NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - MERCER VS UCONN

March 18, 2022

Susie Gardner

Shannon Titus

Amoria Neal-Tysor

Mercer Bears

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student athletes.

Q. Could you guys, your team has been to four consecutive tournaments now. Can you talk about what that means in terms of being able to take the next step, being confident going against a team like UConn and not being intimidated by the whole environment?

AMORIA NEAL-TYSOR: Well, we're a championship program, so Coach Gardner and her staff, we know how to win. So that's the most important part, just the staff being able to prep us right, get us ready for every game, and just staying at the task at hand during the game plan.

SHANNON TITUS: I think she does a great job of preparing us, scouting, just preparing us, make sure we know when we go in there we know what we are capable of and just knowing the other team that we're playing against and just being able to execute when we get on the court.

Q. Can you talk about UConn, what you've seen from them on film, how you kind of size up the challenge that you're going to be facing tomorrow?

AMORIA NEAL-TYSOR: Well, from the start we've been scouting them since we knew we were playing them. But just staying with the game plan at hand. They're bigger than us so we know that rebounding is important, rebounding and taking care of the ball. So that's what we've been preparing for.

Q. Can you talk about Coach Gardner. She obviously has like a great background in women's basketball, has played, and what is it like to play for her and does she just have like so much knowledge that helps you guys?

AMORIA NEAL-TYSOR: Yeah. So Coach Gardner, she's a very knowledgeable coach and we have very knowledgeable assistant coaches as well. It's just amazing playing for her just because of the way she preps for games and the way she knows the game and she's able to teach not only the transfers that we have coming in, but also our freshmen guards and our freshmen posts. So it's really good being coached by Susie Gardner.

Q. You both mentioned that you've played in the NCAA tournament. You're a championship program. But when you walk into Gampel Pavilion and you look up and there are 11 national championship banners there and the names that obviously you guys grew up watching on the wall, what does that mean to be here, first of all, and how do you not let that affect how you go into the game?

AMORIA NEAL-TYSOR: Well, only 68 teams get to be in this position that we're in, so we want to just start off by saying how blessed we are to even be in this position. Any game that we get, any team that we are planning on getting, we were ready to just focus on the game plan and get ready for them.

SHANNON TITUS: I think there's a lot of history here and with that, it's a great basketball place here. I think just to be able to play here is amazing, against a great team. I think just preparing, just being in the moment is great.

Q. One of your teammates, Erin Gutierrez, has played against UConn. Has she talked to you about playing against them, maybe what the atmosphere would be here, or anything at all?

AMORIA NEAL-TYSOR: Yeah. We know about the atmosphere, we know that UConn has great, educated fans, and there's going to be a lot of fans here, but we're prepared for that.

Like you guys have said, Coach Gardner has been in this position many times before and she's prepared us well as well for this environment.

Q. Have you talked to her at all?

AMORIA NEAL-TYSOR: Yes. Yes, sir, we have.

Q. What is it that makes you guys a championship program? What is the strength of this team?

SHANNON TITUS: I think our strength is our coaches and our staff. I think they do a great job of putting, letting us know how the game's going to go, preparing a great game plan, and just preparing us.

I think whenever we step into the game we sort of have the confidence knowing that we're prepared and I think there's like no stone left unturned.

Q. You played in the NCAA tournament last year also. This year, how do you even explain to the younger kids on the team that this year's tournament is going to be so different because that was like in the bubble and you got tested and you couldn't go out for dinner, and this is going to be such a different experience than they have ever experienced? Have you told 'em how much fun it could be?

SHANNON TITUS: Yes. We just tell them just to enjoy the moment. Like she said, there's only 68 teams that get to be here, so just have fun, while being prepared and being locked in for business, and just also have fun with it.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you, guys. We'll take an opening statement from coach.

SUSIE GARDNER: Well, we were watching the selection show in our gym with our fans, cheerleaders, and band, and our name came up, and then we went downstairs to my staff, and I said, I bet there's a whole lot of folks in Storrs, Connecticut Googling Mercer right now.

And so I'd like to first talk about our history of our program a little bit because before NCAA and the AIAW times, when the mid majors were ruling the world of women's basketball, Mercer was one of those teams, in the '70s.

