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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: GREENSBOROApril 1, 2019Lisa BluderTania DavisMegan GustafsonGreensboro, North Carolina Baylor 85, Iowa 53 COACH LISA BLUDER: Baylor was just obviously too much for us today. I told the team that I'm not going to define our season by the last 40 minutes. I don't think we played our best game. Did Baylor have something to do with it? Absolutely. But I just wish that we could have shown a little bit more of Iowa Basketball. But I'm not going to -- I'm going to try not to remember this game. To me, I'm going to remember cutting down the Nets with these guys after winning a Big Ten Championship. I'm going to remember Tania's results coming back. I'm going to remember Hannah Stewart's journey. I'm going to remember getting the opportunity to coach one of the best basketball players in America in Megan, and that's what I'm going to remember about this season. I'm going to remember the relationships and just the -- the great memories with these young ladies. So I'm very, very fortunate and very blessed to coach them (tearing up). Q. They kept you off of the offensive glass and they kept you without a rebound in the second half. What did they do to bother you on the boards tonight? MEGAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, they were just throwing, you know, extra people at me, and they knew ahead of time that I was a pretty good rebounder and they had a little bit of size advantage, and so yeah, they were just throwing extra bodies at me, yeah. Is. Q. How tough was it to get the ball inside with those big bodies in there? TANIA DAVIS: Personally, for me, it wasn't really that tough. I felt like I got the ball in there pretty easily. It was just after that, just, you know, making decisions on our part whether we speed cut, things like that. But I don't think that their pressure bothered me at all when it came to getting the ball inside. Q. What legacy do you think this class leaves behind? What are your memories from the four years? TANIA DAVIS: For me personally, I felt like the legacy that we left is completely different depending on who you're talking about. Obviously Megan, coming in as a freshman, and you know, turning out, the type of player that she is, first team All-American and being the all-time leading scorer, rebounder, in Iowa history. Then you look at me, and I'm thrown and dealt a really bad hand, and had to overcome injury after injury; and to be able to fight back and make Big Ten Honorable Mention and to do things that I wasn't supposed to do and be in the position and be in the Elite 8, places I wasn't supposed to be. And then you look at Hannah Stewart, not playing her freshman year and to be a starter and keep playing for us. I feel like our legacy just completely different, but at the same time I feel like we're all just great people. We're great individuals off the court and I feel like that's the legacy we'd rather leave, as opposed to, you know, the players that we have. MEGAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, definitely what Tania said. We've all three had different journeys. Tania is one of the toughest warriors I know to be able to battle back from three injuries, with the shoulder and two back-to-back ACLs. Tonight she got her thousandth point, so that's amazing (tearing up). Hannah, if I had to go to battle with anyone else -- she's going to do great things when she's done, and I just try to do my job here in Iowa and just trying to work hard every single day (sobbing). God has just blessed me with an amazing ability to play basketball, and I'm just so, so pleased and thankful that the University of Iowa chose me and I chose to play for them. Q. Just how good is this Baylor team? COACH LISA BLUDER: Yeah, you know, I looked at their numbers and obviously watched them on film and I thought their defense was good. I didn't realize it was that good, until you're out there playing against them, how good their defense is. I mean, I hope they win it all. I hope they go on and win it all, definitely. But again, I thought they were a very good team today, as well, and I just wish we would have played our best game and we didn't, but again, I know that part of that has to do with Baylor. Q. This is the farthest Iowa has gone under you. Obviously you lose a lot. How do you sustain this now? COACH LISA BLUDER: Well, it all begins with recruiting. It all begins with getting the talent in. You know, I think the culture is there. I think people want to play with the type of women that we have on our team. So I think, you know, as long as we continue to pass that culture down and keep it, but it really comes down to getting the athletes in, as well. Culture is one thing, but you have to have talent to go with it. Q. This is kind of not about the game itself, but you have an all-female coaching staff, and there aren't that many that have that. Is that important to you to be coaching a lot of women? How intentional is that, and is that something you plan to continue? COACH LISA BLUDER: It's very intentional. It's something I'm really proud of. I think that young women need to have female role models to look up to and to see leaders in action that are women. I'm not saying that men can't be role models, but we all know that when you have somebody that looks like you, it's a little bit easier. I'm very intentional about that, and I'm very proud of the fact that we have an all-female staff. Q. You had about a seven-and-a-half-minute stretch there in that second quarter where you didn't make any field goals, made some from the free throw; how critical is that stretch with a chance to kind of stay in the game? COACH LISA BLUDER: Yeah, there were several of those, I felt like, where we just had the long droughts. You know, I thought that Megan did her part; I said coming into this game that we needed everybody to contribute, and unfortunately we didn't get a lot of contribution from other people. You know, again, I know they gave me all. I know that they worked as hard as they could. I know that they believed and came in here wanting it, but today, we just didn't get the job done. It would have been nice to be able to hit some threes and be able to knock some of those down, but again, I think Baylor did a really good job of getting out there and taking that pass out away from us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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