NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - SOUTHERN UTAH VS NOTRE DAME

March 16, 2023

Tracy Sanders

Cherita Daugherty

Tomekia Whitman

Purcell Pavilion

Southern Utah Thunderbirds

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: I'd like to welcome Southern Utah student-athletes Cherita Daugherty, then Tomekia Whitman. If you'd like to ask a question, please raise your hand.

Q. Cherita, that shot you hit in the quarterfinals has propelled your team all the way here. How does it feel to be at the center of that particular moment and this team as well that's dancing for the first time ever?

CHERITA DAUGHERTY: I think that shot was just my lucky day. I happened to be the one that had to take it. I think it just played out in my favor.

The fact that we're here is a testament to everybody's hard work, the team's hard work, the coaching staff. We're super grateful to be here and it's been fun.

Q. The news that Olivia Miles will not play for Notre Dame came out today. Are you familiar with her game watching throughout the season? Your impressions of her? What it's going to be like to prepare for Notre Dame without her?

CHERITA DAUGHERTY: I mean, I think she's a phenomenal player. I hate seeing any player go down with an injury, especially knees. That's what it was, right?

TOMEKIA WHITMAN: Yeah.

CHERITA DAUGHERTY: That's sad. I think it's really sad. I hate seeing stuff like that. I wish it didn't happen for her. I think it's unfortunate for her and her team.

I think we prepped for them just the way we prep for any team. I hate seeing players get hurt, so... It's unfortunate.

TOMEKIA WHITMAN: Like Cherita said, I think she's a phenomenal player. We've obviously seen a lot of their games even before we new the matchup or anything.

It is very sad to see a player go down, especially the impact she's had on their team. She's a really great player, has made a great impact for their team.

We've scouted them with her, now we can scout them without her. It's very unfortunate, but it doesn't change your game plan or what we're planning on doing.

Q. I'm sure you've been college basketball fans your entire lives. You're in the dance playing against Notre Dame. How do you block out that feeling, the spectacle of being here for the first time in program history, focus on what the game presents as a challenge?

TOMEKIA WHITMAN: I think, yeah, it's a really special opportunity to be here. We can't treat it any differently than any game we played. I think the minute we start acting like we're playing a really great team, really great school outside of our conference, I think that's making it a little stressed out and worried.

I think our main thing right now is just take it first five minutes at a time. We are going to play a really great team, but we're also a really great team. We made it this far. I think it will be a really great challenge. Just not worried too much about it.

CHERITA DAUGHERTY: Yeah, I think like Mika said, just treat it like any other team, any other game. Like she said, once you start getting yourself worked up that you're playing a big team, big school, great team, I think the nerves settle in a little more.

I think taking it like any other game, five minutes at a time, that's kind of been our motto for this year. So I think just treating it like any other game.

Q. What has this experience been like for you guys so far? What are you looking forward to about the experience of it all?

TOMEKIA WHITMAN: So this is my second time making it to the NCAA tournament. But here as a Thunderbird, I think it's been a lot of fun. It's everybody's first year, the coaches. Everybody. It's been a phenomenal experience with everybody.

I'm excited. That's really all I can say. From the moment we won, I've been so excited just to get this opportunity that not a lot of people get.

Yeah, I can just say I'm really excited for our girls, for our coaches, for the team. I think we're just really happy to be here and I think we can do great things.

CHERITA DAUGHERTY: Yeah, I think it's super exciting. It's been so much fun since we figured out we were coming here, just the whole process has been fun.

I haven't been before, so all of it's exciting. I think as a team we're super excited. I'm a super competitive person, so I'm happy to be playing, like, on the big stage against a big school. I love competition like that. I think it's good for us as a team.

Like I said, our pre-season was pretty tough. We did play a few big schools. So I think, you know, we've been prepared for that. I think it will be a lot of fun. I think it's a good opportunity for us.

Q. Tomekia, you're the only player on this roster that has NCAA tournament experience. Do you feel a greater sense of leadership responsibility? Given advice to your teammates?

TOMEKIA WHITMAN: We haven't really talked about it very much. Last time I was here was with a different team. But it's just an exciting experience. Telling everybody that's something we should be extremely thankful and grateful for, to get out there. We've been working hard - how many games have we played this season - just go one game at a time, focus.

Q. 32.

TOMEKIA WHITMAN: 32 games we've been working hard every day this season. This is just a really great opportunity to get the Thunderbirds out there some more and potentially win a game. So yeah.

Q. With Miles out, Sonia Citron will play the ball-handling role. What have you seen from her and how is it to prepare for kind of that contrasting style?

CHERITA DAUGHERTY: I mean, she's taller, so that's one thing that we have to be aware of. She shoots the ball outside the arc really well. I think she gets to the basket well. She just finishes well.

I know one thing we talk about is she's going to have the ball in her hands with injury. She will have the ball in her hands, so that's something we've had to scout for.

In general, I think they're a lot bigger than us, so that's something we're keying on. I mean, we have to focus on all of 'em, I guess (smiling).

TOMEKIA WHITMAN: Yeah, we've watched a lot of the Notre Dame games before. We've even got matchup to play with them. Like Olivia Miles is a great player. I think she's phenomenal as well. She does a lot of great things for the program.

With Miles being out, as we've scouted, she's been a lot more of their player they go to for a lot of things they need.

She's a little bit taller. We definitely have to watch out for some size matchups. But I think she's great and I think we've scouted really well. So I think it will be a good matchup for us.

Q. Team started 4-7 this year. You're 19-2, if I'm correct. What does it mean for you two as the senior leaders on this team to have grinded through that non-conference schedule, now sitting here in the NCAA tournament?

