty down-to-earth, just talked to me and said he watched our team, liked how we played. I hope he continues to like how we play, because I'd love to see him there tomorrow. Let him know. Q. Ruthy, what has Kelly's main focal message been about this Central Michigan team? RUTHY HEBARD: They're a super good team. We were the lower seed that came up last year and upset a few really good top seeds. We need to stay focused. They're really good at shooting the three, as we saw in their last game. Just keeping up this good defense and playing our game offensively. Q. Sabrina, the scouting report on you guys is you're so difficult to defend because all five starters are in double figures. Central Michigan, they're able to do the same. How difficult is that to defend? SABRINA IONESCU: I think the Pac-12 has prepared us for that. We play teams every night that have a lot of players in double figures. We know that they're a transition team. They like to get out there in transition. They shoot the ball well. They have a good inside presence. But I think us being a team like that, we play against that in practice every day. I think that is going to help us coming into tomorrow and defending a team like that. We're going to have to use our length. They're shorter and quicker than we are. We're going to have to use our length and play them to their weakness. Q. Ruthy, you and Moore are probably going to be matched up on Saturday. What do you see in her game? What kind of challenges does she pose? RUTHY HEBARD: She's definitely a great post player. She was one of the best ones in her conference, I heard. I watched a little film. She has a really good shot outside. I'm definitely going to have to (indiscernible) out this whole time, be physical, hope my size will do me well on Saturday. Q. Being the local team, other than maybe John Stockton, what are you looking to see from the fans this weekend? MAITE CAZORLA: I hope all Kelly's fans come here and support us. I think we're really excited to play. We're looking forward to tomorrow. RUTHY HEBARD: I'm looking forward to it. Oti is from here. It's going to be great to see her family in the stands, other teammates. Being home for Kelly is going to be great. I feel like a lot of Zag fans will be here wearing Oregon colors. I can't wait to play. SABRINA IONESCU: They said it all. I hope Kelly's people come out to support him. I know he left a legacy in this town. I hope they come out and support him. A lot of our families are making the trip, are going to be there. I hope people from Eugene come down and support us, as well. It's a fun time. I think we have an exciting weekend. Q. Sabrina, we've talked a lot about their starters, how big of an impact they have. How big of an advantage is it that you have the starters but you also have an incredibly deep bench who has played some NCAA minutes already this year? SABRINA IONESCU: Yeah, I mean, our bench has played well. I think as well as they've ever played, especially at this point. They came in those last two games and really had key minutes for us, played well, definitely helped us rest, as well. I think it's going to be definitely beneficial for us to have such a deep bench. I know they're not as deep. But their starting five can do it. They've proven they can play 80 minutes in the last two games they've played. So we're going to have to play as hard as we can. Our bench is going to help us, just like they've been doing all year. Q. Sabrina, you have the triple-double burger commercial that airs in Eugene. I will say if you've watched ESPN over the past couple days, when they preview the NCAA tournament, you're featured in there. What has that been like, to see you next to all the other great players in this women's tournament? SABRINA IONESCU: It's been cool, I guess. I don't really pay too much attention to that. I hope my team was somewhere in the background because they deserve all the recognition that I get. So, go us (smiling). THE MODERATOR: Thank you for your time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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