NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - FLORIDA VS UCF

March 19, 2022

Kelly Rae Finley

Nina Rikards

Zippy Broughton

Florida Gators

Media Conference

UCF 69, Florida 52

KELLY RAE FINLEY: Hello, everybody. Thank you guys for coming to the game today. Thank you for staying. We appreciate your support.

I think it's good for the women's game and I think that Connecticut fans are basketball fans first and foremost, so that was fun to see a lot of people stay for our game today.

Obviously it wasn't the outcome that we had hoped for. I thought we competed. I thought we competed well amongst the adversity we've had in the season.

We don't do excuses. We never will. We don't look for them. That was a very talented UCF team. They're experienced. It was a good game to play up here in Storrs today.

I'm very proud of our team, proud of our seniors, their effort, resiliency throughout the course of the season. You know, this is a team that has started to leave a legacy. It's building blocks for the future for our program, and I think as a whole, I'm just very proud.

Sad that that will be the last time that we compete together as a group, but looking forward to our future of Florida women's basketball.

Q. You guys have been through so much adversity this year, even the last few weeks alone. What do you take from this whole experience this season? I know the loss is probably still fresh, but what do you think you'll remember most about what you were able to accomplish this year?

ZIPPY BROUGHTON: I feel like a big word you said was experience. We had to go through a lot of adversity this season from literally before we even started all the way up until this game. So we learned from those. We got better. We are about to recruit to be able to compete in the SEC.

But it's just like you said, it's learning experiences. We're going to improve from that and become better players.

NINA RIKARDS: I would also agree. It was a great experience this year what we went through, and it only got us to be stronger and resilient.

All I have to say is that this is just the beginning. You know, in the beginning of the season, as I mentioned, we all wanted the goal to be here, and we got here.

We know what it feels like now, so next year we're going to build and prepare for that all summer.

Q. Zippy, congratulations on the season you guys had. When you talk about your recruiting to compete next year, what is that? What are the missing pieces or piece that you feel are taking you from here, which is an NCAA tournament team, to the place where you guys want to go?

ZIPPY BROUGHTON: Well, she got the head coaching job, so I'm going to let her stick to that. I know next year I'll have the point guard spot, and we already keep talking about I'm going to be going through a lot of extensive point guard college this summer.

And being able to lead the team best appropriately, I know that's something I struggled with the in the first half. I wasn't able to lead as I felt like I should have. They couldn't depend on me. Nina stepped up big time for that, so you appreciate you Nina.

But, yeah, I'll let her handle the recruiting part.

Q. Zippy, you talked about building on your point guard skills. I believe you had a great highlight as a point guard where you threw a no-look behind the back assist. Can you walk us through what did you see or not see during that play?

ZIPPY BROUGHTON: Hey, I'm just happy it wasn't a turnover. (Laughter.)

I feel like a lot of times in practice I been having a lot of crazy passes like that, and sometimes it's not received because I might be going a little crazy.

But I was happy that Floor, she was able to catch that. I was just having fun. Like when you play basketball, when you hoop, you just doing what -- you know, just having fun and doing whatever is necessary.

Like that's what makes the game exciting. People want to see a show, and that's what we did to the best of our ability.

Q. I wanted to ask you ladies, you guys came within four. What do you think it is that either they were doing or what you think you failed to do on your part to overcome that? Because you guys were -- it was looking like they were going to pull away and then you guys just started breaking it down play by play, drive by drive, and then you got it down to four and something changed. If you can just explain in your eyes what you thought changed the game at that point.

ZIPPY BROUGHTON: That's something that like I just said, I have to learn as a point guard. I let the game slip out my fingertips. We started getting a lead, and I know I came in transition, shot a three, bricked it.

I went in the huddle, apologized like, Yo, I was excited. In those moments when we start cutting the lead like that, that's when we need to execute the best.

Of course we can be excited, make big plays, but it got to a point where we wasn't sharing the ball as much as we had to get to that point. We started trying to do things one-on-one and we started to do things where it just wasn't the best decision in execution.

So that's something that as a point guard I'm going to have to take control over next time.

