NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - STEPHEN F. AUSTIN VS NORTH CAROLINA

March 18, 2022

Mark Kellogg

Stephanie Visscher

Aiyana Johnson

Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from coach.

MARK KELLOGG: Yeah. Well, good afternoon, right? Yeah, 2 o'clock? Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you for having us. We are certainly excited to be here. For us, we were in this position a year ago, which was the first time for us, and we were excited about that one and even more excited about being here in Tucson and the opportunity to play and hopefully advance in this tournament.

But for these two seniors that have been in our program for four years, I'm just thrilled for them and what they have accomplished up to date and certainly hope they have a little bit more left in them as we get in this tournament and they can relax and just go play.

You're seeing, I guess, upsets already today and yesterday in men's basketball, and so I think the longer we've done it, the more you see it, the more these kids believe in opportunities and things that they can accomplish. And like I said, we're just here to see if we can do something like that and advance in this tournament.

THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions for the student athletes.

Q. For both of you, if you were to describe your team's identity, what would that be?

STEPHANIE VISSCHER: I feel like one very important thing for our team identity is our defense. We've always valued that very highly, like high, pressure, just work for each other.

And then offensively, it's like one more, like I say, we play for each other. We give up a good shot to get a great shot. So I would say that.

AIYANA JOHNSON: I would identify our team as we're prepared for anything. I think our coach has put us in a position to win every game that we have gone through and defeat every team. So I think most importantly we're just prepared and our ability to execute is there.

Q. And as far as UNC, what are you guys expecting?

STEPHANIE VISSCHER: We're expecting a tough game, of course. Like, that's what to expect coming into the NCAA tournament. But we're just excited and we know the coaching staff is going to have us ready. They always make sure we're prepared for the games. So a lot of excitement and a tough game.

AIYANA JOHNSON: It will be a great game. It will be another good challenge for us just to showcase all the work we've put in. It will be another ACC team for us, and I feel like we can match up to them and it will be a good game.

Q. This was your first year in the WAC, right? And what was that experience, what was that like making that change?

STEPHANIE VISSCHER: I would say it was a lot of adjustments for us. In the Southland we would always be on a bus going to play all the teams. Just like getting used to more traveling and like getting on the plane all the time and then new teams, new players, bigger players.

So I would say the biggest word would be adjustment, which I think we handled really well with this team and we did it real well.

AIYANA JOHNSON: I would agree with what she said. It was just an adjustment, honestly. It was like, you know, we had a great season behind us and that's not something that we were like expecting this season.

But just in this new conference there was a whole new array of teams that we had to achieve, or had to overcome, so it was good.

Q. That's a lot of travel in the WAC, isn't it? It's pretty spread out still. What's that like as a student athlete to do that much traveling?

STEPHANIE VISSCHER: I mean, it, of course it gets busy. Like, you've got to manage your time definitely because even though we have all the traveling, we're still students too. So you still have work to take care of. So definitely time management, make sure you stay on top of your school work. So while we were traveling if you have things to due while we're traveling you got to make sure it's done before and stuff like that.

So I would say that's one of the biggest challenges as a student athlete, traveling in the WAC this year.

AIYANA JOHNSON: I would say a big challenge for us is understanding that even though we're students, we have to put that first. We're also on a platform that we're trying to put SFA on and we're trying to make SFA a big name. So just understanding that we have to value both is a very important skill that a lot of people are working for.

Q. Between the three of you who has the best dance moves?

AIYANA JOHNSON: It obviously is Coach Kellogg.

MARK KELLOGG: You've seen mine. We had to pull Stephanie down the other day. You're asking her about my dance moves and I've never seen her dance moves until the other day and we had to force that one. (Laughing).

STEPHANIE VISSCHER: Yeah. No, I don't really dance.

MARK KELLOGG: By default maybe me? Not because they're any good.

AIYANA JOHNSON: I was.

STEPHANIE VISSCHER: I was going to say I don't think any of us are good dancers.

