NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - NOTRE DAME VS OKLAHOMA

March 20, 2022

Jennie Baranczyk

Madi Willilams

Skylar Vann

Taylor Robertson

Oklahoma Sooners

Media Conference

Q. Skylar, obviously you were hurt during the Big 12 tournament and it seemed like it was pretty much out to the deadline when it comes to you being cleared. Can you walk us through how that process went and the emotions that you felt when you knew that you were going to be able to play in March Madness?

SKYLAR VANN: I mean, I spent a lot of time with our trainer Brittani, and she's like my best friend this week. My teammates just had my back and I feel like it was a little bit emotional, but since they were there for me, I felt like I would be fine.

Q. Skylar, when you think of Notre Dame women's basketball and you think of nine Final Fours and two National Championships and one of the blue bloods of the sport recently had a Hall of Fame coach retire, when I say Notre Dame basketball, what do you guys think of? Before you think of playing them here tomorrow night.

SKYLAR VANN: I mean, we're just happy to be here and just to play in this moment. It's pretty great. That's how I feel.

MADI WILLIAMS: Obviously they're a great program. They have a lot of accolades. But yeah, we're just going to make sure that we focus on ourselves. As long as we focus on our business on the court and bring our own energy, I feel like we should be fine.

TAYLOR ROBERTSON: Yeah, what they said. A great program. Obviously a lot of history there, but we're more worried about ourselves.

Q. Madi, you talked last night about the last three years and how rough they've been. What was the toughest thing or the toughest moment during that time, and when did you feel that this season had a chance to be significantly different?

MADDIE NOLAN: I think a couple of the roughest moments was winning eight games my freshman year, and then after that we got better as time progressed, but we just couldn't get over that hump. We couldn't get over that wall. But we knew we were good. We were hanging in with some of the best teams in the nation, in the country. And we just needed to figure out how we were going to be able to finish games and come out with wins.

Ever since last year, I guess we started to kind of see that we could hang with everybody and we could compete even with six people. So imagine what we could do with a full roster. I think that last year helped us see that.

TAYLOR ROBERTSON: I agree with all that. Especially late last year, that's kind of when we started to play really well together and we started to translate that into wins. And I think that kind of carried over into this year with all of the experience we had and all the new people and new staff and everything. And I think that kind of -- it just like built over time.

Q. Taylor, what are some of the things that teams do to try to keep the ball out of your hands that are maybe unique or maybe have changed over the last couple of years? You've always been a good shooter, but this year in particular, really, really good year. What are people doing?

TAYLOR ROBERTSON: I mean, obviously they're face guarding me. Even sometimes like right as I cross half court they're already right in my face, just trying to not let me touch it at all.

I think -- then they just follow me around and they are always aware, and I think that has been a little bit different than some of the years.

Q. Madi and Taylor, you guys have been here for a long time. You guys are two of the senior leaders on this team. It was a struggle for most of you guys' careers to get to this point where you guys are in the tournament after having a not so great season before then. What does it take to have this quick turnaround where now you've won a tournament game and what's going to be required to keep the success up?

MADI WILLIAMS: I think it's just our belief that we have in each other and in the program that has been able to help us get these wins and pull out wins and just have a great year this year. And even a little bit last year, starting to see how we can play with each other and how well we play with each other and that we're kind of a force to be reckoned with, so yeah.

TAYLOR ROBERTSON: Going off that, I think that since we're such a team with great depth, I think that'll help with the quick turnarounds since we play again tomorrow when we just played last night. We have so many people that can contribute and do everything on the court, I think that definitely helps being able to have a quick turnaround and still be just as good as we were last night.

Q. Skylar, for you, I wanted to ask about the emotional swing from last Saturday to this Saturday. What was that like for you? What were you thinking when you went off the court in Kansas City, and just when did you get a sense that you would be able to play yesterday?

SKYLAR VANN: After Kansas City, I was scared. I was really scared. I didn't really know. Doctors were like, talking to Brittani and I just wasn't sure what was going to happen.

