NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - SOUTH DAKOTA VS BAYLOR

March 19, 2022

Nicki Collen

Queen Egbo

Ja'Mee Asberry

Baylor Bears

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student athletes.

Q. This is again familiar territory for you. When you were a freshman you were here preparing for a second round game. Last year the bubble thing. But as a senior going into it, does it feel like it did three years ago? Is it different? What's your perspective on all of that?

QUEEN EGBO: It's definitely familiar, but it's still, it happened so long ago, so that feeling has kind of faded a little bit. I feel like we need to all refresh our minds and make another run and make it past this team.

Of course they're a good team, and so we're just worried about getting past this one and everything else will come together.

Q. Coach was saying yesterday that they're trying to get you in rhythm the second half. I don't know if y'all just had practice or about to have practice, but are you kind of looking for that, trying to find that rhythm, now that you're in the post-season and trying to get your team some production there?

JA'MEE ASBERRY: So I was in the rhythm starting the Big-12 tournament, but I think kind of yesterday I got out of whack a little bit. So I just got to bring my confidence back and get back in our rhythm and I can't get down on myself for what happened yesterday. The only thing I can do is help my team the best way I can.

Q. After getting a look at South Dakota yesterday and seeing what they were able to do against Ole Miss what are your early impressions of that matchup?

QUEEN EGBO: Obviously they're a very physical team. They're very fundamental. They play well together and they know each other very well and what their capabilities are, so I feel like they just play within that and they don't do too much.

They just play simple basketball and nowadays you see people trying to do too much and that's what often gets them off track. But I feel like South Dakota is real poised and they have a lot of experience so they're able to play well together.

JA'MEE ASBERRY: I would say majority of the team are seniors, so this is big for them. You don't want to leave on a bad note on your senior year.

So like she said, they're a very good team. They have been playing together for four years now. They do the little things that help them that people may not notice, but they can drive. They can shoot. They can rebound. They have all the good things, the good qualities, within their team.

So I just think that if we bring our good qualities, we'll be okay.

Q. There aren't many teams in the country that can defend both you and NaLyssa. This looks like maybe a matchup where they will be hard pressed do that. Does that put a lot of pressure on you guys, though, to be the determining factor in the game?

QUEEN EGBO: For sure. I feel like just the attention NaLyssa brings as well as some attention that I bring can focus in and laser in on us, but I definitely feel like tomorrow's going to be a guard's game. I feel like because they pack the paint so much the guards should be able to knock down shots and get easy looks and that will open things up for us in the paint, which will make things a lot easier.

But initially going in of course we're going to look to dominate, of course we're going to look to crash the glass, and finish those easy bunnies around the rim, but I feel like just as much it is our game, it's going to be their game too.

Q. They were able to kind of frustrate Shakira Austin yesterday. What did you notice just by watching the way they defended a big time post from Ole Miss?

QUEEN EGBO: Well, of course Shakira is a great player. She's one of the best players in the country. She brings a lot of attention and they were literally like triple-teaming her, sending four people around her whenever she caught the ball.

So it was just kind of hard for her to do anything. She didn't really have another post player that could relieve her pressure and she didn't also really have guards that were knocking down shots consistently to relieve that pressure.

So that's why I'm saying it's going to be a guards' game just as much as it's going to be a post-game because, yeah, post players do draw attention, but it's up to guards to make shots to get some of that attention away from them.

Q. You've chased a lot of different guards around a lot of the season. They have got a really good one in Chloe Lamb. Do you know if that will be your assignment, if that will be J Lew's, and what do you just kind of look forward to when playing a player like that?

JA'MEE ASBERRY: We actually don't know the matchups right now. She may be a little too tall for me to guard, so I might guard the second one that's just as good as her.

But I don't fear anyone. If you put me on the best, I'll guard 'em. There's no pressure with that because they can't kill you. All they're going to do is like get buckets.

So all I got to do is play my role, do what I do best, and if she gets off, then just try my best to calm her down or don't let her get off at all. So I feel like that's how I look at it when I guard anyone.

Q. Queen, similar question about South Dakota center Hannah Sjerven, what are some of your early impressions of her, just dealing with her in the pose?

QUEEN EGBO: She's definitely an efficient post player, I would say. She does her work early. She's always moving and active. I will say she is a little bit of a flopper and she does it well. Like, she sells a lot of those fouls. It might not be that much contact but she really looks like, she makes it look like they're beating her up. So she gets people in foul trouble and she draws a lot of fouls, which is good for her team, but definitely won't engage in that tomorrow, try not to get in foul trouble with her.

Q. When you look at this team, South Dakota defensively, what stood out about what they did, were able to do against Ole Miss and how do you counter that?

JA'MEE ASBERRY: They played a gap defense, which is where they pack the lane a little more. I feel like Ole Miss struggled with shooting the ball and I feel like that's our advantage.

