NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - BAYLOR VS HAWAII

March 17, 2022

Nicki Collen

Jordan Lewis

NaLyssa Smith

Baylor Bears

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: All right. Welcome to today's NCAA Women's First Round news conference here in Waco, Texas, featuring No. 2 seed Baylor, who will play No. 15 seed Hawaii at 3:00 p.m. on Friday. This is a hybrid news conference with both in-person media, and we have others who will be joining us via ZOOM webinar. And we will take care of all in-person media questions first, and then we will take questions via ZOOM.

Joining us are Baylor student-athletes, Nalyssa Smith and Jordan Louis.

And for our media who are here, as we call on you to ask your question, if you'll just please identify yourself by name and media affiliation.

Those who are joining us by ZOOM, if you will please use the "raise your hand" function if you have a question for the student-athletes and we will know to get to you.

All right. Student-athletes, if you two -- Nalyssa and Jordan, if you will please speak directly into the mic, we will go ahead and start with questions.

Q. Nalyssa, the last time the NCAA tournament started here for you was your freshman year. Obviously, you guys went all the way that time. Is there some comfort in the familiarity of that this time around?

NALYSSA SMITH: It's a great feeling always, you know, starting our season off at home. You know, having our home crowd with us, having the fans behind you us. You know, being used to the rims and the court. So, I mean, it helps us out tremendously.

Q. And for Jordan: I believe you're still looking for your first NCAA tournament win, is that right, and what is it like to sort of enter the process with a No. 2 seed, and all of that?

JORDAN LEWIS: We actually won last year. When I was at Alabama, we won our first game. But just going into this game, obviously, being a two seed, like it's easy to overlook the first two rounds.

But I think it's important for us to take it as if it's a final four tomorrow, because you never know when your opportunity is over. So I think just making sure we're focused from the start.

Q. Thanks. I was thinking Sweet 16. Thank you.

Q. Nalyssa, just how are you feeling after the last game? I know you had a bit of an injury issue. How are you feeling physically?

NALYSSA SMITH: I feel good. I feel like I'm back now. So we're good.

Q. And then Coach Collen talked about how you guys kind of had to flush that loss. Do you feel like you were able to do this week and you're kind of starting fresh here?

NALYSSA SMITH: Absolutely. I mean you got to just keep pushing forward, you can't dwell on the past. So with it being win or go home, you got to focus on the next game.

THE MODERATOR: Next question.

Q. Just for both of you: What are your impressions of Hawaii from what you've seen on film so far?

JORDAN LEWIS: I mean, Hawaii is a good team. Obviously, they're in the tournament for a reason. And I think we're going to have to guard our yard this game. They like penetrate a lot. And so it's going to be important for us to keep the ball in front of us and not be in constant rotation all night.

NALYSSA SMITH: Yeah, we know they cut a lot, too. And their four player is their most dominant player. So staying down and guarding that.

Q. For both of you guys: What did you learn about your team in that game against Texas, and what have you really used for motivation going forward?

JORDAN LEWIS: I would say we learned that -- I mean, Texas is a good team. I don't know why people are acting like it was the biggest upset ever in the country.

Like, Texas is a good team, too. As you see, they're a two seed. They're very physical. I think from the tip they were very physical with us and it kind of put us out of our game.

And I think going forward knowing we have to match people's physicality and we can't just necessarily walk in there and think that when we get pushed around, we're supposed to get a foul.

So I think just learning from that and taking that into tournament time, because it's going to be very physical with teams that aren't necessarily the same size or the same speed. So they're going to be more physical with you and try and push you off your spot.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Do we have any other questions? Are we through with the student-athletes? Nalyssa, Jordan, thank you. And we'll have Coach Collen next.

All right. Joining us now is Baylor Head Coach Nicki Collen. And Coach Collen, do you have an opening statement, or do you just want to get straight to questions?

NICKI COLLEN: Oh, I'd rather get straight to questions.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Who has questions? Raise your hand.

Q. Straight to questions, just like a regular home game. In what ways does it feel like getting ready from a home game, and what ways is there that extra buzz in the NCAA tournament for you?

NICKI COLLEN: You know, I think honestly for us, I think we've talked about, obviously, we're in survive-and-advance mode. We're in a new season with the goal to win six games, one at a time.

But as far as preparation, you know, we're lucky to be at home. I mean, we're lucky to have a fairly normal routine, other than -- I can promise you had we had control of our schedule today, we would not be practicing when our men are playing.