But over time I just felt like every day I was just getting better and better. And with Brittani, like we just did everything we could to get me to this point today.

Q. Madi, you mentioned a few minutes ago finishing last year with six players down the stretch and how crazy that was. Every game you didn't know who was going to be available, but six. And then Taylor, if you could address, you spoke about the depth on this year's team. That's two completely different things, finishing with six and having depth as a luxury. If you could expound on those a little bit, kind of what that situation last year meant to this year's team.

MADI WILLIAMS: Yeah, I mean, it definitely put a sense of -- the fact that we could hang with people with six players, and those six players were -- you never knew what positions you were going to have on the floor. A lot of times it was all five guards and we just had to figure it out, and that just showed us that we could face adversity and we could push through.

I don't know, it was one of the funnest seasons I've had here, just to be able to go out and not know what was going on, how many people we would have, who we would have, and just to go and hoop. That's all we were worried about.

TAYLOR ROBERTSON: Yeah, when we had six, since we didn't know which six it would be, we'd be playing with five guards. A lot of times we thought we'd be at a disadvantage because we had a lot more of the smaller guards instead of the bigger guards. And it would still be like a matchup problem with other teams because they might be bigger on the offensive end but when we play offense who are they going to guard, how are they going to guard. Because they're going to have to come out on the perimeter, we'll just be able to shoot over them.

Being able to find different ways last year with six, I think that has helped this year because the six or seven or eight that were available last year now are back, and that depth and experience has definitely helped in all ways this year.

Q. Taylor, Madi said in Kansas City that you were the resident bracket watcher for the team. Obviously there's a lot less time to scout Notre Dame compared to what you had with IUPUI. What have you seen so far? What are you expecting from this game?

TAYLOR ROBERTSON: Notre Dame, they're a great basketball team. They have a lot of great players. They have a really good freshman guard, Olivia Miles. She's really good. She's fun to watch. They have quite a few shooters, so we'll have to make sure that we are knowing the scout and know who we're guarding and how we're going to guard according to that.

MADI WILLIAMS: Yeah, I mean, they're good, and I'm excited to go play. I'm excited to go play somebody I haven't played before and kind of showcase our talent on that platform.

SKYLAR VANN: Yeah, I agree with Madi and Taylor. I think they're a good team, but we're just going to go out there and have fun and play.

Q. For all of you, starting with Taylor, I wanted to ask you about Coquese Washington. What was your experience like with her last year and what's it like now here in the NCAA Tournament, about to face her team?

TAYLOR ROBERTSON: It'll be really cool to go against her. It was really fun when she was here. She was fun to be around. She was a really good coach.

It'll be really exciting to face up against her and her team.

MADI WILLIAMS: Yeah, it was cool having her around and just the insight that she brought along with her high energy and just her -- I don't know, she was just fun. We still talk, we still -- I got a chance to talk to her yesterday before the game, and we just embraced each other. And I was like, I can't wait to play y'all the next round. Regardless of what happened, I can't wait.

SKYLAR VANN: I didn't really have her as a coach. She did recruit me, though, so it was like nice talking to her and everything. But I believe what they're saying about it, that it was awesome.

Q. I'll ask Madi but if anybody wants to add, feel free. I believe you played a motion offense under Sherri. You're playing a motion offense now. I'm also pretty sure they're two pretty different offenses. Maybe it's improvisation, but what is the difference? What do you do now that you didn't do then?

MADI WILLIAMS: That's a good question. I'm not sure. Sherri had a lot of -- sorry, Coach Coale -- had a lot of set plays and telling us where to go and where we were going to be, but she also taught us how to make reads. And I think that translates over to what Jennie is teaching us in her motion offense.

But Coach Coale laid that foundation for us to be able to do that on her own, and now Jennie is just kind of expanding on what we've already learned and now we can use that to help her teach the younger kids how to read and react to defenses.