We're home. We have the home advantage. Hopefully our crowd can get behind us and our guards just shoot the ball as well as they did yesterday, Sarah and Jordan.

So I think that we will have to bring them out a little more, which will also allow us to drive the ball even more. So if we get the threes going and our drives, then it's really easier to dump it off to the posts or hit the posts on the pick and roll or hit them while they're running in transition. So I just think if we bring them out a little more then we'll be fine.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you. We'll start with questions for coach.

Q. You talked yesterday about how good South Dakota is. That maybe wasn't really even an upset yesterday. In the last 14 or 16 hours or however long it's been, what have you kind of learned more about them?

NICKI COLLEN: I mean, it's just continuing to watch film. They have three seniors who are all double-figure scorer's and super seniors at that. They know what they're looking for. They're very good coming off of ball screens.

Defensively they gave up 51 points per game, so a part of me, as we were talking about how to defend certain actions, I said it's great, we have to have a defensive game plan.

But we have to have an offensive game plan because this is a team that does such a good job of limiting their opponents and controlling pace. They don't play particularly fast and so because of that it shrinks the number of possessions in a game.

So we have to do a good job of creating pace ourselves, of getting early actions before their defense is set. They're a team that while you don't think they're like a super pressure, super turnover-type team, they're so good in the gaps, they're so good digging in the pose. If our posts mess around with it in the pose and start dribbling they're going to dig it out and go the other way.

So certainly not a team that thrives necessarily in a points-off-turnovers-type game like a Texas, but they do create them by how good they are, how good their synergy is on defense. So really good on both sides of the ball.

Q. Did you go back and pay particular attention to your matchups with Oklahoma and theirs, and if you watched their game against Oklahoma, what did you learn about them?

NICKI COLLEN: Honestly, I have not gone back. I watched, before we played OU the first time, I went back and watched South Dakota against them.

But there are teams in our league that, quite frankly, play so differently than us that it's not going to be my first look. Like, if I'm going to go back and look, one of the first games I watched was Texas A&M because I know their personnel, because I know how they play. And even though we don't necessarily run all the same stuff, like because of how OU plays, because of their pace, because of them playing a lot of that matchup zone, it's just so different.

They're going to run different stuff, different things are going to work. I just feel like Oklahoma, like if I'm going to watch a conference opponent I'm going to watch Kansas because of how they defend and the offensive stuff they run. They're probably the most similar to us in terms of offensive and defensive philosophies, not necessarily personnel.

But I have watched that game, but it's been a long time since our first matchup with OU in early January.

Q. You said yesterday that NaLyssa was a bit under the weather. Is that something where she's going to maybe feel a lot better tomorrow? And also, the third quarter that she had, is that just kind of a built-in part of who you guys have to be?

NICKI COLLEN: Yeah. I mean, I think as she, any time you have a cold or the flu or something like that, I think you feel better day by day. Fluids, rest, those type of things. So I think she feels better than she did yesterday. I think she felt better yesterday than she did the day before. And do we need that? I mean, look, she's our best player and in big games and in big moments we absolutely need the best version of her.

And I think she's someone that doesn't back down from a challenge and I think was a little like, wow, I may be a little sick, but if I'm going to play, I need to play, as opposed to going through the motions. I thought early she kind of had to get over the hump of being out there and being a little winded and certainly played her fewer minutes than I normally would, which is obviously good coming into a two-game weekend.

But I mean, she's someone that showed how she can get in transition, who dominated the offensive glass, and I think that's something, you know, they're a unique team in some ways because they aren't bigger than us in the post, but they're obviously bigger than us everywhere else. So it's kind of one of those, they're all the same. They're all five-ten and then their center is six-two.

But the thing that they do that's pretty incredible is they are a box out team. There are teams that are go-get teams and there are teams that are box out teams. They hit you at your legs early and they make you not want to go to the glass. And if you watched Ole Miss yesterday, they did not get on the offensive glass near as much as they normally do, and a lot of that was they got hit early.

And if you want to win a game against South Dakota you can't let their physicality wear you down. They know they're a little undersized in the post and they just do such a good job of rotating and boxing even if they're in rotations because they're all capable of switching and guarding in the post.

So you know, I mean, that's what they do to kind of take your will away at times.

Q. South Dakota's not a team that turns over the ball a lot and I'm sure part of speeding them up would be forcing some turnovers. So how do you handle trying to force some turnovers on a team that's careful with the ball like that?

NICKI COLLEN: They're a little like us. They have multiple ball handlers and I think that's what makes 'em hard to guard. There's a, as much as they're capable of running a lot of motion, when you break it down in terms of volume of what they're running, they're running a lot of two-player action. They're running a lot of middle ball screen action. They're putting the ball in the hands of a really good playmaker and making simple reads off the ball screen.

