NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - IOWA VS ILLINOIS STATE

March 18, 2022

Kristen Gillespie

Mary Crompton

Juliunn Redmond

Illinois State Redbirds

Media Conference

Iowa 98, Illinois State 58

KRISTEN GILLESPIE: I would just like to congratulate Iowa. Outstanding team. I thought they played exceptionally well today. We knew we had a tall task on hand, and they just -- they had a few more weapons than we did.

You've got to give them credit. Coach Bluder does an unbelievable job. It's going to be fun to see how far they can advance.

With that being said, I have 14 young women in that locker room who I tell them this all the time, I would choose them over and over and over. What that group was able to do this year -- and I don't know how many people followed our team closely, we started out really poorly, and for a lot of different reasons. We had some injuries, had some new players trying to figure out their roles. At one point we were 4-7, and I think a lot of people wrote us off.

Their belief in what our staff and in what our program is built on, they kept showing up every single day, and I told them one game does not define them. What defines this group and their legacy is they are Missouri Valley champions. They got Illinois State back on the map, back where it should be. We were NCAA participants, and as a coach, what more could you ask for? 14 young women giving everything they have to you and your program. In my books, we won.

Q. Mary, you got off to a great start. Did Iowa then adjust their defense? Did they try to make it harder for you to get the ball?

MARY CROMPTON: Yeah, they started the game in the man defense, and I think they were kind of struggling with our ball screen offense, and I got some good looks off of that. So then they shifted to the zone and were just kind of keying in specifically on me and Juju. And then we were still getting some good looks so then they switched to the triangle-and-two. I think that was for the majority of the second half and just were face guarding us as close as could be, denying catches. Made it a little bit more difficult and challenged other people on our team to make some shots.

Q. What kind of preparations or adjustments did you make before the game in preparation for this kind of environment, a sellout crowd and all the noise, to be able to communicate on the floor and that sort of thing? How do you think you handled that today?

MARY CROMPTON: Yeah, so our coaches did everything they could to prepare us for it. The practices leading up to this game we were blaring crowd noise in our arena. We came up with hand signals for our different zone sets. We were just told to look at the bench every time we got the offensive possession because there was going to be a play call, and we all needed to be on the same page.

JULIUNN REDMOND: Same as Mary. They did everything they could, and I feel like we executed the game plan, and it just didn't come out how we wanted it.

Q. How did Iowa sort of take the lead and then sort of just go with it? What were they doing to enable their offense to get going?

JULIUNN REDMOND: Honestly, they didn't do anything fantastic. We beat ourselves with the turnovers before half, and they just executed those and they made plays out of our turnovers, and it was just our offense that got them the lead.

Q. Mary, you're returning to your hometown, started off really strong. What was that atmosphere like to be able to come back here and start off like that?

MARY CROMPTON: Yeah, it was a great experience. I was really excited to play in front of a lot of my family and friends. But yeah, just being in the NCAA Tournament in general was really exciting for me and my whole team. I think as a team we started out really strong that first quarter, and that's really what means the most.

Q. Juju, you said yesterday you wanted to leave it all out on the court. Do you feel you did that and the team did that, as well?

JULIUNN REDMOND: I mean, yes. Going into the last huddle I told them let's play as hard as we can for these last 10 minutes no matter what the score is, and I feel like we did that as a team. Even when it was 10 seconds on the clock our team never gave up. You see we got offensive rebounds.

We just left it all out there. There's many more games for this team to go on, and this is my last game, but I just hope and pray for the best for the program.

Q. Juju, you got off to that strong start like I was talking about. Did you have any nerves coming into this game or were you just excited to be here?

JULIUNN REDMOND: I mean, it is a basketball game so everyone is going to be nervous going into the game. This is everyone's biggest game of the year, and me personally, I didn't have any nerves. I belong on that type of stage, and I feel like we still played as hard as we can.

Q. Coach, you got off to that hot start. What worked were you guys early that allowed you to get off to that 7-2 start?

KRISTEN GILLESPIE: You know, I thought this is how the game -- I shouldn't say that. I didn't think quite how it was going to go, but I thought they were going to come out and play us man-to-man, and our staff and our team were pretty confident. And I think we ran some good stuff that they were going to have to go zone fairly quickly, and that's what happened. Then I still thought we got great looks.

