NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - DELAWARE VS MARYLAND

March 18, 2022

Natasha Adair

Jasmine Dickey

Paris McBride

Delaware Blue Hens

Media Conference

Maryland 102, Delaware 71.

NATASHA ADAIR: Like we just told our team, obviously this is not the outcome that we wanted, but we don't want this one game to take away a phenomenal season. It hurts, as it should, but as their coach, I couldn't ask for a better crew. I couldn't ask for a better group for sure of seniors, leaders, but just a phenomenal team.

This is tough for them. But like I said, they did what we've asked them to do from day one, and they helped bring Delaware women's basketball back to national prominence, and for that, as a coach, I'm very, very proud of them.

Q. How tough was it on the defensive end of the floor today? They kind of got going early and once the threes started falling they're a pretty tough guard. Can you give us your perspective?

JASMINE DICKEY: They're just a bigger team overall. They set really tough screens to get over. But I think we just had to adjust to it, and that's what we tried to do going into the second half, which I think we did a little bit, especially in the second quarter tying the game up in the second quarter. Yeah, they were just bigger.

PARIS McBRIDE: Same thing. I mean, they're just bigger guards, bigger post players, so we had to lock in on the defensive end. We had some struggles, but we tried to get through it.

Q. Jasmine, how difficult was it for you to get a rhythm going? They seemed to be crowding your space and seemed to be focused on boxing you out. How difficult was it to get in a rhythm on the offensive end?

JASMINE DICKEY: Like I said, they're bigger guards so you have to shoot a little bit higher. Attacking the rim was a little bit tough, too. I think it got -- the comfortability, I guess -- I don't know if that's a word or not -- but just to get to the rim or not. And we had rebounders, of course, Pip and -- I mean, Lizzie and Battle. They were working on the boards, but just getting a feel for the board, a feel for the rim. That was the main focus.

Q. Jasmine, I just want to ask you what this feeling is like. I know Coach took you out with a couple minutes left, and did it kind of hit you at that point? How would you sum up your career and everything?

JASMINE DICKEY: It didn't necessarily hit me. What hit me was the loss. That was mainly what hit me. I'm just happy of my team's fight. I think we fought and we had a terrific season. We got ourselves a CAA championship, of course.

We've got a lot to celebrate although we lost, so I'm not mad.

Q. Could you talk a little bit about the pace at the beginning of the game? I know you guys like to play fast. Was there any adjustment to their pace?

PARIS McBRIDE: So our game plan was to slow them down a little bit with our press, but it's hard to slow them down if they're getting rebounds and pushing it in transition. We had to make adjustments on that. We just had to tighten up our press a little bit and start making shots.

Q. I see you guys are wearing the hats with the nets still in it. I was going to ask about the applause, but have you guys reflected on the accomplishment of just winning the CAA and how much it's meant to you even with this loss?

JASMINE DICKEY: Yeah, most definitely. We can't take away from the things that we accomplished throughout the season. Like I said, I'm proud of this group. We're all proud of each other. We fought hard throughout the whole season to get this hat and to get this net. This loss is not going to take away from none of that.

PARIS McBRIDE: Same thing. Yeah, we looked to go far in the NCAA Tournament, but you still can't take away our ring. You can't take away the net. You can't take away this hat. So proud of us.

Q. You and Ashley are childhood friends. Was there anything that you guys said before, during or after the game together? Was there a moment you got to share together as like a full-circle moment?

PARIS McBRIDE: Not yet. I plan to go out there and speak to her about it. In the game I was locked in and I know she was locked in. I plan to go out there and speak to her.

Q. Jasmine, what's it mean, you guys come off the year last year losing in the CAA title game, and you end your career going to the WNBA Draft. What's that mean for you to finish off in the NCAA Tournament for your career as a Blue Hen?

JASMINE DICKEY: It just feels good, you know. I wanted to leave my mark. I know our team wanted to leave our mark, and I think that's what we did. We made national news, I feel like. We put Delaware on the map. That was the biggest goal, and we accomplished our goals along the way.

I think we're ending our career out pretty well, aside from the loss, of course. But we accomplished the goals that we set forth to accomplish from the beginning.

Q. Obviously Maryland with 50 paint points was posing a lot of problems down low with Angel Reese and attacking in transition. What did you see from that and the problems they caused there?

NATASHA ADAIR: Well, the biggest things -- and that was one of the goals, to try to limit their paint points and their paint points could come with post-ups or lane drives. We wanted to contain obviously and kind of corral the ball and try to limit them in those paint areas. You know, like the players said, they were bigger in some areas. You saw when they tried to post us up, we tried to double that post-up. So there were counters to it.

But looking at them shooting almost 60 percent from the field, it's just hard to guard when pretty much everything that they put up went in today.

