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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: GREENSBOROApril 1, 2019Kim MulkeyChloe JacksonDidi RichardsLauren CoxKalani BrownGreensboro, North Carolina Baylor 85, Iowa 53 THE MODERATOR: Opening statement? COACH KIM MULKEY: I haven't done it in 19 years and I'm going to pass again. THE MODERATOR: Thought I'd give you a chance, Coach. COACH KIM MULKEY: Thank you. Q. Now that you're there going to the Final Four, just your immediate thoughts after the game is over when you were celebrating? KALANI BROWN: I don't know, I was just overwhelmed, excited, just happy. We were just hugging each other. I wasn't thinking about anything, honestly. CHLOE JACKSON: I just felt extremely blessed. It was a surreal feeling. Just a lot of excitement. Q. Just how much motivation was there going up inside against Megan Gustafson, and just tell me about your defensive effort, I think about 31 percent from the field they shot, and y'all rebounded them by a lot, also. LAUREN COX: It was a team effort. Kalani obviously started on her and I was playing on her some, too. We just tried to limit her touches and do whatever she could. I mean, she's a good player. She's going to get her points, and we just couldn't let that second and third player go off for them. KALANI BROWN: Piggybacking off what she said, Megan is real crafty with the ball. Very talented player. We just took turns on her, you know, you guard her for a possession and I'll guard her for a possession, but she's a great player. Q. Another really great game for you, if it hadn't been or Saturday, this would have been your highest-scoring game. Did you expect a weekend like this coming, and was this anything different that happened or did things just click? DIDI RICHARDS: It's not something you expect, just something that kind of comes, I guess. But without my teammates I would not be able to do what I do, because without the -- without the attention they get in the inside, I wouldn't be so wide open under. Q. They hit seven three-points the other day. They are a pretty good three-point shooting team. Talk about y'all's defense and how you were able to stay out there on them? DIDI RICHARDS: You know, we're kind of known for our defense, I would say, so we didn't do anything different. We just stayed outside and guarded them like we normally guard because most teams shoot threes on us, so it's something we're used to, I would say. CHLOE JACKSON: Yeah, piggybacking off of her, we just stuck to our defenses -- defensive play, and just played the same defense we always do. Yeah, we played against a lot of three-point shooting teams before, so it was nothing that we hadn't seen. Q. You did a whole lot of things well in both games, and therefore, were the most outstanding player. Just your thoughts and were you especially active, did you feel like in the last two games? LAUREN COX: I think I was pretty active, but I mean, I think I've been doing a little bit of everything throughout the season, and I mean, it could have been any one of us, MVP, and it's just a blessing and I'm just excited. Q. For any player that wants it, you guys have won all four games in this tournament by 25 points each, average margin of victory, 38 points. What are you learning about yourselves with all those blowouts? LAUREN COX: We're just learning that we're determined to make our Final goal, which we did, to make it to Tampa, and now win a National Championship. I think it says a lot about our defense and the way that we score the ball. We're getting up and we're not letting people get back into the game. KALANI BROWN: Also that we have a lot of weapons, you know, not just coming from the paint but on the perimeter. Didi shocked the world, so you know, and the depth of the bench, as well. CHLOE JACKSON: I agree with LC, yeah. Q. This was it for you. You have two more to go, maybe one or two more to go. Did you ever doubt you would enjoy this moment and was there frustration along the way? Does it make it more sweet that you get there now? KALANI BROWN: Definitely frustration along the way, but it's all paid off for now. Finally check out the Final Four off my checklist. Q. Kind of the same question I asked Kalani and Chloe, but how excited are you for those seniors to be going to the Final Four? You've been talking about it for a while now? COACH KIM MULKEY: Certainly, you start with seniors. I am so happy for those seniors. I am so happy for those players, and I'm happy for Baylor University. I'm happy for Baylor University. Plaster that on the front page of every national newspaper. It doesn't get any more positive than this. Q. As you're winning this game, the game is finishing, were there any thoughts to some of the players that came before them that maybe didn't make it? COACH KIM MULKEY: Absolutely. What you want for every kid you coach, when they come there, they want to come to win championships. They want to come to win Big 12 championships, and we've won 20 of those. But some of those great players missed out on a chance to go to at least one, and for that, as a coach, you always think about them. But I will always tell you this: They are a part of this. I think to that first group I coached in the very first NCAA Tournament, we were in Cameron indoor (ph) but we got there. We took a program that had won seven games prior to us getting there and we went to the NCAA Tournament. They are a part of every bit of this. That's what makes this special is because even