ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 5, 2022

Katie Meier

Karla Erjavec

Kelsey Marshall

Miami Hurricanes

Postgame Press Conference

Miami 57, Notre Dame 54

KATIE MEIER: I love that Notre Dame program. I love their coaches so much. I love their players. We tried to recruit them all. They're smart. They're gutsy. They're fun loving. I really enjoyed that game. It was really enjoyable.

I love my team, and I love my coaching staff, too, so it was a good -- I thought it was a great representation of what college athletics is supposed to be. You're supposed to be a high-level character, high-character individual to represent this amazing conference on a stage like that. Your coaching staff is supposed to play by the rules, do things the right way, encourage your players, and lift people up, and both staffs do that.

In my opinion, if you just were like dropped on earth and said what is women's college basketball all about and you watch that game, that's what we want it to look like. I loved it. I thought it was a lot of fun.

I'm really proud of my players. I thought Karla did some gap attacks that -- some outsider hand finishes against a really incredible defensive team. When we were stuck, Karla got us unstuck. Kelsey got some really sweet dialed-up threes. The last two weren't so sweet, but she said I love how you stayed faithful with me. When would I ever lose faith in Kelsey Marshall? When would I ever lose faith in this child, female, woman.

A lot of love, a lot of celebration, but we're not -- we came into this tournament being sick of the almost. That's really what we've been talking about, the almost. This much, this six inches, and they hit a three in your face. Karla takes that away from Mabrey and we win, almost. We've given up ORB, offensive rebounds, threes against teams when we could have won the game, and we just grabbed the ball almost. All these almosts that we went through.

It was not going to be an almost today. It was not going to be one. We were going to win.

Q. How did your hair get so wet? If you could describe the celebration. Secondly, you alluded to it, it feels like you guys have been almost there, almost there. What's been the difference this week here in Greensboro?

KATIE MEIER: You know, confidence is a funny thing, and I can take you guys back to the last time we played at Notre Dame and we were still reeling from -- North Carolina had just shellacked us. And in the locker room after Notre Dame, I was like, guys, what's wrong? Like I had more concern for my team. I wasn't mad at them. I wasn't disgusted with them. I was like, hey, who goes to North Carolina and goes to Notre Dame back to back, two away top-15 games and feels good about themselves? Very few teams do.

When we came back from that trip, we put the month of February and we put the logos of the teams and we plopped them on the calendar. I think we were maybe 4-7, I don't know at that point, and we plopped the logos on. The next game was Florida State or something and we won it and we X'd it out and we made that one game. We laid out the plan. I said get us to .500 in the league. We're going to be fine. And then we X'd out team, and then we'd show the remaining games and we'd beat that team and we'd X it out. And we just marched through with a mentality of we take care of business these next two weeks. Then I think we had four games in eight days right after that.

Did we win all of them? Something like that. But it was like doable. I needed it for myself, to be honest. I was questioning my coaching, they were questioning their abilities, we were questioning our communication. Questioning, not doubting. Just like what's wrong.

That little -- that kind of conversation, we have a team that, first of all, I think as a staff, we allow ourselves to be very vulnerable with our team. When I screw up a play, I want them to know that I know I screwed up. I really want them to tell me what I did wrong.

We were very vulnerable in that moment, very vulnerable with each other, and a lot of sharing. And from that point on, I think we built ourselves back up.

Q. Kelsey, yesterday was kind of Destiny's game. Today in the fourth quarter you hit that three, you hit that crucial free throw. What kind of got into you there down the stretch in those crucial moments?

KELSEY MARSHALL: You know, I just tried to play the game possession by possession. I try not to think of what happened before.

Throughout the game my team was looking for me, and I just tried to hit the open shots, and that's what happened today.

Q. It's going to be Katie, your first time, Miami's first time playing for an ACC title. Can you just talk about what that means for the program, to be playing in a championship game tomorrow?

KATIE MEIER: Yeah, I mean, we've had teams that were a top 4 seed before and we kind of had -- two of the players are on my staff right now, Morgan Stroman and Shenise Johnson. We've been in positions before that were a lot more favorable than this particular. We had some talented teams that could have just won two games and gotten to The Finals and we didn't.

This team is just slugging through the bracket, not walking. We were not spoiled. We are just tough as nails.

I think if you're a Miami Hurricane fan, we embody what the U is all about. We're going to fight. We're going to show up. We're not going to be an easy out for anybody.

Then at the same time, there's a lot of celebration and joy.

