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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: LOUISVILLEMarch 22, 2019Kim Barnes AricoNaz HillmonNicole MungerDeja ChurchLouisville, Kentucky Michigan 84, Kansas State 54 COACH KIM MULKEY: I was really proud of our basketball team tonight. I thought we were locked into the scout, when we prepared for the K-State, we know they switch things up defensively and we knew it was going to be something that we don't typically face, so we have a couple days to prepare for it and I thought our kids did a tremendous job of coming out and really moving the basketball and finding the open person and making extra passes, and even in the beginning of the game, shots weren't falling but we were getting great looks. I thought the difference in the game was when we were able to change the tempo of the game. Hillmon has done that for us all year long, as has Kayla Robbins, and they came in and just gave us an immediate spark. I think that's kind of been our team, and for those of you that haven't watched us much, that's been the difference in our team all year long. We can go deep to our bench and they can come in and make an immediate, immediate impact, and tonight, everybody was able to see that, and it was just absolutely tremendous. It was a great game for our team. Q. For Naz, just the rebounding, you look at the edge, 50-19, what do you attribute your success against Kansas State in that category? NAZ HILLMON: Well, all year long Coach has been trying to drill into us that we can rebound with some of the best teams against the season. Just making sure we box out and rebound, whether the teams are bigger or smaller than us to make sure we are not running to the rim. Being focused and locked in, not only on the offensive boards but the defensive boards, as well. We don't want any team to get any second-chance points, and we know how that can affect the game, so we were trying to lock in on offensive and defensive rebounds. Q. The little run that turned into a big run was 17 to 5, what happened at that point where it clicked on and you all just really put it out of reach at that point? NICOLE MUNGER: They hit four straight three pointers and we knew coming into the game that that was their game plan so we knew we had to limit that and I think we really just focused in on limiting those three-point touches and make them have to earn every basket they got. When we did that, we kept hitting shots on offense, so when you do that, you saw the 17-5 differential, but it just started on the defensive end. Q. Naz and Deja. Obviously Nicole has been one of most consistently hard-working players on the team the entire season, but she ended up in the bench like early in the first quarter, like after diving for a steal, can you just talk about how her intensity permeates throughout the team? NAZ HILLMON: Well, every day in practice and every game we see how hard she works. We're in practice before we came here, she still diving on the floor as a senior, throwing her body everywhere, literally and sack fighting for the team. We know as a senior if she can do that, we can do that, as well. We try to say, we are the hardest working team in America and we are not going to be that team and there's only one person sacrificing their body, so we are going to try to go out there and do it for our teammates. DEJA CHURCH: Just to touch on what Naz says. Every day in practice, Munger is always that one diving on the floor, taking charge. She just motivate all of us to do the same so we know when we're in the game, Munger has to go out for a short period of time, we know somebody has to step up, so you know, this whole year, that may have happened before. So we always just come together, you know, we have to pick up the work that Munger left when she was in the game. Q. Nicole, you scored your 1,000th point at Michigan today. What does that mean to you and just can you talk about what your career has been like at Michigan? NICOLE MUNGER: I think it means more to my family than it ever will to me. My dad will be more excited. It's great to be here with such a special group surrounding me. Like I was talking on the way over, this has been the most fun year I've had playing basketball, and that's just really exciting. We're really close as a team, that's what makes it a lot of fun. That's all that matters. Q. Deja, obviously you want to get off to a good start in the NCAA Tournament, but when you look at a 30-point blowout against another power five school, could you have imagined that, something that kind of grew? DEJA CHURCH: I think today we just stayed focused. Whether we were up ten, 20, we really didn't think about it. We just looked at the score, 0-0 and kept pushing. Q. Talk about -- not putting too much into the first game or building slowly or just kind of going all out and just building from there? NAZ HILLMON: I think you have to give it all every game because honestly, it's March, it's win or go home so you don't know when your last game is going to be, so you have to give it your all every game. Q. Can you guys talk about the mentality you guys have when you play the press on defense, especially Naz at the top? NAZ HILLMON: So I would say for our press, we try to give the team a different look that they haven't had. I think usually -- we're trying to change the tempo, whether we're taking out of transition or just to slow them down and then they don't have as much time on the shot clock once they get to the halfcourt. We try to do anything we can to just throw a different look at them and some people respond to it well and we have to change it up and some people don't respond as well. It really depends on the people we're playing and what we're trying to do, but definitely take some time off the clock for them so they don't have as much time. NICOLE CHURCH: Same thing. We put the press on to get steals but mainly it's just to slow the offense down. When it's working, the back line is coming up, it's very effective, and even if not that, we are slowing them down and they are starting their offense with 20 or 30 seconds. Pretty sure our opponents know what's coming with Nazr -- (laughter). Q. You're now 7-0 in first round NCAA Tournament