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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2020Doug BrunoChante StonewallDeja ChurchChicago, Illinois DePaul - 97, Providence - 59 DOUG BRUNO: It's always the players, and I thought our players had great energy today and great readiness to play. Providence, Jim does a great job with his team, and it's unfortunate that a great player like Mary Baskerville was not able to play. So you always feel for an athlete when they can't play. So we're playing a Providence team that was under -- they lost a really, really important player, and yet our players can't control that. Our players can only control what they bring to the table and their energy and their focus, and I just was impressed with the energy and focus that our players brought today. I just am happy for our team that we got a badly needed W, and then we live to make the semis and play a very good Butler or Seton Hall team tomorrow. Q. Both of you, it seemed like the defense really picked it up in that second quarter, the midway mark. That appeared to be the turning point of the game, the 15-2 run. Talk about the defensive effort that led to a lot of points offensively during that run. CHANTE STONEWALL: I felt like our team really locked in, understood the game plan and understood what we needed to do to have Providence speed up. And even though we might not have got turnovers right away in the front court, we ultimately got it in the back court. DEJA CHURCH: Definitely we just tried to speed them up, and our whole game plan going into the game was just applying pressure and just staying consistent with the pressure, and eventually our stops on defense just led us to good looks on offense. Q. Are you more hungry to get back out on the court and play a game or were you happy to have that week to practice? DEJA CHURCH: Well, it's been 15 days since we won a game. Obviously this feels good for us. But I mean, win or loss, we're excited to get back in the gym and get back to work. I mean, yeah, we dropped two, but we were excited for this opportunity, and yeah, it feels good, but now we're focused on tomorrow. CHANTE STONEWALL: I'm always excited for game day. Practices are great, but it's nothing compared to a game day. Q. This is Chicago, where you guys play. Obviously a lot of fans in here, a packed gym. How have you been able to get into that mindset, that tournament mindset of possibly four days in a row? CHANTE STONEWALL: I would kind of give all the credit to my experience playing with DePaul and being able to play in this tournament so many times for so many games. So I feel like my experience over the years has really helped me, and like I said, this is the most exciting time of the year, so that's what puts me in a good mindset. DEJA CHURCH: I think for me, just coming into this program since the first day I got here, Coach and my teammates always preached that we play for March, so I think throughout the season that's just been kind of like everyone's motivator for us to keep going. So now that it's actually March, I think just a whole new mindset has clicked in everyone's head, and I feel like we're a different team now, so yeah. Q. Late in the game when you guys were on the bench and there were a lot of other players that were getting their time, you guys were really almost being cheerleaders for them. What does it mean to see some of the other players who don't get as much time to play, for you to get to watch them? DEJA CHURCH: Yeah, I mean, we're so close. We have great chemistry on our team. So just to see our teammates, our sisters on the court getting what they deserve and what they worked hard for is exciting for us. I mean, when I was a freshman, upperclassmen did the same thing for me, so it's normal and natural. Like I'm just so excited to see my teammates go out there. CHANTE STONEWALL: Speaking off what Deja said, it's a great answer, but I feel like since I'm a senior, this is the future for DePaul, so to see them take this tradition that we built for them, specifically Kelly and I, it's just great to see our leadership and how they put it out on the floor just like we do. Q. When you're beating a team like Providence by 30-plus throughout much of the game, what does your focus shift to as far as what you're telling your players to focus on, and obviously you don't let up, but what are you telling your players? DOUG BRUNO: We're really focusing on getting better with every possession. We talk to our players a lot. Unfortunately, there are some times when we're on the other end of that score, and then there's times when we're on the top end of that score, and we try to teach our players to never play to the score, play to the possession and work to get better in every possession. You know, we have a saying here, there's no such thing as garbage time, there's only getting better time. So every player on the floor, you've been given gifts from God, you owe it to yourself and your teammates to play to your God-given potential and work to get better, and that's what we talk about, and then we talk about how to do it. So what you have to do to get better. Q. I asked the players about that second quarter stretch. It seemed like that turned the momentum. DOUG BRUNO: There's no question. We're a small team, and when you're small, you have to do something different, and so we've been pressuring all year long, and the pressure is there for a reason, and we've gotten pretty good at the pressure, and it's hard -- you make stops, you get some steals, you speed up the opponent, and you still have to knock down shots. This beautiful game is connected from defense to offense and offense to defense, so you create multiple possessions by the pressure, but you still have to make shots. So I think things got clicking. The question that somebody asked about -- believe me, these players want to get back on the court. When you -- Chante answered it pretty well. You always want to get right back on the court, but when you get knocked upside the head in any game, the best thing that can happen is to get back not just on the court for practice, you want to get back in and play a competition. The way this has worked out for us, we got beat on a Sunday and didn't get to play until a Sunday, and then we got beat on a Sunday and didn't get to play until a Saturday. So basically these players have had a lot of time to have to mentally deal with the fact that they'd been defeated, and that's not easy, and you'd rather be playing immediately after a defeat than not playing. So I think that all kind of ties together. I think this group is really ready to get back on the floor and get back to playing basketball. I've been reminding these players for 14, 15 days that, okay, we've gotten beat twice, but we only one of 14 teams in the country that have won 25 guys. You're the guys that won 25 games. You won 25 games and there's only 14 schools in the country. If my math is right, you could look it up, I was telling them before these tournaments all started, there was 13 or 14 of us that have won 25 games. So you did that, so let's just get back to doing what we've been doing. Q. Deja talked about playing for March. Is there a switch that flips, or is there anything that changes on your end or the players' end when you're entering this time? DOUG BRUNO: We really try to keep it consistent. I mean, the fundamental functions that travel well, that help you win road games are defensive rebounding. Everybody thinks about the ball - all we do is shoot, all we do is shoot threes, all we do is score. But we work very hard to defend because we shoot quickly and we give the ball back to the opponent. We're not going to have great defensive metrics ever, ever, ever. But at the same time, we really do work hard to defend, and we work hard to rebound. I didn't think we defended or rebounded real well in the last couple ballgames, but you try to keep that consistent all year, and you try to -- I hate to use the word "sell," all right, but coaches have to convince their teams that this is what travels. This is what helps you win road games. This is what helps you win in the Tournament. It's not just shooting rainbows of threes and letting all the threes drop. You still have to defend and rebound, and especially at tournament time. We really don't try to change. We really want to keep it the same. We just want to be better-same. Q. Is there any fear or apprehension where the team is feeling from last year where you had incredible success at the Big East Tournament and then faced a lost in the first round? DOUG BRUNO: Well, you can't coach scared, and you can't have players that are afraid. So we really -- I don't coach scared, and I don't try -- we really try to teach our players to be fearless. How are coaches fearless? I think coaches demonstrate their fearlessness by who they schedule. So we schedule a non-conference schedule that's got really good teams on it. If you're afraid, you schedule teams that you know you can beat. We try to engrain in our players that you have to be fearless. Our great friend Kris Kristofferson who wrote "Bobby McGee," freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose, and you can't win scared. You can't coach scared. You can't be afraid. You have to be fearless, and every time you step on the floor no matter who you're playing against. Actually, no. I'm just really, really looking forward to playing again tomorrow against a really good Butler or Seton Hall team and seeing if we can have our mojo right, our defense right, our rebounding right, our togetherness right and live to play another day. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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