NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - ALBANY VS LOUISVILLE

March 17, 2022

Colleen Mullen

Helene Haegerstrand

Ellen Hahne

Kayla Cooper

Albany Great Danes

Media Conference

Q. Just what's the experience been like for the past day for you guys being your first NCAA tournament?

HELENE HAEGERSTRAND: It's been so fun. Just the whole trip here and realizing how big this is. And coming to the hotel, being checked in, and seeing all these March Madness signs. It's really cool to be here for us.

ELLEN HAHNE: Yeah. Just picking off what Helene said. It's been a huge opportunity for us, and we're very excited to be here. And just doing it all together, it's been great.

KAYLA COOPER: For sure, it's definitely a surreal experience. This is where we wanted to be since the beginning, and I think just to be here now feels really good, and it's good to be here with people that you love.

Q. We all kind of know the story and the history of the 16 versus 1 match up. What's the message that you guys get about that? Is it just kind of an anything is possible or we're more alike than we're different?

KAYLA COOPER: Yes, there's history, but I think that just the fact -- I just think that we should show that we deserve to be here. We worked really hard, we won our conference and we're all really talented. And I think that we want to show others what they can do and that we belong here.

ELLEN HAHNE: Yeah, like any other game, you have to go into the game believing that you can do and you're going to give it all you got and compete. So I think that that's really what we want to do. And we worked hard to come here and we're ready to play tomorrow.

HELENE HAEGERSTRAND: Yeah, exactly what those two said, and also what if, why not. You never know what's going to happen. We're all people playing basketball. It's going to be a fun time playing tomorrow.

Q. What has to happen from a basketball perspective for you guys to have a chance to win tomorrow?

ELLEN HAHNE: I think that we really have to come out aggressive. We need to win all the 50-50 plays, just play with our heart, play hard, compete. I think that's very important for us. Throughout the year we have been a good defensive team, so I think we have to put a lot of focus into our defense and just work really hard.

HELENE HAEGERSTRAND: Yes. Ellen said, too, it's all heart and effort tomorrow. And getting our stops that we know we can. We are second in the country for a reason. And that's what we have to play. And our offensive execution, just believing in each other and stay confident.

KAYLA COOPER: Yeah, like they said, we definitely have to play defense, we definitely have to rely on each other, make sure we know where everyone is, know where the shots are, being confident and everything. Coming out confident. When we play together and believe we can win, we can hang with anybody.

Q. If you had to write a scouting report on yourself, what would you say your strengths are as a team?

KAYLA COOPER: I think we have a lot of good shooters. We're very -- I think we're also very versatile. We have a lot of shooters on the team, but we can put the ball on the floor and attack the basket. I think we're really good there. But also, like we said, we're a good defensive team. So we know how to keep our player in front, and we know how to play good defense.

ELLEN HAHNE: Just to add to what Kayla said, I think we have done a good job of staying together throughout games. We're confident in each other and play well together. I think our culture and the strength that we have as a unit is a strength for us.

HELENE HAEGERSTRAND: Our strength is definitely that we have threats from all of the places of the floor, and we have shooters as Kayla said, and the confidence we have in each other is huge. We have a players that have been taken away and another player steps up. That's been our strength throughout the whole season.

Q. When you walk into practice today at the KFC Yum! Center, this is probably five times the size of SEFCU Aarena. It's going to be a much bigger arena for you guys. How important is it going to be for you guys to get a lot of shots up today and really get the feeling of that depth perception down and feel comfortable in a space like that?

HELENE HAEGERSTRAND: I think that's more of just an exciting part. We've traveled a lot over the last season. You take shots everywhere. The experience of a big arena is always fun. Getting shots is very important. And we'll probably get a lot up.

ELLEN HAHNE: Yeah, we definitely have to shoot well tomorrow. And I think it's great for us to be able to get some shots up today and also tomorrow. So yeah, it's definitely important for us.

Q. This is the first year that NCAA is using the March Madness branding for the women's tournament as well. To some that might be a name, to others it might mean a lot. What does it mean to you guys?

KAYLA COOPER: I think March Madness just means just working hard and that the people who are in the tournament are just the best of the best. I think that in the past the tournament has been such a fun phenomenon and it's been growing ever since, especially with how women are fighting more for equality between the men's tournament and our tournament. So I think that to be here now and use our platforms to say, hey, our game is just as important as the men's game. People want to watch women just as much as men. It's very important. And I think it's going to be really cool to play in.

ELLEN HAHNE: Picking off of that, I think it's very important for us, even last year we were not in the tournament. But just seeing what was going on with the critics, the differences between the men's tournament and the women's tournament. I think that it affects everybody, not just basketball players, not just players who get to go to tournaments. I think that's a huge thing this year that we're using the March Madness for women as well.

HELENE HAEGERSTRAND: Yeah. I just mentioned in the beginning, it's so cool for us to be here now and seeing that March Madness sign everywhere. And that's something that should be obvious. And now it finally is. And we've taken it so far, and that's so cool. And we're not done yet.

Q. Question for Kayla. I was wondering if you could speak a little bit just to what this whole week has been like for you guys? Has it been difficult to focus in game-wise, with everything that's been going on around the program this week with the excitement of going to the tournament?

