NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - MIAMI (FL) VS SOUTH CAROLINA

March 20, 2022

Katie Meier

Kelsey Marshall

Maeva Djaldo-Tabdi

Miami (FL) Hurricanes

Media Conference

South Carolina 49, Miami 33

KATIE MEIER: Just, you know, great turnout by the fans and the community. It really fueled them. I'm really -- you know, I've been in the business long enough to take a pause and look up and just say, you know, wow. This is pretty amazing, this much love, this much support.

It's happening all across the country now. I think it's fantastic. I know it probably wasn't the best offensive display for the network TV to show, but if you don't think women compete, I think we might have changed your mind.

I mean, that was just a bunch of competitors out there that were playing as hard and as gritty and tough as you can ever play. So I think that -- to be there in person and to see how much of an effort it took on both squads, to just be standing on the floor and seeing those bodies and that effort and that passion and that grit, I mean it was really, really hard, but it was really, really impressive, too.

It was unbelievable. I think we were trying to match punch for punch and obviously we didn't, but certainly not at all are we hanging our heads. Not one bit.

If you didn't understand the grit and the character of our team, I think we proved that today. South Carolina, tons of credit to them. Tons of credit to their patience on offense. You know, they didn't have a great offensive day, but I think Miami got frustrated before South Carolina did, and that was the difference.

Neither team was going to score 100 points. It wasn't going to be like that. But we got frustrated first, and that surprised me, because we have played games where we were 45, 46. It shouldn't have upset us.

But it did, and they never seemed upset. They seemed prepared for it and very composed. I think that second quarter we got a little emotional and gathered ourselves, and I'll take those other three quarters. I will. It's going to be that hard against anybody to score.

Second quarter is the only quarter I thought, you know, wow. I think they did a fantastic job on the defensive end of preparing and scouting, but I thought we did a fantastic job as well.

So they're a great team. I mean, they're so hard to score against. I wasn't frustrated because I was watching film for two days going, Wow, this is going to be hard. I said we had to hit 13 threes to win and we had to be prepared to make 13 threes, and we didn't; only hit five.

At a certain point you got to shoot over them because they're very, very good and they're very, very connected on the defensive end.

Q. For both of you, we were just talking about the frustration setting in this. I guess what do you say to each other or within yourselves to try to get over that when the shots aren't falling?

KELSEY MARSHALL: Yeah, you know, the whole game we just -- we got a little rattled. I'm not going to lie. We were all screaming at each other at one point. Then we started to settle down, and that's when we started to score a little bit more.

But we are always trying to feed positivity to each other, stay confident, and encourage each other to make the next shot we take.

MAEVA DJALDI-TABDI: She said everything. (Smiling.)

Q. Kelsey, I know you obviously watched film on South Carolina defensively as well, but in the heat of the moment, in the battle, were you just surprised at the footwork of their bigs and just them being able to rotate and switch like they did and kind of keep you guys from a being able to drive the paint pretty officially? Was that just kind of surprising to see in the moment in person?

KELSEY MARSHALL: I wasn't really surprised. I was expecting it. We try to prepare days before in practice to jump stop when we get inside the paint and look for our teammates out in the three point. But every time it got there, either the people on the three-point line were being denied or we traveled and turned the ball over.

So we weren't really surprised. Just they're just a really good defensive team.

Q. On the other end, you guys really stunted their offense. You don't see this South Carolina team only score 49 points. What were you able to do defensively to frustrate them on their offense?

KELSEY MARSHALL: We just tried to pack the paint. They're not really a shooting team. They score more of their points inside the paint. We just tried to pack inside the paint and make the layups more difficult than usual.

MAEVA DJALDI-TABDI: I think we tried to hold the bigs as much as we could, because their main player is Boston. I think the main thing is they got too many offensive rebounds and that's how (indiscernible.)

But, yeah, that's pretty much it. We tried to do as much as we could and we tried to stick to the game plan, and yeah, that's it.

Q. Maeva, kind of a two parter for you. With coach talking about the three-pointers, how much of that with you getting five was a concerted effort, or were you just not finding things inside?

MAEVA DJALDI-TABDI: I think that -- I mean, we talked about it with the coach and stuff, and the bigs -- when we set screens then the bigs often stayed low, so because I can shoot the three we decided I should pop and take it, because I can shoot it.

