NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - BELMONT VS TENNESSEE

March 21, 2022

Tuti Jones

Madison Bartley

Bart Brooks

Belmont Bruins

Media Conference

Tennessee - 70, Belmont - 67

THE MODERATOR: We're joined at the podium by head coach Bart Brooks and student-athletes Tuti Jones and Madison Bartley.

BART BROOKS: First of all, a lot of credit to Tennessee. (Tennessee) Coach (Kellie) Harper has done -- people who don't do this for a living can't understand how hard it is to lose players like they've lost players as consistently down the stretch of a season -- where you've got to rework a lot of stuff. She's done an incredible job of piecing things together and still have a really, really good basketball team that there's not a lot of weaknesses on the floor with those guys. So, credit to her and her staff and those kids tonight. They played hard, they played well, and we were three points short tonight.

I can't be more proud of a group than I am of our group. I've got the best job in the world working for the greatest people in the world, the greatest university in the world. I still pinch myself when I walk across campus and say I get to work here every day. It's pretty cool.

The best part of it is the people I get to work with, and these young ladies, I've told them, this has been a hard year. This has been an exhausting year. But, man, it has been fun to coach this group, and it beats working for a living, that's for sure.

But I can't be more proud of the effort. And the two sitting next to me, I feel for all of them. They're all hurting really bad right now because they're competitors, and I think everyone who watched the game understands how competitive and tough this group is. There (were) a lot of chances to fold.

It was a great environment. I loved playing in front of all those fans. To see that many people excited about women's basketball, this is such a good game, and these players are so talented. It is really cool to see that many people excited about women's basketball.

Everyone in Knoxville has done a tremendous job of making us feel really welcome. This has been a great experience for our kids. I'm just thankful that we had the opportunity and extremely bummed and upset at myself for some mistakes I made down the stretch. I should have put these kids in better position.

Man, they gave everything tonight. I'm so proud of them.

Q. Madison and Tuti, you certainly showed women's basketball across the country who you are this weekend with the win over Oregon, taking Tennessee literally down to the final seconds of the game. You're probably going to leave here with a lot of what ifs, but do you also leave here with your heads held high for how you represented Belmont?

TUTI JONES: I would definitely say we're going to leave here with our heads high. Like Bart said, it's been a long season. We've grown so much together. We've grown a lot as a team. It was tough losing, of course, but we're definitely going to leave with our heads high. We're so proud of each other.

MADISON BARTLEY: I would say the same. The way we came back in that game is just something we all can be proud of, and the way we showed how great we play together and how tough we are and we go through all the adversity that we hit through the game is just something that helps us keep our head high.

Q. When you're making that comeback in the second half and shots are falling and the rhythm's going your way, how good are you feeling? How confident are you feeling? And then the flip side of that, the finality when that final second goes off.

MADISON BARTLEY: I would just say we started making that comeback, that was probably the best feeling to have our fans and our students and our coaches and everyone behind our back while we did it was even a better feeling for me, and I know that's also the same way for Tuti.

TUTI JONES: Yeah, basketball is a game of runs. We're going to have ours. The other team is going to have theirs. So it's part of the game. Of course having that comeback felt amazing, but we just didn't get the end result that we wanted.

Q. For either one, you had some chances there, especially in that final minute. When Destinee's got the ball in her hands and you're going down the court, confidence fairly high with that success rate that the ball is going to go down? When you saw it hit off the backboard, what was the feeling at that point?

TUTI JONES: Any time Destinee has the ball in her hand, I feel great. So I knew we had a shot at the end, but once the buzzer went off, I saw the ball didn't go through the net, it hurt, but we'll come back next year. We'll work harder, and we'll see what happens.

MADISON BARTLEY: I would say the same. It's really important to trust your point guards, and that's one thing that I do trust them and I trust that, when the ball is in their hands and it's crunch time, that they can do it. Whether that's with us or they have a play for them, they can do it. That's something that we just stand by.

Q. I just wanted to ask both of you on the three that they hit to take the lead, what you saw in that play? And I imagine a freshman who hadn't taken a three in that game, that probably wouldn't have been the worst option from your point?

TUTI JONES: Excuse me. What's the question?

Q. Just wanted to know what you saw in the last minutes? And just the fact that a freshman took that three for Tennessee.

TUTI JONES: I mean, I've known Sara Puckett for a long time and she's a great player. It doesn't matter what year she is. She just made a shot, and we had a chance after that. We just couldn't complete it.

Q. You two and Destinee are sophomores, so this is your second year having this result. How much fuel does that add to your fire to come back next season?

MADISON BARTLEY: I would say this is something to really look forward to out of this group. I said it before, and I'll say it again, the way we fought today is something to show the world and also just showing the world that next year we're going to fight even harder and harder to get back where we are and then fix what we -- you know, you just got to work hard.

That's our memo at Belmont. Working hard and being tough throughout adversity and this is a point of adversity for us. So, we need to come back next year and just work harder to get back to where we were.

Q. Tuti, you had zero field goals at halftime. You finished with 17 points. What was the message at the half for you guys to kind of turn it around that much?

TUTI JONES: I was told I wasn't being aggressive enough. So, yeah, just trying to be more aggressive and trying to help out my team as much as I could.

Q. You touched on it a little, Madison, but for both of you there was a little bit of a theme, and Coach talked about it, about not being intimidated by the name on the other jersey and competing with top Power Five programs. Despite the loss, what do you feel you proved tonight?

