BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 3, 2022

Katie Gearlds

Madison Layden

Abbey Ellis

Purdue Boilermakers

Gainbridge Fieldhouse

Postgame Press Conference

Michigan State - 73, Purdue - 69

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from coach and then go to the student-athletes.

KATIE GEARLDS: Congrats to Michigan State. I thought they were pretty gritty down the stretch.

I thought we did a really good job for about 36 minutes on the defensive glass and then they kind of got a couple down the stretch. But I loved the fight of my basketball team, had a hell of a lot of fight, I think.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes, please.

Q. Madison and Abbey, talk about the game, the physicality of the game, and their bigs against you guys.

MADISON LAYDEN: Yeah. They're obviously a really physical team. With their bigs down low we knew we had to do a good job rebounding. And like coach said, I thought we did a good job of that at the beginning of the game, but towards the end we struggled. But, yeah, they're a physical team and we knew that coming in.

ABBEY ELLIS: I mean, I think that you could tell by the foul count that it was a physical game, all kinds of things defensively. But yeah, just what Madison and coach said, we didn't get them off the glass and in the end that cost us.

Q. It seemed like you got some opportunities offensively to extend the lead or at least help put a little bit more pressure on them in the fourth quarter there?

ABBEY ELLIS: I think we were making shots. I think we were attacking and making things difficult for them and stuff like that. And then I think that the free-throw line crept up on us in the end on the other side and I think we struggled.

MADISON LAYDEN: Yeah, I thought we were getting good looks and open shots. We just weren't hitting them. But that's going to happen. So, yeah, just the ball didn't go our way.

Q. The early turnovers, what did it take for you guys to just kind of settle down and get in the game?

MADISON LAYDEN: Yeah, that definitely hurt us in the first half. At halftime coach talked to us about that. I think we definitely took care of it better in the second half. But, yeah, it just cost us.

ABBEY ELLIS: Yeah, coach told us at halftime that we had to. It was a whole different ball game. I thought we did in the second half so we made that improvement.

Q. I don't think this is going to be the last game for you that you will play in a post-season tournament. The wait now, just having the chance to continue to play and continue to build on what you guys have done.

ABBEY ELLIS: I learned that we have a great special group here. We are changing the program under Head Coach Katie and she has done amazing things this season and kind of all of us are so privileged to have her as a coach and we want to, we want to be coached by her as much as we can, so if we have the opportunity to play a tournament, we're all in.

We got a good fight on our team, so I'm pumped.

MADISON LAYDEN: Yeah, we got a good group, so I'm excited for the future.

Q. Working off what you both said, what's it been like having Katie as your coach the first year, the changeover, and then how much has she taught you both about the game of basketball and life?

KATIE GEARLDS: Good question, Steve. I'm right here. (Laughing).

MADISON LAYDEN: It's been great so far. We all love her. Yeah, we're just trying to change the culture here and I think we've got a good start. But, yeah, I'm just excited to keep moving forward with it.

ABBEY ELLIS: She's a great coach and a great person. She builds that personal relationship with every player. She cares about us more than basketball and that's all you can really ask for and we just love having her here with us and being part of the group.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies. We'll continue with questions for coach.

Q. Talk about Michigan State's inside game and your defense against it and how you think you did today.

KATIE GEARLDS: It was a C. I thought we were pretty good in spots, wanted to jump their left shoulder in the post, and a couple times they got to their left shoulder and they scored it.

Two plays in the fourth quarter, I think both their bigs got back to their left shoulder to score points.

There was an early one in the fourth quarter. Same thing on the other block. Got to the left shoulder, scored it.

There was a time I think we got back two and then get two offensive rebounds and then get two looks at it. Gosh, like, we had done such a really good job on the glass and being hungry and going to get it and just down the stretch, I don't know if it was anything other than giving Michigan State credit for making plays down the stretch.

They made plays and we didn't and sometimes that's the way the basketball game goes. But I'm telling you, man, the fight in my basketball team today, that was fun. They showed, February was not kind to us. It was a long road for us. We were on the road quite a bit on the weekends. We were fighting injuries. It wasn't kind to us. We lost some tough games.

But we just talk about just a fresh perspective here in March. I thought we came out and battled, but the offensive rebounds down the stretch and the turnovers in the first half probably the difference in the ball game.

Q. What has this journey been like for you? You've been thrust into this spot and then showing all the progress this program has made.

KATIE GEARLDS: It's been everything I think I could have imagined it to be. The only thing is I'm a competitor. Man, I hate losing. This has been tough.

But when you coach young women like this and you go to work every day and walk down -- I say it all the time, like, I get to walk down a tunnel in Mackey arena and practice. That's like the coolest thing in the world. I could not dream of this when I was a little girl.

But I get to coach kids like this who give me everything they have. There's not a lot of times that you line up our lineup against some other team's lineup and you pick our team to win but somehow we found a way to win 16 games, nine more than last year.

It's just a group of believers and they bought into me. They believed in me right from the get-go. And today we just came up short. I hope we get an opportunity to play because I think this can be the start of something really, really special for Purdue women's basketball.

Q. Assuming you do get a chance to play, how do you turn the fight into post-season success and how important is that to advance and give this program and give these players that kind of experience?

KATIE GEARLDS: Yeah, I think if we have this kind of fight, like I like our chances. There was just a few plays really down the stretch that went their way, but if we have this kind of fight, if we can compete this hard, I mean, it would help if we could take care of the ball a little bit better in the first half. But if we can do that, we'll give ourselves a chance to win.

We have already changed so much in the five months that we've been together. Let's be honest. The biggest thing I think we've done is people have started to expect Purdue to win. I can't say that over the last few years. I mean, this team showed up last year, and the other team knew they were going to win. Like, it didn't matter who we were playing, that team knew that we were going to compete.

And then it got to the point where we were expecting to win. People around our program were expecting to win. September 16th, when I took over, we all started to, hey, let's work towards this, right? But then we became believers within our program and then all of a sudden we do start to win and the expectations around our program, they grow.

And I think that's the biggest thing I'm going to take away from this year, personally, is that we started to change that culture and we started to change that expectation. There's not a lot of teams that liked to play us and we're going to keep that same grit going forward. I said at the beginning of the season, let's just be hard to beat, and most often than not we were hard to beat.

Q. What do you think you learned about yourself along the way in this time, your first year as being a head coach, in terms of leading this team and guiding this team?

KATIE GEARLDS: I got a lot to learn. Obviously I'm going to take a look back on the season and I've got a lot to learn personally to be in that chair. But I know without a doubt in my mind I was born to be the head coach of Purdue women's basketball team.