And then, for example, my SWA, Sybil Blalock, played on, you may not know this fact, but Coach Summitt's, Pat Summitt's very first game as a head coach was against Mercer, and my SWA, Sybil Blalock, was on that team, and Mercer beat UT.

So we have got a great story past, in the '70s, and then we kind of fell on hard times. I took this job 12 years ago and my first year we won two games. My second year we won six. And my third year we won 20. And from that point on we were able to recruit and my goal coming to Mercer was to be the first program, or the first coach to take this team to a NCAA tournament, which we did five years ago, and we have had some pretty good success since. So there's a quick history lesson of Mercer.

THE MODERATOR: Great. We'll start with some questions.

Q. The players mentioned it. You guys, this is your fourth straight, correct?

SUSIE GARDNER: Well, we had a hiccup year where we only won eight games, and it was a COVID year, so if you want to say four straight, but it's really four out of five years.

Q. But nobody went that year so --

SUSIE GARDNER: Exactly. So let's say four in a row, okay? (Laughing).

Q. So they're used to winning, but when you come into an atmosphere like this, what do you say to them about the atmosphere? Obviously you want them to enjoy it. You want them to know that they have made it to a big stage, but you don't want them to be intimidated by it. So how do you balance that, especially in a year when the fans are back?

SUSIE GARDNER: Yeah, you know, our first year we made it. We went to University of Georgia, which was a drive away and the gym was half Georgia, half red and black and half orange. And it was amazing atmosphere. I played at Georgia. My college coach's wife, Pam Landers, came up to me after the game, and she said, that's the best environment we have ever been around.

Then we get sent to Iowa City, University of Iowa, right? Y'all know that fan base is off the charts as well. So we got to play in that environment our second time around and we almost won. We almost won both games actually.

And then we go over to San Antonio where there's no fans. So I've experienced it. Shannon's experienced it. But we try to just educate them. I mean, we don't have to tell them, hey, y'all know UConn's really good. We don't have to tell them the history of UConn. They all know that just by breathing.

But you have to explain to them that it's going to be loud, and as I heard Amoria say, the fans are very educated fans. They know when to cheer. They know when to pull their team up. They know when a great defensive play happens. So we just try to educate them and prepare them. We are right in the middle of ACC/SEC country. So we play a lot of teams down in the South that are, they're not UConn, but they are those types of big-time programs.

So we just try to prepare 'em in our non-conference prep, but then also just educate them. We just tell 'em the truth. This is how it's going to be, how, I mean, I'll be honest with you, about five years ago I asked one of my players, just hypothetically I said, who would you want to play? Like, a schedule, who would you want to play?

And she said UConn. And my smart aleck answer was, yeah, we'll play UConn when we meet them in the Final Four. And here we are, first round. And that particular player did text me the other night after we drew UConn. But you know, we just keep it real. We talk about the goals that we have that we're reaching. We get to cut down nets. A lot of teams in this NCAA tournament didn't get to cut down nets and we've cut down nets a lot of times.

So we talk about what we've accomplished, but then also the honor it is. I mean, it's an honor. Hey, I'm excited. I'm excited to be here too.

Q. The balance between enjoying and being on a business trip for these players?

SUSIE GARDNER: Hey, the only thing we're doing differently, for two years we have not eaten in restaurants because of COVID. We've just had food catered into our hotel. So the only thing I told my DOPO going in, I said, Okay, we're going to go to nice restaurants. We went to Ruth's Chris' last night and we're going to this little place called, I think it's called Cafe Aura or something like.

We heard, Chris Dailey texted me as soon as we got the bid that, she said we saw were playing you guys, and Chris texted me and said, hey, y'all need to go to Coach Auriemma's restaurant. So we're going there tonight.

That's the only difference. We're treating everything like we have all year round except we're going to restaurants with a private room, and we're eating good.

Q. A signature of your team is ball security, taking care of the ball, many more assists than turnovers. UConn particularly lately has been putting a lot of pressure on the ball with a lot of fresh legs. Can you simulate what the speed is going to be of the game and that pressure in practice or is it something that your kids are just going to have to adjust to?

SUSIE GARDNER: Yeah. We're not using male practice players like we used to because of the situation with the pandemic. So it's been a little bit more tricky, like you said, to try to simulate that. We did tell our scout team to try to amp it up a little bit.

