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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: SPOKANEMarch 23, 2018Sue GuevaraPresley HudsonTinara MooreCassie BreenSpokane, Washington THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Central Michigan head coach. We'll open it up to the floor for questions for coach. Q. You've had a little more time to look at film since we spoke. What have you noticed about Oregon to start off with? SUE GUEVARA: They're big. They can all shoot it. Very good passing team. Love to get out in transition. It's a track meet. They want to get out and they want to go. I think they have four kids with Presley Hudson range, which means as soon as they come across halfcourt, that thing is going up. Q. How do you think your team matches up with them? SUE GUEVARA: I think we match up pretty well with them. I think that our style of play is very, very similar. We're just a little smaller. But we have five kids that can all shoot the three. We like to run, too. We like to rebound the ball and get out in transition. If anything, I think it's going to be a fun game for the fans to watch and maybe a nightmare for me. Q. How would you describe the energy for the past couple days from Monday night till now from your team? SUE GUEVARA: I think we were all pretty high, pretty excited. We get 24 hours to enjoy it, then it's over. Now I will tell you, it's very businesslike. We understand why we are here. We know we're preparing for another game. It's been very, very workmanlike. I like that a lot. Q. You just mentioned one through five can shoot the three. After Tinara hit those back-to-back three-pointers in the Ohio State game, have you been telling her to shoot it more? SUE GUEVARA: I always tell her to shoot the three. What you guys see that day, we see every day in practice. We'll run shooting drills, our post players will run the trail post, they shoot the three. When we do our shooting drill called 'Texas shooting', where everybody shoots the three, so... What you saw is what we see all the time. It's just that, you know, unfortunately now all the other coaches see it. Q. Muffet McGraw said earlier she thought the MAC was underrated, you in Buffalo had something to prove. Did you come in with that kind of chip on your shoulder or did you even think about it? SUE GUEVARA: Quite frankly, I can't speak for Felicia, I might be able to a little bit, but, no, we didn't come in that we have to prove anything to anybody. You know, we feel we're a pretty good basketball team, both of us. I think if you look at our non-conference schedules, both Buffalo and Central, we scheduled difficult teams to get ready for the MAC Conference. I think the MAC Conference prepared both of us for where we are right now. I think I've said this before. This isn't about proving anything to anybody. If anything, it's about showcasing the Mid-American Conference, showcasing the style of basketball of Central Michigan University and the University of Buffalo. Q. It's been well-documented that Oregon has some ties to Spokane. Everyone loves a Cinderella. Have you prepared for maybe the mood in the arena tomorrow, how the crowd is going to be split? SUE GUEVARA: Okay, I'm going to talk about two things with that, all right? I just finished talking to our team about both those things: Cinderella and the crowd. I told them about Coach Graves having been at Gonzaga. I said, There's going to be a lot of little ducklings in the stands. Guess what, we just came from St. John Arena where there were a lot of Buckeyes in the stands. What we have to do is do what we do well, keep the crowd out of it except for our contingency of maroon and gold. As far as Cinderella, everybody knows the story of Cinderella, right? I mean, Cinderella was not invited to the ball, was she? No. Cinderella wasn't invited to the ball. We got invited to the ball. We didn't need a fairy godmother to give us slippers or high heels or whatever to go to the ball. Adidas gave us tennis shoes and we're out. The only Cinderella I think I want our team to look at, and I talked to our team about this, who in here has seen "Pretty Woman"? Sure, she wanted it all and she got it all. She earned it all. She wasn't Cinderella. If we're going to be a Cinderella, I'm going to be like Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman." Other than that, we got invited, and we're still dancing. We don't have any magic slippers on, we have really good adidas shoes on. I'm not fired up about that at all, though (laughter). Q. Was there any thought to look at the game from a few years ago when you played Oregon? SUE GUEVARA: I think Crystal Bradford had I don't know how many, but she had a very good game. No, not at all. I think both teams are quite different. I mean, our seniors at that point, I think our seniors were freshmen. I'm not even sure they saw the floor. Didn't go back at all. Q. How has the support been from the community the past few days? SUE GUEVARA: It has been outstanding. It has been outstanding. But it's been outstanding for us pretty much the whole season. I mean, when you go into the McGuirk, it's been electric for all the games. When we went and played at the Q in Cleveland, it was unbelievable. Somebody asked me, is the whole city of Mt. Pleasant here? I said, no, maybe about half. I think the support from the players, their hometowns, you see the billboards at the schools. Then when we were at Ohio State, it was great. Our crowd when we played LSU was unbelievable. Then when we played Ohio State, again, you had our bench, and behind our bench and up in the corners and stuff, it