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NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIPDecember 18, 2019Hugh McCutcheonCC McGrawAlexis HartPittsburgh, Pennsylvania THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome the Minnesota Gophers. We're joined by coach and student-athletes Alexis Hart and CC McGraw. HUGH McCUTCHEON: We're happy to be back at the Final Four. Excited for our match on Thursday. Been a great year for us, and wonderful to be playing some of the best volleyball here at the end. Q. Players have talked this season about a real connection among yourselves and how important that's been. When did you first start to see and feel that connection, and how did you see it? How did that start to play out? ALEXIS HART: I think probably when Big Ten was starting, I think obviously our season was up and down, but we were just able to see -- we were able to adjust. It was easy to trust and connect to each other. CC McGRAW: Yeah, I think the same thing. Once we started the Big Ten season and we were dealing with a lot of adversity and going through some stuff, and I think in those times when a lot of teams would have probably faded away and been like this is so difficult, we embraced that and we came together. And I think that really shows how much we were as a team, how close we were. Q. You lost your center for 13 matches. Can you give thoughts on that and how you got through that stretch? ALEXIS HART: I think Bayley and Tamara did a really good job just controlling the offense, and it's nice to have Kylie back, but I think everyone just did a great job making sure the offense was balanced. CC McGRAW: Yeah, I think we all just made the focus of doing your own job, and as long as we were able to handle it on the server end of things, we made their job a lot easier. I think it had a lot to do with a lot of people doing their own jobs and really encouraging those setters who filled that role, just making sure they were confident, and we were able to come together as a team. Q. Did it make you a better team? CC McGRAW: Yes, I think so. Definitely the fact we were able to overcome that and work through that because it wasn't easy; it was a grind, that's for sure. But we're definitely benefitting from that and I think it shows from our resiliency in the end. Q. Was that something you guys talked about? Did you have a team discussion about, well, this is a big deal, this is difficult, but let's not panic about it? How did you guys handle it when you knew that you were going to have to go forward for an undetermined amount of time without your main center? ALEXIS HART: I think in general, throughout the season, like at the beginning we were making sure no matter what your role is that everyone was making sure they're doing 110 percent of whatever we've got. It was more along the lines of no matter what are you doing that day or the next day, just making sure you're bringing it to the table. CC McGRAW: I think we were able to take it one day at a time. We tried not worry about how long she was going to be out or whatnot. But just knowing that we were able to do that and just take it one point at a time. I think that was the big thing, was we tried not to stress about it. As long as everybody was able to do their own job, I mean, we have the depth for it. Our setters were amazing who filled that role. Q. The Big Ten is so good and so deep every year. How valuable is that, just playing just a gnarly team night after night after night when it comes down to playoffs where it's that intensity pretty much every night for you guys? ALEXIS HART: Sure, it helps a lot. Every game is a battle, and it just -- if anything, you just realize how important each point is, especially in a game. So I think it helps us for sure in the tournament. CC McGRAW: In the Big Ten season, you're getting pushed every weekend, and forced in these positions where you are really uncomfortable and you're having to battle through when it's not easy. I think when it comes to tourney time, we're prepared for that and we know how to battle back and play against some of those top tier teams. Q. Did you guys sense at the beginning of the season this was a very adaptable and resilient group of athletes? Or is that something that you learned and developed along the way as you began to face some adversity? ALEXIS HART: I think for sure with how the season went, as we were going, we learned we could adapt, which probably made us realize for sure that our team was able to adapt to anything. I think, as the season went along, we were able to adapt as we went along. CC McGRAW: I think so too. We kept learning as we went. That was the biggest thing. We were just taking it one day at a time and doing whatever we could to just help and benefit the team. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach. Q. It was a nice honor to see Regan Pittman make First Team All-America. How has she developed through the course of this year? HUGH McCUTCHEON: I agree, I think it's a great recognition for her and for her teammates. Obviously you don't get to be a First Team All-American unless you've got some pretty quality people around you. So, yeah, I agree with you there. For Regan, I think the course of her career, being able to develop an all-around game, has been one of the things that's been a huge strength for her and for us. When she first came to us, she was really kind of a one-trick-pony. She could hit it really hard. But now she's a great blocker. Obviously leading the conference in blocks is no mean feat, at least in the Big Ten. And, in addition, hitting for a great number. She's able to dig and defend. She's hitting a great serve. She's dishing the rock when we need her to. I mean, she's doing all these things that are just awesome. So personally I'm just extremely proud of her for, one, I guess trusting the process, going through the work, and being able to be in a position as a redshirt junior to see all that work pay off. It's a pretty delayed schedule of reinforcement for some of these athletes. They come in as a freshman and they probably don't get to really enjoy the fruit of their labor until much later in their careers, but she's done a phenomenal job. Q. Your thoughts on losing Kylie for so long, that had to be -- HUGH McCUTCHEON: It was challenging, because we were telling people it was day to day, and that's exactly what it was. There was no clear timeline for her return. And as the athletes spoke to, it forced us to be in a space of just dealing with today and not really worrying too much about tomorrow or the end of the season. We were in -- I don't know if survival mode is the right word, but it freed us