Q. I just wanted to ask if there's a way you could sum up Jasmine's career and what she's meant to the program, and going forward how you replace someone like that.

NATASHA ADAIR: Well, you don't replace them. But you do understand that she grew in this program. When we first recruited Jasmine -- she's a winner, and that was what stood out, and just her work ethic, and over her career she developed into a star.

You don't replace that, but what you do understand is that this was a culture that she brought all of those intangibles, those characteristics to and she helped build. What we do is we grow from there. You won't ever find another Jasmine, but you will find other players that can feed off the legacy that she has built, and her teammates.

Q. To bounce off that, talk about the last game for Lizzie and Tee Johnson. They've been with you for a very long time, even longer than Jasmine. Talk about their final game for the Blue Hens.

NATASHA ADAIR: Well, Lizzie O'Leary was here when I got here, and she stayed, and she bought into the system. She helped just lay the foundation of success for this program, and a lot of it didn't show up in stats for her. But what you all didn't see was her leadership on and off the court, her commitment every day that she stepped in the gym and was a true or is a true ambassador to the university.

She was our glue. She just had a way in the locker room. She had a way on the court. You could always depend on Lizzie to be everywhere you needed her to be, and she accepted her role. She accepted it. She was the one that was going to take pride in setting the screen and getting the rebound and making sure everyone on the team was organized.

But she was also the voice of the team. She would speak on things outside of basketball, mental health issues, social injustice. Our job as a coach is obviously to prepare them for these moments, but it's also to prepare them for life. And all of our seniors, Lizzie O'Leary, Tee Johnson, Jasmine Dickey, Paris McBride, Ty Battle, all of them will be prepared for life.

Q. I was going to ask about Lizzie, but I also would like to know, have you given any thought to what this program looks like in the future building off this great success? What does the future of Delaware look like?

NATASHA ADAIR: Well, our goal is to be elite, and we're happy that we've accomplished a goal and we've checked off some boxes. But that was why I came to the University of Delaware. We want to continue this. We want to have sustainable success, and that -- we go back, we get ready. The foundation, the core value of this program, the non-negotiables of the program, they don't change. So we will continue to build.

Q. You all started summer workouts back in the summer, and after a disappointing loss, what do you take from this loss that you hope will help you going into next season?

NATASHA ADAIR: Well, you know what, I don't take this loss into summer workouts. You know what I take? I take all of what we did this season to build to be successful, and we grow from there. This loss doesn't dictate anything that we've done, because in some of this, again, it was a game where we competed. It was a game where in some areas we got out-rebounded. They shot 60 percent, we did not. Games go that way.

But what I will take is the journey that got us here and how hard we worked day in and day out to get back here and then grow.

I won't take this loss into the off-season, but I will take the foundation that we laid to what got us here and stay with that.

Q. Just building off of that and circling back to Jasmine and Paris wearing the CAA championship hats, how proud are you of the maturity of not just Jasmine and Paris, but the team coming off a loss, focusing on what you guys accomplished this season and showing that off in the postgame presser?

NATASHA ADAIR: Well, we talked about it. Obviously it's the now and that's what hurts. It should hurt because of all that was invested in getting here.

But as a coach, I don't want them to dwell on that. I want them to be proud of the fact that they are sitting here and that they were one of 68, right, one of the elite, and that was the goal, to continue to grow.

I remember day one and what we talked about when they said yes and how we were going to get here, and just being able to trust the process all the way through. Heartbreak last year in our tournament, to come back, to get there again, you know how hard that is back to back to go, and then to finish the job.

There's so many things when this dies down and this little sting goes away that we're going to celebrate, and we're going to party because there's so much to be proud of.

So we won't hang our heads. Competitors don't. They don't. They grow. And we will just continue to grow and get better.

Q. If I could ask about the game itself, the score being what it was, I think you guys were within like nine points midway through the third quarter, and they were shooting the 60 percent pretty much the entire game. What did it show about your team's resilience to keep fighting back until finally it got out of hand? But up until that point it seemed like Jasmine was taking every shot and she got going and everything. I guess if you can comment on all that.

NATASHA ADAIR: Well, they say Blue Hens fight, right? Hens fight. That's what we are, we're the fighting Blue Hens. We're resilient. This is a group that will never quit. This is a group that has never quit.

You saw them compete to the very end. You saw them flying around defensively because they're competitors. They're winners. Regardless of what the scoreboard said, we were going to give everything that we had.

So I'm super proud of this team. I'm super proud of their fight, their resiliency. But again, you're not here if you don't fight. You're not here if you aren't a competitor.

Again, this game obviously didn't go the way that we wanted it, but we can walk out of here very tall with our head high and very proud of who we are and what we've accomplished.