NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - IUPUI VS OKLAHOMA

March 18, 2022

Austin Parkinson

Macee Williams

Destiny Perkins

Rachel McIlmore

IUPUI Lady Jaguars

Media Conference

Q. What does it mean to be the first team to get this far in your school?

MACEE WILLIAMS: I just think we all feel like -- we're all so excited to be here. The 2020 season we actually didn't get to play in the NCAA Tournament, so I mean, this is just huge for us and just for the standpoint of putting our program just like on the map.

DESTINY PERKINS: I would just pick off of what Macee said. We're excited to be here. We know that we deserve to be here just because of how we were supposed to come -- whatever year that was we were supposed to come and weren't able to come because of COVID. Just to be able to be here and that we have a team that can actually win games in this tournament is exciting and a good experience for us.

RACHEL McLIMORE: Adding to that, it's really exciting knowing that we made school history. Obviously we did two years ago, as well, but we never actually were able to play in it, so it didn't quite feel like we accomplished our goal. Now that we're in the tournament, we're not just coming to be like oh, we made it. We know we have a team that hopefully can do some good things.

Q. You guys have known that Oklahoma is going to be your opponent for about a week now. What kind of game are you guys expecting, and what do you feel like is going to be the key for you guys to pull off the upset?

DESTINY PERKINS: I would say just because we've had so much time to prepare and stuff like that, we know that they're a fast team. Our transition defense is going to be super, super important, and I feel like if we do what we're supposed to do, of course anybody can win a game.

MACEE WILLIAMS: Just to go off of that, just stopping their main two scorers. I think it's 25 and 30. Just being able to stop both of them and just running 30 off the three-point line.

RACHEL McLIMORE: Yeah, I think a key, as Destiny already mentioned, they play really fast. So we can't let them dictate the pace of the game.

Then also just like going off of -- like not being nervous, just going out there and setting the tone early and showing them like it's not just going to be like an easy pushover one.

Q. Macee, OU has very clearly had struggles down low in the post guarding size, Ayoka Lee scored 61, made history. What is the impact you can have on this game down in the post and how do you go about doing that?

MACEE WILLIAMS: I feel like with that information, I will come into the game just seeing how they'll play me in the beginning. And if they don't double-team me or anything like that, I'll be able to take my time and do what I am capable of doing.

Q. You just alluded to it a little bit ago, but 2020, what was it like going from the high of winning the tournament and clinching the berth to when it was announced that the tournament was canceled? And what do you remember most about that and how big is it just to get a chance to be here again after what happened two years ago?

DESTINY PERKINS: I would say you have to just be mentally strong in moments like that. It was a whole year of so many things you couldn't control. You couldn't just be focused on the negative, you've just got to prepare for what's next. There was real life things going on, so just to be able to prepare for this moment now is because of what happened then. We was motivated, and we fell short the year before, but just to be here now is an exciting feeling.

Q. You guys had a big win at Iowa in December, probably a similar setting to this. How significant is that in terms of your confidence coming into this? I know it's been a while, but it's still big name team, similar setting.

RACHEL McLIMORE: I would say confidence isn't like something our team has ever lacked, not in an arrogant way or anything, but we all know what we're capable of and believe in each other. We're just not afraid to play anybody, even though like some teams -- obviously Iowa had like two of the leading scorers in the country. So we're like, well, we just view it as that's a good challenge, it'll just make us better. Then we ended up by the end of the game, like oh, we actually won that.

DESTINY PERKINS: I would also say, too, yeah, we beat Iowa this year. We fell a little short to Michigan but our coach always schedules us big games, and if we lose a big game, we're never going to lose by a lot, it's always like two, three or something points. So we're prepared for this moment because of the games that he scheduled, not this year maybe last year or the year before, so we're used to big teams, we're used to this moment.

AUSTIN PARKINSON: Yeah, we're excited to be here. Obviously we have a really good opponent in Oklahoma and they'll be playing on their home floor and we know it'll be a great challenge, but our kids are fired up and up for the challenge and excited for the opportunity.

Q. I'm looking at your schedule here and you had a couple of forfeits, a couple of cancellations, some ups, some downs, a big win there against Iowa. Kind of some inconsistencies, a rough road of it early, but it settled down and you've won pretty much all your games since the start of the new year. What changed? What helped settle you guys down?

