NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - FGCU VS MARYLAND

March 19, 2022

Karl Smesko

Florida Gulf Coast Eagles

Media Conference

MODERATOR: We're joined by Florida Gulf Coast Head Coach Karl Smesko. Coach?

KARL SMESKO: Had a great win, in a great atmosphere yesterday. Really competitive game. Feel really good about how our team responded at the end. Now, the next challenge is upon us. We're playing a great team, on their home court for the right to go to the Sweet 16. So it's going to take a tremendous effort. It's going to take some great shooting, and just everybody competing at their highest level.

Q. Just curious what you're seeing from this Maryland team. They like to -- certainly comfortable playing at a high tempo despite not having a particularly long bench this year. What do you expect in tomorrow's game in that regard?

KARL SMESKO: Well, they're one of the best teams in transition in college basketball. And they run on every possession. So I'm sure they will be running tomorrow. We're going to have to have a good effort in defensive transition to try to get them to have to run plays. We don't want them to be running by us and getting behind us for easy baskets. We want to make them work for everything. And that starts with getting them slowed down in conversion.

Q. Coach, obviously overcoming a huge performance from Elizabeth Kitley yesterday, how does that focus kind of shift to Angel Reese and kind of not allowing her to have that same type of game, but also getting the result you want?

KARL SMESKO: Well, I mean, we're going to have to do some of the same things. We were a little slow to adjust to causing problems on deep post-ups yesterday, but we play the way we play. Sometimes the big players can cause us problems around the rim, but they also have to guard us, and we can stretch people out with our players having so many shooters on the floor. But Maryland, as everyone knows, is a super talented team. They've got great players all over the floor. So if you're going to overly commit to one person, someone else is going to give you a lot of problems.

Q. Maryland had 50 points in the paint yesterday. How important will it be to congest in the paint and also making it difficult for them to convert easy layups in front of the rim?

KARL SMESKO: Well, we definitely don't want to give up any easy layups. That starts with conversion. And they crash the offensive boards really hard. So everybody on our team has gotta be committed to helping do their job on the boards, try to limit how many second opportunities they get, because a lot of those second opportunities are within two feet of the basket. They're really highly efficient shots. So the conversion, the rebounding, we're going to have to be excellent in both those areas to give ourselves a chance to do what we want to do.

Q. Could you address the joy you get from coaching this team? And just how awesome it is in March to get 40 more minutes, at least, with this club, another day of prep with this team?

KARL SMESKO: Yeah. That's part of the excitement in March is you have to win or it's over. And we felt great yesterday because we get to practice today and we get to prepare for another team. And we want to keep this thing going another week and then another week after that. But it's all going to come down to tomorrow and how well we're able to play, how well we're able to execute a game plan. But that's what makes March so exciting is you get these opportunities and you don't get a second chance. So we're hoping to make the most of this one.

Q. Congratulations on the win yesterday.

KARL SMESKO: Thank you.

Q. Do you like a matchup like this? You mentioned they like to get out in transition. It seems like two styles where everybody is going to be high paced. Does that fit you guys well to kind of go up against something like that?

KARL SMESKO: Well, I mean, they're really good. I don't know that anybody fits well with what they do. I mean they're extraordinarily talented. But we like to get up and down. So we're used to a high pace. We know that they're like super charged so that we have to even be a little bit quicker in some of our reactions to our shot or their shot so that we can do some of the things we want to do. But when you get to this point, you're probably going to play a very good team, and you're going to have to play great to win. So I don't worry so much about who it is or what their style is. We just have to come up with a plan that gives us a chance, and I think we have that.

Q. Ashley Owusu, Katie Benzan, two guards completely cut out of different molds. The challenge of containing them and their styles tomorrow, if you could expand on that?

KARL SMESKO: I mean, Benzan an is a great all-around player and one of the best shooters in the country. She had a great game yesterday. Owusu, you know, she's a handful. She has a lot of dribble moves. She's strong. She gets to the rim. She can post up a little bit. But, I mean, there's a lot of names. There's a lot of people that you gotta guard. That's one -- you know, sometimes even on good teams there's a couple of players that you can really kind of help from and they're not serious offensive threats. That really isn't the case with Maryland. They put offensive players all over the court, and they're all capable of having big nights. So everybody is going to have to be locked in, and we just gotta try and force as many tough shots as we can.

Q. Your team previously mentioned that shooting the three is really important to your offensive attack, that you all practice it consistently. Can you speak to the importance of the three-point attack to your offensive attack on a game to game basis?

KARL SMESKO: Well, I mean, it's super important. I mean, we want to have as many threats from three as we can just because it creates a lot more space, so you have opportunities to attack the rim, attack the paint and then hopefully make good decisions once you get there. So, you know, we try to create maximum space on every offensive possession, and I don't think that's really even possible if you got multiple kids who can't shoot or don't need to be respected from the three. So for us that's always been our style. Like we want you to have to chase all our shooters around, and then while you're doing that, hopefully we can score on a cut to the basket or find a driving lane to get to the rim. And if you come over to help, hopefully we make the right decision and get it to an open shooter.

Q. With the matchup against Maryland, is that ironic to you at all or does it bring back any fond memories from your couple of years in College Park? I know a lot has changed in 20 years, but ironic still the same?

KARL SMESKO: Well, I had a great experience here. I was only here for a year, but I made some lifelong friends while I was here and I got to see what a first-rate -- it was an ACC program at the time, but see what a first-rate program, what it was like to be in a high-level program and how things were done. But I have some close friends to this day that we worked together on that staff, Jimmy Howard at Georgetown, Cristy Winters-Scott, who's broadcasting the games. They were great friends to me then and they're still great friends to me now.