NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST FOUR - SACRED HEART VS SOUTHERN U

March 14, 2023

Amani Mcwain

Raven White

Genovea Johnson

Southern U Jaguars

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by student-athletes Amani Mcwain, Genovea Johnson, Raven White.

We will now take questions for the student-athletes.

Q. For all the players, what does it mean to make it to the NCAA tournament and to get to this point, especially I'm sure it's been a whirlwind, what, 72 hours since you won the SWAC. What has this been like and what does that mean now that you're here?

RAVEN WHITE: I'll go first. It means a lot. We work really hard for this day in and day out during the season. We just put in a lot of work for it. It's the goal.

AMANI MCWAIN: For me it was a dream come true, a Cinderella story, something you dream of as a kid when you play sports. So just means a lot to be living it through.

GENOVEA JOHNSON: For me I'm going to say it's a dream come true also. Because this is, you know, hard times. You pray about this, you dream of this, and to be here is just another level of a dream come true.

Q. Amani, I know you guys this season had quite the challenging nonconference slate. I don't know how many Power 5 teams you are, but you had a lot of travel and a lot of teams. How did that prepare you guys for coming into the SWAC, playing in the SWAC tournament, and now reaching this point?

AMANI MCWAIN: We usually always have a hard pre-season. We play a lot of the top teams in the country. I think it prepared us really well to face up next to another top team in the country. We fought hard against a lot of good teams and it got us mentally and physically prepared to be here.

Q. Genovea and Raven, I believe you played together in high school. What does it mean for the two of you to be at this point together after playing with each other for so long?

RAVEN WHITE: Oh, it was amazing. The whole time after we won I was just thinking like, we really did this in high school a few years ago.

Now we're here at the same college and did it again. It was just -- I was comparing pictures out there on the bus ride the whole way home. It was beautiful.

GENOVEA JOHNSON: I'm going to start by saying long live Marcia Pender (phonetic), head coach from my high school. She put us in a position to be top players and to understand things on and off the court, and to be able to experience on a high school level and a college level of a champion, it's -- honestly, I haven't put a word to it, what I can call it.

But it's a great feeling. No other feeling.

Q. Raven, did you make a mirror photo from high school?

RAVEN WHITE: Yes we D did. We made sure of that soon as we got off the court.

GENOVEA JOHNSON: That's the first thing we did.

RAVEN WHITE: Yeah.

Q. Obviously the excitement of getting here is great, but now you turn around and, hey, you're playing tomorrow. The preparation, how hard is it or is it easy to flip the switch and say, this is great, but now it's time to play again?

RAVEN WHITE: Yeah.

GENOVEA JOHNSON: It's easy. It's a mode. You prepare yourself to win, and once you win you have to prepare yourself for the next game.

So it's a mode. You switch it on and off. Now it's on. It's on. (Smiling.)

RAVEN WHITE: Yep.

Q. Last time your team went to the NCAA tournament, all of you were in high school, but Coach Funchess was here. What has he told you to get you prepared for your first NCAA tournament game?

RAVEN WHITE: Well, he prepared us very good for this, because I think Amani was here. Weren't you here?

AMANI MCWAIN: I was a freshman.

RAVEN WHITE: Oh, yeah. Amani was a freshman. He told us we'll get back to this point to he made sure we practiced hard for it.

Q. Those COVID years can get you sometimes. When you think back to that, obviously you guys at that game were playing Mississippi State, a very difficult Mississippi State team. To come into a game like this, does the First Four for you guys, how do you feel about being in this game? Obviously it's an extra game if you guys are going to go all the way. Maybe gives you guys a better chance at getting a win in the NCAA tournament, which would be the first in the school's history. Is that the approach?

AMANI MCWAIN: Yes, it's definitely the approach. Freshman year went against Mississippi State. I was a freshman and I knew it was somewhere I wanted to be again, just in a different position.

So this year it's really special. I think we really have a good chance of winning, and when the odds are stacked against you we overcome. So I believe we can win tomorrow.

Q. Who is one teammate of yours to watch tomorrow that isn't on the podium?

CARLOS FUNCHESS: Aleighyah Fontenot.

RAVEN WHITE: Yeah, most definitely.

GENOVEA JOHNSON: No. 2.

Q. What is it about her game, Genovea, that you think people need to know if they haven't seen you guys play?

GENOVEA JOHNSON: She's built different. Like she is not very emotional, but when she gets emotional about the game she turns -- like it's a different notch.

She turns into a different person. Like she is scary. She turns into a scary person. I'm not going to say a different person. It's a scary sight to see her reach another level of her game.

And I love watching it. As a player and being my teammate, I love seeing her practice hard. She always working. I love her.

Q. Genovea, I know you missed a significant portion of the start of the season. Knowing that it's a senior year -- forgive me, I don't know if you have your COVID eligibility still or if this is your last year -- how much of you maybe missing that time made you appreciate the opportunity that this year is in that way to have to get every game you possibly can once you came back from missing all that time?

GENOVEA JOHNSON: I don't see it as missing time. I see it as bettering myself. It bettered me. It bettered me as a leader, a captain. It bettered me off the court.

And I do have another year. I will be returning. (Smiling.) You know, it's made up time. Time is everything, and next year will be that time that I've built up.

Q. And just because of the COVID eligibility, kind of fluidity, for Raven and Amani, is this I guess for you kind of the way that you're approaching it? Is this your potential last game or will you try to do what you can to keep playing college basketball?

RAVEN WHITE: I am actually taking my extra year as well. Like she said, time is important. It's just time we took off to better ourselves, so it helped, and we're going to take it. I'm going to take it.

AMANI MCWAIN: Well, for me, this is my COVID year, so I'm glad that I got a COVID year to come back and win. I would've never got in this position if I didn't have it.

So this is my last year, potentially could be my last game. We're hoping for another one.

Q. No matter when it ends, at some point it will end in the NCAA tournament, Amani. To have end in this place, just can you tell people how that feeling is when you get to the end of your college career and no matter when it end, the last game is in the NCAA tournament?

AMANI MCWAIN: (Smiling.) I feel like it's just -- I don't know, it's something that you really think about. It hasn't really sunk in to me. Like, wow, I'm fixin' to end my season on a great -- I'm going to end my career on a high note.

I think everybody always wants to leave whatever level you're on on a good, positive note. I feel like I came out on top. I'm in the clouds right now. I don't know. I feel really good. (Smiling.)

Q. When you're playing at your best, what's the style of basketball we can expect to see from the Jaguars?

RAVEN WHITE: Team basketball, playing together, sharing the ball, playing defense.

Just playing together as a whole.

Q. To turn it around a little bit, I know you haven't had a ton of the time to scout Sacred Heart, but when you have watched them, what do they do best?

RAVEN WHITE: From what I saw, that they can shoot the ball pretty well.

AMANI MCWAIN: They have a really good point guard from what we've heard. She's one of the better players in their conference. Player of the year they said. So probably going to focus in more on her and try to stop her, slow her down, to give us a better chance.

GENOVEA JOHNSON: Slow her down and force her to play our game.

RAVEN WHITE: Right.

Q. Since she's a guard, she does come pretty small. I know you guys aren't the biggest guards in the world, but she's smaller than you guys. Do you have to remove that thought of the size from the head and just take the player as she is because of the numbers that she's able to put up at her height?

GENOVEA JOHNSON: Most definitely. The size -- it's never about the size. It's about what inside here, and that's your heart. If you got a heart of a lion, the size doesn't say a lot.

RAVEN WHITE: Right.

THE MODERATOR: Any more questions for the student-athlete? Thank you, Genovea, Raven, and Amani. Good luck tomorrow.