But at the same time you all know, the difference, we have talented players, but the difference between our level and this level (Indicating) is typically the size of the athlete. We've got some really good players and if they were like six-foot they might not be at Mercer type thing. So we just to simulate that. We understand, we're very cognizant of not, trying not to turn the ball over, but we're also very cognizant of that's what they're going to try to do to us, so we just got to be very, very careful with that. But we do take a lot of pride in the past of having ball security, for sure.

Q. I was wondering, how do you translate that history of the first team to play Tennessee and how does that, do you use that like as you're trying to rebuild the program? Like, listen, this program has done this before. We'll do it again. And are the kids receptive to that without you like kind of coming off preachy or how do you incorporate the history?

SUSIE GARDNER: I'll be honest with you, our kids don't know that. What I just told y'all, they don't know that. They don't know that Mercer played Tennessee the first. They don't know that.

So we don't go that deep in history, but basically what I did was say, hey, we've never won, we've never been to the NCAA tournament. Come to Mercer. As y'all know Georgia, I played at Georgia, so the state of Georgia's a pretty fertile girls basketball state. Y'all have had some pretty good players come from the state of Georgia.

So I felt like even though I knew that the program was not the best program at that time, that we could recruit that particular state, and that's how we got this thing rolling. About four, five years ago when we were ranked in the top-25, we had a WNBA second round prospect. That team was all from Georgia. Our team right now is not so much from Georgia as it used to be.

But no, I don't talk about that deep history. We just got to keep it a little bit more current because, you know, these guys are worried about the next 15 minutes. They don't care what happened in the 70's, for sure.

Q. How do you plan to scout players like Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers?

SUSIE GARDNER: How do I plan to scout them?

Q. How do you plan to play against them?

SUSIE GARDNER: That's a great question. I tell you what, so we have Shannon Titus, who was up here, and she's a three-time Defensive Player of the Year in our conference, right? Three time. That doesn't happen a lot. Three time. She's long. She's six-foot. So she has the size of most of the UConn guards, but she's the only one on our team that has the size. When you see the jump ball, she will be matched up.

So I'm thinking. So every game this year, even Wake Forest, Georgia, Alabama, it doesn't matter, we played Central Florida, Shannon is going to draw the best guard on the opponent's team, and we always know in our conference, we know, okay, we're going to go down this, Shannon's got so-and-so, because we all know that's who she's going to have.

So now I'm stuck with, okay, I'm looking at all of UConn's guards. I mean, who did you say? Fudd and Paige? Well, y'all got Westbrook and Williams. So you don't just have two. So I'm like, okay, well, if Shannon guards A, B, C, and D are very good too.

So it's almost like you have to, like you have a secret Santa and you put four names in a bag and you shake 'em up, and I say, okay, Shannon will guard her the first quarter, her the second quarter. I mean, it's a scenario where Shannon could possibly matchup, but the rest of us, we're, we're tiny, we're small at the guard position.

So I've got a plan, I'm not going to tell you the plan, but we have got a plan and it's something that we're hopeful will kind of slow them down just a little bit, maybe, perhaps. And then you got the big post inside so that's another story, but anyway. I'll answer your guard question. (Laughing).

Q. Do you have any memories of your time here in 2009 and I'm just wondering in that break from being the head coach at Austin Peay and in Arkansas, going back to being an assistant and getting the Mercer job, how did that time as an assistant, did it help you?

SUSIE GARDNER: You talking about when we came here to at Florida? When we were assistants at Florida? Well it's interesting, my other assistant David Lowery, he was also on that staff at Florida and we were talking about actually when we saw the name on the board, we were talking about that time that we actually came, we played, we beat Temple I believe in the first round and it was actually my scout, the UConn game was my scout. Honestly, I don't remember who all was on that team that year, I don't know, I'm sorry, I apologize, I don't know, I don't remember that far back. But I know they killed us. I remember that. I do remember that. It was not a very close game.

But in terms of your other questions, I was at Austin Peay, we had great success, I went to Arkansas, and then Florida was in between those before I got this last job, so basically what I did at Florida was kind of like regroup and catch my breath and look at coaching from a different perspective in terms of how to be a good assistant, how could I grow, how I could -- that type of thing.

But in terms of preparing us for the NCAA tournament I've been doing this long enough, I mean at every level, mid major, major, whatever, and so I don't think I have drawn on those experiences quite as much as you would think. It's a long time ago.