KAYLA COOPER: Yeah, it's been really fun. We have been -- we got here yesterday. We had practice beforehand and then we got here. We got to experience Kentucky a little bit and see what that's all about. About to go into practice today and figure out what we're going to do. We have had a lot of scout segments and it's really fun to be here. We're going to treat this as if it's any other game. It doesn't matter who we are playing. It doesn't matter that it's going to be broadcasted to many other people. We're going to treat this as if we're playing someone from our conference. We're going to go in confident and play hard.

COACH MULLEN: So excited to be here. Amazing opportunity for our team, our players, our coaching staff, our administration, our university to be able to showcase, you know, all of our team's hard work and effort on the national stage. Our team has played -- we've had a season that is really really really exciting for our program. I can't just say enough about the culture of this team and how special our players are, how unselfish they are, how much they play together. And this is a culmination of their goal to become champions and to earn a birth in the NCAA tournament. And really to be able to show the world what kind of players they are, what kind of people they are, and we're so excited to bring attention to our program, to our athletic department and to the university.

Q. How do you keep the team grounded during very surreal experience that they can go out and actually try to win the game tomorrow?

COACH MULLEN: I guess taking suggestions, I don't know. It's a really great experience. It's so fun for them. I want them to be in the moment and to really just enjoy this because it is so difficult to get here. This is so special. It really is for some of them, you know, a once in a lifetime opportunity. Hopefully we'll have a chance to go again. But I want them to be able to be where their feet are, take it all in, take the arena in. Yeah, it's a business trip. We have to get to work together to face a tough opponent in Louisville. But I think right now it's about us enjoying the moment, being here, but also staying focussed and preparing the team just as we would for another opponent for our game tomorrow.

Q. With so much talent on the floor like Louisville has, as a coach do you have your players zoom in on maybe one or two players and key on them, or do you just kind of say everybody out there can score for them?

COACH MULLEN: Louisville is just so dangerous at every position. Across the board inside game, outside game, front court, back court, they are dangerous. That's why they are a one seed and one of the best teams in the country. I think to defend Louisville it has to be a total team effort. So we're really our main focus is to try to utilize all of our players, help-side defense, inside. It's not going to be single coverage. We're going to have to really key in on their inside presence because we're smaller at every size. So it's really going to be a team effort. We're going to have to switch up our defenses. And I think at the end of the day it's just about competing. One on one, trying to stay in a stance and keep that player in front of you. And I do think that our players have a lot of confidence in their defense. We've proven it all year that defense is our identity. And we want to control the tempo with our defense. Focussing mainly on how we can defend as a team.

Q. I know you mentioned that Lucia was having an MRI, what is her status? Is she going to try to practice and play tomorrow?

COACH MULLEN: Don't know. She's not going to practice today. She's still TBD for tomorrow.

Q. Just to follow-up on this real quick. Everyone else still expected to be available?

COACH MULLEN: Everybody should be available to play as of right now.

Q. What do you hope to get out of practice today?

COACH MULLEN: I think number one we want to feel really prepared in terms of handling their pressure defense, so really focussing on how we're going to go from our press offense in our offense. Our pressure releases because we know they like to deny entries and they're going to try to make us feel uncomfortable. We want the players to feel prepared offensively what they need to run and how we can counter act some of the things that Louisville is going to take away from us. Defensively focussing on the scout, different strategies that we're going to utilize to kind of try to shut them down in certain sets. They do run a lot of things. They have a lot of different weapons. So trying to be key in on a couple different things that we need to do with that. But mostly just have fun. Mostly be out there, enjoy the moment, have fun, really enjoy the atmosphere, and make sure it's a spirited fun practice.

Q. Kayla mentioned that you guys have been able to "experience Kentucky" was how she phrased it. What were some of the things you were able to do outside of the gym, outside of basketball on the trip?

COACH MULLEN: Well number one, we had a really cool charter flight. Every seat was this first class seat, so I think the players felt like the red carpet was rolled out for them. They felt great about that. We're staying downtown in the Fourth Street Live area. And the weather has been phenomenon. Different than Albany. So it's been warm. So the players have walked around. We went out to dinner last night, explored the area, got ice cream. And today they had a chance to attend the Muhammad Ali Museum, which was inspiring for the team. They really enjoyed that.

Q. Earlier this week, you had said that you had this team needs to shoot a lot of threes and make them at a pretty high clip in order to beat Louisville and talking to a lot of shooters. At all levels. They'll tell you that small gyms that's where their bread and butter is obviously a 22,000 seat arena is not a small gym. So how important will it be for you guys today to really just get the feel for this atmosphere and get comfortable with that heading into tomorrow?

COACH MULLEN: Yeah, I think it's going to be pretty to have a practice here, we'll have a shoot around tomorrow. And we want to be comfortable. We want to take our shots when they are open. I think it's really important that we have that inside-out attack. And there's no better way to do that than getting shots up in the gym. Being able to practice on the floor and tomorrow to have the shoot around just to get comfortable. And we have to shoot with confidence and shoot to score.