AUSTIN PARKINSON: Yeah, I mean, so we started the season at Michigan, a top 10 team, we take them to overtime without our starting power forward, and then our league actually started conference play like early November. We got shut down for COVID, our league unfortunately gave us forfeits. We went through non-conference, we finished non-conference with a big win at Iowa. They were ranked and they had their whole team. It was a really good win for us.

Then we came back into conference play after Christmas, and they changed the rule about forfeits versus no contests except we had to keep our forfeits. So the ironic part about our team was we were picked to win the league, we knew we had a talented team, but that kind of hung over our heads all year long. And it really caused our players to have to focus in game to game. There was no room for error in trying to get the 1 seed in our tournament. They did a great job of kind of focusing. I think we won 14 straight and really started to play some of our best basketball at the end of the year.

Q. You look at the teams in this tournament and there's three teams that haven't played for almost two weeks, and the team that you're facing tomorrow played a game last Saturday. Is that an advantage, disadvantage? Obviously you had time to work on things internally for yourself that maybe Oklahoma didn't, but as far as keeping the rhythm, how do you feel like that lines out for this week?

AUSTIN PARKINSON: We'll find out. I really don't know. For us this is our first time being in the position of winning it and then being able to play in the tournament.

We've tried to break it up and keep our players both fresh but at the same time trying to stay sharp in our practice plans.

The interesting part to me is just the fact that it's going to be a 9:00 start. We've got a lot of kids on my squad that are asleep by 9:00 or 10:00 so it will be an interesting deal to see how we do in that regard. This time of the year you're just excited to be able to play, and our kids are excited about the challenge.

Q. You mentioned the start for y'all. It's like a 10:00 start. How do you get your team ready for that tomorrow as far as the schedule, the pace of things, to have them ready to perform their best, a late-night tip?

AUSTIN PARKINSON: Yeah, we've been trying to break things up a little bit. We had kind of a walk-through practice this morning before what we were doing this afternoon. At the end of the day, I think the bigger challenge is you've got the men's games and the women's games going on. We're the last game to kind of tip off so there's that's excitement.

At the end of the day, you just don't want to get away from what you do as a team that got you here. Even though we're playing a really talented basketball team, we have to be us, and hopefully if we are us that'll be good enough.

Q. Obviously Macee Williams is an incredible talent, AP All-American honoree, and Oklahoma has struggled against bigs this season. Ayoka Lee put up 61 against the Sooners. How do you feel you can exploit the difference in size and the talent you have down low in the post?

AUSTIN PARKINSON: Well, the way that we run our offense, we really don't go to any game saying, hey, we're going to focus just on taking advantage of the post. If you watch how Macee plays, she's incredibly efficient. It's not like she's been putting up 40-point games. What we did do, and this was kind of intentional in recruiting, all four players on the perimeter can shoot. So what's made it challenging for the opponent is do you double or do you play her one-on-one. If you play her one-on-one, she is very good with her back to the basket, post moves. She can finish over both shoulders. I think she's probably one of the more unique players in the country.

But the other part that makes her special is her passing ability. Because we have good shooters on the perimeter. I think we led the Horizon League in three-point shooting. It provides us a nice balance, so we just kind of really go with what the defense gives up and we're willing to take.

Q. You mentioned the three-point shooting there. Obviously that's a big part of Oklahoma's game, too, with Taylor Robertson and others. Y'all have been really good defending the three. What do you feel like has been behind the success that y'all have had, and how much different is what Oklahoma does in that regard than some of the other teams you've played?

AUSTIN PARKINSON: Yeah, I mean, they do two things really well. One is Robertson reminds me so much of Klay Thompson. Doesn't need a lot of dribbles, but is tall and has such a high release. You can be there and it doesn't matter sometimes, so that in itself. And then she spaces the floor because you've got to have a defender out on her.

And then the other thing -- and Jenny does a great job with it, their pace. They're used to playing at that pace. They're used to those games, 80s, 90s, 100 points a game. Those are the two big challenges.

For us from a defensive standpoint, we're not very gimmicky in what we do. We teach a certain way and how we get through screens. And I think that consistency over time allows us to get out and guard the perimeter, challenge shots.

But it'll be a challenge. Robertson can really shoot it and hopefully we can continue to defend the way we have all season.