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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: PORTLANDMarch 28, 2019Kelly GravesPortland, Oregon THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Oregon head coach Kelly Graves. Go ahead and give your opening statement. KELLY GRAVES: I didn't prepare anything. Let's just go with questions. How is that? THE MODERATOR: Shortest opening statement we've had all day. KELLY GRAVES: Okay. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions. Q. How exciting is it to be here in this atmosphere in Oregon? KELLY GRAVES: Well, we're just glad to be playing. We would have been happy to play anywhere at this point. But obviously thrilled that we're in Portland, close to Eugene. Certainly there are a lot of Duck fans here in Portland. Like I said the other day, any time you can drive to a regional, that's a good thing. We hope that the fans are going to come out. I hear the ticket sales are going great. I hope this is a good showcase for all of women's basketball. Q. You had commented the other day that this was going to be a reunion for you, that you played South Dakota State before. How is this time, aside from the circumstances, different from playing last time you played them? How are you all preparing to face them tomorrow? KELLY GRAVES: Brookings isn't quite as big as Portland. Both teams I think are different in a lot of ways. That seems like such a long time ago, mid December. This whole regional is kind of unique for us because we played all three of the teams that are here, which I don't think happens very often. The thing about South Dakota State, you can always count on them to be roughly the same in everything that they do. They're so consistent in their effort, in their execution, in their team play. Coach Johnston does such a great job. We've kind of followed the same path. We both got into head coaching about the same time. I followed his career. Even though we're both different teams, they're so consistent that I think what we're going to see is what we've seen forever. I think that's one of the keys to them, from the day a Jackrabbit steps on campus, they're running the same things until they leave. That's why they're so good at what they do. They don't change their system and style of play each and every year. I think that's what makes them special, very similar to what we do. Q. Talk a little bit about the bench production, how important Lydia, Oti, and Morgan, potentially Taylor coming back, have been this post-season? KELLY GRAVES: We hope we get Taylor back. That's day-to-day. We haven't completely ruled it out this weekend, but we'll see. That's going to be a game-time decision tomorrow. Lydia, Oti, and Morgan have really given us a lift when we needed it. We've had a short bench all year, so we've had to rely on them. I think especially down the stretch, I think in the conference tournament, the last few games when we were trying to wrap up a regular season championship in the Pac-12, just those important 12 to 15 minutes a game I think were really key. In our semifinal win against UCLA, Morgan came up with three big-time threes that maybe we weren't always counting on. Obviously she's capable of doing that. Ruthy has not been 100%, so Lydia has become more important. She's been a steady force defensively and really good on the boards. Anything she can give us in the point production is a bonus. Oti, what do you say about her? One of my favorite student-athletes of all time. It seems like when it comes to March, she's had big games. If you look at the last three NCAA tournaments, she always seems to have a couple big-time games. We hope that continues this weekend. Q. You mentioned both teams have changed, so the game will be a little different. The venue will be different, too. What was it like to play in Brookings? How do you think it will be here in Portland? KELLY GRAVES: True story. I took one of my really good Zag teams back to South Dakota State way back when. We were the best two mid-majors in the country. We played opening weekend. It was the lead story on ESPN in women's basketball. They sent Graham Hays there for the weekend. They got us. It was a close game, went to overtime, but they got us. I remember at the game I told my assistant coach Jodie Berry, Remind me never to come here again because they're just so tough. They play well. It's a tough venue because they get great crowd support, they're really into it, they're loud, they're right on top of you. We did it again this year (laughter). After the game, again, a hard-fought, really well-played game by both teams. 87-79, neither team could stop each other. I told Jodie the same thing. This time I'll fire her if I ever go back to South Dakota State. But I admire Aaron so much, the way he coaches, works with his team. They really do play basketball the way it's supposed to be played. They share the ball, they play hard, they space the floor well, they execute at both ends of the floor. They're all multi-dimensional. They can post up, they can drive, they can all shoot it. Back when I was a pretty good player, you played on a rec team, you've seen them play, maybe up at the Mac Club, they just know how to play, they're tough as nails. Yeah, this is going to be a heck of a battle tomorrow. Q. Do you think here with the big crowd that's expected will provide a different atmosphere? If so, do you see that as a benefit one way or another? KELLY GRAVES: Well, I don't know. I'm sure that a lot of the folks in South Dakota traveled out here. I hope they did because this team is worth following, no doubt about it. I'm assuming that a lot of the fans are going to be in green and yellow, at least that's what I hope. I think we'll have a little bit more support. There was one Duck family that was there, and that was a pretty special deal last time. I think actually we're linked, Terry could speak more to this, but I think their arena is named after a Duck alum, correct? So that's kind of cool. We're linked in a way. Q. Sustained success the Pac-12 has had now in the post-season, speak to that a little bit and how maybe it's even reached a higher level this season. KELLY GRAVES: It's a real testament to an awesome league. So five