was all maroon and gold. They were going nuts. I say, if you're a recruit, you want to come in and play in a great atmosphere, in a good style of basketball, where the community and the university, you know, really care about you and they embrace you, Central Michigan's the place to be. Q. Sabrina usually sets the tone for Oregon, especially in the post-season so far. What has been your impression of her, kind of the key to dealing with that? SUE GUEVARA: She's tough. There's no doubt about it. I mean, what does she have, six, seven, eight triple-doubles? She makes them go. There is no doubt about that. But, you know, I think we're going to do some things that might be able to disrupt the flow of Oregon's offense. They do pass it so well, so we just have to do a couple things to disrupt what they do, not let them get in that rhythm. Q. Beyond Sabrina, is there another player that captures your attention, too? SUE GUEVARA: Just talked about Bando. We're going to follow Bando to the bathroom. That's how she can shoot it. Then you have Ruthy inside. I think Ruthy is shooting 60, 65 percent from the floor because she's shooting layups. I'm going to be bad with names, I'm going to be better with numbers. You look at zero, 6'4", long length, lefty, can shoot the three like that. Then their point guard, she can shoot it, too. It's not just one, just like it is for us. You take away one, then here somebody else is going to go off. Inside, outside, what are you going to take away? Are you going to double on Ruthy, then who in God's name are you going to leave open? Again, without putting out the game plan, there's just some different things we have to do, just like I'm sure what they're going to have to do. Maybe not, I don't know. Q. You talked a little bit about Ruthy. How do you think Tinara Moore will match up with her? SUE GUEVARA: I think it will be a nice battle. I think you look at Tinara, how she has answered the bell I would say pretty much for the whole season. But when you're going up against a Mavunga from Ohio State, a couple other big ones, then LSU, the size of them. I mean, Tinara went one-on-one. She went one-on-one. I was so pleased with the way she attacked them, how she used her quickness to get by them, the different moves. At one point, I think it was the LSU game maybe, she and Reyna both were trying to go one-on-one, trying to power their way up. It's like, You guys, they might have like 15 or 20 pounds on you. You might think about doing a counter move, a reverse pivot, look at the basket. Answering the bell? Absolutely. I expect the same thing. Q. On the floor after your win earlier this week, you spoke in the interview something to the effect of once your team got through that first couple minutes against Ohio State, you could power through that. If that kind of happens tomorrow afternoon, do you feel like the same formula can work tomorrow? SUE GUEVARA: What I was very pleased about in that first quarter, I mean, we were down 15-5. It's very easy for teams to fold, very easy for teams to fold. We came out of that first quarter 15-9. I told our players, I said, Hey, look, they only scored 15 points. Against Ohio State in that first quarter, that's pretty good. I said, Yeah, we only scored nine points, but we were getting shots. We were getting open shots that just did not fall. We talk about this all the time, you know this, basketball is a game of runs. It's just weathering through that run and understanding you're going to get a run, too. You just got to keep shooting the ball because you're open, and they will go in. But this team has done that. I will tell you during the whole course of the year, we would be down five, six points with two minutes to go. I know our fans are going, Oh. They're getting all worried. I keep telling them, Keep the faith. Keep the faith. This team will never, ever quit. Q. One of the things that's been most impressive about your wins in this tournament in particular, from the outside looking in, is that you've done it almost entirely with your starters. What is the secret? Some sort of water we don't know about in Michigan that has gotten those ladies to the point where they can carry you against Ohio State and LSU? SUE GUEVARA: And against Buffalo and Ball State and Toledo. There's a gentleman back here who is Taylor Larson, our strength and conditioning coach. He does a great job. We have a nutritionist, Dr. Leslie Hildebrandt. She's done a great job of making sure our kids are fueled with the right stuff. I will tell you this. This team has really bought in to Dr. Hildebrandt, what she has done, the nutritional value of it. They have bought in to Taylor, when he's pushing them and pushing them in the weight room, getting them running. Our trainer has done a tremendous job. You have to get lucky and be injury-free. We've done that. Then I think, you know, being I would say a 'seasoned' coach, I understand as the season goes along, you're not going to practice two hours every single day. I will tell you this, that when we played on Wednesdays and Saturdays, anybody who played over 30 minutes on Wednesday, Thursday morning we practice, our practice is from 8 till 11, Thursday morning those players that played over 30, they did not practice. They watched film. We watch film from the night before. We get the scouting report ready for Saturday. All they do is go into our auxiliary gym and shoot free throws. That's all they do. Our other players, our subs, they play a 40-minute game on Thursday. They're still getting up and down with the conditioning. Part of it is also, I heard a quote by Geno, and I've said this