What killed us -- I was really upset at halftime because I'm very competitive, and we didn't come in here -- I told the team, this isn't a consolation gift. We belong here. We prepared all week to win. We believed we were going to win this game.

At halftime I'm sure people were probably like, oh, wow, they're only down 13, that's great. No, we were upset because we beat ourselves in that first half. We had way too many turnovers. I thought we did an outstanding job guarding them in the half court. They got run-out lay-ups off of our turnovers, and you can't combat that. There's no defense for that.

Then in the second half they went triangle-and-two, and I told these two waiting out there, I said, what a compliment to those two. What a compliment to our team that they had to give a junk defense.

You know what, we got great shots, they just didn't go in.

Sometimes that's the game of basketball. But I like our players who shot the ball, it was just a really off night.

I've got to give our kids credit. They did exactly what we asked, and I'm sure some people looked and thought, why are they letting some of these players have open looks? How in the heck are we going to guard Caitlin Clark and Monika, they're so good. We knew coming in we were going to have to have a little luck. They were going to make some shots. I just couldn't be more proud of what they accomplished.

Q. Coach, for the majority of the game, you had Kate Bullman guarding Caitlin Clark, held her to 20 points from the field. When Kate Bullman checked out of the game for the final time, you looked very pleased with her performance. Can you talk a little bit about her defensive performance today?

KRISTEN GILLESPIE: Yeah, I'm really excited to go back, because in the course of the game, you get kind of caught up in what's going on. I can't wait to watch the film and see how many times Caitlin scored on Kate. She got some run-out lay-ups, and she's phenomenal. I said this yesterday: She is so great for the game of women's basketball. Man, what a competitor, and we have nothing but respect.

That's what I love about Kate Bullman. She's still mad that she wasn't -- let's think about this for those that aren't familiar with the Valley. Kate Bullman was not a member of the all-defensive team in our league, which is mind-blowing. I think she takes it to heart and she loved the challenge, and she has so much respect for Caitlin, she just wanted to see. That's what this was about. We had a chance to go toe to toe with one of the top, I don't know, five or six teams in the country, and I love the way our kids compete.

I think Juju said it best. I think you saw what our team is made of. That second-to-last offensive possession, I think we get three offensive -- our kids just don't quit. I couldn't be more proud.

Q. Coach, you talked about how proud you were of this team. How can you take this experience to continue building off what you've already started for Illinois State basketball?

KRISTEN GILLESPIE: Yeah, last year I joked, I asked the players, I asked Mary Crompton, I said, how does the NCAA Tournament compare to the WNIT, and this is nothing against -- to the younger players, she's like, not even close.

But I think last year's WNIT was a springboard, and now this was the next step. But if I know the players in that locker room, the ones coming back, this right here, this stat sheet is going to be motivation enough because we got a taste. But it was Iowa's defense that really affected -- I'm not taking anything away from them, but I don't think some of our players -- I don't think Maya Wong thinks that Iowa saw the real Maya Wong, and I know this is going to fuel her fire, and as a coach what more could you ask for.

My goal is to have Illinois State in the NCAA Tournament every year. That's what I was hired to do. That's what -- our staff has worked tirelessly over the last five years. I've got the best staff in America. They believe in me, and it feeds down. Our players believe in all of us.

I think when you have a belief and a passion and you love what you do and you love the people you do it with, special things can happen. That's what happened to our program this year.

Q. Juju Redmond, 25 points. What are your thoughts on her performance and her as a whole?

KRISTEN GILLESPIE: You know, Juju hit the nail on the head. Juju believes she belongs on this stage, and she does. What Juju has done in three years at Illinois State is spectacular. She has just elevated our brand, our profile, and she's the most selfless kid.

But if you know Juju, it's not about basketball, it's the type of human being she is. I've said this many times. She has made me a better coach because of the human being she is, and I want to be a better human being, I want to be a better coach because of the love I have for that young woman. She's going to be wildly successful in anything she does. I know she has aspirations to play professionally, but the moment that career is -- she hangs them up, I will be the first call because I want to hire her on my staff because she's a winner. I love her, and I will be forever indebted to her for what she's brought to my life.