NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - MIAMI (FL) VS SOUTH FLORIDA

March 18, 2022

Katie Meier

Kelsey Marshall

Karla Erjavec

Miami (FL) Hurricanes

Media Conference

Miami 78, South Florida 66

KATIE MEIER: Always so much respect for South Florida. Really couldn't believe the draw when we got it. Just thought, wow, that's ironic, two Florida teams playing each other.

Very familiar, a lot of players, multiple recruiting -- international players that knew each other really well, and so I just want to give them a ton of credit.

They are very, very, very difficult to score against. I'm as surprised as anyone that we got to 78 and that we had three quarters that we got 20 points in them, because they very difficult to score against.

What happened in our game today is I have my two steady eddies that keep me sane sitting here right next to me. But it was the other players. I thought our bench, and I'm not quite sure -- 29 points of the bench. There is the game. I mean, there is the game.

We went six deep on the our scout against Florida, and I'm sure that some of these people, like Lashae Dwyer wasn't even in their scouting report. We missed Shae a lot in the ACC tournament. She broker her nose in the first second she was in, so that had to be a big surprise.

Naomi Mbandu was ridiculous. Sidi Baba went in there and did her job. So as much as I love my horses and we ride them, Maeva -- it's one thing to hit a three that you know -- it's another thing when all week the coaches have been saying, Maeva, you have to hit two of these for us to win and they're going to be on these plays.

She hit two and the other one was in and out. I thought that was the difference in the game. That's what's happened with this team this year. I have never had more fun when it was hard. I don't know how else to explain it.

It was very, very hard. It's been a very hard year. It was just hard for a lot of reasons. But this team0 never made practice hard. When the planes got delayed or COVID shutdown, it was never hard around them. They're joyful, love the game, they compete, and they really kept all of us -- the staff, which I have an incredible staff -- but they really kept us just very small in our focus.

Well, isn't this a joy and a pleasure? It is an honor to coach the girls the way they act, these young ladies. So that's my opening statement and it was really long.

Q. Kelsey, you shot 50% tonight. What was working for you well? I'm sorry, Karla, you shot 50% tonight. What was working for so well and how of you able to find your shot?

KARLA ERJAVEC: Honestly coming into the game I really just tried to focus on the defensive end and let the game come to me.

In the second half when the game came to me, when I got open shots, I just knocked them down. They were going under some screens and I was just ready to shoot off of that and, the shots went in today?

Q. Kelsey, for you, you guys had three fouls early and settled down. What was the key in just limiting those for the rest of the game and especially that first quarter?

KELSEY MARSHALL: We knew from the beginning of the game we have to not foul and keep USF off the free throw line. We became more disciplined throughout the game, being able to remember the player's tendencies and being able to stay in front.

Q. For either of you, were you surprised at the pace of this one? I think we all came out expecting this to be a defensive we all settle in and watch it come slowing together, but it seems like that first quarter was about as frantic a quarter as I've seen in a while.

KELSEY MARSHALL: I don't think so. Honestly, we're kind of a fast paced team. When we need to settle down we'll settle down, but normally we're used to the fast tempo game.

KARLA ERJAVEC: The only thing I would add, we base -- our basic stuff is defense. When we lockdown on defense and can run on teams, that's when we can score in high margins, and I believe we rebounded well during the game and then that led us to some run-outs where we could get our score higher.

Q. Kind of the same question for you, Coach. Was this in the game plan? Was this part of --

KATIE MEIER: I'm not going to disagree with my players. I guess they were ready to score. It was a great question.

I have so much respect. It is so difficult to even cut against South Florida, to even go from the wing to the top of the key. Like they don't let you do it.

I think our pace and our depth allowed us to play to the style that we wanted to play. If the game had been 50 to 55 I think South Florida might be sitting here right now.

We knew we had to score, get a couple of those flair threes. We had to lift them away from the basket a little bit and open it up.

In the end, even that last play, Kelsey Marshall got that and-one, it's a play we didn't run the whole game, but when I saw how we had developed because our depth tired them out a little bit, okay, we're going to get this call and that and-one and it was really an important thing, but ended up being a layup, which they never give up.