So they will mix in some motion and they certainly, it can be a little scary to watch it because if you're not a motion team and you don't defend motion regularly, it's a little daunting task to over-think it and overreact to it.

But I think what they do in terms of taking care of the basketball has a lot to do with the fact that their primary ball handlers are fifth year seniors and they're big, so they see over the defense a lot. And they just make careful passes. I mean, they, you know. So they're kind of a well oiled machine. They know where they want to go. They don't over-penetrate very often and they know where they want to pass it when they do penetrate deep.

So not a team that goes to the foul line very much and a lot of that is because they have got a lot of big guards who like to shoot pullup jump shots. So not going to draw a lot of fouls. Also not going to put themselves in position to be in there deep and turning the basketball over in a crowd.

So they know they want the wraparound pass, if they get deep they know where their people are supposed to be and they're really good at being there.

Q. I asked Ja'Mee a minute ago about chasing guards around and, not trying to expose game plan or anything, but were Chloe Lamb, the kind of player she is, is that comparable to Atwell from yesterday from Jones from conference, anybody you can pick out?

NICKI COLLEN: She's probably some combination of Emily Ryan. She's not as big as Ashleigh Jones. She's not as big as really even Atwell, to be honest.

But she has some of their -- Atwell is like hand down, man down. I think Chloe Lamb is a little bit more. She's always searching shots. She's really good with her step back. She likes to get to her pullup. She's usually got size in those situations.

Yesterday probably underestimated how long Shakira Austin was. And you know, we talk a lot about how sometimes a bad shot is the same thing as a turnover. It doesn't count as a turnover in the box score, but when you try to pull up over six-five and long and you get it blocked back at 15 feet, that's similar to a turnover.

But she's so good at creating space when she's got smaller defenders on her. In the step-back game she's so good getting to her left hand and finishing with a variety of angles and levels on the glass and she doesn't take a lot of bad shots.

So certainly a WNBA -- she's going to be in the draft. There's no question in my mind. I don't know where people have her projected right now, but she's a big guard with skill and I think can play with the ball in her hands, can play without the ball in her hands. I think she's got a chance to be pretty special.

Q. When you look back at what they were able to do yesterday Queen mentioned how they defended Shakira and obviously they paid a lot of attention to her and it worked for them. But Queen said she expected this to be more of a guard-driven game. Is that kind of what you feel too?

NICKI COLLEN: No. (Laughing). I mean, I think they play -- they're really balanced with those three seniors and I think it's a game -- I think she feels that way, I'll tell you why I think she feels that way, because it's something that I have said. I think she feels like because of how good they are at digging in and how much of a gap team they are, that we're going to have to make some perimeter shots.

So there's some truth in that, but I think you can attack their gaps and make the next play. I think you can post up on them, I think you can't mess around with the ball. I think that's what I've tried to tell her, like if you get a low post catch and you haven't done your work early and you think you're going to have three or four seconds to dribble in place and go nowhere, then they're going to dig that ball out. So I think in her mind some of the things I've said may have triggered this idea that it's going to be a guard-driven game. I think when you look at the balance of both teams, inside and out, I don't really think it's going to be one or the other to be honest with you.

Q. You mentioned Chloe, but Hannah obviously had a great day yesterday and won her matchup with Shakira Austin, although she said she had a ton of help defensively, but was able to create a lot of things offensively. What do you see when you look at Hannah?

NICKI COLLEN: Patient, efficient, works hard to gain position. The uniqueness of how Ole Miss played them though, won her matchup if you put their faces side by side and said here were their points and rebounds. But as far as them like actually matching up, Ole Miss switched a lot of ball screens and so she was doing some work against Scott, she was doing some work against any of the guards switches that she got. So a lot of, I know she was 7-7 and I think two of those baskets were really good one-on-one moves that she made on Shakira. So some of that is the nature of how Ole Miss plays, they have switched ball screens a lot all season long, a lot of their guards are longer and Shakira can guard guards, so that's kind of their defensive philosophy. But I think she's just, she's efficient and she's patient. She sets good screens, if you try to go over a screen on her she's going to act like you're bigger than you are and going to go down and draw fouls. In those ball screens their guards do such a good job of getting their shoulders on her hip and leaving no room for guards to get over. So the minute you start like trying to work your way through that gap, she will take a see the on the ground. But she's just, she's so poised, like she, yesterday started the game with a three, which is obviously a big shot for them to kind of create open space in the lane. But part of how Ole Miss plays, they play super aggressive, they play one gap, gap denial the lane was clean, if you watch the film, when South Dakota ran offense against them yesterday, the lane was clean, the entire game. There were never two feet in it. So we just can't give them a wide open lane all night long, whether it's the cut into, roll into, drive into, like we just have to get -- I've always said we want the game to be pretty own offense and really mucky on defense or messy and we've just got to mess it up at the defensive end because they can be real pretty on offense.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you.