MADISON BARTLEY: In my opinion, I proved that we can keep up with anybody and that's just plain and simple. The way we came back -- and I'm going to keep saying it. I'm sorry it's repetitive. But that gave us the entire world to show -- I mean, we showed everybody what we could do.

We didn't come up with the win, but being that close with Tennessee is something that we should be really proud of and something that the world should look out for next year.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you both for joining us.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the three. You understand what I'm trying to say? Basically I would imagine there's other players you would rather not shoot there. What did you see on that play and how it unfolded?

BART BROOKS: We didn't want to give up a layup. They were -- it's a hard team to guard when you're undersized like we are. You've got to have a couple of bodies, and you've got to really crowd the post, and I thought we did that a little bit better in our zone than we did our man. So we switched to zone and played that predominantly down the stretch.

I thought we had some really good possessions, but basically our message was throughout the fourth quarter, we can't give them layups. We've got to take their layups away, make them make a jump shot. To their credit, they did. Big moment. It's not like we were trying to give them that shot necessarily. To their credit, they executed, and they got the look that they wanted and they knocked it down.

But like our players said, we still had the ball. We still had a shot at it. I had a lot of things running through my mind, but I felt good about us in transition because I felt like we got a lot of good stuff in transition. I knew that going into the game that was a place where we were going to get some baskets and I thought we did through that run in the second half. We just didn't quite connect on the play.

I can't remember which go and look at the review that was, but it didn't go our way. You get to the foul game, and we just didn't quite execute. But, yeah, credit to them, they hit the shot.

Q. You guys lost pretty badly to Indiana last year in this round. I'm curious, is it harder to lose a game by so little than it was last year, or does it give you more hope for the future?

BART BROOKS: I don't know how to answer this. I don't know if this answer is good. My beautiful wife and my two baby boys are back there. It's like picking between your children but the opposite of that. They both stink really bad.

I think the difference between this year and last year largely was the two young ladies sitting next to me. They worked their butts off in the off-season, and they weren't happy. I think that loss fueled our off-season, and we got a lot closer this year, I think, to being a really nationally competitive program, and I think everyone in the country, playing Tennessee on the road, not a lot of teams have done that well this year.

We put ourselves in a chance to win the game. So, I think that loss helped us this year, and I think this loss, if I know the quality of character of the young ladies sitting next to me and the young ladies in that locker room, I know this loss is going to help us a lot during the off-season.

Q. Bart, you've talked a lot about the journey with this team this year. For them to go through everything they've had to get to this point and play the game that they did, how tough is it for you as their coach to know that it's over right now? And then how exciting is it to know you have a lot of them coming back next year?

BART BROOKS: This is the worst moment in the life of a coach because you're prepared for everything as a coach. You never prepare for your last post-game loss speech. That's something that it blind-sides you. It smacks you right in the gut. You don't know what to say to these kids who have put everything in this.

The journey is the beauty of this profession, going through the ups and downs, seeing someone get better at a closeout as the year goes. Those moments that we share together on the bus and the hotel, telling them they can go get ice cream and how excited they get. I mean, all the stuff that we do together, how hard we work together. We work so hard. I mean, these kids work so hard.

And for it to end, it just hits you. So it is really tough to sit and look at that group. I'll get over it. I've got a few more gray hairs. I'll get over it. But, man, those kids put so much into this. So it's really special to go through these moments, these experiences with these young ladies and I'm just grateful to have the opportunity to experience the journey because that really is the beauty of this.

Q. Coach, can you talk to me a little bit about that second half comeback you guys had. What was the message to the team at halftime? What do you feel like you guys were able to do differently in that second half?

BART BROOKS: I told them I think we're down 12, so we need to make that up, and they did. Now, we needed to move the ball more. I thought we were a little stagnant offensively. Our numbers, we -- I thought we took a lot of guarded shots that maybe weren't -- we got some really good shots too. They just didn't go in for us. I thought a lot of that was because we were kind of stationary on offense. Then we'd change that a little bit and got a little more aggressive defensively.

We've just got some competitive kids. We talked about it at halftime. Hey, if they're better than us, they're better than us, but let's compete and give everything we've got. Stack good possessions on top of each other, and the score will take care of itself.

To their credit, there's no challenge that's been too big for them this year.

Q. Tennessee's been a great rebounding team this year, and despite being undersized, you still give them a run for their money in that regard. What did you guys do to keep that part of the game so close?

BART BROOKS: I thought we didn't do it well early. We got a lot better as the game went. I think so much of it was us being aggressive offensively, getting them in more rotations, then we got some second shots, we got some easy baskets. So we chased some long rebounds down, and I think that was a huge momentum shift for us. I think we hit a couple of big threes off of offensive rebounds. Those are deflating. They're deflating when they happen to you, and they're deflating for the other team when you can get some of those second chance points.

If you'd have told me we'd beat them by eight in second chance points, I'd have said I'll take it. I don't care what the score is, but I'll take it. It was fight, competitive, toughness, but they're the best team we played on the glass, and for us to be in the game physically with them was, I think, really special for what our players did out there.

Q. Just looking ahead, I think Belmont last played here in 2018, and it had been a long time since Belmont and Tennessee played. Is this a series maybe worth pursuing, particularly with the schools being so close?

BART BROOKS: I'm in. I'll play here every year, every year. I'll play here. You don't even have to come -- I'd love you to come to Belmont. I'd love you to come play at 5he Curb. But every year, let's do it. I'm in.