NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - DELAWARE VS MARYLAND

March 17, 2022

Natasha Adair

Delaware Blue Hens

Media Conference

Q. Easy one, what makes Jasmine unique?

NATASHA ADAIR: Easy one. Oh, gosh. How long do I have? The first thing about her is just her work ethic. Right? When you say Jasmine, that's a person, a player that's committed to working. And when we saw her, when we recruited her, it was just about needing that toughness, that grit, someone that was going to come every day and give 110 percent. And she does. But what else makes her so special is that she makes other people around her better. So many people talk about Jasmine, and she wants to talk about her teammates, she wants to talk about our program. And just so selfless. For her to be such a stellar player, student-athlete, she's a good teammate. She's a good friend. As a coach, she's a coach's dream. She's a coach's dream.

Q. Coach, your players were in here, they kind of mentioned that you're trying to limit their transition opportunities, and Maryland is obviously a great transition team, but you guys do a really good job crashing the offensive glass.

NATASHA ADAIR: We sure do.

Q. Do you feel like those two things are in conflict? And if you do, how have you tried to manage that in practice this week?

NATASHA ADAIR: Well, not as much. I mean, the biggest thing is is ball security. You limit them in transition by valuing the possession. And so we have to make sure that we control the tempo, we dictate the pace, because, again, if they're taking the ball out of the net, meaning we executed into a good shot, it's hard for them to run. And then with ball security, you can't let them speed you up. So we have to make sure we have really good clock management. We don't want a quick shot. We want to make sure we execute. So it's more about us valuing the possession that will limit their transition opportunities.

Q. What's this week like for you? This is your old stomping grounds.

NATASHA ADAIR: I'm home. And it's nothing like being home. But so are half of our team, if you will. We have so many players from the DMV area. It's surreal. It hasn't hit me yet. I'm sure it will tomorrow when we see all of our family and friends. It's great being home, but it's also great being a Blue Hen, because we're going to have fans that travel and come support us. And that's the beauty about our program. It's a one-team mindset. Everyone is rooting for us as well, but to be back in my hometown where, again, I'm no stranger to this place, this building or even this area, it's really exciting to be back home.

Q. Quick followup on that same thing. How much does that help? Like you said, you're familiar with the area, you're going to be familiar. You're familiar with this Maryland program.

NATASHA ADAIR: Right.

Q. Is that better than just some random team from somewhere else in the country that you wouldn't have necessarily the background knowledge of?

NATASHA ADAIR: Correct. Absolutely. And I think just our players are as familiar. They've grown up playing on the same AU teams, playing in the same high school teams or whatever type of kind of sporting event. They know a lot of the players on the team. They're friends with them, and so it takes a little bit of that edge off, if you will, or that just uncertainty. And it's comfort. So, again, they're like, oh you know what, I know this person, I know that person. So just whatever tension or anxiety that you would have around this type of game, that goes away when you have that familiarity with them.

Q. Coach, you guys were one of the last conference championship games. Relatively quick turnaround, coming off the high of the accomplishment to the incredible challenge of playing Maryland. What has the last week been like for you? And how do you let the players celebrate, but also get them back focused on the task at hand?

NATASHA ADAIR: Well, again, it was a quick turnaround. But, you know, you enjoy every moment. Every day there's a moment where we reflect, but we also, that helps us prepare. We talk about the journey through our conference tournament to become champions, but what it took to get there. And we talk about our formula, defending, rebounding, running in transition and scoring. So where we still go back and reflect, we use that as motivation and preparation for what we need to do next.

Maryland is the next opponent, but the formula doesn't change. Obviously the strategy does a little bit, but we're going to play Delaware basketball. And as much as we thrive in that moment and reflect on it, we're not done yet. So we'll celebrate wholeheartedly when we're done and we're cutting down the nets again, but right now, it's back to business.