teams in the Sweet 16. I think we were four or five last year, I know five a couple of years ago. Yeah, this is something that is continuing to happen. I just think it goes to show you the way we compete against each other in league really prepares us for post-season. We have so many different styles that we have to play against in conference play, and that helps us later on. It makes us all tougher. What I really like is I know genuinely we all care about each other's programs, and we're pulling for each other. I got, the first text I got after we won our last game was from Coach VanDerveer. She's always championing the league. That always means a lot. Q. Your team made the Elite 8 last year, got to this point for the first time. Nobody from South Dakota State is surprised they're here, but this is a different experience. What was it like for your group the first time they played in this regional? How much of an advantage does that give your team now that you've been here and done it? KELLY GRAVES: Well, two years ago, so this is our third straight time at least in the Sweet 16. I know a couple years ago when Sabrina, Ruthy, that group were freshmen, we made kind of a run as a 10 seed. We didn't know what the heck we were doing, to be honest with you. We hadn't planned to really win those games or anything like that. I think kind of being dumb helped us. The moment wasn't too big because we didn't really know what to expect. I remember we ultimately got beat by UConn, and I remember in the press conference before, one of the quotes Gino had was, These folks don't know this is supposed to be hard, you're not supposed to come in and start beating people. We didn't know that. South Dakota State, they've won for so long, maybe they're used to it, but maybe they haven't gotten -- Q. This is their first time. KELLY GRAVES: This is their first time, okay. They're a veteran group. Maybe the first time in this spot, but not the first time in this tournament, against big opponents. I think that's what makes their program special, too. They're not afraid to play anybody. If you look at their non-conference, it's a who's-who really. Q. I know you guys suffered some tough losses down the stretch, obviously in the PAC-12 tournament. What would you say was your biggest takeaway as a coach? What did you tell them this is what we need to learn from these losses? KELLY GRAVES: Well, every loss is tough. First of all. When you win a lot of them, every loss is tough. I think the main thing, Ruthy is really important to us. When we didn't have her for that week and a half stretch, that hurt us. I think that hurt us in our ultimate loss against Stanford, three games in three nights, we just didn't have it. Credit to them. They earned it. They deserved to win the game. I think what we learned, what I told them is, number one, we play in a really good league. That's going to happen. There's ups and downs throughout the year. You just got to learn from it, get past it, move on. I think we have. I thought last weekend we played really well. I reminded the team after our Stanford loss, I think the two finalists in last year's NCAA, Mississippi State and Notre Dame, both lost in the Championships of their respective conference tournaments. I just said, Listen, this isn't going to define us, March Madness will. That's what we've really focused on. This team has been really good about handling pressure, moving on to the next game, win or lose. We've had some big wins, too, we had to forget. Guess what, we have another really good team in two days. It's a really veteran group and I think they've handled it well. Q. You said last weekend that Satou was the player that would separate you guys from the rest. Why did you say that? Why is she that player? KELLY GRAVES: Well, I think Ruthy and Sabrina have been so good for so long, you kind of know what to expect from them each and every game. I think Satou is still trying to figure it out as a sophomore. She's so unbelievably talented. You see that on display more times than not. But she's that one player that's a tough matchup, a 6'4" guard who can shoot it, put it on the floor, post up. She's really developed into a really good offensive rebounder and can score that way. She can do it in a variety of different ways. Becomes a matchup disadvantage for each opponent. That's why I think I've said that about her. I have a lot of faith in her, though. She is an amazing, amazing player. Has really I think played well in the tournament so far. Q. Charli Turner Thorne said she would be in favor of the super regional concept in Las Vegas. What are your thoughts on that? KELLY GRAVES: Oh, I see the merits of it. I think we've changed our format too many times I think recently, to be honest with you. I think we need to stick with one and go with it, try and grow it. I actually like the regionals. Here is a great example. I think if you find the right places to put them, not everybody supports women's basketball, but you have two of the best fan bases here in the country right here in Oregon, Oregon and Oregon State. I think we were 8th in attendance and Oregon State is around 12th. This is the good spot to put it. We're going to put hopefully 11, 12, 13 thousand people or more in here. I actually like that. I would be open to doing maybe four six-team first and second-round sites, putting them in winning spots regionally. I think people can plan ahead saying, Hey, we know the first and second rounds are in these spots, let's make a vacation out of it, go watch great basketball for four days. I don't know. It was sure fun playing at home last week in front of a lot of very raucous Duck fans. I think there's an advantage to that, as well. But you look at Arizona State as a 5 seed. They would have an argument to host, as well, but they were right on that line. There's a big difference. They proved, you know, a good performance is going to win wherever you go, but it's always nicer I think to play at home. Sorry, that was a long answer to a very thoughtful question. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much for your time. Good luck tomorrow against South Dakota State. KELLY GRAVES: Thank you. 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