ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 4, 2021

Jen Hoover

Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Postgame Press Conference

Wake Forest 82, North Carolina 71

JEN HOOVER: I'm just so proud of this team because back when this team gathered on July 6, we talked about this is a special group and we believe that we are going to have a long season and go deep into March. I think throughout the game at different times we faced a little bit of adversity and kept believing in each other. I just -- you come out against a team like that, and I think we shot the ball extremely well, but we wanted to hang our hat on defense and rebounding. And when you look at it, it looks like we had to get a couple stops and we got a couple steals that allowed us to get out in transition on them. And when that happened, I thought you just saw this team, like this is our game. We're not going to be denied.

It's just this group is so -- they're just resilient. They're just a resilient group that just whatever you want to throw at us, what do we need to do, Coach, and they're going to do it.

Q. Do you think you're definitely in NCAAs?

JEN HOOVER: I think so. I felt we were an NCAA team from the get-go, and there's no way they can take that team after what we've done to them twice this year without taking the Deacs, bottom line, in my opinion. But a lot of people don't care about my opinion.

Q. To have a player like Jewel get off to the start she did shooting, how much does that help the confidence and give you that kick start?

JEN HOOVER: I think when we get a kid that kind of gets into that zone, she knows we're all confident in her taking shots and sometimes we have to tell her when I'm talking about don't take early threes, I'm not talking to her. I'm talking to pretty much everyone else.

But we shot the ball really well yesterday in our open practice, playing with Spaldings for the first time and you know, when just when you play with that kind of confidence and you know when it leaves your hand it's going in, you know, as a team we go 10 of 17 from the three. I thought that was huge for us against a team that's just big and tough and physical, so it was able to open up some things on the inside for us, as well.

When you look at a senior point guard that gets 12 assists on the biggest stage there is and then your senior post is a double-double, like, we did what we needed to do, and at different times we got a little frustrated but we just settled in and said, you know what, I got this.

Q. You can just see the emotion that you have after this game. You can see it on the court as well that this is probably the most emotion I've seen out of you and the team so far this year. Can you just talk about what this win means to you and the team?

JEN HOOVER: I think this win meant the world to us, especially coming off of what we went through just with such a rough trip last week to Florida. We were crushed when we went down there and got beat by a really tough Miami team celebrating senior night with four great seniors.

This team has this kind of grit, just the spirit about them that sometimes is a little quiet so you don't see it, but we see it behind the scenes a lot. And this win from every player on this team, and even we had two that had to sit in the stands because they're hurt and they're not in our bubble, I could hear them screaming during the game. And it just means so much to each one of these players to celebrate what we were able to do together as a team. Our goal going in was to be the tougher team for 40 minutes, and in the end that's what it took.

Q. The concern in the third quarter was UNC fought back a little bit, gained a lead. It doesn't seem like you shied away from that, though.

JEN HOOVER: I think what happened in the third was they got out in transition on us and we knew that coming in. It was a big emphasis for us. And I thought we'd done a pretty good job of keeping the transition, them out of transition in the first half. They're a great team. They've got some experience on that team with Stephanie Watts and Petra and Janelle Bailey, that understand what it means to play here.

But they've also got a lot of youth on that team that wants this to be a special place, but for two years in a row now the Deacs have kind of ended their trips.

I think that, we knew in that second half as soon as we could cut their transition game down we were confident we could guard them in the half court.

Q. How much did Gina Conti really kind of hold things together there at the end of the third? I think she had five straight points and assists and two steals to try to get you back going again.

JEN HOOVER: Again, that kid has been a warrior for us for all four years. She's pretty beat up on her body. I'm begging the officials to protect her, she's getting hit in the head and all this stuff, but she doesn't care, she isn't going to whine about it, everybody on this team today just said, whatever happens I'm just going to keep fighting. And I'm going to -- she had to make some winning plays. I think she had two steals back to back that I thought were huge for us, and that's what's special about this group. They know and trust that different people can carry us. I thought Liv Summiel's three, we had a teammate that knew and trusted, if I give her that pass, she's a good three-point shooter, she's going to knock it down for us. Alex Scruggs' hard drives. She missed her first few and I kept telling her, Alex, they're great looks, you're going to knock it down and I think she made the hardest one she had to take she made. It's just this team, and they believe in each other. They have kind of a philosophy of being fun to play with and hard to play against, and today I thought they really did feed off of each other. We had 19 assists. That might be a record for us this year.

Q. With today's win you become the all-time winningest coach of Wake Forest women's basketball history. What does that mean to you to lock that up on the day in which you get the win that very well might propel you to the NCAA Tournament?

JEN HOOVER: I will say the thing that matters to me the most about this win is two things: One is I felt like it was the sealy-deal for the NCAA tournament. And two, it was against Carolina. And three, the kids I get to do it with and my staff. I wouldn't get any of these wins if it wasn't for the team behind me, my family and everyone else included. It's just these kids, when we recruit them, we talk about having to build the respect and earning it and fighting for ourselves, and that's what this was about. It's the ACC Tournament. It's Carolina. It's NCAAs. It's these kids. I mean, I could go on and on and on. I'm a pretty positive person to begin with, but it feels good to know that we get to go play again tomorrow. Four teams are going home today, and we said we didn't want to be one of them.

Q. It was alluded to earlier the momentum shift at the beginning of the third quarter, it kind of went UNC's way. How did you feel about that shift at the end of the third quarter that came back in the way of you guys? Could you feel that shift on the court when it came back in your way, the momentum shift?

JEN HOOVER: Yeah, I could feel it a little bit, and I knew we were able to kind of get a couple quick rests for a couple key people that I thought might be -- and again, kudos to our kids that came in and were able -- whether they got a rebound or Liv again hitting a three, it's a total team effort when we're out there, and these kids that play and start and feel all the energy that's coming off of that bench, it just gives you that little bit of -- I kept asking them in time-outs, are you tired, because if you're tired I can take you out. And nobody -- of course they're dead tired, but when you feel that kind of energy there is no tired. There just isn't. There's still time on the clock, Coach, what are you talking about, tired.

I did definitely feel a shift. I knew we had to take it back. They weren't going to give it back to us, and I felt like we made the winning plays that were able to kind of shift that momentum back to us and then once we got it back we held on to it.

Q. Tomorrow you have a whole full day to get ready for Louisville for tomorrow at the same time. What is the difficulty against Louisville that you guys have to work on this afternoon?

JEN HOOVER: Well, you know, first thing we've got to do is get these kids back to the hotel, get them some food, get them rested, get some ice baths/Theragun therapies. Let them kind of celebrate this for a couple hours. I know some of them, they're going to probably be asking coaches already, can I watch film from the Louisville game, can I see something, I need to see, can you send me a game.

But Louisville is obviously a great team. Dana Evans, she made the play on us the first time. They're going to be ready for us. But I do think we have some confidence playing against them. We've tended to play them in some pretty close games. The biggest thing for us is to be rested and know that they're going to try to push it early on us to show that you don't have legs.

Fortunately for us we were here last year to kind of find out the second day, once you get going, there's not much difference to it. With these guys, they'll refocus and as a staff we'll meet and kind of watch some Louisville film. They've got a lot of great players, obviously, and we've just got to kind of come in with a game plan ready to go and ready to attack them tomorrow.