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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 6, 2019

Greensboro, North Carolina

Duke - 86, Pittsburgh - 64

THE MODERATOR: To my left is Coach Lance White, Jasmine Whitney and Cassidy Walsh.

COACH WHITE: Obviously I'm really excited to be in the ACC Tournament and allow these kids the opportunity to come and do what they do. And I was really pleased with our first half and their ability to compete and fight. And really we talked so much all year long about growth. And to see them and we really wanted this game to be an exhibition of how far we've come.

And I think as a basketball team and as a program we really have come a long ways. Sometimes you don't always see it in the end result. But we have really, really come a long way.

And I was disappointed in the way we started the third quarter. But, again, overall and throughout, reflecting back throughout this season, really excited about each of their growth and what they were able to do from where we started to where we end today.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Coach, that second quarter, it seemed like you guys were really in control of the game. I think you had a four-, five-point lead. What kind of went wrong from there?
COACH WHITE: You know, it was. We had a few turnovers right after that. We had made some substitutions and some of that stuff. And then, again, we've been a team that has really battled confidence, being able to be a team that once we get hit to get back up and get hit, get back up. And again the ACC is a beast. Is that -- the players, we've talked all year that everyone is bigger, stronger, faster than us.

We have to be a team that has an underdog mentality and you've got to keep fighting. But our confidence sometimes gets shaken. And I thought in that moment, once they came back and tied it and then, I think, took a lead, our confidence was shaken a little bit.

And if we can't respond right away -- and even going into halftime, it was a 4-point game. But it was. I thought at that point it was our confidence is our biggest issue. And so in the third quarter whenever they came out and it quickly went from four to 12, it's really difficult for us to overcome that.

But it was -- it's more, I think, confidence and energy than it was what we did or that kind of stuff.

Q. Jasmine, you're going to be one of the players coming back next season as an underclassmen. What kind of positives can you take away from the experience of this season? It's been a struggle, but you did win two ACC games and gave Duke a good fight today?
JASMINE WHITNEY: Like coach said, even though the end result wasn't what we wanted all season. We still learned a lot. We've still developed a lot. And I'm excited to take what we've learned this year and with the freshmen and everybody coming in and just to see what we can do next year, work hard this summer and just see what we can do.

Q. Cassidy, you've been the face of the program for four years. You've played your last collegiate game. Talk about what you think the legacy is that you've left in the Pitt program for the future?
CASSIDY WALSH: I'm sort of the foundation for Coach White, me and my fellow seniors. But I think he's going to do tremendous things here. And it was sort of -- we started this journey when he came in May, I think. And it's been ongoing since then. Nonstop of hard work every single day. And that's what sort of been set in stone. And I think that will just continue. And I think the seniors sort of put that in, like, the juniors, sophomore, freshmen. And the incoming freshmen, they'll just follow everyone's lead.

But I think probably the legacy is just having pride, wearing Pitt across your chest and that is what I have loved to do these last four years. And that's, when you come to Pitt, that's what it's all about, representing Pittsburgh. And everybody who comes here who Coach White has coming in, they'll do the same thing. That's where the legacy has been and that's where it will continue to go, is just with hard work.

Q. Coach, when the team came out with so much passion and energy to start, diving on loose balls and everything, was the message this is a new season; we can go on a run here and anything can happen?
COACH WHITE: Absolutely. And, again, I thought we played extremely well at Duke. Again, we were in it until the fourth quarter. And so for us is that we had a couple of goals that they had set early on in the year, is that they wanted to win more ACC games than last year. And we had a chance to do that.

So I think there was that energy of being able to accomplish that goal and what that was. And, again, it's going to be hard. We're in the ACC, the best conference in the country. And we know that.

But that was something I think that was in their minds of, yeah, we want to beat somebody that we've never beaten before. That was another one of their major goals. And both of those could have been accomplished today.

So I think that was a big part of their energy and stuff early. And unfortunately we can't sustain that for as long as we need to against good basketball teams.

Q. Coach, the team has been pretty good all year eliminating outside 3-point shots. Were they doing something differently today, or were they just hitting everything they put up?
COACH WHITE: It's interesting, historically, with the ACC, usually that first game the teams don't shoot it very well. And, again, they have two to three really good -- two for sure really, really good shooters. We knew that, but it was -- obviously if you leave them wide open, they can knock them down.

So, again, we made some miscues and didn't exchange the way we should. But, again, kudos to them; they knocked them down and really shot it well, 12 of 20 from the 3-point line is really doing a good job.

Q. Coach, Cassidy mentioned foundation earlier, as this being your first team. What kind of, I guess, foundation did her and some of the other seniors kind of lay for you this year?
COACH WHITE: You know, it was an interesting mix. And whenever I took the job, there were at that point five seniors that, again, had been recruited by another coach who didn't know me from nobody and could have really thrown in the towel and said peace out and I want my scholarship and move on.

But what this group really did of coming in and buying into what I'm selling was really remarkable to me in how hard that -- again, they had a lot of things that were in their minds. And again we dealt with confidence issues all year long of really just if you're open you have to shoot it. And a lot of them went from role players to now where they're cast as our number one option and you have to shoot it every time you're open.

And so again that foundation of I've said all year long, they're freshmen for me. That group, that whole team were freshmen in terminology in the way that I act and the way that I coach and all of that stuff that they had to get used to quickly.

And then we had to go into the best conference in the country and try to compete and win basketball games. And so it is -- their work ethic, I think, was the major thing, energy that they had to bring. And then obviously with our younger kids, again, at that point everyone's a freshman. So things Jasmine had to do once Aysia Bugg got hurt and took ownership of this team and led us from there forward.

And we talk in the locker room afterwards about this experience is all about remember whens: remember when we did this. And there were so many things as a basketball program that we can look back and remember when we did this. And that's for me their experience, it's this group of young women who got an experience to be a part of a big-time women's basketball program, and they'll have tons of experiences and remember whens once they leave.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

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