Q. Is the difference that it's all reads? There is no set --

MADI WILLIAMS: No, yeah, the majority of -- probably 90 percent of what Jennie tells us to run or what she's teaching us are offenses motion and probably about 60, 70 was probably Coach Coale. But even if it wasn't all reads, she was still teaching us how to make those reads within her offense.

Q. I want to talk about you guys' practices. I was there watching you guys practice for the first 15 minutes before you played IUPUI and you were very upbeat, the energy was pretty high. I wanted to ask you guys, how crucial is it to you guys to game plan, getting game preparation, to kind of have those practices where you guys are really intense, really high energy and everything like that?

SKYLAR VANN: It's good that you saw that because I think that's our big thing is having high energy in practice and having that consistently through.

Our game plan is just to go out there and play, and of course like no personnel, but at the end of the day just do what we do.

TAYLOR ROBERTSON: That was good. That was good.

Q. Jennie, we just talked to Taylor, Madi, and Skylar, and we talked about the struggles of last year, especially practicing with six, playing with six quite a bit, but how that helped their confidence that this year was going to be better. What was your judge of this team's confidence when you arrived and how did you go about managing that, especially early once you got here?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: Well, I think every team kind of went through some challenges last year, and what I think is so phenomenal about this group is just the resiliency. And so from a confidence standpoint, I think you've been able to see that, a steadiness and a smile, and just the way that they can respond to things that are a little bit tough.

When did I see that? I don't know, probably right away when we first got here. A lot of times -- I never thought about it this way, but you have to have confidence in yourself and your team when a new coach comes in and you're open. And I think that's something that I probably saw right from the beginning. But then in terms of when you're on the court with people, I think you kind of see it as practice goes on.

But I think especially with our tough non-conference schedule, to be able to see us respond in a lot of those situations, really started to be able to get a little bit deeper in terms of us as a coaching staff being able to see their confidence grow. Because there's one thing about being a confident player and there's a whole other thing being confident in your team.

Q. With getting the win last night, especially against a team you had to put away late, does that help with the feeling of settling into the tournament?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: I hope so. I hope so, right? But it's tournament time. It's March Madness. I think the biggest thing in terms of looking at this tournament as a whole every year, especially in women's basketball, there's more upsets, right? In men's basketball there have been upsets a lot over the years, and so in women's basketball, I think you're really starting to see that parity.

So from that standpoint, I think it helps you. Yes, getting any kind of a win in this tournament is huge, right? But being able to play through some things, have a home court -- because there's a little bit of pressure in that, there's a little bit of unknown in that, you're playing a good team.

So I think your confidence just builds as time goes.

Q. Last night just seemed like a game where just a lot of things were clicking. You guys were good on defense and you held them to, I think, 20 percent from three-point range. You were really good on offense with 78 points, hit eight threes. How important is that this stage of the season where everything is going and everything is clicking and everyone on the floor seems to be doing something good?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: Well, I need to sit in your seat because I wasn't sure everything was clicking the whole time last night. Honestly, I think it's fun to be able to watch us be in a game and be able to manage it. And we still have so many learning opportunities, as well. So I think from that standpoint, I am glad that we made some adjustments at halftime.

I think that was a really big deal for us to be able to make some adjustments and to able to really carry those out. So I think from that standpoint, that part really good for us and that's where we have to continue -- because you're going to continue to have to make adjustments as time goes. I mean, we're going to play an opponent that has such balanced scoring. So you've got to manage the game as the game happens. You can prepare as much as you want, but you still have to be able to make adjustments, so that's what I was really happy with last night.

Q. Olivia Miles, what stands out about her?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: Well, maybe her triple-double.

No, I think her vision, her ability -- you have to be able to guard her as a team. She's such a -- she can put the ball in the hole. She can score in a variety of ways. But she just makes everyone around her better, and so that is such a challenge as an opponent. But great for the game.

