NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - VILLANOVA VS BYU

March 18, 2022

Jeff Judkins

Paisley Harding

Tegan Graham

BYU Cougars

Media Conference

Q. How have you guys been preparing throughout the week?

TEGAN GRAHAM: Yeah, we know that they're a high efficient offensive team. Obviously they have the second leading scorer in the nation, so yeah, doing a lot of scout and defense to kind of break that down and stop different looks.

But yeah, I think we've been watching a lot of film, and our coaches have a really good game plan for us.

Q. I'm curious, how was the flight to Ann Arbor? How much fun did you have? How much were you talking about this moment that you guys were about to embark on?

PAISLEY HARDING: It was a good flight. We got on pretty easily, as all these private flights are. We had our band with us, and we had our cheerleaders, so that was really fun. We were able to bring them on the plane with us.

We're all really excited. We were ready to get to Michigan. We expected a little bit of some snow, but luckily we came out to like 70-degree weather, so all of us were like steaming in our big parkas, but yeah, it was a really good flight.

Q. This is the last go-around for a lot of you guys, lots of seniors, graduate students. What are you trying to prove on this last tournament run?

TEGAN GRAHAM: I don't know if there's necessarily one thing we're trying to prove. I think everybody who's playing in March in general is trying to prove that they can win and they can compete. But in terms of the senior or veteran mindset, I think all the seniors that came back, we love this team and we obviously love college basketball, so I think it's just an opportunity to keep playing with one another and keep playing college basketball. And March is a fun, fun time and a very competitive time to do that.

I think there's just a lot of gratitude and excitement around that rather than necessarily one big thing that we're trying to push or one big thing that we want people to know about our team. We want to win. Everyone wants to win in March. But we definitely want to win together.

PAISLEY HARDING: Making more memories and just enjoying the time, the last few moments we have of college basketball.

Q. Since Sunday what have you learned or what stood out from your study of sizing up this Villanova team?

PAISLEY HARDING: They're a really good five out cutting offensive team. They're really looking to get each other open in their offense, whether that's with screens, cutting off one another. That's something we play against every single day as BYU athletes, basketball players playing against each other.

It's a lot of like reading that Juddy has taught us. We haven't played against many teams like that this year, so I'm super excited to be able to play kind of like ourselves in that aspect.

TEGAN GRAHAM: It's kind of a good matchup in that way because I feel like they play a predominantly motion offense and so do we, so I feel like it's going to be an interesting matchup to see kind of which team sticks to their game plan, which team has better principles with defensive kind of motion guarding.

Q. How rested do you guys feel right now as a team? And how is that going to -- maybe conflict is the wrong word, but the idea that you guys flew yesterday, you're in Ann Arbor for basically a day before you play at 11:00 in the morning our time, at like 1:00 p.m., so pretty early game tomorrow.

TEGAN GRAHAM: Yeah, I think there's a reason why we came a day before. Obviously it's a two-hour difference, but everyone in the country has to fly all over the place to play in March. That's kind of the whole point of March Madness. So I think we're definitely mentally and physically ready to go. Our coaches do a really good job, our whole staff does, of preparing us.

Yeah, I don't think that's something that we're necessarily worried about right now.

Q. You're going against the second leading scorer in the country in Maddy Siegrist. How are you scheming around that trying to prepare to face her defensively?

JEFF JUDKINS: Well, where this team has improved from early in the year is that there's more players that have been scoring and more players being able to do things offensively for this team and not all on her. She's definitely one of the best players in the country. We'll have our hands full.

It won't be one person that can just totally shut her down. It has to be a team defense that can help and try to not let her get baskets easy. But she does a great job with scoring in so many different ways. She can score from the outside and drives and post-ups and rebounds, so she's kind of a nightmare. It's a real hard matchup.

I think we have three or four players that have had to guard somewhat players like this and they can match up and find out real quick tomorrow -- tomorrow we'll find out real fast what we can do.

I think the nice thing is we have played against some really good players in the past. Last year we played in Rutgers, a really good offensive player, and she scored her points, but she earned them. She had to work hard for them.

I think for both of us, we do play really team kind of basketball. It's not a one-on-one game. It's really key to play everybody well.

It'll be a challenge, and we're excited for it.

Q. What do you think of the idea that Paisley and Tegan were talking about that you guys with Villanova are ostensibly playing yourselves in a way?

JEFF JUDKINS: Is that what you think? I think we're very similar. I think we have -- the way that we play with our offense motion and our defense, we're very similar to each other.

We're a little bit different. We set a little more ball screens than they do.

