NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - MIAMI (FL) VS SOUTH FLORIDA

March 17, 2022

Jose Fernandez

Elena Tsineke

Bethy Mununga

USF Bulls

Media Conference

JOSE FERNANDEZ: First I would like to thank the city of Columbia and University of South Carolina and their organization as host for this first round event.

For us, we been here before. Not to Columbia, South Carolina, but been a part of this tournament for seven out of the last ten years. Very excited to play tomorrow.

Quick turnaround for us just because we finished our conference tournament this time seven days from today, so get on the main floor later on after this press conference, and get ready to tip it off tomorrow at 11:30.

Q. How familiar are you with Miami? Are these people you played with growing up or that you knew around Big 10 circles?

ELENA TSINEKE: I mean, we played against them before. We know they're a great team and they beat Louisville and that's a great team, so in this time of the year you just got to go hard no matter what team you play and give your best.

So, yeah, that's it.

BETHY MUNUNGA: We know some girls, especially for example Maria, she has a former teammate Lola Pendande. We know her from national team, so we familiar with them.

When we went to the Bahamas they were there, too, so we had time to meet them.

Q. For each of you personally, what have you done over the span of this week where you've had a little bit of time to get ready? Obviously there is a lot of the travel and packing, just craziness with this time of year, but what were you focused on personally? Was it the mental side, decompressing from the season, or just focusing before the game? What was your prep over the last seven days?

BETHY MUNUNGA: I been watching some games, especially their tournaments because like Elena said they had an impressive tournament, you know.

And I was especially watching my matchup. This is something I like to do, see how she plays, how can she score, and how I can play against her.

So that's really how I got prepared for these tournaments.

ELENA TSINEKE: For me, I just want to concentrate on being focused, 100% focused, and every game we play. And especially here that we are in the tournament, there is no time to waste.

You need to show up no matter what.

Q. Are you glad to be in an environment like this where there will be a decent number of fans? Would you wish this tournament was at neutral sites, especially if you make the next round?

ELENA TSINEKE: I mean, I love playing with as many fans as possible, and like this is a great atmosphere for all of us. I don't think that nobody -- there is somebody that don't like people watching, even if they're not supporting you. Especially, yeah, just playing in front of a big crowd I think is just motivating, so it's not a problem.

BETHY MUNUNGA: I mean, like she said it's great to have fans because last year we went to the NCAA tournament with no -- I mean, we had fans, but it's not like we are expecting right now, you know.

And like coach has said, he prepared us for these kind of moments. Yes, we're just hungry.

Q. Over the last couple days with travel, what has been your focal point obviously on Miami? Was there something you learned from the conference tournament the last few games before this post-season started that kind of helped you better understand yourself or your team?

BETHY MUNUNGA: I will just say we are starting a brand new season. Whatever you did in the past it's great, it's good, you can learn from it, but we starting over.

So anything can happen. Miami is the proof. They beat up some good teams, so we need to be ready and play as hard as we can, because it can be our last game.

ELENA TSINEKE: I agree with that completely. Just what I learn about myself is I would say when the team needs you, step up.

And as for everybody, I believe that we got to stick together and go hard in every, every moment. Every position matters.

Q. Curious for both of you, Elena first, just what has coach stressed this week to be the key to winning tomorrow morning against Miami and the matchup you have? A lot time in an eight, nine match they're pretty even, so what's the key for victory?

ELENA TSINEKE: I mean, the key to victory is just play like we play, like we know how to play. Those game we were sluggish before, and as I said, in this time of the year there is no room for that.

We got to play like we know how to play and really communicate and play defense. So defense is the key in the end. Everything starts from defense.

BETHY MUNUNGA: He also mentioned that the game would be won on the glass. Everybody have to crash the board; everybody got to block outs. Also shutdown the best player over there. I mean, let's say the main players.

Q. For both girls, you've been down this road. How important is it to know the experience of going to the tournament?

BETHY MUNUNGA: I mean, like you said, we been here before. It's really great to have a senior group because we know what it will take to get to the second round.

Like I said before, this is a brand new season. Everybody have to give everything you have because it could possibly be the last game of the season.

So it's a good feeling. It's a good feeling. Once again, we have to prove that we are a good team.

ELENA TSINEKE: Yeah, as Bethy said, we been here before. That's gone.

Now it's the time to actually prove more and go farther than we did last year. That will take a lot of effort.

Q. Miami's coach was mentioning you texted each other after the bracket came out; you've spent time in coachs' clinics.

JOSE FERNANDEZ: Yeah.

Q. Is that a good thing or a bad thing that you two know each other this well?

JOSE FERNANDEZ: I've known Katie for a long time and she's a friend. I think we have a great amount of respect for each other's program. We've served on NCA committees together, WBCA committees together.

