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

March 18, 2022

Claire Chastain

Terryn Milton

Shereka Wright

UT Arlington Mavericks

Media Conference

UT Arlington 71, Iowa State 78

SHEREKA WRIGHT: I had to take a deep breath. That was an amazing environment here tonight for our kids, for women's basketball. Again, I always give credit where credit is due. Iowa State is a tremendous basketball team. They stayed true to themselves. They had an amazing crowd, but I am so proud of those women in my locker room tonight. They battled. They competed. They stayed together, and we really, really put UT Arlington on the map and put a big-time display of grit and showed parity within our women's game.

It was a fun game to coach being that first-time head coach in that seat, but I'm so proud of these kids. So proud of these seniors, my seven seniors that are in that locker room, and to Starr Jacobs who returns here as a player to continue on that list for an All-American next year. I'm so proud of them.

Q. Terryn, yesterday afternoon we talked about how you were going to come in here and compete, and obviously, you guys did that even more in this game. Can you just speak about the belief you guys had as a team when you guys built that lead that you guys had a chance to pull this out?

TERRYN MILTON: I think we were just focusing on our game plan. We were locking down on defense. We were rebounding. We were trying to push it, and I think we were getting good shots and making them, so that kind of stuff makes a difference in the game.

Q. Then for Claire, was there any point where you guys really felt like you all would be able to pull it out, and can you just speak on the general pride of how you guys played?

CLAIRE CHASTAIN: I don't think there was ever a time when we thought we couldn't win. We played with confidence. We played together and going into halftime we felt very confident, and they made shots when they needed to, but we left everything out on the court for sure.

Q. And then, Terryn, can you take me through that stretch of the fourth quarter there when Iowa State hit those threes on the back-to-back possessions there? How did that kind of make things a little bit tough at the end there?

TERRYN MILTON: We messed up a couple of times on defense. Iowa State is a great team. They're going to knock down open shots, and they made big shots towards the end of the game that led to their win, so I think if we would have stayed more disciplined on defense, contested the shots more, maybe it would have been different, but like I said, they're a good team. They're going to knock down shots. We just have to respond better.

Q. Then, Claire, last thing I had, Coach Wright talked about how this puts Arlington as a program on the map. If you think about that, what was this night like in terms of establishing where you guys were at as a program?

CLAIRE CHASTAIN: I think this was a great opportunity to put UTA on the map. We made some noise tonight. Unfortunately, we came up a little bit short, but we did everything that we can do, so ...

Q. This question is just for both of you. Obviously, a great season. Just kind of walk me through what this means to get here for this school and the moments you all have had this season that you have enjoyed?

TERRYN MILTON: It means a lot to us, honestly. We never got to experience this before, so Coach was just telling us to soak it all in and enjoy every little moment, and that's what we've been doing. We're having fun with it, and we were just excited to get the opportunity to come and play. We tried our best. We competed to the best of our ability. We just fell short.

CLAIRE CHASTAIN: Obviously, this has been a great opportunity. I'm glad we could have it our senior year. Just having this chance, our senior group, we all stayed together, and regardless of the outcome, we definitely left our legacy at UTA.

Q. Coach, your kids came out into that arena and were not even the least intimidated by the hostile setting. What had you told them, and what was the talk coming into the game that got you out to such a great start?

SHEREKA WRIGHT: The answer to that is that they feed off their head coach, and I like to say as a leader you walk into an environment, into a situation confident. We had been playing on the road. We had been successful on the road, and we just talked about just how fun this was going to be, and I just thought they responded. They have fun, and to hear that crowd, how loud they were, and just to hear our crowd, that also gave them confidence as well, too. We've done that.

Again, these two young ladies that were sitting next to me, again, they understand the leadership piece. They have experience. They've played in environments similar to this, but they knew, and I told them, there's no excuses not to play hard, not to compete. We have none of those. I thought they responded to that. They responded to the challenge, and it put us in the position to have a chance to win the game tonight.

Q. We don't need a transcript of it, but you had a short little talk with Starr after she came out of the game. Can you give us the tenor and the point of what you were telling her?

