NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - FAIRFIELD VS TEXAS

March 17, 2022

Joe Frager

Lou Lopez-Senechal

Rachel Hakes

Fairfield Stags

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Fairfield head coach Joe Frager, graduate guard Rachel Hakes and senior forward Lou Lopez-Senechal.

COACH FRAGER: We're ecstatic to be here. I know that during the Selection Show, when we saw that we were playing Texas, we were all very excited. Austin is a beautiful, beautiful city. The weather's warmer than it is in Connecticut. And we know that Texas has got an outstanding program.

So we're just really looking forward to the challenge. We've had a really, really special season. We've had a great group on this team, great leadership to my right and throughout the program and a senior-laden team. We're excited to tee it up and challenge ourselves tomorrow night.

Q. Texas is obviously on a huge win streak, but so are you. Do you think that's going to kind of make it a battle of these two teams that are hot right now?

LOU LOPEZ-SENECHAL: I'm sure it's going to be a great game. We're both in the NCAA Tournament, and I think both of us are going to be very excited to compete. And for us it's our first time. So for sure not going to leave anything -- we're going to leave everything on the court and not have any regrets. I think it's going to be a great game.

RACHEL HAKES: I think we're excited for the matchup. I mean we watched Texas go on their hot winning streak and we've had one of ours. We're looking to continue our own season as long as we possibly can.

Q. For this guy, it's his swan song. Does that make it more special for you guys? Are you trying not to think about that at this point?

LOU LOPEZ-SENECHAL: Obviously we don't want anything to end. But I think we've had such a special season so far we're going to, as Rachel said, we want to keep it going as far as we can.

RACHEL HAKES: Coach obviously means a lot to us and we've kind of been playing this season for him. And in a lot of ways we're playing it for ourselves too because we have a senior-laden crew who has been together for the past four years. We're just looking to continue as far as we can.

Q. How much does that senior leadership and experience and this roster full of veterans, how much do you think that's helped you all this season?

RACHEL HAKES: I think it's carried us a lot especially through our conference play. We haven't always been up at halftime. We've maybe dropped some leads in the third quarter, but we've always put it together, even in our MAAC championship game we went into halftime down five and we could have really closed it probably with a 10- or 15-point win, but it ended up being a five-point game. But we relied on our senior leadership and the poise we have and the trust we have in this group.

I know coach has put a lot of trust in me as his point guard on the floor, giving me play calls and letting me run the show. I know all the girls trust each other and trust what he's been doing.

LOU LOPEZ-SENECHAL: Yeah, being together for four years now and growing together, I think it helped us on the court. And you can definitely see that on the court when we play all together as a senior leadership for the rest of the team, too.

Q. You've played some tough competitions, the Indianas, the Florida Gulf Coasts. Do you think about those losses since they're so far away, or do you think about them because they might have taught you all something?

LOU LOPEZ-SENECHAL: I mean, I think we never forget what happened during this season. And coming tomorrow to play Texas, being in one of the best teams in the country, I think we remember ourselves that we played against great teams during the year and that we can compete against these type of teams. And that's why we're going to be ready for tomorrow.

RACHEL HAKES: I honestly would love to get another crack at those teams we had early in our non-conference schedules. I'm not going to lie. I think that we really grew as a group, especially in our conference season. And so I think we could have probably turned some of those losses into wins at this point.

What's in the past is in the past. I'm just glad that we had the opportunity to go out to some places like Florida Gulf Coast and Indiana and gain that experience. And I think it will really help us as Texas brings in a big crowd tomorrow.

Q. You've got a team with the senior leadership. Texas is driven of late by a freshman guard. I'm sure you've scouted her a little bit, Harmon. Her teammates give her so much credit for what she does on the defensive end. What are you expecting from her? And what kind of particular challenge is she on the court?

RACHEL HAKES: She's a really good player. She obviously picks the ball up full court almost the whole entire game. Honestly, we're a little bit more focused on what we're going to do, our offensive and defensive game plan. A lot of kudos to Texas and what they can do. But we're kind of just trying to stay in our own bubble and really focus on what we're going to bring to the game.

LOU LOPEZ-SENECHAL: Like she said, she's a great point guard and a great player. But I think what's really important is to mostly focus on us and what we can do out there as a team and we're going to do that.

Q. I'd go back to Coach's decision in the beginning of the season. What was that like when he told the players? What's your career been like up to this point as far as you've come and to be able to put this season together?

LOU LOPEZ-SENECHAL: Obviously, it was sad. It's never something that you want to hear. But I personally, and I think it's the same for Rachel and a lot of other players, but I think we've been very fortunate and lucky to have him as a coach. Me coming in as a freshman, I've always had his trust and his belief in me as well as the other teammates. And being able to play a lot of games and a lot of minutes and be able to shoot the ball, and I have to give him a lot of credit for that.

And I think he's made my experience here way better. And I'm very grateful for him. And I think that that's one of the reasons why we had a great season and we wanted to have it for him.

RACHEL HAKES: I remember the day he told us in the gym. I'm a pretty stoic person but it was a little bit emotional. I'm just really proud of the career that he's had. I mean, he's put in so many years as a head coach, winning in D-II national championship and coming here and doing such great things in the MAAC, having winning seasons pretty much every single year.

I'm really happy for him and excited that I got to be a part of his program for a full entire four years. I've definitely gone through a lot of growth under his tutelage. I came in as a point guard who wasn't highly recruited out of high school and didn't really play a lot of minutes my freshman year. And I think he's really helped me to blossom into what I have been able to do this year, especially.

And I just have a lot of love for him, a lot of respect for him. And I'm thankful for the opportunity to be able to play for him.