It's just kind of interesting that you have six teams from the state of Florida and four of them are meeting in the first round.

We found that a little different.

Q. What's the key to victory? What do you have to do when you come in here after the game tomorrow and say, yes, we did this or we didn't do this.

JOSE FERNANDEZ: I think it's going to be a multitude of things. You just can't say. For us, we got to do a great job taking care of the basketball, being who we are, sharing it, making sure we execute on the offensive end in regards to whatever type of defense Miami is playing.

And then on the other end we got to really be solid defensively. We got to do a good job keeping Miami in front of us, making sure they make contested shots over us.

It's got to be one shot and out because the glass is going to be very, very important tomorrow.

Q. One thing that Katie mentioned is she thought the last time you played was in Anchorage, coaching at that time, and was the travel here a little easier than getting up there to Alaska?

JOSE FERNANDEZ: Yeah, well I been at South Florida for 22 years, so the only regular that Katie and I have coached against one another was when she was -- a trip we went out to Anchorage, Alaska and we played, and then when she was at Charlotte and I was at South Florida.

We've done close scrimmages before the season. We haven't in the last two years just because of COVID, but it was always a deal that we met halfway between Miami and Tampa and had four hours and we both worked on a lot of stuff.

So that's as close as we've played against one another.

Q. You mentioned this isn't your first NCAA tournament. One thing the NCAA promised is everything was going to be better for the women this year, equal to the men. Travel, amenities. You've got the March Madness logo behind you have. You seen any of the that yet?

JOSE FERNANDEZ: You know what? I want to take every thing in and reserve my judgment after the weekend here.

I know there are a lot of things that the NCAA could not control with what we still have going on in regards to travel. So in regards to equity, you can't blame that on the NCAA because there are men -- I know a lot of men's coaches around the country, and it was very difficult for -- there is crews, planes, routes.

You know, we found out I think probably about 10, 12 hours before we left that, Hey, you're leaving at 9:00 a.m. You got to drive from Tampa to St. Pete, an hour, hour and 15 minutes, and jump on a plane.

Well, there are problems all around the country in regards to chartered planes and everything like that.

In regards to hotels, when you have 16 sites, right, and you have three teams that you got to put in hotels, that hasn't changed.

During the regular season we stay in better hotels than the NCAA tournament because most cities there is not a lot of full service hotels, and so until you go to neutral sites, that situation not going to change I don't think.

We had a good dinner last night, like we do when we go on the road. You know, going to 68 teams, this is something that should have been done long time ago. Long, long time ago. How long has the men at 68? No reason that the women shouldn't have been at 68.

I like the logo. It is distinctive. We got our own orange instead of the gray.

But we'll see. We'll see what -- I know there was a lot of complaints about the swag bags and all that stuff last year, so I haven't seen those.

As far as branding and marketing, you know, again, we just arrived. We practiced in the practice facility here yesterday, so we look forward to taking that all in.

Q. Follow up on the neutral site question. Is that something you would like to see? Would you like to see the women's tournament go to all neutral sites?

JOSE FERNANDEZ: Well, it definitely takes the home court advantage out of it. I thought last year where we had the NCAA tournament was different. You're sequestered. If we're going to neutral sites you got to go to sites where teams are supported, and it's got to be cities that are -- that, Hey, you're forward thinking and maybe you're at that site for three, four years where that community knows that the NCAA tournament is going there for the next three, four years.

So then it's on a neutral floor, right? I don't know how much that matters for us. We're always playing five, six games on a neutral floor in November and December, so it's good for us. In nonconference. We got to really look at financially if that's feasible as well.

Here I'm pretty sure that this first and second round is going to be very well attended, so not every 16 site around the country is going to be as well attended as here, Iowa State or Connecticut or Louisville just to name a few. I know there is more talk about instead going to the regional sites the idea of Vegas being the final 16 and all in one place, right?

So I still think there is a lot of people working on these things and taking a look at what we can do to continue to improve our game.

Q. Kind of already touched on the chaos of just the optics of the tournament and just getting here and settled. How much of your time since Selection Sunday has been getting your team settled and staff ready to go and how much has been digging into Miami and getting ready for the game?

JOSE FERNANDEZ: You know, when it comes like this you can get frustrated at a lot of different things. You got to control what you can control, what's in front of you.

We got back, we played for our conference championship on that Thursday. Friday we traveled home. Travel day, so we didn't do anything that day. Gave the kids Saturday, Sunday off.

Sunday we had selection, Sunday night we had dinner. Had all our fans at the Yeungling Center. Did that, and then Monday we practiced. Tuesday we practiced.

We traveled up here yesterday morning. Relaxed in the hotel in the afternoon and practiced in the practice facility, and now on the main floor and playing tomorrow at 11:30.

