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PAC-12 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2020Adia BarnesAari McDonaldCate ReeseLas Vegas, Nevada Arizona - 86, California - 73 ADIA BARNES: I just would like to say, you know, we play in the best conference in the country and wins aren't easy. If you saw yesterday upsets and so this time of year, it is a whole new season, and everybody brings their best game. I'm proud of our fight. You know, we just played Cal last Sunday at home, you know, the first game to match up with them again. I think it showed a lot of character of our team. Cal is a very good team that doesn't die. Charmin Smith does a great job as a first-year head coach. She was a teammate of mine at the WNBA and does a great job of having the heart of her team, because they play until the end, regardless of the score. She should be proud of that and will do great things at Cal. I'm proud of these young women and how we fought and kept our composure throughout the game. Q. Coach, what's it mean to you that this team is in prime position and all but locked to start and host the NCAA Tournament? ADIA BARNES: It is funny, I try not to think about that a lot, you put so much pressure on yourself and the team. I didn't think of this game as a must-win game, but it pretty much was for a lot of reasons because of that. I think that for us, our program hasn't gone to the tournament in 15 years. We haven't hosted since 2006 when we were not in the tournament. It says a lot. If you see our city and how we're the second best attendance in the Pac-12 and we will probably -- I don't say probably, I don't want to be cocky, I don't want to jinx myself, but we have a good chance of selling out McKale. We're one of the few venues in the country that can bring 15,000 people to a women's basketball team. I think we have a strong chance of doing that. With a crowd like that, I think we have a lot of momentum when we play at home. We could be in a great situation. Q. Other than having talent, what's made this team so successful from the end of last season until now? ADIA BARNES: Leaders like these two next to me. You know, it's funny, Aari could have gone anywhere in the country. She was at Washington. She decided to take a chance on Arizona. Remember at Arizona I was selling a dream. We hadn't been successful in a long time. She wanted to come here and go to war with me, and she did that, and has helped build this program. And then she's helped along people like Cate. Cate was our first McDonald's All-American. She could have gone anywhere in the country. She chose to come to Arizona. Remember, that game she was watching us, embarrassingly enough, we won six games. She decided to come here, do something special. They wanted to come here and work and leave their legacy, and they both did that. They're the people behind that. They're the people that started the foundation, and we just turned into a good team. Q. Cate, speaking on that, career-high night for you with 30 points. Can you talk about your performance tonight and how it felt when the buckets were just falling down for you left and right? CATE REESE: I just think my teammates found me. We knew the game plan. We knew we were kind of the quicker team, so they kept running the floor, my teammates found me, Helena had a good pass. Aari had great passes to me. I made the shots I knew I could make. And if I didn't, I would pass it off. My teammates did a great job, Coach Adia trusted me to step up in the game. And I'm just happy that we won. ADIA BARNES: The big thing, what she did tonight -- different people step up at different times, that's what we have done all year. She did that off of 13-15 shooting. So, you know, she did a great job of offensive rebounds, getting to the free-throw line. She didn't take 25 shots. That's what this young woman does all the time too, Aari. But to have your best player show up, because these type of games, this time of year, it shows character. You see who are the fighters, who fights, who gives up. And these two fought. It was just Cate's night, and she did a great job of running the floor, and Aari did a great job of finding her. She was awesome tonight -- or today. Feels like night because that fourth quarter felt about four hours. Q. Coach, I think I asked you this last year, local product, Sam Thomas, this year as a junior, maybe some nights it doesn't show up on the stat sheet, but in games she gets the grimy work done. This year she looked like an extension of the coaching staff, running the floor well. Talk about the little things she does and how integral she is as part of this lineup. ADIA BARNES: This team is not successful without Sam Thomas. She can have 0 points, and she still helps us win in every single way. She's the most underrated defender. You know, Aari, Player of the Year, Sam, All-Defensive Team. Sam locks down our players. She continues to block shots. She's the only one allowed on the team to block jump shots because she can do it. That's like our secret rule. She's consistent. She's one of our smartest players. She knows where to be at all times, on offense and defense. The offense runs through her. I just can't say enough about Sam. I think that she's -- I'm just glad this year people started to recognize, because she's been doing this stuff for thee years. I'm glad people woke up. She's always done this. It wasn't her night tonight -- today offensively, but she's still a force with zero turnovers. She does everything so well. We're not the team we are without Sam Thomas. So if you can find some other players in Vegas, please be sure to let me know because I would love having more Sam Thomases. You got to Tweet at me. You know I like social media. No, but Sam Thomas, she's like the unsung hero. And when she scores, it is a plus for us because she's incredible defensively. Q. For both players, going off what Coach said before, what about her made you guys want to come to Arizona? AARI McDONALD: I would say that Coach Barnes is relational. I knew her since my sophomore year of high school. I knew picking Arizona would be a perfect place. It felt like home away from home. It is just another family. CATE REESE: I