before, What's the difference between a good player and a great player? Great players don't get tired. That's a mental, mental toughness that those five really have embraced, and the fact that, you know, Coach Guevara got a little smart. I am not the brightest crayon. But getting our freshmen, getting them in there maybe just before timeout, like 30 seconds before the timeout, to give Tinara the break, to give Twin the break or Cassie a break. Whether it's for two minutes, three minutes, sometimes it's 14 minutes, which is great. I think all that has helped. THE MODERATOR: Thank you for your time, coach. SUE GUEVARA: All right. That was easy. THE MODERATOR: Good luck tomorrow. SUE GUEVARA: Thank you. THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by Central Michigan student-athletes. Questions, please. Q. Tinara, what do you know about this team from the first game of Purdue to now, what have you learned? TINARA MOORE: About our team? Q. Yes. TINARA MOORE: That we're going to attack every game and that we're going to stick together no matter what happens in that game and we're always going to be there for each other. After every timeout, you can see us making a little huddle after the timeout, just really making sure we each are on the same page with the game plan. I think that's helped us throughout the whole season, just sticking together. Q. Cassie, you played against Oregon in 2013 when you were a freshman. Do you remember anything about that game? CASSIE BREEN: I remember a little bit. Honestly, freshman year is a while ago, a lot of games have passed. I just remember them being just a tough team, like any BCS school is. I don't remember anything other than that. I know No. 10, we played against her, Bando. I just remember she was a shooter, just looking to score obviously. A lot of things have probably changed since then. Q. We talked a little bit with Sue about the matchup with you and Ruthy. How do you think you kind of match up together? What will that be like tomorrow? TINARA MOORE: I think it will be interesting. She's a really good basketball player, good post player. Just going to have to move my feet and defend her well, just like I've been doing on every other post player. As my offense goes, just reading how she plays me defensively, whether she plays me behind or she's in front of me. I'll just read the defense and kind of adjust to that. Q. Presley, can you talk about this team's confidence. You haven't lost since like mid February. What is the feeling like in the locker room? PRESLEY HUDSON: We're really confident in each other. We believe in each other, we know we're capable. And coach, she gives us a lot of confidence as well. We're just a confident team. Q. Tinara, your coach was just saying you aren't a Cinderella, there's no slippers, just adidas. What is your mindset coming into this tournament as an 11 seed, having to win road games, now facing Oregon? TINARA MOORE: I just think it's the next game, there's no bigger game than tomorrow because it's the next game. I don't really look into seeding. Our team doesn't look into seeding. We've beat big schools before. We're doing it now in the tournament. The whole upset, Cinderella thing is really just going over my head because we're a good basketball team, we can stick with these teams. I think just because people think we're a mid-major we're a Cinderella or an upset, we get the lower seed. But in reality, we're a good basketball team and I think we're finally getting the respect that we deserve. Q. Tinara, talk about at Ohio State you did something you've never done before, hit two straight three-pointers. Will you be looking to do a couple more of those throughout the rest of the tournament, taking a little bit more threes? TINARA MOORE: I mean, whatever happens happens. If I ever get the opportunity to get two wide-open threes, yeah, I'm going to take them. I practice them in practice. You don't see it that much in the games. It is what it is. If it happens in the games, I'll definitely take the shot. Q. A preview of this game has been described as a track meet. Do you feel that plays right into your hands? Is this what you want? PRESLEY HUDSON: I think it's not just a matter of preference. Like obviously throughout the game, we're going to be adjusting, doing what we need to do to be able to be the team on top. Really just not a matter of preference, but just being able to adjust to what we need to do. Q. Presley, your coach referred to it as 'Presley Hudson range'. Where does your range start? TINARA MOORE: Halfcourt (laughter). PRESLEY HUDSON: Anywhere I feel comfortable. In the game sometimes the hoop feels closer than what it really is. Wherever I'm able to take an open shots, my teammates have confidence in me to take those shots. Q. Cassie, you guys have already been able to take down two higher seeds. I know you said you don't talk about seeding. How do you keep that momentum going, getting on to the next round? CASSIE BREEN: I think we keep the momentum going by, like everybody has said before, instilling confidence in each other, just knowing that every time you step on the court, we work hard, just as every other team does. I think that makes it easier to not look at seeds because we're classified as a mid-major. We have players that could have potentially played at bigger schools, but we decided on Central Michigan. That's where we are now. That's who we're going to play for, Central Michigan, because it's across our chests. THE MODERATOR: Thank you for your time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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