Q. Regarding the question about what they called last year's super six, finishing the season and finishing so many games throughout the season with just six players and winning those games, winning a lot of them, did you hear any horror stories about how tough it was, minutes played or anything like that, when you got one-on-one with the girls when you got here? And then could you see how that kind of finish would toughen them up for what's happened this year, all the close wins that we talked about last night?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: I think the phenomenal thing about this group is they're proud of that. There weren't the horror stories. Some of it was in February when we're still practicing and they're like, wait a second, we didn't really get to practice much a year ago, and this year we got to practice a little bit more because we have a little bit more depth. So it might have been more horror from this year than it was from last year.

But I think the stories that they talk about, being able to do that, again, goes into the resiliency, goes into nothing is too big or too small for this team. Especially at those end-of-game situations, I think living where they can really trust each other, because you have to, but I think you can definitely see that that has propelled them.

I think most teams that went through last year in terms of -- it wasn't that easy living in the bubble, right, with your team. And I think some teams separated and some teams really connected, and I think this is a team that really connected, and you can see it this year.

Q. Kind of along those lines, you've coached in a number of these. How critical is it having a couple of veterans like Madi and Taylor that have been through some of the pressure-packed moments of the season, but the rest of the team can kind of lean on them in close-game situations late in the tournament?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: Well, I think those two just do a phenomenal job of being able to just be themselves, and we've talked about that all season instead of trying to carry everybody and say, okay, come jump on my back.

I think when Madi just plays how Madi plays, she tends to have this incredible leadership around her and raises the level of everybody else. When Madi really tries to coach everybody else, it's a little bit more difficult for her to be able to focus on what she needs to, and I feel like Taylor is the exact same way.

I think from their standpoint, I've loved watching their progression of really them gaining confidence and learning how to lead. Because sometimes when you lead, you think you've got to fix everybody else and you've got to tell them what to do and you've got to call them up and you've got to have this standard. And yes, sometimes that does happen. But for the most part, it's you being your best every single day, and then the people around you tend to be their best every single day.

That's what's been fun to be able to watch them. So it doesn't matter if it's in practice and it doesn't matter if it's this game in the NCAA Tournament. I think that's been really great progression for both of them this year.

Q. I just wanted to ask you about how Taylor affects the game and what kind of things teams do to guard her that are different than what they do against normal players.

JENNIE BARANCZYK: Yeah, Taylor is everything but normal, I guess, in a variety of ways, and she would appreciate that. If she were sitting here, I would say the exact same thing.

No, everyone has to game plan for Taylor. Nobody just says, yep, she's a shooter; everybody has their game plan for her. Especially in transition, they really try to find her so she does an incredible job. I think, as the season has gone on, it's her player movement, in terms of whether or not she uses a screen or she cuts to the basket.

I think there's times that she wants to shoot threes and she'll stay outside that three-point line, but I think as time has gone on, she's done an incredible job of really cutting to the basket. But she also is an incredible passer, and I think that that's a little bit underrated. Because when she has the ball in her hands, she can really create some things for some other people. She just draws so much attention.

Q. Jennie, obviously this is going to be a little bit different than the preparation for IUPUI just because of the time frame. It's just such a quick turnaround. For your team, is it more focusing on just individual stuff like within your own team and working on that, or is it game planning for Notre Dame with that quick of a turnaround?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: We will do some things to focus on us. Our practice will be obviously very light today and mostly just a walk-through. We didn't get out of here until midnight last night, so we'll be pretty smart and keep them fresh for tomorrow.

Definitely you've got to be able to prepare for them as much as you can. And the biggest thing I think, too, is trying to find the similarities in common opponents and so -- or not common opponents but in opponents that we've had. So that is nice to be able to do that. And again, I go back to the great conference we get to play in in the Big 12 and you see such a variety of play and styles, and I think that's what benefits you this time of year. Now is where you start to see the fruit of that.