SHEREKA WRIGHT: Just proud of her. Proud of her. This kid has gone through a lot. She hasn't told her story yet, but you're talking about a kid who is resilient, a kid who has been through a lot, that wanted to give up basketball, and she took a chance on UT Arlington. I told her, hey, you follow me, you follow this program, great things are going to happen to you. I'm just so proud of her for doing that, and she has no reason to hang her head. I think the world of women's basketball knows who she is now.

Q. Coach, you guys were in this game up until the last few minutes. Can you pinpoint some of the things that you guys did on the court that you walk away having a lot of pride in that gave you an opportunity to win this game?

SHEREKA WRIGHT: Yeah, I thought for probably 36 minutes of this game, I thought we locked into the defensive scout. We knew that we wanted to give up twos more than threes, and I thought we did that for the most part. I thought we defended very well. I thought especially in the fourth quarter we lost Joens a couple of times to where she hit some big shots, but from that standpoint of it all, we always responded to their run, and I think that that's probably the thing that I was so proud of is that we didn't fold. We could have, but we did not.

And, yes, we surrendered a big-time lead, but good teams come back. That's part of the game. You can't hold on to leads like this anymore against really good teams. They executed very well, but I thought we responded. We missed a couple of free throws. Looking at it all here, missed six free throws. Those are critical. Especially in possessions where we missed two in a row, and we probably needed that to get a stop. Again, I just can't express how proud I am of them responding to that, and they knew it was a game of runs. They just needed stay tough.

Q. Yesterday afternoon we talked about how you guys wanted to come in and be a competitive team, and I know that you guys probably walked in here as underdogs, and that didn't seem to matter at all. Can you just speak on the journey that this team is on, the seniors and that you've been on as somebody who has been in the tournament before, but first time as a head coach? I know the game just ended, and it might be hard to put into words.

SHEREKA WRIGHT: Yeah, I can. I talked about this yesterday about living in the moment, right? It has been a tremendous moment for me in the second year to come in and lead a group that believed in what I was saying about the two feet in and being locked into it.

I knew what I had in this team. I knew we had pieces. I love the versatility of this group. I love the toughness of this team. We challenged ourselves. We had some bumps in the road. We had some bumps, but they responded to that. I have an administration. I'm going to talk about them because I think a lot of times coaches don't talk about how important your administration is and your support, and that was major for me.

They allowed me to grow as an assistant, who had never been an assistant to a head coach. They allowed me to grow in this moment. That's been critical for me, and I just want to, obviously, shout out Jim who gave me this opportunity and Russell and Debbie, the supporters and the administrators. That's important. Obviously, I have our president, President Karbhari, here to see the support. That's amazing, and that's important when you are trying to build a program and a culture. When it's all said and done, I feel good in the place that I'm in right now, and I look forward to the future. It's bright.

Q. They kind of asked about it a little bit with the seven seniors, but I just want to give you a chance if you wanted to speak on just this team with this journey to Iowa, and then you talked about yesterday the goals that you wanted to set for this program. How do you think the performance today showed you all's resilience and the tenor of UTA basketball as a whole?

SHEREKA WRIGHT: Right. Again, those seven seniors, again, set the tone for this. They bought in. They bought into my message, and it made it easy to coach them. It was fun. It was fun to coach them. It was fun to be in practice with them. It's fun to be around them as people. As people. They're basketball players, student-athletes, but they're great people, and it made it easy to coach them.

So to get to this moment and to be able to play in this moment and we believe -- we knew coming into this game that we had a chance to win. I didn't want them to say, hey, we just try and see where it takes us. No, we came into this game ready to compete, and sure enough, they did that. They did that, and I told them I didn't want a tear. I didn't want them to hold their heads low for that because ultimately, again, they're winners. Just tonight you got to take steps. It takes steps to win.

You just can't get it all at once, and I know they don't know that, 18- to 20-year-olds. I was there, too. I didn't understand that either, but it takes steps. It's a process. It's a process to win, and this is the first step in that process.