We're a team that has deep, deep, deep roots. A strong storm is not going to blow us over. We're going to hold. We're going to hold. We're going to hold. And we'll be there at the end.

Q. Can you talk about the locker room celebration?

KATIE MEIER: You know what, it broke my heart. We won, and I ran and I hugged my staff, and then I went straight to TV, and I didn't get to have any fun with my team. After I did TV, I looked around and no one was out there. And I said, where is my team, where is my family? When I say family, I want to say I have a huge family wedding today, my niece, which you guys see this 43 pin I have on my chest? It was my nephew Philip Lutzenkirchen, and that was an All-American at Auburn, and we lost him in a car accident, and we have a huge foundation, Lutzie 43.

Well, Phillip's sister Abby which is -- that whole family is like my closest people -- she's getting married today to -- she played soccer at Alabama, the tight end at Alabama, Miller Forristall, they're actually right now at the church getting married. And it means everything to me, my family. But this time, I told them in the locker room after the game. I didn't tell them that was going on.

And I got emotional, and I said, you know, Abby is getting married today. They all know who Abby is. And I'm not there, but I'm with my family and I'm happy and I want to thank you because I'd be really mad if I missed that wedding today and I lost. There was a lot of water, a lot of celebration. I walked in and I hadn't seen them, I hadn't had my hands on them at all after we won. Like not one kid did I hug or celebrate with. So it was just a pile on and bunch of water. I'm sure someone caught it on camera.

Q. I wondered if I could ask both the players to comment on something Coach Meier talked about which is those back-to-back losses with North Carolina and Notre Dame, how she said it was sort of a confidence issue a little bit then. Can you talk about how you guys processed that and the fact that you've won, I believe, eight of nine since then?

KARLA ERJAVEC: I would just say it was for sure hard to go through those two games and to get our confidence rattled, but it just made us figure out who we are and made us dig even deeper than we were digging before.

It made us be grittier, it made us work harder, pay attention to the little things and made us play with each other better.

I think those two losses really flipped our season around, and I mean, we became a better team and better teammates and we just started fighting for everything.

KELSEY MARSHALL: I would say those two losses really -- they didn't really bring us down, but it showed us that we can be a lot better of a Miami team, that we can work together, we can fight harder than we fought in those two games. It helped us to be, like Karla said, more gritty and more appreciative of the game and take every game seriously.

Q. You guys have beaten the past three days kind of three very different teams in terms of the style and personnel that they play, and NC State is going to bring its own challenges. What kind of challenges are you preparing for against NC State?

KATIE MEIER: I'd love to have that game plan ready, but I don't. I was taking a shower.

I do know you've got to go east-west with your coverage with them a lot. They spread you out so much. There's not a player you can help off of, so you've got an incredible post player, but boy, does that ball move east-west really well.

We're going to have to really get our legs back tonight and really understand the personnel scout because if there's any, any chink in the armor at all for each particular player -- they have a bunch of phenomenal players -- but if they have one little bit that gives Miami an advantage and instead of an almost and gets us to a win, we've got to find it.

Our team has been incredible with the scouting report, just incredible. My staff, let me tell you what, this is -- this is hard. This is hard. I mean, and the way -- when you play in the afternoon-evening, evening and now we flip again to noon tomorrow, that's hard on a staff.

I have Beth Dunkenberger on my staff who's been a head coach for years; I have Shenise Johnson, who was an All-American for me, and Fitzroy Anthony who's my rock. He's just been incredible. So the three of them all bring something else. But we've got a heck of a task ahead of us, and we've got -- what is that, how many hours we've got to do it? We've got to get to work. We do. It's going to be very, very hard.

Q. Has your staff slept?

KATIE MEIER: I don't think so. Not much. Not much. We rotate the scouts, but I just said -- it's Coach Dunkenberger's scout, and I said, Don't leave Dunk on an island now, and they were insulted I even said that. Like they're so together. They looked at me like, why would you think we would do that to Dunk? Like we're here.

So it was great. I have an amazing staff. They're quality people.

Q. The last game was on January 9th; how much can you rely on the scout from that game coming into this one?

KATIE MEIER: Remember, too, I believe, and I might be wrong, I think we were supposed to play Louisville and then whammo, it became NC State. I was saying to my staff, I'm like, I don't really remember preparing for them, and they were like, because we were prepared for Louisville. That's two years in a row we were supposed to play Louisville and it swapped out and became NC State in the blink of an eye. And we played pretty well, so maybe I should just go to bed and get some rest.