NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL SEMIFINAL - NORTH CAROLINA VS SOUTH CAROLINA

March 24, 2022

Deja Kelly

Alyssa Ustby

Carlie Littlefield

Greensboro Coliseum

North Carolina Tar Heels

Sweet 16 Media Conference

Q. This is for anyone who wants to answer it. You've played in this building before, so there's familiarity to it. How valuable is that going into a tournament, that at least you have an understanding of what it's like play here. Everything from sight lines and the comfort of knowing the locker room.

DEJA KELLY: I think that's super valuable to us because we know the gym. We know what the basket feels like, or how to shoots in the basket, the locker room. Just the whole atmosphere. We're familiar.

I think that definitely helps, so it won't take us too long to get used to it once we have shoot-around.

CARLIE LITTLEFIELD: I just echo what Deja said. I think it also is valuable that the result we got here last time wasn't what we wanted. We're coming out here with a little bit of a chip on our shoulder.

I will also say that having to bus here just one hour quick trip was very valuable. We had a long trip to Tucson, so that was really nice to be closer to home.

ALYSSA USTBY: I think a great thing is being close to home because we can have all of our fans travel out, and so I'm sure it will feel just like a home game, which in a lot of cases it is a big advantage.

Q. Coach just mentioned you guys have had to prove yourselves over and over again. I just want to hear it from you guys. How do you feel about having to prove yourselves and kind of people doubting your stats, your performances this year?

ALYSSA USTBY: I would say that whether we accomplish something, like making a Sweet 16, people are surprised. Like, oh, my gosh, great job. We're kind of like, yeah, we knew we could be here. We knew how good we've been since the summer.

And so now it's just -- we're just waiting for all the people to catch on.

CARLIE LITTLEFIELD: Yeah, I come from the mid-major background so I've always kind of had that chip on my shoulder, underdog mentality. I enjoy it, and I think it drives our team even closer together and to work even harder.

DEJA KELLY: Just to piggyback off of what they both said. We definitely have been playing with a chip on our shoulder all season, and to see people now be like, oh, Carolina, y'all are actually good. Y'all made the Sweet 16.

No, we've been good all year. And like Lys said, we've had that mentality to where we knew we could make it this far. We're really grateful to be here, but it's like we've been this good all season.

So for people to final catch on, that's cool, but for the people that have been with us all season, shout out to y'all. (Laughing).

Q. Coach just touched on you guys kind of regrouping the last time you played here and you lost in the ACC women's tournament. What was that like for you guys and what went into the regrouping before you guys started the NCAA Tournament?

CARLIE LITTLEFIELD: I think it was just a good time to refocus. Obviously, it was the beginning of March. That one hurt a little bit because we thought -- we believe in ourselves, like Dej just said, so we thought we could make a deep run.

So I think that was a good time for all of us to come back together, refocus on the greater plan, get to the Sweet 16, even further.

So that's what it was like for us.

DEJA KELLY: I would say the same thing that Carlie said. We did not like the outcome the last time we were here at this gym, and I think that was motivation, especially during that week and a half of practice we had before the tournament -- before the March Madness tournament started.

Just to know that we could do so much better than that, we could play so much better, work even harder, I think that was definitely motivation going into this tournament, and it shows.

ALYSSA USTBY: Although we hate losing, I think that loss was necessary for us to take a step back, take a breath, and remind ourselves of who we are and what we're capable of, which has propelled us forward pretty far already.

Q. I don't know if y'all realize this, but North Carolina is one of only three schools to have a women's and men's team in the Sweet 16. So for whoever wants it, what do you think that means about basketball at the University of North Carolina? What does it do for the school?

DEJA KELLY: It means so much. It means so much to us as a university. I think just in the athletics program, I think that's huge to have both your men's and women's basketball team in the Sweet 16.

That just shows how much work we put in, and then it also shows how much we support each other. You see everyone is just like, congrats, to both the men and women's. We're receiving the same amount of support, so I think that's pretty huge.

Especially for us as women, because it's been known as the men's basketball school for a while, so for them to see that the women's team is just as good and that we're both thriving and we've been thriving all season, I think that's huge for our university.

ALYSSA USTBY: It's been a special moment to share with our men because we're pretty close with our men's team, so it's really nice to share in that commonality of that grind that we've all been on for so many years of our life, and especially the collegiate level where it takes another big step up.

It's just really cool to be able to congratulate them on a similar step in the tournament that we've been taking.

