NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - MIAMI (FL) VS SOUTH CAROLINA

March 19, 2022

Katie Meier

Lola Pendande

Ja'Leah Williams

Miami (FL) Hurricanes

Media Conference

KATIE MEIER: Yeah, we feel really good about how we played yesterday. Like I said afterwards, I thought South Florida is a great team, and if you told me they were going to make nine threes and shoot 41% from the three, I'd of thought we would've really had our backs against the wall.

I think our offense showed up, and we're going to need it. This is a beautiful team, South Carolina. They're just beautiful. They play hard. They defend like they're lives depend on it, and they keep things really simple and they really go to their strengths.

There is a lot of strengths, so we have a heck of a challenge. But I think that we're -- if you can ever be prepared to play such a talented team, at least we've played a schedule that has some of those talented -- I don't know that they've been all on the same team like South Carolina, but we've played against some great bigs, great shooters, and great point guards.

Like you said, we've played against two No. 1 seeds already, so we know that they know that as well, and we're just looking forward to the game and see how we match up once the ball is tipped.

Q. Wanted to ask both of you, preparing for South Carolina, what are some of the main keys you're honing in on in practice ahead of tomorrow?

LOLA PENDANDE: I think we're focusing on the defense and just stay together like we were yesterday playing USF. I think our strength is that we work people, so just going to go there and play basketball, Miami basketball.

JA'LEAH WILLIAMS: Piggyback on what Lola said, staying together. This is their home court, and like last night we saw that they had a lot of fans, so like Coach said, we have to stay together, communicate with each other, always say connected, because we're not going to be able to hear each other.

Only people that can hear us is the people on the court. We barely can hear Coach Kate. Honestly, play defense and rebound and score the basketball.

Q. You mentioned last night, and I'm just curious what your reaction was when you're watching that game and you see a score like 44 to 4. What was the impression on seeing a score like that?

JA'LEAH WILLIAMS: I mean, I don't really think it was an impression. Like South Carolina is a good team. We all know what they have very tall people, a person like Aliyah Boston, who hasn't like been stopped. Like she has double doubles, so honestly, I just think being together will actually work in our favor, playing Miami basketball, and, yeah.

LOLA PENDANDE: I mean, I wasn't expecting less from South Carolina. They're a pretty good team. They are dominant every game. I wasn't impressed by that. Honestly I don't feel intimidated.

We been here before, and just going to go out there and work.

Q. Coach mentioned you already played against some of best women in college basketball. Is it helpful to pull on those experiences so you're not in awe and facing people just as talented as who you faced before and beaten before?

LOLA PENDANDE: Yeah, like you said, we been here before. Like I said, too. We been here before. Played against one of the best teams in the country.

Like I said, again, I don't feel intimidated. We been in this situation. We work them, and I think we're capable of winning if they play Miami basketball.

JA'LEAH WILLIAMS: Yeah, we been here before, NC, State that last game. It's basically like pre-season preparing for the real season. Like they had a lot of people. It's just another day of playing basketball, the game we love, so...

Yeah.

Q. Probably should have asked you this three days ago, but what happened when you were 12 and 1o? What clicked? You were shooting better, everything. What happened at that point that's allowed you to win 9 of 11?

KATIE MEIER: You know, a lot of it was just inventory, to be honest. So we were playing the first half of the year without Destiny Harden and Mykea Gray. Mykea was kind of back but she wasn't. Destiny was out.

You see how important Lola, Ja'Leah, two players we just had in the press conference, it was their first year here. Add Maeva to that. You add Lashae Dwyer to that.

I mean, I was coaching a team that I only had two players that had played for me for two seasons in a row. We were playing Washington State, Indiana, Maryland with no -- you know, everybody was new, and two new assistant coaches and new video coordinator. So that happened.

Also then we started playing well. We got destiny kind of back but had a 25-day pause, so while everyone was looking at our schedule going, Oh, gosh, we had missed some games that were maybe winnable games. We won them later, but missed them and had to pick them up.

When we went on this run at the last half the February it was four games in a week, four games in a week. There was inventory remaining. Kind of had that attitude about it. Like wait a minute?

It's going to be hard, right? But there are teams right now that only have 12 wins and don't have but three games left. We had like eight. So I thought, This can get it 20.

So we just kind of stayed on that mantra. And at that time then Destiny comes back and our shifts happen and Mykea is back and the freshman start playing better and the transfers understand how we're using them, so it was kind of two things.

Q. I know obviously a unique part of the tournament is your staff getting to scout the opposition in person.

KATIE MEIER: Right.

Q. Does it present a challenge when that following game goes the way it did, that maybe you don't get as much of an impression of what they might do?

KATIE MEIER: No. I mean, not much rode on that game. I was there. I wanted to soak in the atmosphere, anything else, but we weren't sitting there like, Oh, gosh we are not getting any calls from this.

We have a lot more inventory we're watching besides that game.

Q. Speaking of that inventory with South Carolina, what did you see on tape as the biggest component for the defense that makes them so tough to crack?

KATIE MEIER: Right, you know, to see them live, in person, sit there on the side of the court is impressive. It's almost ridiculous. You really do feel like it's a WNBA roster. Credit to Dawn and her staff. We're all so grateful for people that really push our sport, and Dawn is absolutely somebody who does that for us.

We lost Pat and things happened. Muffet is not coaching anymore. So Dawn is someone we turn to, and she deserves all the credit and accolades and great success she's had. I'm really grateful to her.

But to sit there live and see -- I'm not so grateful for their recruiting because they're really, really, really good. They're hard to recruit against, let alone play against.

So they earned it, right? They earned it. They worked hard and that's great. They filled the stands and that's great for our sport. Might not be great for Miami all the time, but great for our sport, right?

So I'm proud of that. But to see their bodies in person is remarkable, but to see them play in their conference tournament and to see how they defended some action, didn't really get to see that yesterday. Didn't really get to see Howard run a lot of action.

But you saw some stuff in the conference tournament that was shockingly good, so I have a ton of respect for their defense.

Q. Do you take anything away from the two losses that South Carolina had, the Missouri and the Kentucky game, and kind of look to see how those teams were able to get a win?

KATIE MEIER: Yeah, I mean, you have to. That's the first thing you're going to look at. You look at the trends, win-loss trends. There is only two trending downwards, so that is not enough inventory to get a whole game plan together.

But I do -- they play in such a tough conference, and so do we. You get to very quickly see, well, did anyone trap them, did anyone press them, did anyone zone them. The answer is somebody did, right?

So I got to see that a lot in the last 24 hours.

Q. I wanted to ask just your game plan around Aliyah Boston. Obviously not divulging everything, but what have you seen from watching her and just kind of coming up with a plan against her? You know, the 25 double-double streak and everything going on around her right now.

KATIE MEIER: You said it. She's -- I think the thing that I really am most impressed with Aliyah Boston is her game management, composure, and IQ. Her mental approach to the game.

It's not just, Oh, my God, she's big and can get a double-double. She's really crafty. She's really intelligent. She's really smart. She puts the ball in the right spot.

She's as good as advertised or better.