AIYANA JOHNSON: That's not us, yeah. (Laughing).

Q. You only lost once since December the 20th and that was a two-point loss. How much confidence do you have entering this game, for both of you?

AIYANA JOHNSON: For me, honestly, that loss was only a lesson. It kind of humbled us, to be honest, and we needed it obviously, because it's what happened. So the confidence is there and it's only grown and increased.

But that loss was, like I said, it was just a lesson. It wasn't necessarily, it didn't change anything about our goals and intentions to achieve those.

STEPHANIE VISSCHER: Yeah, I would say like definitely it didn't take away like any confidence. It was more like an eye opener for our team and we realized that we got to bring it every time. We got to bring our all. We got to focus on details no matter who we play. So it was just an eye opener like that.

But we remained confident. We got together as a team and I think we came out stronger after that loss.

Q. You guys talked about defense. Did you come in with defense being important to you or is it something you had to develop as you went through your college career?

STEPHANIE VISSCHER: I mean, coming in I feel like defense has always been a big part of SFA and like I knew that as a player coming in. So I don't know. I feel like it's just kind of always, always been there, always been used to it.

AIYANA JOHNSON: I think the biggest thing I've learned from being here about defense is that the offense comes from defense. And that's what Coach Kellogg has highlighted over the years is being in the top percentage every year of those defensive categories, that's something that you want because you know from that offensive flow. So that's pretty much what I learned.

THE MODERATOR: Okay. Thank you. You're excused. We'll take questions for coach.

Q. From your perspective, the move between conferences, what was it like, what were the preparations like and how is the play different?^ mark

MARK KELLOGG: A little bit more size and maybe a little bit more skill I thought was probably the two biggest differences from just an X and O, you know, night-in and night-out. And of course travel, as the players alluded to. We went from being geographically somewhat centrally located in the Southland where it was a bus trip, maybe six hours was our furthest trim. For me that was okay, throw your bags on the bottom of a bus and go and get home that night and you're with your family again.

Into the WAC -- we didn't really have many COVID issues last year, we actually dealt with COVID a lot more this year. So we had some cancellations that forced like three games in a week. So we had one week we were gone Sunday to Sunday to play three true road games, another week where we had two on the road and one at home.

So that was different. That adjustment was certainly just -- and we're flying commercially so you're in and out, we got to drive a couple hours to the Houston airport to get on a plane and go play and then do the same thing coming back. And so that was the biggest difference, but I thought our kids did a great job of adjusting to the different styles, new systems, we didn't know much about 'em, but I guess the beauty was they didn't know much about us either except for the three other teams that went with us from the Southland.

So there was a lot of newness to it this year, we got into the conference tournament and had played the two teams we played we've only played one other time maybe even our school's history I think was it. So that's odd, right? That's very rare that you get into a conference tournament and you're not playing somebody for maybe even the third time in a season, let alone in your school's history. So it was definitely different but I thought our kids handled it with flying colors.

Q. With UNC what do you think you guys need to do to be successful against them?

MARK KELLOGG: Well probably quite a few things but the two that stick out I think they're tremendous in transition offense so this is up-and-down got a couple players from rim to rim that are as elite as it gets in the country. Then I think rebounding. For a team that comes from the ACC they're not as big as what we would probably typically see from the ACC, but they're plus almost like eight a game rebounding margin because they just compete and they play so hard.

So I think for us rebounding and probably transition defense among other things like make shots and score and some basic stuff like that, but, yeah, certainly rebounding transition defense would be the two that come to mind right off the bat.

Q. Have you guys watched many of the upsets in the other, in this tournament and in the other one?

MARK KELLOGG: I think we probably have seen parts, no, I haven't been able to sit there and watch game yet, but oh there's a close game or I get on my phone there's an alert, so let me go flip over and watch the end of that game real quick. So we have seen enough to know that it's happening.

THE MODERATOR: All right, thank you.