CARLIE LITTLEFIELD: I'll just echo that it's surreal. I don't think it's truly sunk in yet that we're both in the Sweet 16, but I'll just say when coach was recruiting me the second time, she said, come on down to college basketball heaven, and so she was right. It's college basketball heaven. Two teams in the Sweet 16.

Q. Deja, why do you think it took so long to kind of stop flying under the radar? You mentioned you guys knew all along that things were in good shape.

DEJA KELLY: I think the main talk was people didn't know how we would do in the tournament. I think that was kind of the talk all season for us. We were just like, you know, we kept our heads down and just kept pushing all year, just kept trying to prove what we were about, how we were playing, how good we are, but never really letting it phase us, never really letting it affect us.

We're like, we'll just show them once March comes. We were really excited coming into this tournament. I think that was definitely motivation for us to kind of just on this big -- huge national stage to finally show people what Carolina basketball is about.

Like I said before, for people to finally catch on is exciting, and it's like, but we've been doing it all year, so...

Q. This is for Alyssa. Obviously, with what Courtney pointed out, that you have only lost to four teams, you've beaten a one seed, confidence isn't a problem for this group. Is there extra confidence gained from winning on the road like you did last week, or is it just more of the same and it doesn't really change that part of it?

ALYSSA USTBY: I think it's extra confidence going on the road because we flew across the country to play a team that was ranked higher than us at their place with all their fans.

That's the most fans we've played in front of all season, and in mine and Deja's career here at Carolina. That definitely boosts the confidence, so we're coming in high to this next game.

Q. Wanted to ask a little bit about off court and the name, image, and likeness this year. Deja, you have a big social media platform and have taken advantage of it. I'm curious what your approach has been when looking for deals and accepting deals? And Alyssa and Carlie, also with you two, just how -- without coming into the season with that big of a social media platform, how have you approached NIL and what are you looking to gain from it?

DEJA KELLY: I would say my approach is just performing on the court. I think a lot of that comes with your basketball performance, so my agency has done a really good job of not letting the two intertwine and not let it distract me from my play.

I've done a really good job as well kind of separating the two. I know that a lot of the deals come from the basketball side and how I'm performing, but not letting that kind of distract me or override my focus or anything like that.

So I think that my approach has been pretty good all year and if the deals come, the deals come.

CARLIE LITTLEFIELD: I just think and it was a great opportunity for everyone, and obviously being at such a big brand as Carolina, I've had the opportunity to take advantage of some local deals.

I just think it's been a great opportunity for all college athletes.

ALYSSA USTBY: I've also been able to take advantage of a few local deals, and I know like for the rest of our team, we just keep our heads down and keep working, and those NIL deals, like Deja said, will come.

We're just really grateful that this opportunity was opened up to us this year.

Q. Alyssa, I wanted ask, you played a good bit of five when you have gone to the smaller line-ups, and obviously there's a big challenge with Aliyah Boston. Can you talk about that challenge, if you should have to be in that situation tomorrow night?

ALYSSA USTBY: Yeah. I think I've been undersized playing the four and five position against a lot of our team -- against a lot of these match-ups we've had this season, and so I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing, which is just using my speed to get around -- using my speed to get around bigs, boxing out, being more persistent and physical as much as I can, and I don't think any match-up should be a problem.

Q. This is a team where there really are so many stand-out players between the three of you, Kennedy, just everyone. How important is it to know you have that depth and know you have people you can trust who can score, who can defend?

ALYSSA USTBY: I think that's one great thing about our team, is that we have so many people that can score and contribute big numbers on any night, let alone nights where we all have big scoring days.

And so it's very comforting to know that we have threats one through five on the court at all times, which opens up a lot for -- we open up a lot of things for each other.

CARLIE LITTLEFIELD: I think it's really fun, because not only can -- we have depth scoring, but we also have depth on the defensive end, and so when you have five that are really bought into defending, it makes offense fun. It makes the game fun.

Just as a point guard having so many threats around me, it's also super fun because I can make a bad pass and it will make me look good.

DEJA KELLY: Yeah, I would say it's really exciting to have five versatile players on the court at all times. We all can do a little bit of everything, offensively, defensively, facilitating, scoring.

I think that's what makes us really special, because like Alyssa said, on any given night it can be anyone's night scoring, but everyone pitches in their own value.

And I think -- it doesn't matter the game. I think that's what makes us special, and that's what makes us run and makes us play so connected.

Q. I've heard a lot of talk here with Coach and you guys about y'all flying under the radar this year, but didn't you start 13-0, and you still feel like teams are overlooking you in spite of the fact that you started 13-0? When you started 13-0, did you ever feel like you were going to lose a game?

