NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - LSU VS JACKSON STATE

March 19, 2022

Tomeika Reed

Ameshya Williams-Holliday

Miya Crump

Jackson State Tigers

Media Conference

LSU 83, Jackson State 77

MODERATOR: Joining us is Jackson State. Head coach Tomeika Reed to my left. We're also joined by red shirt junior forward Miya Crump, 21 points, five rebounds. And graduate center, Ameshya Williams-Holliday, 15 points and 12 rebounds in this evening's game against LSU. Coach, as always, congratulations on the effort on your season. We'd like to start with you and any opening comment you would like to make.

COACH REED: First of all, I'm just extremely proud of our team. Very proud of how hard they fought. You know, they never gave up. They never stopped believing. And, you know, first half we didn't give our best showing. You know, we didn't get some of the calls we thought we should have got. It was an uphill fight and a battle in that regards. Nevertheless, that was something we dealt with all year in preseason play.

But aside of that, you make free throws, I think it's a different ballgame. I think it's a different ballgame. Nevertheless, I'm extremely proud of our players. I'm proud of Miya and very proud of Ameshya and I'm proud of the entire team and my coaching staff.

Q. This one's or Ameshya. You talked about a little bit about you coming back to Jackson State for an additional year to play in the tournament again. Can you describe the feeling and emotion playing out there today and coming so close?

AMESHYA WILLIAMS-HOLLIDAY: Even though I didn't start good, I think I had an ending good. I just know I had to show who I am when I got out there on the floor and play for my team and try to get the win. Even though we didn't get the win, I think we played very good and very hard.

Q. This is for both of you. Miya, you can answer first. You guys came out with rise of the underdog t-shirts. Can you talk about a little bit about what that phrase meant to you guys and how you kind of went out there and embodied the underdog?

MIYA CRUMP: So in the preseason we started saying, you know, rise of the underdog because it seems like every game we were the underdog. We were playing against power fives, you know. Everybody looked to see the power fives blow us out and we didn't get blown out once. So we just stuck with the same phrase in the postseason.

AMESHYA WILLIAMS-HOLLIDAY: Today we tried to make a statement with that rise of the underdog, but it didn't come out as we playing. But, as she said, that's what our statement was from rise of the underdog.

Q. Miya, you don't see a lot of 30 point quarters in college basketball anymore. Just what did you all do so well and how much confidence did that give you to come out of the half and really take it to them?

MIYA CRUMP: That tech Coach Reed got. That fueled us, you know, because Coach Reed always got our back. So When Coach Reed catch the tech, we got to have her back because she can't say much. So we got to play with the ball.

Q. Ameshya, I know it is hard to do it, but when you look back at your career at Jackson State and the decision to come here and how everything ended up, what do you take away from that whole experience?

AMESHYA WILLIAMS-HOLLIDAY: I'm very thankful that I came back because I accomplished a lot. But I don't -- it's a lot I can take from this. It just build me as the person I am today and made me a better person and I thank Coach Reed for giving me a chance and I just got more to prove.

Q. Miya, Coach Reed said on your goals board beating a power five team is the one you hadn't ticked off. But I think you guys really represented your team really well today. Is there any solace in that?

MIYA CRUMP: Say that again.

Q. Any comfort in how well you played and kind of what you showed on your team. You guys just talked about being blown out before and that clearly wasn't the case today.

MIYA CRUMP: I mean you take comfort in it, but the job's not done and the goal ain't finished. We didn't meet it yet.

MODERATOR: Now we'll take questions for coach.

Q. Coach, you came back from a 17-point deficit, and you talked a little bit prior about this team's poise and composure. Was there any point within today where you looked at it and knew that this team was going to just fight and claw back in?

COACH REED: Yeah, at halftime they were talking amongst each other. And I do hear that talk when I'm walking into our locker room. And I could tell that they were not satisfied. They were not happy. They were extremely disappointed with how the first half went. They were talking about how we faced this before, but we've been here before. And they talked about Texas game. And you know, at halftime against Texas we were down 20 and we walked them down as well. So when I came in the locker room that's kind of the point I talked about to them. We have been here before. You know, we have been down before and now we just one possession at a time. Trust me and the adjustments that we're going to make and I'm going to trust you to make those adjustments. And so that's what we were able to do coming back out and playing a better third quarter.

Q. The technical seemed to turn the trajectory of the game. What did you implore your team during that period of time?

COACH REED: Yeah, you know, you -- you know, it's very unfortunate when as a head coach you can't talk to officials. You know, you want to be able to talk and speak and be able to communicate. But when you cut off those lines of communication, that's when there is a problem. And that's what I saw and early on we tried to cut those -- I tried to communicate and it wasn't there, and I said you know what, let me just go ahead and get it. Because if I did not get it, it's going to continue. And so I thought I was going to get away with it, but I didn't. He saw it. He understood what it meant. I went with it, you know. And I was -- you know, my team came to me and said Coach, please don't get thrown out. You are a major -- your statement, we got you, we got you. They all ran over and told me we got you, Coach. We got you. They high fived me, you know. And they did. They did just that. We took a 10-point lead and then just kind of went from there. And so I thought that that was a great technical foul at that time. And, you know, I'm glad he called it.

