NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL SEMIFINAL - NOTRE DAME VS NC STATE

March 26, 2022

Niele Ivey

Maddy Westbeld

Olivia Miles

Total Mortgage Arena

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Sweet 16 Media Conference

NC State 66, Notre Dame 63

NIELE IVEY: Well, tough loss. It came down to one possession. It's really, really hard going through this type of situation, scenario. But I'm super proud of my team. I'm so proud of them.

Coming from last year, not making the tournament, to being one possession away from going to the Elite Eight. I talked to them about it in the locker room. We have come so far, and the growth, the maturity of this team this entire season, the belief, the buy-in, I could not ask for a more special group. I love them so much and I'm just so proud.

But again, this is hard. It's going to take a long time to recover. But again, I'm just so proud of this group and I'm proud to be their coach and excited for the future.

Q. Maddy, you obviously had a really big assignment dealing with Cunane. You lot of that you spent guarding her in the post. Can you speak about what heading into the game, were you prepared to take on that assignment, and obviously you handled it pretty well. What's it like in the game dealing with that and trying to make yourself a force in the post?

MADDY WESTBELD: Yeah, I mean, we kind of dealt with some adversity at the beginning. Maya in foul trouble, and that was the game plan was to have her guard her. But I think I just stepped up to the assignment and in the first half shut her down a little bit. In the second half she hit some good shots down the stretch.

Overall, yeah, just ready to do whatever it takes to help my team.

Q. Olivia, you said yesterday you're really proud of what you've accomplished because you have a tendency to get down on yourself. And I know you're disappointed in the result today, but what confidence do you feel you've gained from this run in the tournament?

OLIVIA MILES: Yeah, I mean, like Coach Ivey said, no one thought that we'd do this coming from a team that did not make the tournament last year and fought through a lot of adversity with COVID and injuries and players.

It's just incredible to see what we've done, and I'm sure we're going to remember this feeling like we remembered the feeling last year and come back and go even farther.

Q. Olivia, I'm curious as to what you saw in that fourth quarter from the NC State defense, and how is that feeling, how do you expand upon that, grow upon that moving forward?

OLIVIA MILES: Yeah, so it was clear that they needed stops and wanted to get stops, so they started pressuring us full court. And I could have done a way better job of getting my team more organized. I was kind of quiet because I was trying to figure it out for myself, figure out the spots that I can go and get the ball up the floor. That caused some of my team to create turnovers, and I take the blame for that.

I was just reading what they were throwing at me. I thought for the most part we broke the press well, but there were lapses, and I take responsibility for that.

Q. Everybody is probably going to remember Dara with Raina taking that steal. That's not the only play that created the loss. What did you guys say to her? Because I'm pretty sure she was crushed. I'm wondering what did you say to her after the game?

OLIVIA MILES: It was pretty silent after the game. We went in the locker room and we didn't really say much. But just reassured her that it wasn't that play. It was a buildup of plays, like you said. It wasn't that one play. We could have put ourselves in a much better situation to be up four, up six, instead of up one.

It wasn't that play, and she can't take all the blame for that.

MADDY WESTBELD: Yeah, it's not on her, it's on all of us. Especially directly after the play we assured her that, like, it's over, we have 14 seconds left to get a shot up.

No, it shouldn't have came even down to that, so it wasn't on her.

Q. Maddy, I'm curious as to what your preparation looked like coming into this game defensively, going up against Cunane.

MADDY WESTBELD: Yeah, similar to the last question, we were going into the game playing man, and we definitely planned on having Maya guard her and planned on her shutting her down. She went into foul trouble, so I stepped up for the assignment and did what I could in the first half.

And then come second half, she came down the stretch, made some big shots for them. And I think just going in -- I don't know, just wanted to do what it took to help my team.

Q. Usually when a team makes runs and they can't get that lead, the team that was ahead usually tends to hold off and win the game, but they made that one run at the end on that last play. I'm curious what do you say to your team? They had such a great year and obviously this is such a tough loss. You have a lot of really good players coming back and some good ones coming in. How do you look forward and see some sunshine on a cloudy afternoon?

NIELE IVEY: Right. I kind of talked about as coaches we always stress every possession matters, and so I said, we just had to go through a situation where that is not -- so real as far as our defense getting a stop and our offense taking care of the ball. So I talked about how that's the epitome of when coaches say, every possession matters. I talked about that.

But then I talked about just to celebrate and actually just to acknowledge where we are right now, acknowledge our growth, acknowledge how far we've come. I'm in year two. We didn't go to the tournament last year. I didn't want my team -- and I told them this, I don't want them to feel like this loss dictates who we are, because it doesn't. It's hard, but it's part of the game. There's a winner, there's a loser. But we can always learn from it, and so that's what we're going to do.

I talked about that. I wanted to stress that to them that I don't want them to feel that this is -- I don't want them to feel like this is the end of the world. We have a bright future. I'm starting two freshmen and a sophomore. I have an incredible -- an addition coming in next year, and we have pretty much everyone back.

The future is really bright, and I'm really excited, excited just to see who we are and what we're going to do in the future, and I talked about that.

Q. You started to touch on it at the end there, but obviously you took over the program when it was a little bit in flux in between seasons that maybe quite didn't live up to the Notre Dame standard. What does this run mean for getting Notre Dame back to the point that they want to be at and winning national championships, and what have you learned about yourself as a coach in that process?

NIELE IVEY: I mean, I've learned so much in the past two seasons. I've grown as a coach, I've grown as a person. It's hard for every college program going through COVID, navigating through that, recruiting, adding some incredible pieces to this program, having an amazing staff to work with, and having an incredible returning team this year.

I credit all of that to what we're building. It's all about belief. It's all about buy-in, and it's about commitment, and I have that. That's what I'm excited about.