Q. Coach, kind of just building off the first question that was asked. You've known Jasmine Dickey throughout her four years as a Blue Hen. Can you describe the bond that you two have shared over the years and how you have seen Jasmine grow over the years and matured into becoming a potential WNBA player?

NATASHA ADAIR: Well, for sure I think she definitely should have her name called April 11th in that WNBA draft. But watching her grow, recruiting her, she was already a winner, competitor, great teammate. But watching her develop over these years into a leader, taking her game to become now a triple threat, but watching her work on and off the court as a great ambassador to our university, to our community, to our program, she's really worked at that. She's worked at being just that leader, but not by work -- not by example, but more of a vocal leader, being able to get the best out of all of her teammates. And so just watching her mature day in and day out, it just, as a coach, you know, they're all like my children, but I'm proud. I'm proud of her growth. I'm proud of her development. But most importantly, her leadership and how she's really taken on that role as being the example, as leading her teammates and making sure she makes everyone around her better.

Q. Coach, I mean, all the questions have been about Jasmine.

NATASHA ADAIR: It's okay.

Q. Who else should fans or teams be watching in tomorrow's game if you had to pick one player to talk about, who else is going to get that shot?

NATASHA ADAIR: Don't do that.

Q. You can pick as many as you want.

NATASHA ADAIR: Oh, you know I am. I'm going to start with our floor general, Paris McBride. We're not here without Paris. Paris is a leader. She's a coach on the floor, you know, someone who was selected to the WBCA, so you want to be a coach program, because, again, that's something that she may do in the future. She just has the "it" factor when it comes to leadership. Really good at making decisions, on-court decisions, but knows how to really get the best out of her sisters.

And then you go Ty Battle. She's a walking double double. I don't think we talk about her enough. I mean 23, 24 double doubles in the season, top in the country right now in double doubles, but she's just Miss Consistency. Great teammate as well.

Lizzie Oleary. Lizzie was the foundation when I stepped on campus, and it may not show up in the box score, but it shows up in jut she's everywhere she needs to be, in the right place at the right time. We call her the brick wall, because, again, she just anchors up for us inside, but really has accepted her role. But another really good leader on our team.

We have a lot of phenomenal leaders on our team. And then one you're going to hear about for years to come is Tyi Skinner. She's a local DMV native, but they call her Showtime. She's fearless. She might be 5'5, but she's 6'5 with her heart and her effort and her competitiveness.

But I could go through each person on the team. But we are led -- you know, we are led by all of them, but our veterans really have earned this right and worked so hard to be the leaders that they are for this program. And we are successful because of their leadership.

Q. For the CAA championship, it was a great atmosphere; it was loud. But the fanbase was pretty split 50/50, at least it sounded like. How do you prepare the team for a hostile environment? Maryland has a big fanbase, so when reality sets in and the ball is tipped and this is a hostile environment with a lot of people, how do you prepare the players who may not have played, obviously, on this stage, but even in such a large, filled arena?

NATASHA ADAIR: Well, again, we're here. Right? And you have to be ready for these big moments. The one thing that we do, and we revisit last year in the postseason. And in the postseason we went up against a lot of teams, and we were on the road. We weren't the home team. And so there were fans; there was the environment. There were the stakes that were on the line. So I think it's just keeping them focused and keeping them dialed in that -- we said when we're going to win a championship, we're going to win it on the road. And we've already done one.

So in this environment, they have done such a phenomenal job of just kind of staying focused and staying together. But we'll use some of that momentum. We'll use some of that energy and kind of transfer it to our own team and to what we have going on the court. But they really don't get distracted by that. They really stay focused. And I will go back to the leadership, the veteran leadership. I don't know how many people saw that championship game, or even the game before, but you watched them kind of come back together and huddle together and kind of take that deep-breath moment just to get back to center and refocus. So this is a group that's not going to get too high or too low. They're just going to stay really dialed in to just the focus that they need to have for the game.

MODERATOR: Coach, thank you.

NATASHA ADAIR: All right. Thank you all.