Q. Coach, talk about the frustration, if you can, about those last three weeks with the injuries and having to come into a game like this already shorthanded and losing another player in the second quarter, just knowing what could have been if it hadn't happened.

KELLY RAE FINLEY: Yeah, I think it was unfortunate. I think that's probably the biggest word that I would use. But I don't know, you guys might think I'm crazy, but it was typical. (Laughter.)

I just I think that our team is resilient and it was unfortunate; however, like I said, we don't make excuses. We have a talented roster and we all believe in each other, and that's what got us this far.

Every night when we lined up this season, you know, we played Tennessee, played Kentucky, played A&M. Rattled off a long string of games right there.

A lot of people on the outside, I don't know what they thought, but I'm not sure that it really mattered to us.

Our hope and goal today was to compete every possession. Sometimes we did that; sometimes we got a little too excited, like Zippy said. I appreciate your accountability. I think that's the making of a great, great, great leader.

You know, there was a lot of times probably today where I could have taken better control of the game, right? I tried to use timeouts early to help us as best we could.

But it's different. It's different without KiKi on the floor. And to act like it's not is just kind of ignorant, right?

And then Jordyn and Faith and Brynn, you know, it is what it is. But I'm proud of our team. I stand by when I say I'm incredibly inspired by each and every one of them. I thought we had a very magical season this year.

Q. What was the nature of the injury?

KELLY RAE FINLEY: I haven't talked to our medical staff yet. Just knew that she would be out for the remainder of the game.

Q. Hey, Coach, I think if I'm not mistaken, I think there is one graduate that's not coming back, correct me if I'm wrong, right?

KELLY RAE FINLEY: I mean, we'll have our end-of-the-year meetings, you know, after this, after we get back it Gainesville, and then everybody will decide what's best for them.

Q. Right, right. No, I was just assuming the one player, like as a graduate they can't return; I'm assuming it was the last game. If you can just speak about that player, because they're not here on the podium to speak about everything or the last game. So if you could, please speak about that player.

KELLY RAE FINLEY: KiKi. I don't know, do you guys want to speak on KiKi first? Nina, I think you could speak to what KiKi has meant to you.

NINA RIKARDS: I would just say real is rare, you know. You rarely find players like KiKi that embrace their position and do whatever it takes to see their teammates successful, and we're definitely going to miss her a lot, even off the court.

She's impacted me in so many ways. I don't even know where to start. Just as a person, off the court, maturing, and being confident in myself, she's always been there to talk to me about things and help me on my game.

I appreciate KiKi so much and I'm going to miss her a lot.

KELLY RAE FINLEY: You want me to speak on KiKi? Oh, gosh, I'm not really sure where to start. I will get emotional probably because KiKi is somebody that had signed with a different school. Her story is really unique and really cool. I think you should write about it. You should call and you should ask her.

But she came to Florida and committed to us without having seen the campus. When she did, I'll never forget, she said, It's the people that make a place, and because of that, I know that Florida is where I want to be.

We've spent a lot of days and a lot of time together trying to improve her game. And for me as a coach, like Zippy and I talk about a lot, we got to spend a lot more time together.

It was easy to coach KiKi. She was a joy every single day. Gosh, she never had a bad day, even when she got injured to see her bounce back against Ole Miss and to be able to take the lead and try to help Zip with what's she's seeing on the floor, and Berte and Nina. You know, shoot the pullup, Nina. I'll never forget all those kinds of things.

It's because she's self positions, and you don't find people like that very much anymore with a resiliency, a work ethic, belief, to do whatever it takes to uplift the people around her.

In doing so, she's made our program better. Her Christina, Manu, they've sacrificed a lot, and she sacrificed a lot to come back when she could have been drafted last year.

But like she said after the SEC tournament, she doesn't regret it. It's hard sometimes as a coach. Should she? I don't know, right, especially when you love and care for somebody like we do her.

But she wouldn't do it any differently. She has elevated this program and her legacy will forever be great at Florida.

