NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - GEORGIA VS IOWA ST.

March 19, 2022

Bill Fennelly

Iowa State Cyclones

Media Conference

MODERATOR: Coach Fennelly, if you'd like to start with an opening statement, we'll then take questions.

COACH FENNELLY: We were just watching the Baylor-North Carolina men's game. Can we like wait a minute? Put your phones on, let me know what happens. No, we're just obviously excited to be continuing to practice and play. Proud of the way our team found a way to win last night. We have a tremendous challenge in front of us, but it's the second round of the NCAA tournament. It's supposed to be that way. So we'll see if we can get ready.

Q. Bill, I noticed towards the end of the Georgia-Dayton game you were out watching. You had the players sitting in the stands watching. Is that an opportunity to really get much, they get often to do -- they get a chance to do often during the NCAA tournament, like go out into the stands and I guess watch who they could be playing?

COACH FENNELLY: No. You don't get to do that very often. It's a very unique thing to this tournament, especially when you're in the second game. We kind of go back and forth on that, to be honest with you. My old high school coach used to always never let us watch games because two things would happen: You either thought the other team was really not very good or you thought the team was great and you couldn't beat them. I don't know how much our players pay attention to the game. A couple of them, I'm sure, were probably taking notes. Other ones are -- could care less. They were told to sit there. But it's a little bit of both. I think you're just trying to occupy time, especially the game was so late. But normally when we're in a tournament, on the road especially, then we'll have them watch a little bit, just to get a feel for it, and if nothing else, just to get a feel for the way the environment is in the building.

Q. You're very goal-oriented, very specific about it going into the season at times. Was the idea of going to the Sweet 16 something you ever specifically set as a goal for this team heading into this season?

COACH FENNELLY: No, we didn't. I think that -- you know, I didn't know exactly what to expect from our team. Even though we have some kids that have played a lot, relative to the landscape of college basketball, our team is very young. And you didn't know how -- and I say this seriously, like out of COVID, you didn't know how teams were going to react. You know, last year we were never together, except when you played games and you practiced, and then everyone went their own way. And then it was, oh, it's going to be great that we're all together. Well, sometimes that's not great, and you don't know what's going to happen. But this group, it's been great, phenomenal. So I knew we had a chance to be a good team, but we had a lot of question marks, but specifically Sweet 16, no.

Q. What type of dimension does Hollingshead being back add to a Georgia team that rebounds well, defends the perimeter well, has a lot of talent obviously?

COACH FENNELLY: Yeah. Their size is almost overwhelming. I mean they just keep bringing -- when you're bringing kids like that off the bench, you're like, that kid's going to start and play 30 minutes a game on a lot of teams. And they're big, they're skilled. They know exactly what they want to do. You saw last night, they just overpowered Dayton on the backboards. Foul trouble is an issue, obviously. And not trying to be funny, but we're not going to get any bigger, taller, stronger by tomorrow. So -- but I will say the one thing about women's basketball, and I've said this a lot, every rebound comes off below the rim. Sometimes you just gotta want the ball more than the other dude. And we better want the ball tomorrow or it's going to be tough, because when they get the rebound, then they're in transition, and when they're in transition, they're just as good. We talked about their size, but their guard play’s really good. Morrison gets that thing going downhill, and it's hard to keep the ball in front of you. And a lot of that starts with their ability to rebound.

Q. You joked when you learned you were going to play a 9 p.m. game that it was past Emily's bedtime. I asked her about it, was it hard for her to go to sleep after such a tense, hard-fought win? What was your late night, early morning like in the aftermath of that 78-71 win?

COACH FENNELLY: I'm not going to lie. I'm a little bit tired. Haven't slept. Got everything organized and went home and sat at the island at my house and had a couple of cold drinks and watched a lot of video and probably went to bed about 3:30, got up about 7, and right back at it, about six Red Bulls in right now, so a little bit wired up. (Laughs). But it's good. No, we got time to sleep. Everyone's doing the same thing. But you'd be disappointed if you weren't that way. So it's okay.

Q. An emotional tournament like this, how important is it to quickly flip the switch from emotional into the next game?

COACH FENNELLY: I think it's really big. But our players, I think, will be able to do that. We've had a number of games, situations this year where we played, had one day of practice, played. That was on purpose in our nonconference schedule. So I think we'll be fine. I think there was -- I don't know what the word is -- relief, survival -- whatever. You guys all know what I'm talking about. Like I think our kids were a little bit numb after the game, and I think they can relax a little bit more. I thought we were loose enough, and I'm not taking anything away from Arlington. They played a phenomenal game. But we did some things that were uncharacteristic of us, and that was due to the moment. And that's what this is about. So hopefully we'll be a little bit more relaxed today in practice and show up tomorrow night and give a good account of ourselves.

Q. You had said when you got home last night you were watching -- you watched film. Was it of you guys or of Georgia?

COACH FENNELLY: No, I didn't watch one second of our game last night. Had no interest in watching that -- the problem is if you watch it again, the result might have been different. No, I did not -- I did not watch one second of our game. It was right to Georgia, and luckily, like every coach, we had every team assigned -- Billy had Georgia, and Coach Schaben had Dayton, and Coach Steyer had Arlington. So I had, I mean, literally, I just grabbed my computer, and the stuff was ready to go. So it was on to Georgia for sure.

Q. When you're looking at film like that, is it a compilation of a whole bunch of games? What was that like? What time did you get home and start watching?