Obviously if I had more things open in the paint I would've taken it but I didn't today, so that's where I found my threes.

Q. And then also with defending Aliyah and Kamilla and a lot of those girls who have that size, what was that like for you in those battles down low?

MAEVA DJALDI-TABDI: It was great. It was great. It's good to play against very good players and I respect them a lot. I learned from this game obviously, and it's going to be useful for later on in my life.

So, yeah.

Q. I'll ask you the same question: In the game, in the moment, in the battle, seeing Aliyah and Kamilla and Victaria's ability to be able to switch and keep the guards basically almost outside of the paint, was that surprising to just kind of see in person?

KATIE MEIER: It was, and I think that the thing you got to realize is, so if they switch the bigs and the guard, then as a coach you're like, Okay, we'll have the mismatch on the post, okay? But you don't against them.

So it's a very smart of them to do that, to switch their length out, because we didn't have -- it's not like -- Brea Beal is 5'4', right? We saw it; we understood it. That's what basketball tells you to do.

But you got to coach what you see. The two times we tried to throw it in there they tipped the pass with their size. So they did a really nice job on that. You need a multi-level guard that can score in what we call the drag zone a little bit more to beat them, and you need post second, hit the threes.

We did part A of it, but I think we were either three or key with our guards, and that's not the read you need to make. You need to be able to throw them back a little bit and then you got to shoot over like a really high soft -- I mean, it's a tough shot.

That's the shot they're going to give you if they do that scheme, and -- because I thought they protected -- there wasn't mismatch, though. I mean, do you know how big they are? You see how big they are, right? So where is the advantage?

They switch out on our 5'6" point guard and we try to roll down a 6'2" wing with our 6'4" 4 player. We really didn't have an advantage, so it was really good defense on their part.

Q. Is it frustrating that you're able to put in the one component of your game plan, hold Boston down, pack the zone, but couldn't get the other part together, enough offense generated to be able to make this score closer?

KATIE MEIER: Yeah, well, I do something where when we get the game plan all, and then I go and I kind of lock in, get in a bubble and come up with these how-to-beats and we share it all on the day.

I wrote my staff about 8:30 last night, I said, I'm still working on it. Still working on the how-to-beats. You got to be really, really creative, unless you can take advantage of some of the mismatches.

You know, when Zia Cooke got in foul trouble everybody was like, Yay, yay, yay. I was like, Well, that just adds more length. I mean, literally that just put in bigger players.

So was that great for us or not? It was great maybe on the defensive end, right? But on the offensive end that was one of my plans, was Zia, right?

I don't want to say exactly what it would've been, but then she was out and everyone was celebrating. I was like, okay, well now it's going to be even harder to get in there.

So that was something that happened in the game that I would say was a little bit -- like if you really thought about a wrinkle there, that was a tough one.

Q. You mentioned the mismatches. How would you describe the way Destiny was able to do her best against Aliyah with that size difference?

KATIE MEIER: Destiny Harden against Aliyah?

Q. Uh-huh.

KATIE MEIER: Okay. That didn't happen as much I thought. I thought Lola and Maeva were incredible. Maeva was the leading scorer in this game. She's got a great body. I think the kid is a pro. I really do. Great body, great skillset, IQ, she was the most composed of anyone on our team, and I thought she showed out really, really well today.

But there were some incredible -- like our bigs, but we were helping down for sure. That's where I think Destiny did a great job.

But when they went double big, you know, I'm shocked that they only had eight second chance points. I would call and say, Can we watch this box score again, because it seemed like more.

If they only had eight second chance points, you've got to really tip your hat to our interior defense, because they had a ton of offensive rebounds. I'm surprised they only turned them into eight points.

Yeah, that surprised me.

Q. With that stretch there struggling to get those field goals, what were you saying to them to keep them motivated and end the scoring drought?

KATIE MEIER: Yeah, you know, we had that same kind of a feel against NC State. I thought we had learned our lesson already because we definitely -- without question -- Kelsey referred to it -- we definitely were wanting to get a little bit blame-y of each other there.

I had to be mama bear and say, You're okay, You're okay, Come here, Come here. I would rather be yelling at them, right? But they were on each other and then I got switch. I got calm down and get them back in it and give them confidence and everything else.

I think we were much better when I was yelling at them. When they were fine and they were composed, then I get to yell. That's a better formula for Miami.