ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 2, 2023

Katie Meier

Lola Pendande

Lashae Dwyer

Miami Hurricanes

Postgame Press Conference

Miami 84, Boston College 69

KATIE MEIER: I hope every coach has come up here and first of all said, compliments to the opponent and how tough our league is and how hard that game was. We picked a really great time to play a great second half, but gosh darn, Boston College -- every time I go to a press conference, and like I said, I hope every coach in the league is saying what we need to say, which was if Boston College is in any other conference in America, you saw that, they're above .500, and it's not the top of our league. I have tons of respect for the top of our league. We don't have a bottom.

I just want to keep saying that so everyone understands that if you have any significant amount of ACC wins and you have any road wins in this conference, your team is great. I want all of our coaches in the league to kind of pat each other on the back and say, man, we get it. Because this was a hard season, and I've been in the league as long as anybody, as a player and as a coach. And I kept telling my team, we didn't have two minutes of a game in the entire regular season that I could just try something out, just empty the bench, just throw a different lineup out there and develop our freshmen. It's just incredible.

That's my opening statement. But I'm going to tell you what. If you didn't understand the adjustments that were being made in that game and how both coaches were coaching their tails off and how the upperclassmen on both teams were leading and demanding, and then the special performances by Shae and Lola and Des and -- it goes on and on.

That was just a great basketball game, but I'm really proud of my team, really proud, because we picked a very good time to play very well.

Q. Coach, obviously this team has had a reputation for grittiness and today you were relied on your press, relied on some turnovers to get you into the second half and took over. Just how has the mentality of this team developed throughout the year?

KATIE MEIER: We're tough. Rebounding is important to us. I don't assign roles, I really don't. I say this is what we need, who wants to do it. I'm not going to tell somebody you're not a shooter. I'm going to tell you what you're great at, I'm going to tell you what the team needs. And what the team needed tonight was Lashae Dwyer's grittiness and toughness and pressure on the ball and ready to step up and take it.

We talked about toughness being contagious and you're not tough alone, and I thought we were very together. And I thought Boston College -- toughness, when you play Boston College, you'd better be tough. I have a lot of respect for that program.

Q. I saw after Lashae had back-to-back buckets, one of them off an offensive rebound that BC called a time-out, and you ran out and gave her a big hug. She scored 19 tonight. What has she meant to your team throughout the year, especially tonight?

KATIE MEIER: You know what, the other thing about toughness is everybody is tough when the wind is at their back, right. And Shae hasn't always had the wind at her back. She hasn't always had the wind at her back. It hasn't been easy for Shae this year. She's been inconsistent, had inconsistent playing time, I've been inconsistent in my choices on whether to play her or not, and that's tough. That's what I'm talking about tough.

She hasn't been given a starting role and been able to do whatever Shae wanted to do. Shae has had limited minutes in a lot of really important games and it has hurt her, but I think that's where her growth and her toughness comes from.

Q. Lashae, basically asking you the same question, dealing with the adversity this year, what does this game mean to you?

LASHAE DWYER: This game means a lot to me because I was just ready when my number was called. My teammates put their trust in me to just keep feeding the hot hand. I'm thankful for them for keeping pushing me in practice and in the games, too.

Q. Can you speak to the balance in the scoring and the rebounding? You had three players almost with double-doubles. Can you speak to that?

KATIE MEIER: Well, I think the start of the game was the Lola Pendande's show. I mean, the fouls that she drew significantly -- I know her free throws are what we're going to talk about. She's like I need shoot to free throws. I said yes, I'm going to agree with you on that one because Lola is really consistent from the free-throw line. But she started the game establishing -- and I think we're difficult because we can reinvent ourselves from one media time-out to another. We can totally reinvent who Miami is.

We can be a zone team, a man team, we can shoot the three, we can score inside, and we just look around, and tons of communication on the staff, tons of communication from the players to the staff tonight. Players coming to me saying, why don't you call this, it just worked well, why did you call that play.

I love it. It's raw. It's authentic and it's like in the moment, and we just want to win. I think it was very difficult with our numbers tonight, like 52 percent almost from the field and 40 percent from the three -- I mean, the free-throw percentage is the only thing. We only had four turnovers in the second half, and one of them was a shot-clock violation at the end. So we really changed what we needed to change. We shot 7 of 9 in the second half from the free-throw line, took care of the ball, and we gave ourselves a chance.

Q. Coach, you guys play Virginia Tech tomorrow night. You played them almost two months ago. What did you like about your team's performance, specifically on the defensive end that game, and how might you guys reinvent yourselves again tomorrow night?

KATIE MEIER: Yeah, you know what, I haven't seen a lot of them, to be honest. But when we beat them, I know we didn't have Destiny, and I know Jas Roberts was phenomenal. I'm sure after the end of that game, Virginia Tech was like, Jas Roberts. And I think Boston College was like, Shae Dwyer. The sophomore class is so special and so talented and being patient and when their numbers are called, they're stepping up.

I think Virginia Tech is one of the most talented teams in the country. I have mad respect for them, and I know they're very difficult to defend. I think it's kind of good that we put some points up there tonight and got some confident kids because you can't keep that team in the 40s or the 50s. They're too talented. We're going to try, though.

Q. Coach, you mentioned the communication on the bench between your players and you. A lot of coaches don't like that. How have you developed that sense in them, and for the players, what does it mean to you that you can approach Coach in those time-outs and give your ideas?

KATIE MEIER: If I don't think my players want to win and they don't think I want to win and if we think it's about not getting our feelings hurt, we're in the wrong profession. My favorite players are the ones who aren't afraid to embarrass themselves, and my favorite coaches are the ones that start film session and say, this is what I did wrong.

I called a sideline out of bounds play tonight, and I drew it up, and they went out there and I was like, oh, my God, it's on the wrong side. Thank God, we're dyslexic. It was just like -- I drew up this play, and you know what, we scored out of it, and I'm going to look like a great coach. And I was an idiot, and that's okay. My team knew it; I looked at the bench, they were like, Coach.

That's fine because you spend so much time together, you can't pose. If someone has got a better idea than mine and they don't give it to me, that's who I don't want on my team.

Q. I did want to ask you if you remember the Virginia Tech game, what you did well, what key theory you have to do tomorrow night as far as the matchup goes?

LOLA PENDANDE: I think we've just got to stick to following the scout. I played my role. I did what I could to help the team, and we got the win. That's it.

Q. Coach, you've talked about your depth, but it's really rare this time of year especially to have nine players with more than 10 minutes in a game. Is that your thought going in? Was there something different that happened today? What did you see out there?

KATIE MEIER: You know, to be honest, we don't predetermine things. We felt like Shae had a great game against them the last time. She pressures the ball very well. We thought Shae would be very special. But we literally just coach what we see in the game.

I haven't talked a lot about this with all the depth, but I don't know if you saw my bench, but there's a lot of height that's sitting in sweatsuits right now on my bench, and hopefully we get one of them back soon. But we've been through that. We were double big, we were huge, we were running a completely different system at the beginning of the year, and now we've had to go single post, and that hasn't been easy, either.

But that depth and the patience tonight, I'm sure my players don't even understand some of the things that have changed just with Lazaria being out for a minute. There's a lot of height in those sweatsuits over there. That's why Lola was such a warrior, and I thought Kyla Oldacre was really crucial in the minutes she played, as well.