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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: MIAMI

March 23, 2019

Coral Gables, Florida

THE MODERATOR: Thank you for joining us. For Miami, Laura Cornelius, Beatrice Mompremier and Emese Hof. We will open it up for questions.

Q. Laura, you mentioned it feels like morning and all of you can answer that, but you mentioned it feels like morning. What is it like waking up today after playing a 9:00 start and the quick turnaround?
LAURA CORNELIUS: Obviously it's a quick turnaround, but we're still alive. A lot of teams went home and we're still playing. Happy to be playing tomorrow. We're going to sleep, rest a little bit, watch a lot of film and we will be ready again tomorrow.

Q. Laura, after the way the last couple of seasons ended with upset losses is it a weight lifted after getting through the first-round game against a team that gave you guys a scare in the second half?
LAURA CORNELIUS: Yeah, we knew Golf Coast was coming out in the second half and you know last year is last year and we don't care about that anymore. We know it's March and every team is going to give their best shot against us.

Q. Similar situation, you've been on this program a little bit. What would it mean to you to do what you have to do to get this team to the Sweet 16?
EMESE HOF: That would be awesome. It's our goal right now. It's going to be one game at a time and we have Arizona State in not of us and we're going to do everything in our power to win that game.

Q. Bea, what has been like to play these games at home? This is part of the reason you came back to Miami. What has it meant to you?
BEATRICE MOMPREMIER: Just like another home game. My family gets to come and our fans get to be here, so it's just another home game for us.

Q. For any of you, have you had a chance to do a little studying so far in your home state? What are you expecting so far?
LAURA CORNELIUS: I'm expecting them to play really hard against us. Obviously they have to, you know, sit back and watch our game they played before us. They're going to be ready. We're expecting they sub a lot of players, they play eight, nine, ten deep. So we have to know their scout. They looked good against UCF. We're going to give it our all and we definitely got to step up our game a little bit, too, yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: They have a great team. We just watched film. They played a lot of close games against really good teams, 2 points against Louisville in the beginning of the season. They're definitely a good team, but so are we. We're excited for this match-up.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Everybody going to come and play their best game, you know, it could be their last game so everybody going to give it their all.

Q. You mentioned taking it game-by-game, obviously, but talk about the history. It's been a while since the Sweet 16, haven't made that kind of a run in a while. Throughout the season was it talked about? Was it a goal to take that next step finally?
LAURA CORNELIUS: I think in the beginning we said this is our goal and during the season we were just taking it one game at a time. But we're getting closer to that goal right now and right now it is the next game.

Of course, it's been something that everyone was driven to attain, and I think we're getting closer to it now. Yeah, we have to fire it up a little bit more even to get there.

THE MODERATOR: All right, ladies. Thank you.

We have Miami head coach, Katie Meier, joining us. Coach, if you could start off with an opening statement?

KATIE MEIER: Okay. Well, glad to be here. Quick turnaround, obviously, and thank God I have a great staff. I feel prepared in a very short time, but, yeah, very impressed with what Arizona State brings to the table. Cannot believe their composure, their assist-to-turnover ratio is incredible. They have great players who know what they do well and Charli does a great job of making sure they are able to play to their strength. Just an incredible team that probably was expecting to host. They had a season worthy of it, so, you know, it was an evenly matched game and we're excited.

Q. This team and this group, you have gone through so much with them. What would it mean if you were able to move on with this group in particular?
KATIE MEIER: Just any day that I get to extend my time with this group is meaningful, because I'm telling you, you can coach for a lifetime and not have such a special group. They're so different. There is so much joy, so much passion, there is so much trust and love. But, yeah, the upperclassmen have worked really hard and they've really, you know, their footprint that they're going to leave is bigger than their foot here. They have been amazing for this University and for this community. I want to extend it as long as I can.

Q. And for the program itself, it's been a while since Miami has been to the Sweet 16?
KATIE MEIER: Back when there certainty 64 teams, and one win got you there, right? We did that!

Q. Considering the disappointments the last couple of seasons, what would it mean?
KATIE MEIER: I guess the meaning comes later. We have a game tomorrow against Arizona State and I don't put anything more than that on it. I really don't.

Q. I'm sure at the start of the year, Sweet 16 is obviously one of the goals among many you guys set. Then throughout the season you take it game-by-game. Obviously now it's one game away. Does it come back into talks or is it just that one game?
KATIE MEIER: I don't believe we set a Sweet 16 goal with this particular team. I don't think we did. We were in the preseason NIT and we wanted to win that. It was short-term with this team. We cut this segment up and you can't say a goal that you don't have a match-up or tournament to address. I don't do vague stuff like that. I do believe we mentioned playing deep into March, wanted to play the second weekend, stuff like that. But the label of Sweet 16, got a great game tomorrow.

Q. Coach, Arizona State and Miami met home and home 2013, 2014. Because the philosophies don't change a great deal does that make preparing for this game easier on your staff?
KATIE MEIER: No! The coaches, Charli and I have been consistent in our careers, but I had such a different team. We had come off a nice, you know, top-10 kinda run there and we had sorta, we were rebuilding during that series and we did not have the type of sophistication that this team has.

I thought about looking back at those games, but I remember I know some of the stuff we did defensively. We don't do that anymore. What I love is when you're in a high-pressure game and you look down at the other coach in women's basketball and you have the utmost respect for that person and you know how hard they play, their players are treated well, that they play very well and play very fair. I really enjoy being in a big-time game against somebody that I'm like, you know what? Thank you for what you've done for women's basketball. And that's how I feel about Charli.

Q. You mentioned the turnaround. How quickly it is to go from a 9:30 start?
KATIE MEIER: We had to have pizza because we won and I had my pizza because we won.

Q. You had your pizza?
KATIE MEIER: I had my pizza.

Q. How do you feel like you're managing the turnaround and the girls are managing it?
KATIE MEIER: The girls are fine. I'm like, excuse me, you went to the hotel, slept and came back, the other adults in this room didn't sleep. We're ready to roll. That's kids! We're fine. We're built for this. We're built for this and my staff has had great experience in moments like this. I feel like yesterday even in the game there was a moment I thought to myself, yep, I've been coaching for a while and I know this was coming. So there was no panic.

So I think we're good and we can turn it around quick and I have so much faith in my staff. We've been together for a little bit so I didn't have to check the work, I knew Tia Jackson had this ready to roll and we went in with Blue this morning and I didn't even do the scout. I have so much faith in their ability that I wanted to get games in, so I could get a feel. What is the essence of this team? What do they do? What do they do on an 8-0 run? Sometimes you just go to the scout and you don't really know what you're dealing with and when I'm coaching a game there is a script and I knew that script was coming last night and I wanted to know what Arizona State's script is. I didn't even look at the script until this morning. I just watched the games.

Q. This team, some nights it's Bea, last night it was Endia. How huge is it in the tournament that anybody can have a big game at any moment?
KATIE MEIER: I think what's amazing is to be able to close your eyes as a coach and say, okay what's happening right now, the staff and Coach Blue does the substitution suggestions and just right now, this particular moment, some people have a consistent history, Laura, Bea, or Emese, Mykea, right there. But if Kelsey is up and down or Endia is up and down we will go with them. We have we have a history, but Endia Banks was just amazing. So Kelsey didn't have a lot of minutes because Endia just got to play it out.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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