though they physically may not have been able to get there themselves, truly, we're all a part of the program. They are all a part of it. Q. Given the margin of victory y'all have enjoyed in every game so far this tournament, how do you go about preparing the team for a situation where they might have a little closer score a little late in the game in a more high-leverage situation? COACH KIM MULKEY: First of all, you go against each other. I've got the No. 1 recruiting class in the country sitting over there not getting as many minutes as probably they would at other schools, so there's nothing greater than to watch them go every day against Kalani and Cox and the battles that are fought in that practice. I think practice prepares you for the games. If you're your practices can be harder than games, then we're doing something right, and they get after it. They are as competitive against each other, but then when we go play games, they are pulling for each other. Our practices are intense. The second thing I want to give credit to is our Dream Team. You have a bunch of guys at Baylor that volunteer and go through the entire NCAA certification process and they come out there and they help us prepare. This is for those guys, as well. Q. That defense prevailed again tonight. Is that the core of your team, or was it tonight? COACH KIM MULKEY: I liked your article and I agree with you. Texas Tech again get after you, too, defensively. It has to be, Chad, because we don't know that we're going to score this many points every night. What we do know is we can defend you and we're going to give everything we have on the defensive end of the floor. That's the way I was taught and that's the way I believe, and all these high-octane offenses now, nobody wants to believe post game is effective any more; I do. But I also go back to old school basketball, is that -- think about it. Nobody likes to be guarded for 40 minutes. It's work. It's hard. And that's why you look at a kid like Didi Richards, who is our defensive stopper, and what she sacrifices on the offensive end, you're seeing her be a big contributor for us. So let me say this about Iowa -- I want to say Iowa State because they are in our league. But what a great year Iowa had. What a great player Gustafson is. Just classy. Their comments were classy all the last two days. They had a tremendous year. And I've been in that locker room on the losing end, so my heart goes out to them, as well. Any more questions? Q. You said Didi has done this before, but she has not scored this many points before. Is it a matter of her being more aggressive or what clicked with her? COACH KIM MULKEY: Well, transition for one thing. Offensive rebounding the second thing, and thirdly, she and those post players just have to going on right now that they find her. Sometimes Cox and those guys will look for her too much because if you watch film on us, people tend to not guard her. They think she's the least offensive threat that we have, so instead of being a liability on the offensive end, we have helped her figure out how to be effective and not be a liability and not take her man and go double on the post as much as they were earlier in the season. Q. I love your orange. COACH KIM MULKEY: Thank you. Q. The talk going in about was about the battle in the post. You scored 25 more points in the paint. Do you feel like you sent a message tonight? COACH KIM MULKEY: I don't know that there's any message. This is who we are. Y'all just haven't seen us play in person. This is our basketball team. I have two of the greatest post players in the country, and they are so unselfish and wanted it to play together, and there's no message to be sent. I have said from day one, it's all about championships, and when I can recruit kids and parents who still believe in team first, and not stats, and we -- you know, those kids don't care. Kalani just wanted to get to a Final Four. You know, it's a joy to coach and be around kids and parents who honestly just want their kids to experience what it's all about and it's about championships, Final Fours and those types of things. Lauren Cox, Most Outstanding Player. If you would have asked me, I couldn't take just one, usually I can pick just one Lauren Cox was the No. 1 player in the country coming out of high school -- Notre Dame and more. And the thing that is so impressive about Lauren Cox is we had like four or five post players that she had to come in and play with as a freshman. But it didn't scare her. It didn't scare her. I mean, we had Nina Davis, KK, Kalani was there, the list goes on. And that kid's self-confidence was the most impressive thing to me. It's like, "That doesn't scare me, Coach, my time will come and I will work until you have to play me." The second thing about Lauren Cox is, at her size, she can honestly play any position on that floor. If I got in foul trouble and had no guard to bring it up the floor, I would look at her and say, you go get the ball. She can do it. She can defend any position on that floor. And she's got a little oomph in her. She's going to guard you and get you. It's funny because the freshmen post players will watch and I'll be down there watching her and if someone hits Lauren hard and she thinks it was a cheap shot or the referee made a bad call, she will go, oh, who are we going to get in the other end. That's the competitor in that child. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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