would say she talked to us about leaving a legacy and building the foundation for what we're doing right now. I'm just grateful that I made the right decision. I never regretted my decision coming to Arizona. And, I mean, what Aari said, she really -- she loves building relationships with her players, and it's just the culture here is unlike any other. I'm just happy that I made it here and that, you know, we're leaving our legacies right now. Q. Coach, obviously Cate had a really good game today. Do you think it was just a good showing to maybe show people that you have more than -- no disrespect to Aari, but that you have more than just Aari? I have heard a lot of people that are just like, you know, U of A is just Aari. ADIA BARNES: She's dynamic on both ends, awesome, powerful on offense and defense, she's that person. But to be at this level, to be a ranked team, top 15 team, top 10 team, you have to have more. We have a good team. You know, without Cate doing what she does -- setting screens, rebound, work inside -- we're not successful. Without Sam playing her defense, without her hitting threes, being in the right place on offense, having our team run -- having our sets run through her, we're not successful. Without Dominique passing the ball right, getting -- she's like the point guard from the post position, we're not successful. Without Semaj coming in as a true five, altering shots, giving us size, we're not successful. So we believe we're a team. We all have different roles. And that's just part of being successful, you have your different role. We all accept and will do our roles. And when someone is down, you pick up the slack. That's what you do when you're a team. That's what you do when you're a family. That's what we do. Today other people were having a tough time, Cate stepped up. Tomorrow it could be Aari, Dominique. We have done that all year-round, and no one thought we would be where we were. No one in this country thought that we would have a bye the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament. We were chosen 6th. Nobody thought we would be a ranked team, but they believed, I believed, and that's all that matters to us. I think we're a complete team. And we're still pretty young. If you think about it, besides -- out of the starters, we don't have one player that's been to this tournament four times. Everybody else does. We don't. Cal does, USC, UCLA, Oregon. Aari has only been here two times. Cate has been here twice. Dominique has been here twice. Amari has been here once. So we don't have experience. We're kind of babies in the tournament and will be in the NCAA. But I think with their confidence and their heart and passion, I think we can beat a lot of teams. Q. Coach, in all likelihood you could be facing off against Oregon for the third time in the semifinals. How exactly are you going to game plan differently against them this time, especially when they have so much talent in the starting five and they have a deep bench as well to be able to pick up the slack? ADIA BARNES: Their talent hasn't changed. I think at this time of year, anybody is beatable. They're a very good team. All of America knows that. You know, they have Sabrina, Ruthy. They have three top five picks and three All-Americans. You know, Oregon has the pressure to win the Pac-12 Tournament. We don't have the pressure to win the Pac-12 Tournament. Oregon has the pressure as the higher seed to beat the lower seeds. We don't have that pressure. So we go into the game with zero pressure. And I'll tell you, it is hard to play teams with zero pressure. We faced that last Sunday, and Cal had no pressure coming to Arizona, beat us at our place on Senior Day. So when upsets happened, we saw yesterday, nobody thought Cal was going to beat ASU, so for us, we go in as another game. We have nothing to lose. We go fight. We play the way we fought. And it is hard to beat a team statistically three times in one year. So for us, we're going to have fun. We're going to play basketball and try to win. If we don't win, our season is not over. It doesn't matter. I think that's our take on it. We know they're a very good team. Q. Congratulations on your win. ADIA BARNES: Thank you. Q. This weekend we'll be celebrating International Women's Day, and I wondered if you would each take a moment to recognize a woman in your life that's inspired you. AARI McDONALD: I would say my mom. She's been the background of our family. Very inspiring woman. She's tough, feisty. I think that's where I get a lot of my traits from. She just is a strong woman, and I always looked up to her. CATE REESE: My mom too. She taught me so much. I mean, I wouldn't be where I am today without my mom. And, yeah, I would be lost without my mom, honestly. She has taught me so much. I'm thankful for everything she does for me and that she continues to do for me. ADIA BARNES: The only thing she didn't teach Cate is how to do laundry before she got to college. She didn't that. CATE REESE: I don't do laundry. ADIA BARNES: For me, there is a lot of strong women in my life. I think I also piggyback on them, my mom, just because my mom -- I wondered how I got certain traits, and now that I'm older and a mom, I realize that my toughness, my focus, my resiliency, learning how to fall on your face and get back up, all of those things my mom taught me. Sometimes I wonder how do some people have it and others don't. I watched my mom. It was tough love sometimes, it was not a shoulder to cry on, but it taught me so many things that I will teach my son as a mother. And I think having a strong woman is important for these young women. When they see a woman that can be a mother, that can be a -- kick ass on and off the court, it is a role model for them. And I love the fact that we can do that, our staff can do that. These young women need role models that have been where they want to go, does what they want to do and can do it on different levels. I mean, I think that's inspiration. I think women that coach are an inspiration, and we can give a lot back to this game. So we will celebrate that day. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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