I'm excited to get back to work. Maybe I'll take 24 hours off, and then I'm going to start watching film and get back to work because that's what it is, this is a grind.

I always talk about my mantra is never too high, don't ever too high on the wins and don't ever get too low on the losses. Obviously this one hurts. It's going to hurt. But I know that I'm at an amazing university, I have an amazing staff. I have amazing support, and I have an amazing team.

I'm just blessed and grateful that I get a chance to lead this group, and I'm just happy that the transition has happened so fast. Because I know it normally doesn't happen that fast. I was told, oh, you're going to need three to four years. Well, I needed one. I'm excited about that. I'm excited about who I get a chance to work with, and I'm excited that -- I'm hoping that what we showed as a program and as a team, I hope that attracts even more talented players to want to play for this family.

Q. I'm curious what you made of how Maddy Westbeld played the entire game, especially defensively. I'm curious as to how you sum up her growth as a player, because she is a sophomore, I believe, and sort of what you think maybe her ceiling is in the future.

NIELE IVEY: I'm really proud of her. We had some adversity, like she mentioned Maya in foul trouble, and I've had difference scenarios, so I knew that I could play a different lineup. But she had a big assignment to try to guard Cunane. I thought she really stepped up to that challenge.

She is extremely versatile. She can do it all. She's young, but she has been in the fire. Even last year she led us in scoring last year as a freshman. This year she has a lot of pieces around her. She had a lot of pieces around her that helped so she didn't feel like she had to do everything like she had to do last year.

I feel like she's growing more even on the defensive end. It was a challenge tonight for her to have to contain Cunane. Normally it's Maya. Maya is our rim protector. Maya normally defends the opponent's best post players. So the fact that Maddy stepped up in that scenario, I think the sky's the limit for her. She can do it all.

I know she's going to continue working on the intangibles, rebounding. She's always going to continue to work on her decision-making, her jumper, all the little things. But to have a powerful forward that can play inside out, can score on the perimeter and also score on the block and defend, it's a blessing.

I'm excited for her future, and I know that she's going to continue to get better because she is a Notre Dame kid through and through. She wants to do whatever she can to help us win, so I know she'll come back even better.

Q. Coach, Anaya gave you guys some really good minutes off the bench today, a couple big moments, especially in the fourth quarter she had a big offensive rebound that helped reset possession. Can you talk about what she gave you today and what in general getting Sam, getting Abby back from injury, what those players have provided to you coming off the bench, giving this team a little more depth?

NIELE IVEY: Yeah, Anaya gave us such a huge spark. I was so proud of her. She was amazing today. We talked about that at the half. She got deflections, steals, she did a great job posting up, finishing with contact. I thought she was incredible. She gave us a huge spark.

Having the opportunity to have Abby and Sam, we're eight deep, which is something I haven't had a chance to do. That was awesome to have all three of those players available. Everyone does something different that helps us. Sam scoring, Abby's toughness, and Naya can do both. I needed everyone today. So I was proud of them and very proud of Anaya.

Q. What I wanted to ask you, for media it's kind of hard to cover in college so many teams, but what we saw today with Olivia Miles, she's a freshman, and what I saw on the floor, I didn't see a freshman play. That looked like a senior out there playing. If you could just talk about the maturity of her. What did you see to recruit this young woman?

NIELE IVEY: Yeah, well, just scouting and recruiting. Like you just mentioned, I would go to her courts, and I'm like, wow, because she plays with a level of swag. She's different from everyone. She's special. She has a gift. She plays with a flair.

So she's always doing some type of NBA move, to be honest, moves that you see Chris Paul, Ja Morant, and to have a player that young have swag like that, I was always impressed because she was different from everyone else. I always felt like she was different and set herself apart from a lot of point guards in that particular class, and she's done the same thing on the floor.

So what you guys saw today is what I've known. I'm happy that she had a chance to really show her skill set on the biggest stage. And she's learning a lot. Like she talked about, she's still trying to figure things out, and I've given her a lot of freedom, and I feel like that's going to help us down the road.

I'm honestly really proud because I know it's very hard to lead a Power Five program, and I know there's a weight that she had to carry all season long, but I'm very proud that she managed to continue to grow. And she did whatever she could, and I just love that she could show us her flair and bring that type of flair to the women's game.

Q. I'm just curious as to what you think made it very difficult for Olivia to read the defense, especially in that fourth quarter and how she moves forward from these moments.

NIELE IVEY: Yeah, well, I feel like NC State did a great job, great adjustment to pick us up full court, to pressure us. They double teamed her. They changed different things on her defensively off the ball screen.

Yeah, so when you have so much pressure, I think it just kind of weighed on her. I feel like she was just trying to figure things out. She was trying to read while she was trying to run the offense and had different players on her, so she saw a lot of different things.

She had to adjust to a lot of different things. I think that's what it was, but picking us up full court and really pressuring us and sending two people at Liv, and sometimes a big hedge on the ball screen, I think that was what slowed us down a little bit. Then she found ways to get to the rim, but I think it really slowed us down collectively, not just Liv.

Q. I'm curious that last play you guys were trying to run, Westbeld for a three, is that what you were hoping, or to have Olivia read the defense and see what was open?

NIELE IVEY: To be honest, I was trying to run a cross screen for Sonia to get to the rim and have Maya set in the middle of the floor, but we didn't get open. So Liv kept it. They just ran a high ball screen.

But I think the way we came off the ball screen, Maddy just was open and she kicked it to her, but I was trying to get downhill. But it happens. We always have adjustments, so anything with a ball screen with any of our guards, I like that. But Maddy had a great look. She's a great three-point shooter. She was playing well. I thought it was going to go in.