|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: GREENSBOROMarch 29, 2019Megan GustafsonMakenzie MeyerGreensboro, North Carolina Q. Could you describe what the season has been like for y'all? MEGAN GUSTAFSON: The season has been incredible, to be able to play with some of my best friends and keep this going, it feels like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity right now and keep it going as long as we can. It's been so much fun being on a team with selfless players who care more about winning than each other, and you know, it shows in our play. We know we're all about the assists and sharing the ball and that's really what Iowa Basketball is all about right now. MAKENZIE MEYER: I'd just say it's been such a magical season, and we've accomplished so much on the court, and I think what's been most special about this season is how well we get along together off the court. It's just been such a fun year with this group of girls, and like Megan said, we're such an unselfish team and that's the way basketball should be played and we've really enjoyed it. Q. Where have you improved the most as a player from your freshman year to your senior year. MEGAN GUSTAFSON: I think just being more of a leader from my freshman year until now. I grew up in a small town and was kind of quiet coming in and taking everything in, and now I've really been able to develop into a leader and I think that's the area I've improved in the most. Obviously basketball, too. I've developed over the years, thanks to my coaches and my team, always trying to push me to be the best player I can be. Q. Obviously you have an opponent coming up, but Baylor, No. 1, been on an incredible streak. Is this their tournament to lose, and what's the pressure on them in this tournament? MEGAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, Baylor is a great really great team and they have some really great post players and really great guards. We're focusing on N.C. State right now, and that's our sole focus right now; and if we keep going, maybe we'll run into them, maybe we won't. But honestly, I think it's anyone's game this year. There's been so many teams that have proven themselves again and again. It's a really exciting time for women's basketball, that's for sure. Q. Who was your favorite sports hero growing up and why? MEGAN GUSTAFSON: A couple summers ago, I started to watch Kareem Abdul-Jabbar videos of his hook shot just so I could emulate that. That's something I tried to work watching his videos, he's pretty great at that shot and I wanted to work on that, so I would say him. Q. Did you ever get a chance to meet him? MEGAN GUSTAFSON: End of my junior year he came to speak at my university at an auditorium. I got to meet him, it was really cool. Q. Do you have a special memory from that? MEGAN GUSTAFSON: After he spoke at the lecture, they had like a dining room reception and we were as a team invited and he spoke to us, and then we were able to shake his hand, take a picture. I didn't have a long conversations or anything like that but it was cool. I was able to get a picture. Q. Curious about the matchup with N.C. State. What do they do that concerns you? Where do you see some of the key match-ups? MAKENZIE MEYER: Well, they shoot the three-point shot really, really well. They have a couple really good shooters from the outside and obviously they have a really good inside game, too. So they really are a dual threat team and they can take it to the hoop. We are just going to have to play a very solid game defensively. MEGAN GUSTAFSON: I'd have to agree. They are pretty well balanced. They have a great post player and they have some great guards, so we are just going to have to be ready defensively. Q. A lot of players follow others who are really good at their positions to compare. When did you first know about Cunane? MEGAN GUSTAFSON: Obviously probably this tournament, getting the scout on them. I've heard some great things about her and I'm not too familiar with N.C. State because they are not really in our conference but again she's probably going to be a really great center. She already is, and so you know, I'm going to have to be ready defensively, that's for sure? Q. Talk about the scout on Cunane far as it applies to you and your teammate and as you see her as an 18-year-old, do you feel like you're almost looking into a mirror? I know your styles are a little bit different, but how much of you do you see in her reflecting back three years? MEGAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, she has really great hands, being able to get the ball. Her teammates are feeding her really well inside, and she has great finish which is always really important in a post players. I do see some similarities in myself when I was younger, and again they do a really nice job of feeding her. She's a hard worker inside and defensively I'm going to have a tall task, as well as my teammates are, too. Q. As far as out of conference play, you guys certainly did not have a cakewalk of a schedule this season. Was there a particular moment before you hit conference play when you said, all right, we went toe-to-toe with, you know, a Notre Dame or whosoever be it. Was there a moment before you got into conference play when you said, you know what, we can hang with anybody; we've got that this year. MEGAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I think for me personally, thinking about that West Virginia game when we played in the Bahamas, we were down 24 points and we came back and we won. It was honestly one of the best games I've ever been able to play in and at that point we knew that we're a gritty team. We're resilient. We can face anything that was thrown at us, so I think that was probably a turning point for me. MAKENZIE MEYER: Yeah, the first thing that came to my mind was the West Virginia game as well. I think we knew all along this was going to be a special season. We have a lot of players coming back from last season and really have a chip on our shoulder from the first round loss last year. We're excited to be making strides in the NCAA Tournament. Q. N.C. State generally plays a lot of man-to-man and generally puts Leslie on the strongest perimeter shooter with a decent amount of size. If Leslie is on to you, if you've been watching the scout over the last few days, can you talk about that? What's your game plan going in one-on-one against her. MAKENZIE MEYER: I think we are going to try to stick with our same game plan that we have all season. We really play a team game so I don't really imagine myself going one-on-one too much. I'm going to try to take it to the hoop. I've been shooting well from the outside, so I'm just going to keep looking to attack the basket or draw fouls or dish it out to my teammates. Just stick with the game plan that we have all season. Q. You have played a myriad of different defenses, man, triangle two, other zone defenses. Based on what you've seen from N.C. State so far and the success you've had with all those defenses in the tournament so far, what are you most comfortable and what do you think works best against them? MAKENZIE MEYER: Like you said, we've seen a variety of different defenses and I can't really think of any particular defense that has slowed us down too much. We've done a really good job in practice of trying to emulate a variety of different defenses. So I mean, I guess we're thinking N.C. State is going to come out in man-to-man defense. That's what they have been doing all year. We're preparing for that but we're ready for anything to be thrown at us. I don't know, we've been practicing a couple different defenses, but we're going to throw a couple different things out and see what works best for us. MEGAN GUSTAFSON: Can't give away all the secrets. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|