You know, who knows what's going to happen? Teams go out and they get a good feel of each other and what they can do and how they can score. That's kind of where I'm excited. We've got a lot of veterans that have been through this. Last year we went through this, and they're excited to really get going and playing.

This team has just come out -- we have to play our game. We can't let them get outside of what we try to do best, and that's where kind of the key is.

Q. How critical is it in a March Madness setting for star players like Shaylee, Paisley, Lauren Gustin to be the stars that they've been all season if you're going to try to advance in this stage?

JEFF JUDKINS: Well, first of all, it's a great opportunity for these players to play in the NCAA Tournament. It's the most exciting tournament that they've probably played in their life, so to be able to come here and be able to play against all good teams is really exciting for them, and they've been waiting for this.

This is something we've worked hard for, all the sacrifices that you make all summer and all during the year is to have the opportunity to be here. There's only 68 teams that have made it, so it's exciting that we're one of them.

I think what's hard is in the west we don't get the recognition that a lot of players get, and I think my players, we understand that a little bit. But they're not going to put pressure on themselves to try to go out and do something great. They're just going to go out there and be themselves and play their game, and they'll just show that just by them just doing the things which they do every single day in practice.

Those three players you mentioned are very good. We also have two or three other players that really help this team.

I noticed this year with us it's been a team effort. It hasn't been one or two players that totally dominate the ball or dominate everything. These guys have played together, and it's what makes it fun for me as a coach to coach that kind of team because I don't know who's going to have the best matchup tomorrow.

That's what we'll take advantage of.

Q. How deep do you anticipate your bench going?

JEFF JUDKINS: How do I anticipate my bench? I expect them to come in and do what they've done all year. Sara come in and be really active and rebound and be really aggressive in the post. Smiler coming in to defend and doing whatever she needs to do for our team to win, and then Nani to come in and hit some threes and defend, too.

We do have a very good bench. I'm excited about it. They've played a lot of minutes this year, and I'm not afraid to put them in one bit during the game.

Yeah, we've had some -- during the year we had some players that had to miss games because of injuries or COVID, and these guys have all stepped up.

This is one of the deepest teams I've had in a long time. I think our bench is a real key to this tournament.

Q. Last year you guys were so grateful to be in the field, being one of the last teams in. What's maybe the demeanor, the approach from the team in their preparation this week for tomorrow's game?

JEFF JUDKINS: Well, we didn't have to worry on selection day that we were going to get in. We knew we had -- we basically did our work to prepare ourselves to get to the NCAA Tournament.

My seniors came back this year to come and play, to come play in this tournament and be able to do what they need to do. We're just going to take this as just another game. We've prepared the same way for it. There's no pressure. We're going to come out and play our game and come out and just do the things which we have worked so hard.

I heard the question earlier that you have a long layover. Well, everybody has. Most of the women played their games a week ahead, so it's going to be more even that way.

But we just want to come out and just play BYU basketball and have a lot of fun and enjoy the opportunity that we have.

I told my team many times that too many times you get into a tournament and you just -- you don't think about how great and fun it is and how hard you work for it. We want to take full advantage of that in this game tomorrow.

Q. Your team has broken a lot of historical records so far this year. What's one memory that you're going to take away from this specific team that you'll remember for the rest of your life?

JEFF JUDKINS: You guys being a bunch of knuckleheads.

No. This team, we had a record this year with 10 three-pointers by Tegan in a game. We scored more points this year than any other team I've had. We've had players come in and come close to a couple triple-doubles, a couple of my players. So stat-wise what I'll remember about this team is their competitiveness, their love for the game, their love for each other, their hard work. I've never had a bad practice this year with this team. That's hard to say.

There's so many things going on in a college student's life, to not be focused all the time is really very unusual. To be able to have that and then be able to have a team that are really competitors. I've never had a team say, Coach, we need to go more; Coach, we need to go longer; Coach, we need to do this.

The two of you right there are the main characters that really bring that up.

Q. You noted earlier that the western region doesn't get as much coverage with women's basketball. Do you feel like this team needs to deliver a big run to validate all the successes it had in the regular season?

JEFF JUDKINS: I think it really will help, I think, if we can do some damage and show people that there's a lot of good basketball in our conference and also out in the west. I kind of understand it. You're two hours ahead of us and a lot of our games are late and you can't watch them all. Hopefully we got a good time. We play at 1:00, which is a good time here in the east, and it'll be good for our fans to be able to see us.

We just want to go out and just do our best and play our game, and whatever happens happens.