TOMEKIA WHITMAN: I think it just is a testament to how hard we've worked the entire season. I was out for a lot of it so I have to give props to everybody else that really stepped up from how we started, 4-7, went on the 19-2 run when we were beating some of the best teams in the WAC. We were having fun while we were doing it. These girls really stepped up, did their part. I'm really proud of them. I think that's where it comes from.

CHERITA DAUGHERTY: Yeah, like we said, the pre-season was tough. Aside from the schools we played, just dealing with everyone's injuries. We had injuries that we didn't expect, people fighting through injuries. I think there was just a lot of adversity we had to figure out to get through.

Obviously not having Meek for a lot of the season, as you can see, that would be hard to get through. I just think our conference, our pre-season set us up to do well in conference.

I think it challenged us and helped us get through a lot of the tough things that we hit during conference. I think as a team, we just found ways to come together. Getting Meek back, I think that was a big help for us.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies. Good luck.

Let's get started. I'd like to welcome Tracy Sanders, head coach of Southern Utah, to the podium. Questions, please.

Q. You've accomplished what no other coach that's led this program has done before in being here. Now that you're here in South Bend, all the March Madness logos are everywhere, what does it mean to you?

TRACY SANDERS: It's just exciting. I mean, I think as a group we're super excited to be here. It's fun to see the girls' reactions. Just walking in the hotel, walking in the locker room, it's kind of a surreal moment.

Some of us have been here before, but I think for them it's just really fun to see them going through this experience. Ultimately this has been the goal since the beginning of the season. So to see it really happening, it's an awesome experience.

Q. The news came out today that Olivia Miles will not play for Notre Dame in the NCAA tournament. Coming at the 11th hour, how does it affect your game plan, if you were planning as if she's going to play or not? Now that you know she's not going to play, what does it look like for you?

TRACY SANDERS: I think we went into it planning for her to be there. We wanted our team to be as prepared as possible.

I think they're a great team. Whether she's on the floor, not on the floor, we're going to have our work cut out for us. We just have to be ready.

I don't think the game plan is going to change too much, but we just have to be ready. They obviously have a lot of great players, a lot of different weapons. We need to be prepared and focused.

Q. Ironically when you were a player at Saint Mary's, played against Notre Dame in the NCAA tournament, Niele Ivey couldn't play in that game. Going back, what do you remember from that game, playing against Notre Dame?

TRACY SANDERS: I don't. It was a long time ago. I don't remember too much.

It's funny, my coach from college pulled up a little bit of those memories. One of my assistant coaches pulled up the recap of the game. I don't know how she found it because I don't think we had Internet back then.

Just an awesome experience as a player. I remember it was a pretty close game. I remember it was a tough, tough loss. Things just didn't go our way there at the end. Obviously a great experience.

I think something that you just, like I said, something you strive for every single year. There's not a lot of teams that get to do it, so it just great to be in this position.

Q. What have you been telling your team about dealing with the pressure and the different feel of being in a tournament like this?

TRACY SANDERS: Yeah, we haven't talked a ton about it. I mean, I think one of the messages this morning was like it's another game, we're going to take it like any other game as far as we focus on the first couple minutes, the first few possessions, just being ready to go, understand that we're going to be prepared.

It's a great team, so there's not a lot of room for error. I think they know that. We played big teams. We did a lot of that in the pre-season. They've seen that before.

I think we feel like we're kind of more at full speed right now than we were in the pre-season. We have way more healthy bodies. We're just in a better place. I'm just excited to see how we come out.

Q. Having Tomekia Whitman back helps a lot. Back to those matchups with Utah and Oregon. What do you want to see your team do differently to hang around?

TRACY SANDERS: I think for us, we're going to have to handle pressure, which has been something we've struggled a little bit throughout the year. So handling the pressure. Handling runs. Coming together when things get hard. I think that's been one of the things that I feel like we learned from that tough pre-season, was that when things get hard, we come together, figure it out.

Throughout this conference season, we've been really tested as far as overtime games, close games, coming back down 16, whatever it is. This is a team I feel like when the pressure's on is when they shine.

I kind of have a joke about it. I said that to them. I think of the New Mexico State game, one of the timeouts, Hey, this is when you guys shine, it really is. To their credit, they've been able to do that.

I'm just excited, like I said, for them to have this opportunity.

Q. Obviously Cherita's shot is one of the moments of March. March is kind of all about that magic. How much do you believe in that, the idea that a team can make those moments possible? One game is different from the next, but can you ride that momentum into a spot like this?

TRACY SANDERS: Absolutely. I mean, I think in the position that we're in, we have to. You see it every year. There's upsets, just miraculous plays, different things that happen in games. That's why we play the game. That's why they call it March Madness, right?

For us, I think we are in a good place right now. I think we feel good as a team. So I think we're ready to just go out there and kind of show the world what we can do.

Q. What does it mean for your program to be here, considering where it was when you took it over five years ago?

TRACY SANDERS: Yeah, it means the world. This is kind of, like I said, the goal, that we want to be a team every year that is competing for championships. It's been fun to see the progress of that.

Obviously there's been great players these last few years that have really helped kind of buy into and build the program. I'm going to give my staff a ton of credit because I think I have the best staff in the country. They've helped our team get better. We're always in the gym. They're the best scout team that we have.

I think we just have a really close group, whether it's the team in general, us as a group, as a program. I think that they're bought in and, like, we have winners. We have people that want to compete.

I feel like we're finally at a point where winning is the expectation and losing is really, really hard. I think when you get to that point, you know you've created something special.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

TRACY SANDERS: Thank you.