Q. Hey, Coach, last year you told your team after they lost to Baylor we will be back here. What was your message after today's game today?

COACH REED: Honestly my message after today's game was we have to continue to fight for our institution, for our conference. We have to continue to fight for our culture. We interest have to continue to knock on walls to get respect. We are knocking on walls, you have accomplished some things that hadn't been accomplished in this program and in this conference. But now it's time to come back and knock the walls down.

We have to make a strong statement in preseason next year. Another strong statement. And we're going to keep knocking until the respect is there. We're going to keep knocking until we get the same as other institutions. We're going to keep knocking because what happens is the transfer portal evens the playing field. And with the playing fields being even, all we ask is for everything to be fair across the board. Yes, we faced a very good team today. A very well-coached team. Yes, we came out with a game plan. Yes, we missed free throws. Yes, we made mistakes. But there was still some other things that played in on that and the world saw it. So for our institution, for our team, for our fight, we're going to continue to knock until we knock those doors down. That's what my message was.

Q. To follow up on that. We are less than 24 hours from what the world witnessed South Carolina do to Howard. How do you think your team and their play today against Baylor kind of earned that respect for your institution and for HBCUs across the country?

COACH REED: I hope it has given them a sense of pride that we can do it. I hope it has encouraged everybody. Obviously, we didn't win. I don't know what y'all saw, but all I feel is a loss, you know. But if you -- if anybody could take anything away from it is that we can and we will. We will. We will. You will see a change. We're going to keep working and going to -- and when the change starts, it's going to go across the board. It's going to go across the board. And it doesn't matter who we are. It doesn't matter what position we are. It doesn't matter what institution. It doesn't matter what conference. It's supposed to be the same across the board.

Q. What did LSU do well to get back in the game?

COACH REED: You know, they saw weakness and they started driving to the basket. They started attacking our big. And you know, we tried to jump into a two-three to kind of pad those gaps and keep them from going downhill. But you know they put pressure on us. Kim does not do a whole lot of full-court pressing. She pressed us and went back into the two-three zone. She doesn't play a two-three zone. For us to be able to do some things that she doesn't do says a lot about this team and I'm extremely proud. Those are the changes that they made, and we've seen a lot of pressing all year and so we tried to make those adjustments. Again, when you got your point guard coming down the floor and she get tripped and hit in the face and nothing is called for, it is what we face. You know, and it's okay, we just got to play through it. She did a great job of putting up the pressure full court and attacking us. Getting to the rim.

Q. Coach, each year you guys are getting closer and closer and better and better. I know you have a lot of takeaways after each season. And looking at this season and how this game played out, what do you and your coaching staff want to address going into next year given that you guys are so close to meeting these ultimate goals?

COACH REED: You know, we want to continue to recruit bigger. Continue to recruit bigger guards. Continue to recruit bigger players. Continue to recruit players like Miya Crump who is playing at this level. You know, players who are not fearful, players going to continue to take this program forward. Every year my staff has done a great job in recruiting great talent. And so what happens is who we face in the tournament is what we begin to measure ourself on. So you know, we got to get -- we just got to continue to recruit better athletes. And I'm -- I'm not saying anything is wrong with my team now, don't get me wrong. But obviously we want to continue to put those pieces there. Because you have to continue to climb. You got to continue to climb. And you are only going to do that when you bring in the top athletes and we have that coming. We have some pretty big commitments right now and some pretty significant signees, so we are going to keep building this thing. And we going to wear that transfer portal out, you know. I hope I can find somebody who in the sweet 16 this year somebody who can make it to the elite eight, I'm going to get them, you know. When you can bring that type of experience to your program, this doesn't happen again. We're knocking. We're knocking. And I'm telling you, we're going to knock that door down next year.

Q. One more question in the front here.

Q. Quick follow-up. What has Ameshya Williams meant to this program? Kind of alluded to the transfer portal. I think she kind of proved that hey, this can happen. These kind of things can happen. Just what she meant to the program and her performance and being the WNBA prospect potentially as well?

COACH REED: Ameshya means everything to this program. Just the start, just for us to even get her here into the program. Begging her to come play. She says she didn't like to run. I said you don't have to run, we'll figure that running part out. And then 30 minutes later she is sending me a picture of a pregnancy test. I said I don't care, I just want you in school. To see her come and she has grown tremendously. I watched her go from first time I met her in high school to now I've seen her grow. I have seen her grow as a young lady, as a young woman, as a wife, as a mother. She's helped make me a better person. She's helped me believe. She's the one who built this program. You know, because she believed enough in me, others followed her. You know, and others followed them. She has opened the door. The stillness that we are trying to crack, she has -- that is what she has done for the program. And even though this is her last game for Jackson State University, she's going to continue to open the door for our conference, for our institution, for our HBCU community. You know, we're trying to get her drafted. You know, she's a top player from Mississippi State. Had she been at Mississippi State right now, she would be top four on the draft board. But she chose to come to Jackson State University, and I don't want her to be held back because of that. She did great for this institution, and I think she will be great in the WNBA. Someone take a chance on her. That's another door that's opened for the HBCU community. She means everything to this program, everything to me and everything to our HBCUs.

MODERATOR: Thanks for your time. Congratulations on your season.

COACH REED: Thank you.