NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - ALBANY VS LOUISVILLE

March 18, 2022

Collen Mullen

Kayla Cooper

Ellen Hahne

Albany Great Danes

Media Conference

Louisville 83, Albany 51.

COLLEEN MULLEN: Well, I'm so proud of my team. I'm so proud of the players. They certainly had an amazing season. They earned the right to be here. Louisville is a really athletic, talented team, and just scoring threats at every position. But I just can't say enough about how proud I am of their resiliency. We had that tough second quarter where we had a lot of turnovers, and they turned those turnovers into points, and we just really talked about getting stops. And to out-score a team like Louisville in the third quarter and play minus 4 in that second half truly is a testament to them not giving up and their fight and the fight that they've had all year.

It was really nice for them to have the opportunity to showcase that on the national stage, just who they are, what our culture is like, and to do that in front of the president of our university, our administration, our athletic director and fans and supporters, season ticket holders, donors, it just really was amazing. And it's been an amazing experience, and I'm so happy for our players.

Q. What kind of went right for you guys in the third quarter and to a certain extent in the fourth that let you make it a competitive half?

COLLEEN MULLEN: Yeah, I think we just really talked about it at halftime about our small goals that we had. We made some small goals for each media on what we wanted to do of holding them, offensive rebounds, how we wanted to -- how many stops we wanted to get, taking care of the ball and just really the winning plays. We wanted to be focused on the winning plays.

Kayla Cooper and Ellen Hahne had amazing just intensity and confidence and athleticism. I thought Koi Sims off the bench did a great job, too, just being confident and attacking them.

So I think that confidence plus our offensive execution, cutting back door, we were executing our offense, we were going side to side, and when we did that, I think that's where we had some success.

But it came from getting stops on the defensive end.

Q. This was going to be a challenging game regardless, but not being at 100 percent and having your inside post player out again, what kind of challenges did that present, and what did you try to do to compensate for that?

COLLEEN MULLEN: Yeah, not having Lucia was difficult. She was named to the all-defensive team this year. Really good shot blocker, and much better matchup with their size inside. Cochran and Engstler, they have such great size and they're long so their arms are bigger than they play. We were focused on trying to double them inside and trying to take away their inside game with multiple people, like a team effort.

In the first half we weren't doing that as much. We were allowing them to get deep position. But not having Lucia and being down a player, certainly it was tough. But I think since she's been injured over the last couple of games and certainly winning the championship without her, the players knew they all had to be just a little bit better, and it was really great to see our whole team play and contribute.

Q. Obviously we hear a lot throughout the season, there's no such thing as a moral victory. But to be a 16 seed, come and play Louisville and to represent yourselves the way that you did, are there any moral victories that you can find from this game?

COLLEEN MULLEN: I mean, certainly. I think the No. 1 thing is that we're here, and that means we won a championship, and we cut down a net. Louisville is a really great team and they're fighting for a National Championship right now. I know that's their ultimate goal, but they didn't get to cut down a net yet. They didn't get to be champions and we did. That's a really cool thing for us to be able to do that in terms of our tournament. To win our conference tournament was really cool, a really great experience.

So I think to just get here is the victory, and regardless of the outcome, they were going to be winners in my eyes. They play like winners, they act like winners on and off the court, especially when no one is looking, so that's the moral victory for me.

Q. If you could kind of build on that, looking forward toward next year, I think you have everybody back; is that correct? Even the seniors?

COLLEEN MULLEN: Yep.

Q. How do you look to kind of parlay this success into possibly a higher seed or a deeper run next year?

COLLEEN MULLEN: Yeah, certainly. I think postseason experience really at any level but specifically in the NCAA Tournament is so valuable for a team, especially a team that you're returning everybody. And just understanding how much it takes -- our players had never been here before. They hadn't won a championship. This was our first winning season in four years, and they really bought into this four-year plan, this gradual plan of doing things the right way. And now we -- they've been able to reap the benefits of all their hard work, and I think knowing what this is all about and having this opportunity, hopefully we'll be able to build upon that and be even better next year.

Q. What can you say about the efforts of your freshmen in this game, especially Lilly and Koi? This is their first time doing any of this.

COLLEEN MULLEN: Yeah, I mean, I couldn't be more proud. All of our four freshmen played. They contributed. They played tough. Lilly, a freshman point guard, is going against Louisville's pressure. How can you not be so proud as a coach and know that the future is so bright? Freja has had huge games this year, Koi coming off the bench playing limited minutes and just showing her athleticism, showing her confidence, and Abby Ray going in there and just being solid. And having a freshman class like that that understands their roles, bought into their roles, plays a part in the culture, and that's very exciting for the next three years.

Q. We've been hearing all season your offense comes from your defense. How much did getting those stops in the last three minutes of the first quarter lead to that little 9-0 spurt in the second where you guys got within five or six?

