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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 6, 2020Joe McKeownJordan HamiltonVeronica BurtonIndianapolis, Indiana Michigan - 67, Northwestern - 59 JOE McKEOWN: Yeah, listen, hey, congratulations to Michigan. It was a hard-fought game. They just made a couple plays when they had to. We made a run to come back and got it down to two, and I thought we had a great chance to win, but they made a couple big plays late, too. They were able to hurt us a little bit inside most of the game, and we battled back. We're a resilient team. We're a great team. But give them credit tonight. With that being said, like I told our players, before tonight, we're 26-3. We haven't lost -- I can't remember the last time we lost. We went undefeated in February. These guys have given Northwestern everything they have, so it's a great season. For us, a lot of basketball left hopefully, and to play in the NCAA Tournament coming up, to be Big Ten Conference champions in the regular season, ranked in the top 20, a lot of great things, but more importantly is in 10 days from now or 12 days from now, whenever we play next, you'll see a great team out there. I have no doubt about that. Q. Last year obviously not the exact same situation, you guys had a really tough first-round loss in this tournament, go to the WNIT, similar time frame, make a big run there. How can you take lessons from that situation and apply them to this year? VERONICA BURTON: I just think that we know we have a lot of basketball ahead of us, and we have to move on quickly because as Coach said, we've got to get ready for March and postseason. I think we showed our resilience in the WNIT last year, and I have no doubt that we'll do the same. JORDAN HAMILTON: Yeah, like you said, we played a team that we've played two times already, and it's really tough to beat the same team three times. There was a lot of things that went on that we're going to learn from, we're going to implement in our practices. And like Veronica said, we were really resilient in that WNIT run, and that should propel us in the NCAA Tournament. Q. Michigan talked about trying to take the ball out of your hands, Veronica, with Dilk shadowing you for 94 feet. Can you talk about how that made it tough to initiate the offense? VERONICA BURTON: Yeah, it definitely disrupts a little -- it didn't take too much out of us I don't think, but it definitely, one, makes me work harder to get the ball and kind of disrupts a little bit of what we do because a lot of the play calls start with me with the ball, but at the end of the day I think we adapted pretty well. We trust anyone with the ball. Jordan handled it perfectly fine. Again, it's just like frustrating a little bit, but I think we adapted fine. Q. As a team you guys are 10-for-19 from the free-throw line. Seemed like you left a lot of points out there. After a situation like that where you guys know you're leaving free points out on the court, how do you get back in the gym and really go to work off of that? JORDAN HAMILTON: Something that we highly emphasize all the time is we have to make our lay-ups and our free throws. And those are two areas I feel like in this game where we kind of dropped the ball a little bit. I just feel like that's the thing that just needs repetition. We need to get in the gym when we get back, have a goal set in mind to make 100 free throws, maybe even more a day each, and then that'll just hopefully help our percentage out a little bit. VERONICA BURTON: Yeah, as you said, we've got to get back in the gym and focus on the little things. In a game like this and the game even before, we can't really afford to go 10-for-19 from the free-throw line. I mean, that's enough said I feel like, but we've just got to get better from that. Q. Jordan, what can you take from this experience? You played incredibly well in the first half, made two buzzer-beater shots and scored 11 points. What can you take from this breakout performance in the postseason and kind of take it forth to the NCAA? JORDAN HAMILTON: This is just something that my teammates and my coaches have been trying to get me to do. I've been -- I've kind of had not the best year. I know that myself. But I mean, they've been pushing me day in and day out, shoot the ball, shoot the ball. They have so much courage and confidence in me, and I feel like it's finally clicked, and I just hope that that also carries over into the NCAA Tournament. Q. Coach, I'll ask you the same question I asked them: Last year sort of a similar situation, sort of different, but really tough loss in that first round, Michigan State gave you guys a thumping and then you come back in the WNIT and make a big run. What lessons can you take from that situation? JOE McKEOWN: Yeah, I think that was a great. I think, growth spurt for us last March. To play in April, when most of college basketball is watching. So I think they also understood our team -- we have almost everybody back from that team. Obviously we've missed Pallas. But the goal was to use that to propel us to the NCAA Tournament this year, and I think it helped us. And I think they've done a great job of -- look, that experience will make us better. Now everything is out there for us. Everything opens up for us over the next two weeks. We want to -- I think they understand that, and I certainly understand it. But I think that experience helped us. Q. Coach, obviously been a roller coaster the last week or so. A week ago you're preparing to win your first Big Ten title, regular season title in 30 years; tough loss today. How do