CARLIE LITTLEFIELD: I think the flying under the radar started just at the ACC media day when we were picked pretty low down in the league. I think that just also speaks to the strength of the ACC.

And so we knew that we were kind of fighting that uphill battle with so many good teams in one conference, so we had that chip on our shoulder to win some games in conference as well.

Yeah, starting off 13-0, we started off hot. It didn't feel like we were going to lose a game. We obviously needed some losses to learn some things, but we ended up winning a lot of games this year.

DEJA KELLY: Yeah, starting off 13-0 was definitely exciting for us, and I think people were still, like, oh, you know, they're -- I think their excuse was, oh, they're not playing anybody. They haven't played in the ACC yet.

I think that's why we were still kind of being overlooked, even though we were 13-0. We were, like, okay, from here on out we're going to put our heads down and play how we play. We're going to go out and keep winning some games, and then maybe later they'll catch on.

But I don't think we were really -- you know, we didn't let that bother us too much, because we were like, okay, even though we went 13-0 people are still kind of questioning our ability and how good we are. I think that with us just putting our head down and just keep playing and keep playing so well like we did, especially in the ACC, like I said, we finished fourth, they had us listed as finishing seventh.

I think just proving that silently I think was really good for us.

ALYSSA USTBY: I would say that I think flying under the radar helped us a lot this season because we just went back -- we just kept going back to work, like Deja said. Keeping our head down, did all the work in the darkness, and letting the success shine.

So it's been really fun having kind of like those little doubts because then we have that chip on our shoulder, and we just keep going back to the gym and keep working harder.

Q. Carlie, can you talk about the uncertainty? Obviously, you've asked for a waiver to come back next year, but you really don't know how that's going to work out and knowing that the next game could be the last of your college career.

CARLIE LITTLEFIELD: Yeah, I'm trying to not focus on that uncertainty too much. Tunnel vision, just putting my head down, focusing on the tournament, and what I can do to make this team successful.

It's obviously hard to have in the back of my mind, but I'm just hoping for the best and playing like it is my last.

Q. Did anything happen in the scrimmage with South Carolina that kind of indicated, wow, you're right -- they were number one in the preseason also; that you're right there with these top teams?

DEJA KELLY: We knew South Carolina was a good team. We know they are. They were last year as well, and they have mostly everyone back so we knew from jump, especially in that scrimmage, that they were a really good team. That's kind of when we found out that we were as well.

I don't think we can give too much detail on that, but I would say just knowing that we can compete with anybody in the country and just having that mentality going into this game as well. We know that they're a good team, but we are as well, and just having that mindset I think will do some good for us.

ALYSSA USTBY: I think that scrimmage was a launch pad for our season because that was our first real test, and we showed up to play, so that's why I'm more than excited for this game tomorrow night.

CARLIE LITTLEFIELD: I think getting that kind of competition so early in the season, I mean, that was back in October. It was our first scrimmage. I think that just set us up to stay hungry all season because we saw what the number one team in the country looked like, felt like playing against, and so that really kept us hungry all season, and I think, like both of these two just said, we're all very excited to get to see them again.

Q. Hi, guys. Just wanted to follow up on Lindsey's question about the NIL stuff. Do you guys feel any new pressure this year, especially on such a big stage maybe in the way you think about how you present yourself to the world? Are you doing anything different, especially now that you're entering the Sweet 16?

ALYSSA USTBY: I want to say for me personally there's not as much pressure. Obviously, I can't speak for the rest of my teammates, but I haven't had a lot of big NIL deals. Just some local ones. My goal with my college career isn't as focused on building a brand. I just want to have a fun career and just play with my teammates and play with my best friends, so if those deals come, like Deja said, those deals will come.

CARLIE LITTLEFIELD: Yeah, I guess I'm just trying to keep that on the back burner and just focus on going out and having fun, playing the game that we can play. I guess the only difference is that there's a lot of photographers at these games, so I've enjoyed getting to see a lot of pictures after the games and posting some of those, so I guess that's one of the things I'm doing differently. (Laughing).

DEJA KELLY: I would say it's not really anything different. Not a lot of pressure because at the of the day it all comes from basketball, so I think as long as I'm just staying focused on helping us win some games, I think that the deals will come, and I'm not really focused on specifically what deal I want and if I'm going to do this certain thing to get it. I'm just going to be me authentically me and just play hoop and go from there.