COACH FENNELLY: Probably 1:30. And then -- but obviously we watched a little bit of last night. But a lot of it is you go back to their conference games, because usually people in their conference play them in a certain way. Had to go back -- Hollingshead hadn't played in a while. So we wanted to see that. And then you look at special situations, you know, games that are close, what did they do at the end of the games, things like that. So we had a lot of information ready to go, and that's a credit to my staff. They had a lot of stuff ready to go. And we met as a staff this morning at 9 and came over here, and we'll go through practice -- it will be a walk-through day. We don't have the ability to go very hard today. So it'll be a mental -- a lot of mental work today.

Q. How late were you up watching?

COACH FENNELLY: Personally, I was up late. I told the staff, everyone do it on their own time. It was so late last night I didn't want to take them to the office like we normally do. And I just said, everyone, spend some time -- you know, my grandkids needed to go to bed, so my son had to get his kids to bed. And everyone else had things to do, too. People do have a life, believe it or not. And I just said, everyone take some time before you go to bed. Text me whatever you have, and I got text messages until 2:30, 3 in the morning from staff members, hey, I saw this, I saw this, what about this. And like I said, we met at 9:00 this morning and put a few more things together.

Q. I think that's kind of interesting what you were saying about staff members texting you things. What were some of the insights that they were --

COACH FENNELLY: Yeah, some of it is about what happened in the game last night, you know, what we could have done different or what our post players could have done or just thoughts on the game. But a lot of it was just, hey, I saw this or, hey, we're thinking about playing this way or this -- can we add -- if we ran this play, what are they going to do to it, if we did this or we did that, because everyone views it from a different lens. So I just -- and it was almost better than sitting in the room together, because sometimes I think when we sit in the room together, they wait to hear what I think and then they say, oh, that's a good idea, even though they don't mean it, except for my son. He doesn't care what I think. So it was good. I think everyone was -- like my wife kept saying, I'm exhausted. And I think everyone was. Emotionally, the game was late. It was hard fought, you know, all that kind of stuff. So I think it was good that everyone could just go to your own room and figure out what you want to do and send it to me, and I just put it all together and we went through it this morning.

Q. Coach, I know people kind of unfairly put a lot on the label of what round you make it to in the NCAA tournament every year. What would it mean to you, and also, in the grand scheme of what this team is and how great this team was, to reach a Sweet 16 for the first time in a decade?

COACH FENNELLY: Yeah, it would be great. They call it sweet for a reason. And I mean this sincerely, if we make it to the Sweet 16 or not, it's not going to take away from what this team has accomplished to me. Now, everyone else has their own opinion. That's fine. That's what you guys do. That's what fans do. That's cool. That's all right. That's the way it's supposed to be. But I think as a coach you always try really hard to look at the big picture. And certainly if we don't win the game tomorrow, we'll be disappointed. If we win the game tomorrow, we'll be excited. But at some point you take a step back and look at what happened over a course of a whole season. So we'll probably be better suited to answer that question probably kind of early next week, one way or the other.

Q. You look at this Georgia team under Joni Taylor, and you think back to the Andy Landers teams that you played. Similarities, differences?

COACH FENNELLY: Eerily similar. You know, big, physical, powerful inside players, athletic, skilled, attacking guards, great pride in their quarter-court defense. And they win a lot. I guess that's the thing, that there's something about Georgia women's basketball that, you know, obviously what Coach Landers did is amazing, and what Coach Taylor is doing is exactly the same thing. She is one of the brightest, most articulate young coaches in our country. She's going to have an impact on the landscape of women's basketball for a long time, not just at Georgia. Whether it's USA basketball, whether it's the way -- I'm on a committee with her, and to listen to her talk and articulate the needs of the game and the way the game is headed or ideas where it should head is amazing and how she is able to do that. And it's no surprise what she's doing and how she's doing it.

Q. You just talked about the conversations you had with your staff. But you said Emily Ryan is a coach on the court. I'm wondering what conversations you had with the leaders about film study.

COACH FENNELLY: We talk a lot about certain things that we want to cover. I always ask them if there's something -- you know, we present a scouting report in a certain way and then we'll go back and say is there something else you want to see different, something you want to see more, something that you particularly want to see? Like Emily is really interested in how teams are going to handle ball screen defense. Ash is interested in how are they going to double team me. Lexi is really obviously interested in who am I going to guard. And that's a good thing. And then we give them all little clips that they can put on their phones. Since they're on their phone morning, noon and night, we might as well give them a little video to watch, so they can get to it anytime they want. So there's a lot of ways to get them information. I think for us we've done a better job over the years of not overwhelming them with information because there is so much information available now that you have to be really careful. So we really try and -- what they'll see today is about a 22-minute highlight tape out of all the information that we have, and then we'll cut that into three to four-minute segments as well, in-bounds plays or individual people. So we try and do it in a way where, okay, I can look at it, I can absorb it, because that's the world they live in. I want it now, I want it quick and I want it to be colorful and you put music to it and, all right, now, on to the next thing. So hopefully we've done a better job of that than we have in the past.

Q. Ashley hasn't said what her plans are for next year, but how much can a stage and the postseason tournament really elevate her profile whenever that day comes, whether it's the end of this year or next year?

COACH FENNELLY: Oh, I think certainly when you do it on this kind of stage, your profile is elevated. And what she did last night, what she has done in the past, what she did against Texas, all of those things, I don't think there's any doubt where Ash is in the grand scheme of things. But in that league, especially in the WNBA, there are teams that we've talked to that love her, and there's teams that we've talked to that are not big fans. So that's what that league is about. It's probably how you recruit certain kids, too. But it's a great opportunity for her, and I'm just glad she gets to play at least one more game at Hilton in front of her fans, and I think she's real excited about that.