of a lot of expectation because we were just trying to grind this one and then get on to the next one. Q. You played them already this year. What are your thoughts on that? HUGH McCUTCHEON: "Them" being Stanford? Well, they're good. They were good then, and they're good now. We know we've got our work cut out for us. Very talented team. Well coached, and we expect it to be a battle. Q. Both the matchups here are matchups that we saw in September. But couple months later, how much different are you guys from the first time that you played Stanford? I feel like especially because the girls talked about how much they had to improve and grow without Kiley there and now you guys I'm sure have grown a little with her getting back too. HUGH McCUTCHEON: Yeah, I think the growth in this particular instance has been a little different, as you're alluding to. When you've got a healthy team for a whole season, now you're working on nuances and some specific situational things, but we're still trying to get on the same page. So it's a whole different kind of setup. But within that, yeah, the growth has been people expanding their role. People ready to do different things on different days, being able to compensate and adjust. I think we're more nimble, if I can use that word, relative to different systems at different times or different things that we might have to do in a different situation. I think we're just a little more well rounded. So I think that's really been the benefit of this injury that, yeah, had to have pretty serious repercussions for us over the course of the year. Q. You reached the pinnacle of your sport by coaching the men to a gold medal. When you transitioned to coaching women, was it just as a matter of that's where the resources are in the sport or what was -- HUGH McCUTCHEON: Initially, it was a few different factors at the time. I felt like our journey with the men was kind of complete. It had a beginning, a middle, and a pretty good end. So it felt like if I was going to stay in that international world, and it's kind of a meat grinder, if I was going to stay in that space, the idea for me as a coach -- in 2008, I was 38 at that time. So to stay another four years with the men seemed like we'd be trying to reinvent the same wheel. And I don't know if that held the same appeal as really trying to bring this body of knowledge that had been applied pretty successfully on the men's side, not just through me but through other coaches over a pretty good history of succeeding -- Doug Beal, Marv Dunphy, the late Carl McGown was a part of that, Bill Neville -- but all these guys and take that work and kind of apply it on the women's side so that we could coach our female athletes in a similar way with a method that was based in some pretty strong scientific rigor. So it seemed a little bit like a mad scientist experiment at the time, but I think, even though we only won the silver medal in London with the women, still a remarkable run. And it was kind of validation that this process was not gender-specific and we could get off of talking about men's volleyball and women's volleyball and that we could really talk about volleyball and how we're going to play the game. Because volleyball is one of the few games where we actually change the constraints of the game, the net height to deal with the differences in height and power. So with the guys, we had people hitting 12 feet and crushing the ball on an eight-foot net. But we had women that were touching over a 11 that were doing it on a 7'4" net. It was kind of cool to see that transfer of method from the men to women and see, hey, you know what? It's just volleyball. Q. Did that experience then lead you to go into coaching at Minnesota? HUGH McCUTCHEON: Yeah, midway through the quad with the women, we started having children, which was great, and it became pretty clear -- well, for me, I like coaching, but the goal's always been, excuse me, number one dad, not number one coach. And I'm trying to be number one dad because, you know, it's a tough audience. But when it became clear that the international grind, especially the amount of travel, wasn't really conducive to honoring those other commitments in my life, then you start looking at collegiate jobs. And if it was a men's job and it was a good fit, we would have looked at that. It just turned out that this opportunity at Minnesota became available, and it worked out pretty good. Q. Lastly, the sport at the collegiate level is played overwhelmingly by women. Why do you think there aren't as many women head coaches, particularly in the Big Ten? HUGH McCUTCHEON: Yeah, it's a good question. I'm not the hiring authority, so I don't know, but I think it's important that we have really strong women in positions of leadership in our sport. And I think it's really important that we have great role models for the ability to -- I'm trying to honor the commitments in my life, but I know that there are women that are moms and coaches and wives and can do all of it. So I think I would hope that there continues to be a shift. But I want to also temper that comment with the importance of understanding that at the end of the day we want to hire the best people. That should be the best practice. But in no way should our female applicants be in any way held back because of anything that's going on in their personal lives. And I think you'll find that there will continue to be a lot of really strong women coaches that will be great models in all spheres of their lives that will be able to help our student-athletes moving forward. Q. What are your thoughts on this team's ability to mentally and emotionally handle the curveballs thrown at it this year? Not every team could take these things in stride and forge ahead. HUGH McCUTCHEON: I agree. You were asking earlier about the student-athletes, when they decided they were going to be this team, and in preseason everyone's feeling great. All the hopes and dreams are intact. We're undefeated. We haven't done anything. And as you get through the season and you start playing through preseason and you lose a couple and now all of a sudden, well, these things that we say, are they really things that we want to do, and the great thing about this group is just the space between what they said at the beginning and what they were prepared to do to make that happen has been really small. We understand the margins are thin to get here. But at some point, if you are repeatedly finding ways to win in adverse conditions, that has to mean something relative to this group's resolve. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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