Q. Coach, congratulations on the season that you've had, and obviously it's been tumultuous. So much to try and consider, and you guys are here in the NCAA tournament anyway. You're also in a position of stability now to know going forward that you're going to be in charge, among other things you got Zippy at the point. There are some different things that you can bank on going into this next year. So I'm going to refer the question that Zippy referred to you, which is to sea say how do you get to where you want to be a year from now, and what does that look like?

KELLY RAE FINLEY: Continue to do what we're doing. I think that's the best way to put it. Relentless work ethic. A joy centered around your daily life. A joy centered around each other.

That's never going to change in this program. We want to be -- we want to have a mental fortitude as a group and individually. We want to be strong, confident women. We want to be loving and caring and competitive. We want to be all things, and I want our student-athletes to believe that. I want to be that and I want to do that together with them.

Moving forward, it's important that we recruit those qualities. This team has those qualities. With that, you can go a long way. Then you can continue to build. I think that connecting experiences, feelings, and emotions with memories and different things of that nature, Zippy calls me the hippy coach. That's okay, because she's the hippy player.

I think that stuff is important, and I think that leads to tremendous growth in a short amount of time. Uh-huh.

Q. So we talked a little about the adversity that you faced this year, but I think one thing that's important to touch on is also the fact that you guys, between like the middle of January and February, were one of the hottest teams in the country. Do you think you can learn more from the adversity or the success you had this year going into the off-season?

KELLY RAE FINLEY: Oh, both. Again, that goes back to just making the connections. Listen, I think we're a really good basketball team. You know, the ball didn't bounce our way; UCF competed hard against us today.

But I think we play hard. You know, their kids said they play harder. I don't know. I don't know if that's true. I think that competitors compete, players make plays, and I'll stand with our group any day of the week.

So, yeah, there was a string there where we were able to really successfully just lock into each other, continue to grow. We would focus on three things that we could improve on, these things that maybe we did well, try to celebrate each other, celebrate the little things, as silly as that sounds.

But you got to learn from both. A lot of the narrative has been centered and focused around adversity. I think it's a narrative that should be centered around a group of young women and a staff, group of people who are inspiring and uplifting.

Because of that, we achieved far, far more than a lot of people thought. But we never doubted ourselves.

Q. So what is now going to be your first team in Florida, it's going to one that is going to be remembered for really, really long time in Florida basketball. You touched a lot on the adversity and successes. This came at a really good time I think for this program and for this school that really needed it after everything that was swirling. With the season coming to a close, what do you say that your group means to you as now your first complete team?

KELLY RAE FINLEY: Oh, man, they mean everything. Like I said, there are some teams that you coach that are challenging to coach; this one was never that. They made my job easy every day.

They chose to give me a great experience, too. We set out to create a very positive experience. I think we did that as best that we could day in and day out.

They worked really, really hard to give me that experience and our staff that experience as well. I think as a coach, I don't know if there will ever be as selfless of a group as this one. They have been fun to coach, inspiring, and I think I'm sad that this team will never compete together again.

But they'll have reunions and all kinds of fun stuff, because they're a really a tight knit group and they enjoy each other.

Yeah.

Q. Just wanted to ask you what you think you learned about yourself throughout this process?

KELLY RAE FINLEY: Great question. Yeah, learned a lot. I've learned that you can be who you are and you can be all those things that you want to be as a women.

The people who know me best, probably our student-athletes know that you can be fiery and fierce and competitive and intense and challenge each other and be competitive and loving and caring and kind and all the things.

You don't have to be afraid to be vulnerable. When you model that, great things can happen. It can be scary, but it can be really, really special when you open yourself up to those kinds of things.

I always operate with honesty as best I can. I know that I've grown a lot this season with their help, with the help of our staff. I hope that I've made them proud just like they've made me very, very proud.

Q. (No microphone.)

KELLY RAE FINLEY: Oh, man, she's awesome. She's my inspiration. She taught me how to coach, taught me everything that's right about the game. She taught me how to create a great experience, how to love hard.

I'm forever indebted to her, and I was hoping she could make the game today but she couldn't.

But, yeah, I don't know. She's funny, she is loving, caring, all those things that I just said that you could hope to be as a coach and mentor and a person.

So, yeah. For sure.