Q. I'm just more, I'm just more what, how it helped you as a coach overall, more than this one game?

SUSIE GARDNER: How it helped me to be an assistant?

Q. How being, having the, taking the step back, how that helped you when you got another opportunity?

SUSIE GARDNER: Oh, I see, okay, okay. I think Arkansas was a tough job and I think I just needed to -- as a head coach your mind is constantly spinning like on every aspect of the program. So I took those three years, I helped out Amanda Butler, who was actually was my assistant at Austin Peay, and we grew up in the same hometown, so we were close, we knew each other very, very well.

So I just kind of took that time to learn things like how to draw up plays on the computer, like little things like that. Or I saw how, as an assistant, as how would I want to treat my assistant. Like I think I give my assistants now -- I delegate a whole lot more than I used to, because I thought I had to do it all. So during that stretch as an assistant I knew I wanted to have certain responsibilities, so I tried to have it carry over into how I treat my assistants now and give them, Okay, you're in charge of this, you're in charge of that, and I will stay away from it type thing.

Because I think assistant coaches are very very talented and some of us, when you're younger you don't -- you think you have to do it all and you really don't if you have talented people around you. I don't know if that answers your question, but it's the best I got.

Q. What is the strength of your team, what makes you believe that you can be competitive with UConn?

SUSIE GARDNER: You know, I like to pride myself on being an offensive coach, but this year for some reason our team has become a defensive team. And if you look at all of our games, the only team -- we only had one team score 70 on us and that was an overtime game. I'm not by any stretch saying that's going to happen in the game tomorrow, but I think our strength this year, this year, and it fluctuates year to year, but this year it is our defense. And for whatever, this team, I think it starts with Shannon having that dominant defensive player, you know, and it starts there and everyone it kind of trickles down and they don't want to let Shannon down, they want to -- we really preach it, we do -- we're not different than any other program in the country, but we do spend a lot of time scouting opponents, we take a lot of pride, our players believe in our scout, they trust us, and they believe whatever I told 'em that we're going to do tomorrow, they believe it. And I think it comes down to trust and belief and so I would say we hang our hat on our defense.

We have some flaws, but we're going to really focus on that. Now we know we have to score the ball, for heavens sake, I'm very worried about that aspect tomorrow, about scoring the basketball, but I would say if I had one thing it would be that, defense.

Q. Having been around this game for decades, seeing the changes that have been made in the last year as a result of what happened at last year's NCAA tournament in terms of equity and being able to even use the March Madness, how do you see things improving and where do things need to go from here, what's next? I mean, obviously you're not playing on a neutral court, which is something the men do, are there certain things that you would like to see?

SUSIE GARDNER: You know, honestly, I didn't know we weren't using March Madness until that came out last year. We always say March Madness, but I think it's cool to have it on our logos and so forth. It's a tough question to answer as we sit here today when we haven't had a practice yet, I would like to, I would like for this whole tournament to play itself out to see actually what happens, not in just rounds one but as it progresses until the Final Four.

I think those teams that make it to the Final Four will be the ones to ask that question to because supposedly that's where they made the most changes in the hotels at the Final Fours, the media rooms and those type of things.

But, I mean, I was telling, one of our guys today, when I played at Georgia in the Final Four that's when women's basketball was not on TV all the time. I remember them having a camera and the guy behind him having to roll the cord up, have a guy that rolled the cord up. So how far we've come, with every game, every game like today I'm like, oh, man, there's so many games on TV today on every channel, that type of thing.

But it is, it is interesting that this came to light last year when we were in a pandemic and there were no fans and all of a sudden all this stuff came to light. So I think growth is good. I think you have to admit there's a problem before you fix the problem and we'll kind of see how it plays out.

But, you know, you know, playing on a neutral floor, we get it, you want to have fans -- I do wish, honestly, if I had a wish, that we were closer to home, because Mercer fans travel so well, you know. It's tough, from what I hear, it's a little expensive to get up here on regular flights. So if I did have one wish -- and it has nothing to do with UConn at all -- it would be that we were a little bit closer to home so our fans could actually come. Because we have great fans, great fans. But I kind of skirted the question, but I don't really know quite yet until we live it this year.

THE MODERATOR: All right, thank you coach.