you kind of put both of those things behind you and try to achieve your ultimate goal? JOE McKEOWN: Yeah, I thought, again, like I said, I give -- Michigan is a really good team. We had beaten them twice, come from behind at Michigan in a great game, and we knew it was going to be a battle. But I think our players, the biggest thing we talk about, look, you came here to play in the NCAA Tournament. That's why I recruited you. That's why you came to Northwestern. That's why we built Welsh-Ryan Arena and Trienens. To say we're Big Ten champs, all those things, I think we've got to now take advantage over the next couple weeks. I've been to a lot of NCAA Tournaments, and nobody on this team has played in any. I'm going to have to use my experiences, too, and just get them ready. But we'll be ready. This team, given 10 days of rest, I wouldn't want to play us. Q. Kind of going back to Michigan being a good team, you've beaten them in two close come-from-behind victories this year. How did you prepare for this game here with the postseason ramifications and also the return of Naz Hillmon? JOE McKEOWN: Well, I think the biggest thing was they made some threes that -- I give Maddie Nolan a lot of credit, hit big shots. They bank one in, I think we cut it two and they came down and bank one in at the end of their shot clock. So you've got to give them credit. But I think we were ready to play tonight. Michigan is a good team. We use this as a way to say, look, how does this help us going into the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Q. You've talked before about how you need Lindsey Pulliam to take a lot of shots. The last two games Michigan has been able to effectively limit her. Talk about how that affects your offense and how you can use lessons from that moving forward. JOE McKEOWN: Well, it was a physical game. It was a really physical game tonight, and I thought she got good looks at times. She's a great player. She had 32 against Michigan at Welsh-Ryan. She's capable of dropping 32 on somebody in March. That's why I brought her here. Again, she is the heart and soul of our team from the standpoint of an emotional leader, captain, and she played her heart out tonight, and she's the focal point of everybody's defense, and not just Michigan. Q. I saw you take Sydney and Veronica kind of under your arm postgame as you walked off the floor. Can you share a little bit about what your message was to them and really your entire team after a loss like this? JOE McKEOWN: Well, you know, Sydney was fighting off some injuries tonight and had a rough night, and we had to hold her out for a while. But Sydney Wood and Veronica Burton have had this incredible chemistry together and this incredible year, and so I just wanted to let them know how much I appreciate them, and now they're juniors. Now you're playing in the NCAA Tournament even though you're a sophomore -- you get another year, so it's like a new season. And same thing with our team. Nothing that -- everybody is a little down right now because they fought hard. You know, we'll move on. But those two I think laid out every ounce of blood they had all year, and I was just really proud of them, and I just wanted them to know. Q. Veronica talked about how you guys didn't do the little things, especially in that second half. What do you think was the cause of that in this game in particular? JOE McKEOWN: Well, we left them -- we tried to take away their inside game defensively, and they hit some big threes. They hit that stretch, that hit three threes in a row I want to say. I don't have a running box yet, but with a tie game, we'd score, they'd score and it was going back and forth and then they got up six or eight, and it was more they made tough shots, and a couple times we had some breakdowns where we left them open. So give them credit, too. Nolan made tough shots. Johnson made a tough three. I think Hailey Brown made a three in that stretch. They were just backbreakers when they made them because we'd just come down, maybe score, and as you guys mention, too, you've got to make free throws in these games. You've got to make lay-ups. We did that all year. That's why we're Big Ten champions. Q. You spoke about Michigan being able to make those tough threes. Tonight the Wolverines were able to limit Abi Scheid. I think she only had one or two threes tonight. How are you going to take those abilities and the lack of threes that you guys made tonight and try to get more from behind the arc down the road? JOE McKEOWN: Yeah, they made seven threes, we made three in a game that was a two-point game under a minute. We hit 10 against Rutgers. We're streaky, and sometimes we're great. Abi Scheid is the No. 1 three-point shooter in the country, so again -- she was, or she is, I don't know, statistically. But she's just carried us all year making big shots. She scored five straight points tonight to give us a chance to win the game, and she'll be back. I think when you get out of your league now and into the NCAA Tournament, you play against -- tonight we played against a team, just like they did, that kind of knows all your plays, kind of plays you a certain way. So it'll be good to play outside the league a little bit, too. But great respect for the Big Ten. And Abi Scheid, man, what a year. My God, senior, and for her to be 26-4, ranked top -- I don't know what we are, 11th, 12th in the country, and you're going to play in March, I'm really proud of her. She's going to light somebody up in March. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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