We are not shooting around tomorrow morning. I'm not getting these guys up at 5:00 a.m. So you can't control that time either. It's just different. I think that's why you play -- might play an elementary school day game, which we did. We've played at that time before.

We played four games in the Bahamas where we had to play a couple early games. You try during the season to put your team in as many situations where it's going to mimic the conference tournament, three games in three days.

Well, we play three in three days and we're off two and a half, and then we played Stanford in the Bahamas. We played two and two going down to West Palm where it mimics conference tournament, you're in the bye and to win the conference championship you got to win three in three days.

So we been through that.

Q. Just finally from me, obviously you have been at South Florida for such a long time. What do you consider to be your team's kind of foundation for the season? Every season is different with every team. Last year with the way the tournament was just because of COVID, a little bit different. Going into this tournament, what do you think is your team's calling card?

JOSE FERNANDEZ: Yeah, every year is different, every team is different. I thought we tested our team in November, December. Went on the road to Tennessee; lost a close game. We lost to Arlington on the road that won the Sun Belt and then we played West Virginia and Ole Miss in a tournament. We had Connecticut, Syracuse, Oregon, and Stanford as well.

So that's what we wanted to do. Last year we won the league, we beat Mississippi state. We lost to Baylor. When we lost in conference was Central Florida. We won our conference tournament and we ended up being an eight seed and were in the top 25.

So our goal was play a great nonconference schedule and try and get a better seed. Well, we didn't do what we needed to do during our -- we lost to UCF three times. They're really good. Gave one up against Tulane and another one against Arlington, and Ole Miss is a very good team, had a good year.

So we really didn't really have bad losses. We had some good wins; not enough of them.

Virtually the five that we're starting tomorrow at 11:30 started against Washington State last year in the NCAA tournament. We were able to get through that first game and were up at halftime against the No. 1 seed in NC State last year.

So these guys, they know now. Everybody this time of year has something going on health-wise, right? We're definitely not the same team we were in November, December, but still a pretty good team that's won 24 games.

Q. Coach, you've got people on your team that have been there now six years. You could probably declare them on your income tax. How hard is it to see them have to leave at the end of this year?

JOSE FERNANDEZ: Leo, you're the best, man. Well, Shae has been with us six years. That's the only one. I don't know. Probably couldn't declare her on my income tax because she's been there so long, right? 26 you can't do health insurance anymore for your kid.

You know, Shae's been through a lot. Bethy, very fortunate to have her three years just because she got that extra COVID year being a junior college transfer. They understand. Trust me, every team now understands. They're next loss their season is over, right?

So what is the date today? March 17? St. Patrick's Day, right? A lot of team's seasons finished February 28th, so they been doing workouts and recruiting, right?

The ACC, Big Ten, they finished over a week ago, so they were able to go this past week, week and a half go recruiting and get a lot of stuff done. We haven't been able to do that just because our conference tournament finished on Thursday.

So we've been nonstop just worried about us.

But you know what? It's a great opportunity. You got two really good basketball teams going to play at 11:30, and one of them will get a chance to play in an unbelievable atmosphere against a very, very good basketball team on Sunday.

Q. Good luck, coach.

JOSE FERNANDEZ: Thank you, Leo.

Q. You mentioned you have a lot of players returning from -- well, the starting five returning as the NCAA experience. What's the message to players like Dulcy and the guys that haven't been here before that are expected to play bigger roles?

JOSE FERNANDEZ: We'll find out. This is new for them, too, right? Because Dulcy transferred in, so did Aerial. We got other guys that haven't played meaningful minutes in this type of environment.

When Maria went down we needed -- we're going to need another perimeter and somebody else to give us some minutes tomorrow at is 11:30.

Q. I notice Miami in their conference tournament they didn't allow more than 61 points in any game. What from you've seen, what has made them so effective defensively down the stretch?

JOSE FERNANDEZ: I think they do a great job pressuring the point guard. They do a really, really good job.

We got to make sure we have multiple guys that can handle the basketball and get us into our offense.

I think they do a great job not allowing the ball to get into the paint. The ball goes inside too, they do a good job doubling and rotating out. It's nothing easy.

I don't know how much fun the game is going to watch, but I think you'll see two good teams that defend and rebound. The team that makes the least amount of mistakes and does a good job getting easier shots and makes those shots is going to come out of that game successful.

So you're saying there might be a race to 60, Joey?

Q. Indeed.

JOSE FERNANDEZ: People might be turning the channel to something else at 11:30, but what's on tomorrow at 11:30 on Friday?

Q. I'd rather watch you than the Young and the Restless.

JOSE FERNANDEZ: As the bull turns tomorrow, too.