ELLEN HAHNE: That was definitely a huge thing for us. Like you said, all season we've been talking about it starts on defense, and that's where we get our energy from and our confidence. Definitely getting those stops, and we were able to turn that into points, and that's very important for us.

KAYLA COOPER: Yeah, just like Ellen said, I think that was our goal from the beginning of the game, and that's also been our goal since the beginning of preseason. We just want to defend really well, keep them on their toes and do what we've got to do.

Q. Last game of the season, but everyone is coming back. Just what are your thoughts on the season as a whole and sort of looking forward to next year?

ELLEN HAHNE: I think we've had an amazing season, just starting last year, finishing our season at Maine, losing and just having a really difficult year. And then just turning that into players coming back, just being so motivated and so bought into our goal of being champions and of winning our conference championship.

So I think just the whole season has been really good for us, and I'm very, very proud of what we've done because it hasn't been always good stuff. We've had our ups and downs for sure.

But at the end of it, we've just been so bought into what we wanted to do and what we know we're capable of doing. I think just being here, being able to compete with Louisville and just giving it all we've got, I'm just really proud of that.

KAYLA COOPER: I think it's really exciting, too, because throughout this entire season we've shown how good we are, and I think with every game we've gotten so much better. And I just think that coming off a sweep from Maine and beating them on their home court, that's -- like Ellen said, we lost there in the semifinals and we were done early. And now getting here has just been our goal, and we're so proud of where we're at.

I think like she also said, we went home last year and we worked really hard and we worked individually on our goals.

I think going into the summer, we're going to do the same thing and come back even better, so I'm really excited for next year, especially since everyone is coming back.

Q. Coach kind of talked about having small goals, getting small wins. What were some of those from this game that you achieved?

KAYLA COOPER: I think for sure definitely rebounding. I think that's definitely one of my roles for the team is definitely to get rebounds. So limiting them, boxing out, limiting them for offensive rebounds and also just getting all the 50/50 balls. We got forced jump balls, keep them out of the paint, so stuff like that.

ELLEN HAHNE: Yeah, we had small goals for each five minutes. I think going into a game like this, you have to take it five minutes at a time, sometimes even possession by possession. Just each five minutes, making sure that we get -- we had some small goals like getting six shots up, limiting them to two O-boards, and just small things like that that we could focus on. Because sometimes it's hard going into a game looking at it as a whole game.

But I think overall just giving it all we've got, just playing with our heart, and playing tough and being confident. I think that's definitely the main goal of this game.

Q. For both players, what was the most memorable part of kind of this past week, maybe from the end of last Friday to the end of this Friday for you guys?

ELLEN HAHNE: I think just the whole thing has been amazing for us. Just coming off of that game at Maine, knowing we're going to March Madness, it's just been an incredible journey for us, just experiencing all of it. Nothing we have done before, and to do it all together and with our coaches, it's just been amazing, and yeah, just a lot of fun. So I would say all of it.

KAYLA COOPER: I definitely agree. I think the whole week was just so surreal and so fun to do. I think something that I definitely love to remember is how we just reacted on the bus. We were literally up until 4:00 a.m. singing and dancing with each other, so we had such a fun time. Also just coming here getting to experience a charter for the first time and then just feeling like we just worked so hard, just had us have fun the whole entire week, so we had a good time.

Q. To outscore Louisville in the third quarter and play them as tight as you did in the second half, what can you say about your fight, your resiliency against such a good team?

KAYLA COOPER: I think it's amazing. I think like we said, like defense has been something that we've worked so hard on since the summertime. And I think that goes to show that we are the second-best defense in the country, and I feel like we wanted to show that here and we wanted to show that we belong here. To do something like that to such a really good team -- they're so offensive, they're so big, they're so much bigger than us. But we had heart, and I feel like that's what that really showed us.

ELLEN HAHNE: Yeah, I think it just showed that we can compete with them, and that was really everything we wanted going into this game, showing that we came here for a reason and we have something to prove.

I just think that was -- it speaks for our culture and just who we are, so I'm very proud of that.

Q. A lot of teams will use heartbreak or a loss in a conference tournament as motivation heading into the summer and into next year. How do you use the experience that you guys have had winning your conference tournament, going to an NCAA Tournament to still maintain that same kind of hunger and motivation heading into the off-season?

ELLEN HAHNE: I think that's definitely very important for us. Last year we had -- this year we had as a goal to win the conference championship, and now that we were able to do that and to come to March Madness, I think that really pushes us to raise our goals, raise our standards and just come back even more hungry and get more next year.

KAYLA COOPER: I definitely think it's definitely going to -- this whole experience definitely gave us so much confidence. So I think going into the summer just knowing that we got here this year, we can definitely work on getting farther here. We have to do what we've got to do in conference, but we've got to learn how to stay here in this conference and just keep working hard.