Q. Rachel, obviously Lou's stats speak for themselves. And we talked to Texas earlier, obviously they had a lot of things to say about her from what they'd seen on film. But as someone who plays with her and has been her teammate for a while, what can you tell us about her what she brings to your team?

RACHEL HAKES: I honestly love coming to press conferences with the girl sitting next to me because I usually get to brag on her just about every time. I mean, coming in, I remember freshman summer school, I saw the girl shoot the ball the first day. I was like, wow, I can't believe I get to be her teammate.

She's done incredible things for us every single year. She's been the rookie of the year, now being the player of the year in her senior year. I have nothing but great things to say about her. Every single day and during practice she comes in, she works hard. She works like she hasn't won anything, is just super humble.

I'm so proud to be her teammate. I'm so blessed I get to pass the ball to her every night. And she works, like I said, like she hasn't earned anything, and she just always comes in with a chip on her shoulder. Nothing but great things to say about Lou.

Q. Lou, you've got to return the favor. Gotta say something nice about Rachel now.

LOU LOPEZ-SENECHAL: That's the thing every time she says something, I'm like, all right. I don't even have to, because I mean those things. But Rachel is also a great teammate, a great friend, a great competitor. Being teammates for four years and coming in as a freshman with her, it's always been great.

She's grown a lot as a point guard. I know it's not easy to have that position. There's a lot of responsibility on your shoulders. And I think she's been doing a great job. She's really a fighter on the court and she's someone who is never going to give up and always going to trust her teammates and everyone around her. And she has that poise and passion for the game.

And it's always been great just to be on the court with her and win games. And during the ups and downs we've always had our backs. And I'm so blessed to be her teammate every day.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach.

Q. I'd ask you first about Rori Harmon, just how disruptive she is on defense, and what she's able to do on both ends of the court, really, and how difficult is it going to be to deal with her?

COACH FRAGER: She's a special talent. She really is. I think she denied me trying to get to the elevator today. She wouldn't -- I thought she got in our hotel lobby and started to deny us there.

But no, she'll disrupt. She really, really will. And the thing that she usually does a really good job of is she pressures the ball but she doesn't foul much. And that's a unique skill to be able to apply the pressure that she does.

It's not just Harmon. It's the entire team. It's just the way a Coach Schaefer team plays. They're going to guard you from end line to end line, they'll be extremely physical. It's something we've tried to prepare our players for.

And, like they said, there's only so many variables we can control. And we've just really tried to focus on being the best Fairfield we can and trying to dictate the terms as much as we possibly can on Friday.

Q. What's the mentality you feel from your team? Do you feel they're happy to be here? Do you feel that we have something to prove? What kind of mentality do you see from your players?

COACH FRAGER: Well, I mean, they're obviously excited to be here. I think they're realistic about the challenge we face. We know how good Texas is. But we didn't work all season long, we didn't practice all season long just to come down and just to be happy to be here, to be honest. They want to win.

And they know that the task is a monumental one, but I'm really confident they're going to come out and do the very best that they can. We've got to take care of the basketball. We've got to do the best we can and try to gang rebound and not let Texas beat us up on the boards.

And we really have to stick true to our team DNA, try to be who we've been all season long. And now's not the time to change that.

But Texas is so good at taking teams out of what they want to do offensively. And I've seen it, probably watched about 10 of their games, and they did it during the Big 12 schedule. They did it during their non-conference schedule.

So they're going to turn us over some. We know that. We know that that's inevitable. But we've got to keep our poise and kind of have that next-play mentality and try not to let those things snowball.

Q. Going off the turnovers, you all have not had many this season. Is that more a function of the defenses you've faced, or more a function of Rachel being a veteran point guard knowing how to run an offense? What do you contribute the lack of turnovers to?

COACH FRAGER: I have to give Rachel a lot of credit. I think a lot of it goes to Rachel. A lot of it goes to our style of play. And we face some teams that like to press and be very aggressive and be very physical. We face some of those teams. I think Texas is clearly going to be the best of those at playing that type of basketball. So that's why it's going to be a huge challenge for us.

But I think it's attributable to our style of play and the fact that we have seniors. And Rachel really is an extension of the coaching staff on the floor, knowing where we want to go with the basketball. And we really try to pride ourselves on trying to get the ball to players where they can do something good and take advantage of their skill set. So hopefully we can do that more often than not on Friday.

Q. Aside from Rori, is there another player or something that really stands out about this Texas team when you look at the film?

COACH FRAGER: I mean Ebo is a concern. They're all a concern, really -- Allen-Taylor. But Ebo's physicality inside is a real concern. She's really, really improved during her career so far. And she's very, very strong inside, very physical.

In particular, I was looking at their Iowa State game and the second half of that game they really made a concerted effort to start going inside against Iowa State. And I think it started to turn the tide of the game a little bit at that point. Yeah, there's probably not a player on the floor that they put out there that doesn't concern me. But, yes, she stands out.

Q. When you made the decision that this was going to be your last season, you still had the season to play. You've kind of watched it progress and now you've reached this point whether it's tomorrow or in a couple of weeks from now, who knows. Are you just thinking about the finality of that now at the doorstep?

COACH FRAGER: Several people have asked me that. I've worked really, really hard at trying to just sort of put that off psychologically because I think if at any point during the season I started to let my mind go there, I wouldn't be able to do the type of job I wanted to do for these women.

Yeah, I'd be lying if I didn't say occasionally it creeps in there and you start to think about the finality of that.

But I think it's going to take probably a good month after the season ends for me just to sort of reflect on it all.

I've really worked hard to try to compartmentalize things and try to focus on what's right in front of me. Whatever happens down the road, we'll deal with it at that point. But it's definitely been a special run and a special season.

And this group has been great. Our coaching staff's been outstanding. We've had great support from our administration. Really, it's been a group effort. And I'll look back on this year with a lot of fondness.