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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2019Jim CrowleyMaddie JolinChicago, Illinois Providence - 70, Xavier - 62 JIM CROWLEY: A lot of credit to Xavier. You know, they kept coming. I thought we had a lot of chances to really kind of put it away, and they wouldn't let us, so credit to their coaching staff and players. Very proud, and that's the word I've used a lot with this group, of our resiliency. We didn't finish the way we wanted to, but we really locked in and stuck to our game plan. We did a good job on the boards. And we really took care of the ball. And when we do that, we're pretty decent offensively, so it was really good to see that not only we were capable but we executed that. You know, I just thought we got contributions from a lot of people in the first half. We had a lot of foul trouble. I thought everyone who came in gave us really, really good minutes, and that's what you need to have success and to move on. Q. Maddie, just talk about the seniors. Your career has been a roller coaster, but to have the success you're having now as a senior, just talk a little bit about that. MADDIE JOLIN: Yeah, it's been a wild ride for the past couple years. But wouldn't change it for the world. Obviously this year has been super fun, winning and being around the people that I'm around. Honestly couldn't have gotten any of the wins without the coaching staff and without playing together. We play so hard for one another, and I think that's why we do well, and it's exciting to see. I think you can see how happy everybody is when we assist or get an offensive rebound or pass the ball to one another. It's just the chemistry we have has brought us to where we are today, and I couldn't be prouder of my team. Q. In addition to your leadership as a senior, talk about the young girls on your team. You have no juniors, so it's really underclassmen. MADDIE JOLIN: Yeah, they've really had to step up. Early on, too, we've started freshman before, and like you said, no juniors, so that's -- we don't even call them freshmen or sophomores, we just see it as our teammates because they've got to play a lot of minutes and we've got to trust them with the ball. I usually say at the end of games, we've got to make mature plays and keep going, and they know what that means. They know don't turn the ball over, don't do a freshman mistake because they're not freshmen to us, they're just players, because they play a ton of minutes. Q. Maddie, in the wild ride that you described, as this senior class, you have been through so many ups and downs together. How would you describe your senior class as a unit, everything that you guys have gone through? MADDIE JOLIN: I'd say that we have a lot of grit. We have a lot of -- we're super together. I mean, you have to be when you go through changes like that. But I think that's -- yeah, we've stuck together the most, and I think that has helped our leadership, too, and integrating the freshmen and the sophomores in, because we've been through difficult times, and they have, too, and seeing us as leaders go through it and hear about our stories and our past, I think it's really helped them mature and grow up and helped us, too, as seniors. Q. How much has that grit been in the back of your mind today saying we want to get this win, we want to make history? MADDIE JOLIN: Yeah, there was no doubt in my mind that we needed to win today. I knew we hadn't won, at least in my four years here a first-round game, so that's what I was thinking about the whole day, and my teammates were, too, and they play for our seniors. They play so we don't have a last game. I don't know if they knew it was 2001, but they definitely knew that we needed the win tonight for us. Q. Orlando had a career-high scoring night. Her contribution tonight really kept you guys on an upward trajectory. MADDIE JOLIN: Yeah, she played huge and she's one of the best players to play with ever. She has the best IQ I've ever seen. I say to her all the time, you've got to shoot more. And the whole week at practice we were saying they're going to play way off you, it's gonna be four on five out there because you don't shoot the ball. And today I said, you need to shoot the ball. Every single time you're open, shoot it so that they play you. And she did that. And she can score. She loves to pass the ball, which is great, we love that, too, but we need her to score, and today she did that she really stepped up. She played awesome. I'm super proud of her. Q. You talked about how today you had contributions from a lot of players. How much confidence does that give you leading up to tomorrow? JIM CROWLEY: Yeah, I mean, we're going to need them. Obviously DePaul is a great team, incredibly well-coached, very experienced and disciplined, and they run the bodies in and out and they play as hard as anyone in the country. We're going to need all kinds of people, and you know, and very fortunate that all year we've played a lot of people, and we've had a lot of people at different moments come up really big for us. You know, we had the two all-rookie kids, Maddie and JoJo have been incredible for us, but. Coop was big today and Alyssa Geary gave us great minutes today. Earlette Scott has won games for us. Chanelle is really, really tough to defend and makes great things happen. Kyra Spiwak had a great game today. So we need them. And that's one of the things we talked about is how locked in everybody has to be, because at this time of year, you can't have a basic mistake. Maybe someone makes a play over you, but you can't reach, you can't be too low, those kind of things, and those are all correctable, and we did that pretty well today. Q. Talk about today just eight turnovers. JIM CROWLEY: Yeah, and again, they have the ability to respond to that, and they did. We have very little chance tomorrow if we turn it over a bunch like we've done the two times we've played DePaul. Now, they force it, they play at a really high pace, but we have to be better taking care of the ball. We're fairly efficient offensively when we do take care of it. So I'm excited, just a couple weeks ago we didn't take care of it very well against them, so I'm excited to see our growth and our ability to get better with that. Q. You talked a little bit about the ride the team has gone on this year and the success. How do you feel as a coach earning this first win since 2001? JIM CROWLEY: Yeah, I mean, it has nothing to do with me. You know, our kids bought into one another right away, and I'm old enough to know that doesn't happen very often. And we've had bumps, but when need be, they know to get back to one another. You know, when you're lucky enough to have a group do that, you just kind of enjoy it and things happen that maybe other people don't think should or could. But in this game, if you're playing for one another, you can do some pretty special things, and for the most part, this group has shown that. It's hard to give up some of yourself to want more for the group, but we have a team that does that for the most part, and we're able to do some good things with it. Q. With this senior class specifically, they've been so together, and you've mentioned how proud you are of them, and then to hear Maddie talk about so highly of the underclassmen, what confidence does that give you -- what impact is this senior class leaving on your program? JIM CROWLEY: Taught them how to win. I mean, and how to do it the right way and how to put -- today, JoJo passed the ball unbelievably. I mean, she drew so much attention and she was such a willing passer. And you look, she had six or seven assists. Maddie had four or five assists. And when your two leading scorers are that willing to pass the ball in this moment, I mean, that empowers people. And those are the kind of things that are really important to us as we build our program is that you want to play for the person next to you, and they have exemplified it all year, and it's become a standard. You know, it's on us. They've put it back on the coaches and the players, the younger players, that this is what we're about, and this is what we gave and worked for; keep it going. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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