NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - MARQUETTE VS SOUTH FLORIDA

March 16, 2023

Jose Fernandez

Elena Tsineke

Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu

Sammie Puisis

Colonial Life Arena

USF Bulls

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: First up today is the University of South Florida Bulls. The Bulls are the No. 8 seed in the Greenville No. 1 region. They were 26 and 6 overall. They went 15 and 1 in the American Athletic Conference, and won the AAC's regular season title. They earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, and they are led by head coach, Jose Fernandez, who's in his 23rd season at USF.

We are joined today by Coach Fernandez, student-athletes Elena Tsineke, Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeau, and Sammie Puisis.

Coach, if you would please make an opening statement and we'll open up for questions after that.

JOSE FERNANDEZ: You know, it's great to be back here. You know, the tradition of basketball here in this city and program, we're excited to be back in the NCAA tournament. Never gets old to participate in March Madness.

Looking forward to practicing this afternoon here and playing tomorrow against Marquette.

THE MODERATOR: With that, we'll open up for questions for the student-athletes at this time.

Q. Elena, obviously being able to be in the same arena that you were in last season, feels like that's got to be a little bit of an advantage for you guys as players. What did you think when you first saw Columbia come up again?

ELENA TSINEKE: I was like, here we go again. (Smiling.)

I mean, it's a great opportunity. Yes we've been here before, I've been here before, but it's a new thing again. It's not a continuation from last year. It's all new.

So we've got to give everything we got.

Q. Dulcy, what's your lasting memory from last trip? Obviously a lot to learn from the last time here, but what kind of are your main takeaways from the experience playing here last year, getting that experience against Miami?

DULCY FANKAM MENDJIADEU: My takeaway from last year was we didn't come ready the way we should have, so this year is just kind of different. We're kind of approaching it in a different way.

Q. For all three of you, is there any benefit to having been here last year? Any quirks to the arena that maybe you're familiar with now?

SAMMIE PUISIS: Well, I wasn't here last year, so may be they can speak on that better.

ELENA TSINEKE: The court is familiar to us but it's not familiar to all of us because we're a new team. So we all to have get our shots up, feel the basket again. Yeah.

DULCY FANKAM MENDJIADEU: I mean, we play, what, 30 something games already. We kind of lost touches. We need to go some good shooting and running all done again.

Q. Sam, question for you now. Obviously there is a few days of time where you're able to do some scouting, get prepared for the game before you hassle with the travel. From your perspective, what are some things you're learning early on about Marquette and how you're able to match up with them?

SAMMIE PUISIS: Yeah, they're a very physical, solid team. I think it's a good matchup. They play man and we play man. It's really going to come down to who owns the boards.

So, yeah, it's going to be a good one.

Q. Elena, since you're the veteran of the team having this experience already, obviously you have a known quantity with the three of you up here as far as scoring and being the leaders statistically, but who would you say is a player on your team that could be the X factor this weekend to help you advance?

ELENA TSINEKE: Besides them two? I think Carla would be a good factor, especially if she steps up on defense, because we're going to need here to defend and grab boards.

She could be a big X factor for us.

THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for the student-athletes?

All right, open up for questions for Coach Fernandez.

Q. Coach, welcome back to you and your whole team. I guess we'll have the same type of questions. Preparing your team in a very similar environment, similar scenario in the 8-9 matchups, how much does that help you get your players more comfortable going into what's already a hectic week?

JOSE FERNANDEZ: Well, it gave us the opportunity. We started to work on Marquette on this Monday, the day right after. We'll get a good hour and a half here. We're not shooting around tomorrow at 5:30 in the morning, so we'll be without a shootaround I think. They're excited about that as well.

So November, December for us we've played in a lot of different places. You know, we're at Texas, TCU, NC State, playing two games out in San Diego and three in the Thanksgiving tournament. So that's what you want to prepare your team for, especially in nonleague play.

So when you go to the NCAA tournament you've already had those experiences with different tip times, afternoon, mid-afternoon, late at night.

So that's what we'll deal with.

Q. From the Xs and Os perspective, how much have you been able to dig into Marquette? Has it been more analyzing your own team or looking into the matchup?

JOSE FERNANDEZ: Yeah, you know what, today will be -- we won't spend too much time on Marquette today. Today will be a lot of shooting here to get familiar with the building because we do have -- we'll dress ten, and five of those are freshmen, right? So a lot of the work on Marquette has already been done. It was done yesterday and back home.

So today will be mainly be about us getting up and down the floor, playing a little bit, and what are going to be the first things that we're going to do well on both ends of the floor.

But we've had I think probably -- how many film sessions already? Four. We got one more this afternoon and one tomorrow morning. I think both teams will know each other really, really well. We've had Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday had, Thursday, four and a half days to prepare for each other.

The team that does what they've done well all year will be the team that has success tomorrow. We got to be who we are. We got to defend and keep them off the glass, and then on the offensive end, do what we've done all year.

Q. Aside from not having a shootaround, what's the schedule like before the game tomorrow? Is there any experience you can draw on for such an early tip?

JOSE FERNANDEZ: It's funny, we talked about this yesterday. We'll get here an hour and a half before the game and get on the floor an hour before. But we got to be a little creative with what we're going to do tomorrow morning, pre-game meal and film.

We got a couple different activities planned, right? (Laughter.) We got the rest of the day after practice. We'll eat down there, down on Main Street, and before dinner try and take them out and do something fun later on this afternoon.

Q. For the casual fan coming out for this weekend who may recognize you guys from last year, what are some key differences of the team? Obviously adding Sam a big game changing, having some freshmen in the mix as well. What's the biggest difference between the 2022-23 Bulls and lasts year's Bulls?

JOSE FERNANDEZ: Well, totally different. We had at one point, and still we had three of the top 30, 40 scorers in the country on one team. That definitely makes our job a lot easier. When you have me as a coach, the opportunity to coach these guys every day, you know, every year every team has a different dynamic and feel in the locker room and off the court.

So if you look at how well we've shot the ball compared to last year from two and from three and from the free throw line, it's a big difference statistically on paper.

So I've had an unbelievable time with this group and I'm definitely going to miss the two to my right. I've only been able to coach Sammie one year, and looking forward to coaching her one more. She just joined our program.

But what El's done while she's been here, you know, there is a lot of the guys that have come in our program and laid the foundation, but she's been spectacular it coach. So has Dulcy.

When two of your best players are you're hardest workers, you know, it just shows everybody what it takes to be successful. I'm looking forward to them finishing their career on a great note. They have unbelievable things ahead of them professionally as well.

Q. You mentioned rebounding being the X factor in this game. Obviously you have a known quantity with Dulcy. Are there other players that can step up and fill in the gaps?

JOSE FERNANDEZ: Yeah, it's going to have to be a collective effort. Got to be solid at the four spot with Carla, Dani, and Emma. You know, our wings are going to have to do a great job of rebounding as well.

If you look at the numbers, we both do really, really good job on the glass. I mean, what they did in the Big East, second and offensive rebounding in that league, averaged 12 a game, so it's going to come down to that, second-shot opportunities. We got to be solid defensively and it's got to be one shot and out for them.

THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for Coach Fernandez? All right, we'll let them go back to the locker room.