So other than that, you know, I think it's been -- it's felt normal, it's felt like we've been in our routine. Our players are in class. And so, that's comforting, the class part.

Q. Coach, I know after the loss to Texas, you were saying that's a game you just got to flush. Do you feel like the team's been able to do that this week?

NICKI COLLEN: Yes. I don't think anyone was happy with our performance. Quite frankly, we're just happy NaLyssa is healthy, that we're going to get full strength NaLyssa and not have lingering effects of that collision.

And, you know, I don't think anyone feels good about how we played in that game. But I think the reality is, I don't think it took anybody's confidence away from how we've played down the stretch and, you know, that we're going to allow one game and the performance in one game to affect how we move forward.

Q. What do you see from Hawaii and how do you make sure that nobody overlooks a 15 seed?

NICKI COLLEN: Yeah, I -- you know, we certainly have treated them like every other scout in terms of how we prepare, what we work on. We've been very intentional about making sure that we go over personnel at a -- you know, a higher level than we would when you're playing a team for the second or third time where you know their personnel.

And so really getting them to understand that these guys are here for a reason and we don't care what their seed is, you know, we want to come out and perform at a high level and know where our strengths are.

And, you know, Atwell is the Big West Player of the Year, fifth year senior, shoots the basketball extremely well. And they've got a lot of depth.

And so, because of that, we understand, like, what they're good at and what we need to take away and where we need to get the ball offensively.

So we've taken them very seriously. We haven't been sitting there, you know, trying to predict who's going to win the other game and what we have to guard against with Ole Miss or South Dakota. We're going to take one game at a time.

Q. For at least the last dozen games, people you're playing are second or third try against you. And they get to try different things and see if they work, and throw them out if they don't. Now, this weekend, not the case. Does that play in y'all's favor?

NICKI COLLEN: I think, you know, as we've understood -- I mean, the advantage of playing teams for the second or third time, is you know what they've done. You know what they've done well, you know what they've struggled against. And so both teams are kind of working off of that.

I think it's still a little bit -- you know, when you haven't played an opponent as a coach, I don't like guessing. You know, this is what they're going to do or, wow, well, they did this against this team, but this team doesn't really look like Baylor, so would they really switch those screens if it's NaLyssa or Queen. Would they really?

So to some degree, there's uncertainty in terms of when you watch an opponent, would they really play that lineup against us? That would mean they have a 5-10-4 player.

You know, so you don't like playing the guessing game. But I think players like new opponents. I think players like enjoy playing against different types of players and different types of teams.

And so I think for us, as the game gets started and we identify what are they doing against our ball screens, are they playing a zone? They're a man team.

But if you go back and watch them against USC when they felt like they couldn't match up necessarily athletically, they played a lot of zone, and so we'll see zone because of that, even though through their whole conference and tournament, they've been a predominantly really solid man team.

So I think there are some of those questions, we just have to read what they do early and be prepared to make adjustments.

Q. This is, like, kind of off topic, but compared to last year how, like, the branding was with March Madness, this year just seems like it's a lot more equal to the men's tournament. How do you feel about that, and do you feel like there's a better job being done this year?

NICKI COLLEN: Yeah, well, we had a mandatory head coaches call on Zoom on Monday to go over all the -- all of that, the branding, what they've done to try to align it.

Obviously, with the men being at neutral sites in first and second rounds, there's maybe even more branding on the court. They will do digital branding during the broadcast because it's a little harder with all these homesites to do that on, like, the men's. But I think from there, when you're talking about regional sites, it will be fully in alignment.

But, yeah, I don't think there's any doubt that last year was an eye-opener. And it's probably the beauty of social media. There's a lot of negatives with social media, but I think what this started is good for women's basketball. And started a narrative about how valuable the women's tournament is for the NCAA and how it should be treated as such.

So I think it's exciting that we went to 68 teams. You know, unbelievable playing game last night with Incarnate Word and Howard. Obviously, Dayton put it on DePaul in that 11 game. But I think in the future, too, we will have true play-in venue, too, as opposed to those teams going to the host site.

Yeah, I think it's great for women's basketball. And, you know, if it took players calling them out and -- because I think it's hard in these first and second rounds to compare apples to apples. But last year when we were talking about two bubble scenarios, like, you were comparing apples and apples and they weren't.

And so excited to see how our tournament grows as a result of this.