So took a lot of work to get to that point in the fourth quarter where the rim did open up. But I'm not sitting here today if Karla didn't answer every -- I believe it was the fourth when she went on a little -- what was run there?

But she answered. They were come back at us and they were we were destroying and we were tired and Karla just did things that had nothing to do with Coach Meier.

It was 100% Karla off a ball screen, Karla off a dig-out, Karla on a little pull-up.

One time she shot it and I was like, Why not? The team started laughing. Why not Karla? Sure, if you're in the zone.

So I started calling plays for Karla that I normally call for Kelsey mand she really came through.

Q. Early on Elena from USF seemed like she was hitting everything. What was the key in containing her later on?

KATIE MEIER: It was crazy because I think she had a bank three, right, and there were a couple times that we didn't guard her well and couple times where as a coach, if you panic and over-adjust -- you just sometimes have to have a little bit of faith.

She hit a three when we were icing a ball screen. I mean, but at halftime we talked about it a lot as a staff. We had another option to go to, but the big change, we went zone a little bit there when they were tired.

I think that was really important that they were tired when we did it, because they were shooting it so well. But we wore them out, did a lot of pressing. I think our freshman guards were phenomenal. If that's their first NCAA, the future is pretty bright at Miami. I thought Dwyer and Williams just wore them out, and then we could go zone.

Q. And then just flipping that as far as you guys offensively, seemed to you were able ti find some holes in the defensive. How important was the ball movement?

KATIE MEIER: Yeah, you know, I think there were times there we hit -- we ran through the ACC tournament running a lot of sets that got us exactly what we needed, right, but that was four games in three days.

I felt my players today were like horses in a cage. Come on Coach. Don't call sets. Let us go, let us go.

I really felt that he had that, so I kind of let them go a little bit more. When I tried to slow it down didn't look so good. Sometimes you defer to your players, and they were absolutely loudly saying, We want to score today.

So that's what I said in the press conference before, like with experience in the NCAA tournament, you just got to coach what you see. I have 1000 pages of plans, but I had to coach what I saw, and I saw my players going, Come on, Coach, come on, Coach, so let them take over a little bit.

Q. And obviously South Carolina, what do you know about them?

KATIE MEIER: I will be honest, I really haven't seen them a lot. It's a one game season and I know they're amazing. I know just like us they lost their last game and they were mad and we were mad. I'm sure they're going to play great.

Everyone like wanted us to come in here congratulating ourselves, like you did a great job in the ACC tournament. I say, We're Miami; we don't do almost.

We don't care that we almost won a championship. All I knew is we lost our last game. We had a lot of time to be mad about that, and so we were able to play really sharp and focused.

Q. Chances are if the second game goes the way we think it's going to go you'll end up playing three No. 1 seeds in five days, five games essentially in the NCAA tournament. You ever had a stretch like that? How stressful is it to have to prepare for good team after -- great team after great team?

KATIE MEIER: Margie Gill is my operations, she helps with scheduling. We had a stretch where I was like, Why did we do this? We were in the Bahamas. We played Washington State and Indiana, who was 4 in the country. Came right off that, came back delayed everything else, and had to do at Maryland, right? That was a stretch. Then the ACC tournament stretch.

So whatever happens to us, I mean, maybe that's just the DNA of our team. Just bring it on and we're going to fight every time we get an opportunity to play.

Q. I don't think we have a game time for Sunday yet, but what's the next 48 hours like for you and your team?

KATIE MEIER: Well, we don't play tomorrow, so we had four games in four days. Wow, I don't know what to do with an off day. I don't know, maybe we will go to the movies or something. It'll be nice to have a chance to prepare.

I know Coach Dunkenberger, my assistant coach is South Carolina scout and Shenise Johnson, my other assistant coach has Howard.

So we'll watch the game together and figure it out. But I'm telling you, that took everything. It great info from our staff and great, great information from my players tonight. Really helped me.