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

March 19, 2022

Sarah Ashlee Barker

Que Morrison

Georgia Bulldogs

Media Conference

Q. Que, can you tell me what it was like to see Jillian perform, how she did last night? I know a couple of weeks ago we were talking about how excited you guys were to have her back. For her to do that, take me into what that was like.

QUE MORRISON: It just brings a lot of excitement to the team. Jillian stayed true to the process, just knowing what it took to be back on that floor, and when she got out there, it was great to have her out there, and just to see her perform like that just makes it more amazing.

Q. Sarah Ashlee, I think earlier in the year we talked about the staff, kind of how you guys as players go out to play for them every game. How much do you feel like the familiarity and the continuity that you guys have with the staff and how you guys operate from day to day, how does that help you guys at a time like this when you guys are trying to advance the program to the first Sweet 16 in almost ten years?

SARAH ASHLEE BARKER: I think it means everything just to the players and the staff in itself. To be able to have a head coach who cares about you so much on or off the court, it truly brings your team together. When she steps onto the court, she's your coach, but when she steps off, you can go into her office and talk to her about anything. And that's with every single coach on this team. That's with this program. That's what they've built here. And I think having that foundation makes it so easy. When things are not going right, you just say, look, we're going to stay together, and that's what's going to get us through. We had a really hard stretch in February, and then we came out last night and we played our butts off. It's a new season, and we're just looking forward to tomorrow. And we gotta get that done before we can think about anything else.

Q. And then, Que, obviously tomorrow night's a huge game. Iowa State is a really good team. The atmosphere last night was amazing. It's like playing on the road, how much does that excite you to be able to guard Ashley Joens as one of the top guards in the country and have that challenge against Iowa State?

QUE MORRISON: You know, any opponent we're going to come out there and play our defense and play my defense. We stayed dialed in in practice. S.A. will be starting off on her. But we're going to be in it together as a team, and so we’ve got a game plan set for her and for the rest of the others. She's a really good player, and we're just going to do what needs to be done.

Q. Sarah, you got to watch the Iowa State game?

SARAH ASHLEE BARKER: I did, yes, sir.

Q. So at the end of the game when you're walking out with your teammates, what observations of what you saw did you share?

SARAH ASHLEE BARKER: I think they're just a team that plays really hard, and they play together. They've got three really good players that can just score all over. If any one gets hot, they get hot. But you also saw that last night, that they were not hitting shots in the first half, but they didn't back down, and I think that's something that you gotta go into as a team is you gotta realize, if you knock them in the face, they're going to knock you right back. And so that's what we gotta prepare for and just keep going at it. But like I said, they're a really good team, and it's going to be fun to play against them.

Q. Que, when Jillian is out there, how does that make your team different than if she wasn't?

QUE MORRISON: I want to say it makes the same difference. I feel like each post player comes out there with the same capability to just do what needs to be done within the plays. We run plays for specific players, and so when she is out there, we're trying to put her in the right space to make the right play for her. That's what we do with any post player that comes out there, whether that's Javyn, Jordan, Malury.

Q. What makes her a special player? I mean she didn't have that many minutes, and look what she did. What are the talents she possess to do that?

QUE MORRISON: Just listening. Jill is a really good listener. She doesn't talk back. And so when it comes to listening, she dials into that and she goes out there and does what she is told. And even if she makes a mistake, we're still on her, on her, on her, and she takes it all in without coming back with any attitude. So that's what most definitely makes her great.

Q. The last thing I have for Sarah Ashlee, also on Jillian, these last few weeks with her being at practice, taking the basketball player out of it, can you think of an interaction or conversation that you had that just kind of made you as a team to have her back?

SARAH ASHLEE BARKER: I mean, absolutely. I think all year we wanted her back in full, full strength, but we knew that she had some injuries that were holding her back. But I think that the whole year all of us were just like, you know, when we get Jillian back, it's going to help. Not saying that missing Jillian affects our team, but having her makes us more deep in the post. But it also makes it to where if someone's playing good, they're going to stay in the game. And we have so many people that we can just get in and out, and we have a huge bench. I mean last night we had 29 bench points. That's unbelievable. That's like really, really good. And so we're deep, and that makes us good, because say I'm not playing well, Reigan comes in and she's playing well, she's got it. That's just -- you know, we trust each other, and we want each other to do well. So yeah.

Q. Que, the past few weeks y'all have talked about there's an expectation for Georgia to compete for championships and go into the tournaments and compete. Is there any added sense of pressure with this year's team with you and Jenna coming back with a lot of experience and you showed last night that y'all are capable of having a four-quarter game. Is there any sort of added pressure for you or this team to win tomorrow night?

QUE MORRISON: No, sir. There is no added pressure. This is a great group of girls. We have a great team, and each night we come out there to perform, and last night we were able to do that. And moving on to tomorrow, we're going to come out there with that same effort and energy.