Q. The energy your team brought in that start of the Big 12 Tournament against Oklahoma State, especially in that first quarter, is that what you're trying to bottle up and get going here tomorrow?

NICKI COLLEN: Yeah, I think that was -- we, obviously, were coming off the high of securing the regular season championship. We had -- in the last month, Oklahoma State was probably the only game we truly played poorly in when we were on the road. Found a way to win. But I think we were motivated by the fact that we didn't play well in that game and it was closer than it should have been.

So I think, you know, we've got players that this is their last run. You know, this is their last run in a Baylor uniform. And so I think they're motivated, that group, to go out the way they started.

And, you know, honestly, they haven't been in this environment since their freshman year with a host site because the tournament got canceled their sophomore year. It was a bubble last year. So I think their goal is to book in their freshman and senior years hopefully with championships.

So I think they just want to play well. I think they know that if we're clicking on all cylinders, that we can compete with anybody in the country. So we're just going to take it one game at a time.

Q. Obviously, you know, NaLyssa, she was a freshman when they played in that national championship game. But when you have a player like NaLyssa Smith or Caitlin Bickle with those leadership qualities, before going into this first game of the tournament, do you pull them aside and give them any, like, special message to say, Hey, you guys know what it's like to be in this environment, or any kind of thing that you try and get them to spread their knowledge or is that something you already do?

NICKI COLLEN: Yeah, I think it's just been part of this season. You know, it's a new staff. Certainly, we had players come in from other programs. And as much as there's been success here and significant success, when you look at the number of returning players on this roster, there's at this point only four.

And Jaden didn't play a lot. Sarah didn't play a lot last year at this time. And so, I think it's up to -- and I should say five. My math was really bad there. So I think they've had to show leadership all year. And they've had to lead in different ways.

You know, Caitlin's got a big voice and is a great communicator and gets people on the same page when we're on the court. And she knows what we do and why we do it and where everyone is supposed to be.

NaLyssa's way of leading is putting the ball in the basket a lot of times, getting rebounds, putting the ball in the basket and taking the pressure off her teammates until they get going.

And she takes a big load on her shoulders that way of kind of leading us, you know, with the ball in her hands. So there's just different parts of that.

I'm happy that even -- as long as Jordan was at Alabama, at least last year, they made their first NCAA tournament during her career there. So she at least it had a taste of the NCAA tournament and what that can mean.

Certainly not a two seed and certainly not playing at home. But I'm just hoping and challenging, you know, the Waco community that they come out and support this team tomorrow and hopefully again on Sunday.

Because I think -- I saw already Iowa's site is sold out. So we got a little showdown here in Texas that, you know, we can do the same thing here at the Ferrell Center. And take advantage. You know, maybe our game is at the point where we should be at neutral sites in first and second rounds.

But until we are, having one of those top four seeds should matter. So we need to take advantage of that by having a true home-court advantage.

THE MODERATOR: Anymore questions from here? If not, we will go to ZOOM. And we've got Andrew Minor with our Daily Bears.

Q. Coach, again, congrats on having this seed. I was a little curious just when you looked at the bracket, there's a potential Sweet 16 matchup against Michigan. I'm not asking you to look that far ahead. But in December to now, just how far has your team come?

NICKI COLLEN: Yeah, I think the fans should be willing to answer that one. I think we've come a long way. I don't think we look like the same team. I don't think we move like the same team.

And I think there were things that we were doing well in December. It wasn't like I didn't think we were a good team in December. I just think we're a more complete team, we're more balanced.

We understand -- I think in December we were force-feeding the ball to NaLyssa in bad situations at times, as opposed to getting to the point where we understand that we want to make the right play. And the right play is the most open player.

And it doesn't mean we're not going to get NaLyssa a lot of shots, and there are times where we're just going to feed here and feed her and feed her.

But I think at that point, we just didn't have a good enough balance, I don't think, even defensively that we were in an alignment as well as we needed to be in terms of who are we defensively?

In terms of our ball screen coverages, what are we best at? It takes time to figure out with every team what you're going to be best at with your personnel.

And so, I think in a lot of ways we've come a long way offensively and defensively. And we take great care of the ball now.

I think we've learned to -- part of not turning it over is, we're not forcing it where it doesn't need to be. So when you make the easy pass, it's a lot easier to not give it to the other team.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you very much. That will wrap it up. Coach, thank you. Good luck tomorrow.

NICKI COLLEN: All right. Thank you.