Q. When I got to watch you practice I got to see the intensity you practice with. How important is that to you guys' game preparation and game planning. And also from someone that -- you actually played defense against your players in practice? Is that true? Is that something that you do? Is that true?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: Well, yes, it is true, and I would like to leave that out of a press conference. But no, I think especially when -- you do what you have to do, and that's in terms of coaching. They better have said that I was good on defense and probably are very intimidated by me. No, I'm kidding. But that is part of it.

I love to have an intense practice, and today obviously won't necessarily be that, but we want to be really competitive. That's a value of this program is just to love to compete every day, and part of it is being in it with them.

That's a coaching style. It's not -- I'm not going to just tell them what to do. I don't want it to be about me, I want it to be about our team. I want to -- I coach the way that I want them to play. I want to be with them as much as I possibly can, and I think it's fun. I think it's fun for them.

Look at our crowd. Our crowd is completely engaged, and I think they fuel off this team, this incredible team. So that's just -- my job is to be able to orchestrate that as much as possible.

Q. I think you may have just given me part of your answer to this and this may be a reach, but the day you were hired, I remember you talking about how players are required to be themselves. It's a big deal. They call you by your first name, and your offense is about their improvisation rather than you telling them where to go. Do those things connect in sort of coaching philosophy that's about empowerment of them rather than I'm going to show you where you need to go or something like that?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: No, 100 percent. I think we talk about the empowerment of women all the time, and yet we still tell them what to do. So we have to put them in positions -- I think that when you cross those lines, you get to learn life skills like problem solving, you get to see what teamwork actually is, how do you figure something out. Because I think that's an underrated quality right now, especially as they go away from here.

So yes, you want to be really competitive, you want to be able to make reads. I do believe that they can make better reads than we can coach. There's a time and play that we need to make a play call, but if they're making those reads, it's incredible to see what happens. And sometimes we make reads that maybe I don't agree with, but that's okay, those are learning moments, so those are things -- especially fourth quarter management and things like that as time has gone on.

But I do think that -- Madi Williams and Taylor Robertson are completely different people, they're completely different players and yet they work, and it's incredible to watch that they can play to each other's strengths because they know who they are and they know who each other are. And I think when you have that, that's when magic really starts to happen. I think you've been able to see that throughout the season, especially in our assist numbers and our movement. You can really start to see some of those things.

But I think it all goes hand in hand.

Q. Does that connect all the way to a reluctance to call time-outs in the regular season but a willingness, like last night even after a made basket -- it's the tournament, let's get in there and talk about it. But it seemed like over the course of the regular season, your preference was to let them figure it out on the court?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: Yes. That's a huge part of a teaching tool, especially it's year one in the system. So we have to be able to learn some of those things.

You'll see also in terms of conversation, there's a lot of times in a dead-ball situation that I'll ask Madi, do we need a time-out, are we good, are we not good, where are we? And they'll say, yep, we're good, and sometimes we're not and sometimes we are. That's where those conversations start to happen.

If you watch our time-outs when we do have them, it's not just me talking at them, it is a conversation. So that's not just development for this team and this year, that's for future years. Because you want active participants, you want players that come here and it's not a chess match, it's not my chess match. I want them to be active participants to be able to play this game.

It's a beautiful game. It's so much fun. Look at this game, look at players making plays this time of year and it's really cool when it's multiple people that kind of -- it's the pass -- it's the hockey assist. I love that. I love that, and people love watching that.

Q. Beyond the team that you're playing tomorrow and the season that they've had, when I say NCAA Tournament, you're playing Notre Dame, does that ring a bell? Does that resonate with you? Does it resonate with college kids that they're playing a program that has the pedigree that Notre Dame does?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: You know, I asked our team that same question earlier, and yes, you're playing a great team, you're playing -- we've already been asked about Olivia Miles. I think most of our players know who she is and most of our players know who a lot of their players are. And at the same time, we've played some great teams. We've played Baylor three times this season and they're a 2 seed and probably could have been a 1 seed. So we've played some great teams in our league.

So I think from that standpoint, you always go in with really high regard and high respect. You've still got to compete and you've still got to show up, so that's really mostly where our focus is.