games. What do you attribute that number to? COACH KIM BARNES ARICO: That was in the pit of my stomach this morning for sure. I think we are a really, really good team when we have time to prepare, and even though we were facing an opponent -- and we've faced a lot of opponents in the first round that throw something different at you in the first round that you are not accustomed to but we had a couple of days to prepare for it, and we really felt confident going in. And we know, they are a great team and had a great year and finished on an up swing and I just watched them do this to West Virginia in the Big 12 Tournament. They are a good team. They beat Texas twice, that we lost to earlier in the season. We knew it was going to be a challenge but we had a few days to prepare and I think our kids were real, real confident with that. Q. What was the message in the locker room during halftime? Obviously you guys extended the lead to around 20, but what did you tell the team in the locker room? COACH KIM BARNES ARICO: Well, our goal for the game was to keep them under six threes, and they had six at halftime. They had four in that little bit of a run in the second quarter. So we wanted to give -- just making sure we were rotating out to shooters, and sometimes when you're in a two-on-one as a player, you're told to protect the hoop. But in this situation, we wanted to make sure that we contested all shots and don't play the scoreboard. Really important not to play the scoreboard because they are a team that could definitely go on a run. So don't look at the scoreboard. Don't get complacent. Five minutes at a time and just limit the three, limit the threes, limit the threes. Q. Could you have imagined a game like this -- COACH KIM BARNES ARICO: No. Q. For an opener? Did you see this kind of thing coming, even as well as you've been playing down the stretch? COACH KIM BARNES ARICO: No. Certainly no. Because K.C. had been playing well, as well and I said in the locker room at the end, as a coach, and we were fortunate to do this in our last home game of the season, to get an opportunity to have a big enough lead where we could really celebrate our seniors and people could get in and play on senior night, and that's really important to me as a coach. Because people in your program that don't play as much -- we say those who stay will be champions and sometimes to say through adversity and everything else, to have the opportunity to go out on senior night and play was tremendous for me as a coach in an NCAA Tournament, when do you ever get to clear your bench, holy cow. Tonight was an opportunity for all our kids that work extremely hard all year long to get on the court and in the NCAA Tournament, to be able to celebrate our entire team was just such -- that put a smile on my face probably more than anything else because those kids worked so hard through everything. For them to be able to get on the court and perform was just great. But never would I have expected that. Q. I know the physical rigors of the Big Ten, does that prepare you for a game like this that you can wear a team down as you did today? COACH KIM BARNES ARICO: Yeah, I think that speaks to our depth, and like these guys talked about and as you guys have mentioned, you have Kayla Robbins and Hallie Thorne off the bench. Those three could arguably start -- Naz is the MVP of our team and comes off our bench. What a punch that is to our opponent. But the Big Ten had a tremendous year. I think playing in our league definitely prepared us for an opportunity in the NCAA Tournament. We lost a heartbreaker in the Big Ten Tournament. We were up against Maryland, and I don't know, like I still can't really talk about it because, you know, we felt like we were going to be Big Ten champs. So most people on the outside, they would think that's a ridiculous -- most kids on our team think we were supposed to win the Big Ten Championship. That tournament that left a little bit of a pit in our stomach. The Big Ten had a tremendous year as a whole and I think night-in and night-out, whether that's the physicality, whether that's the level play, whether that's the coaching, it has prepared us for this moment. And you know, one of the crummy things is getting the 8-9 seed. I mean, there's nothing crummier in the world. But you know what, our kids are in a moment where they really believe in themselves. They believe in each other, and our chemistry is great right now, and they are just excited about the opportunity for our next game. Q. You guys struggled early in the first five minutes. You only had four points and then when Naz and Kayla, came in, what was the schematic change or what was the emotional change that turned the game around, because from that point on, you were a different team. COACH KIM BARNES ARICO: Yeah, I think earlier on, we actually had some tremendous looks. I just didn't think the ball went in the basket early on. We had some good shots and I felt like those shots were going to fall. But it's expected. You're tight. You know, it's the NCAA Tournament, you come out and then you miss a couple and then you get tighter and tighter. I think the way that Naz and Kayla, they just played loose and they make things happen. They are players that -- and Munger, that have the capability of making things happen. I think when we changed our defense, that took a lot of pressure off of our offense and we were able to get some easier buckets and then we were able to calm down a little bit. And I think, you know, that's a credit to our starting group, too. It's who we are. And some people might say, I don't think you start and go with that group, but this made this team what it is. I think our starting group had to handle, hey, the spotlight is on, the NCAA Tournament, it's the tip, it's the first three minutes of the game; handle it. They did a solid job but their shots weren't falling. I think when that next group came in, they just changed the tempo. They just played loose. They played confident, and we were able to get some buckets to fall, and once we did, I think everybody else was able to relax a little bit more. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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