NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - WEST VIRGINIA VS ARIZONA

March 16, 2023

Dawn Plitzuweit

XFINITY Center

West Virginia Mountaineers

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We have West Virginia Head Coach Dawn Plitzuweit. We will get right into questions.

Q. What's it like for you, Coach, to be bringing this team in your first year to the NCAAs this week?

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: Yeah, it's really special. Our young ladies have continued to develop and grow through the course of the season. They've battled adversity, shown some resilience through that, and so to now have an opportunity to play in the biggest stage is something that our players are really excited about.

You know, so now it will be a matter of -- we haven't practiced yet so don't know what that's going to look like. Are we're really excited and we're just really excited to be here, or are we excited but going to go about doing or business the way normally we do.

So have to see how that all works out because we haven't been on the court yet.

Q. And how do you guide your team so that they're ready to play?

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: I think Arizona is certainly a very difficult challenging matchup for us. And so for us, we stick to the basic simple fundamentals of the game to the best of our ability and tried to put ourselves in as many situations that are game-like and prepare us.

But still, I think the biggest thing for us is to try to remain as much in our routine as possible so that there is a normalcy to it, even though it is something that's really special.

Q. What do you say about this matchup with Arizona? What's your scout for tomorrow?

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: Oh, you want just the whole scout? Should I give you a copy of it?

Yeah, I think Arizona is a team that's really good on both ends of the court. That makes them a really big challenge. A team that scores 74 points a game. They score efficiently at a 44% clip. They shoot it well from the arc. They don't shoot as many as some teams we see in the Big XII, but they shoot it at 34% clip. They offensive rebound well.

And then, oh, they turn their opponents over and hold them down. So they're just really, really solid all the way around. They make you -- they put you in pressure situations. A lot of times when you think of that, you think of how teams do that on the defensive end, but Arizona is good enough to put you in those pressure situations on the offensive end because they can attack the rim fast, attack the rim by screening to get it inside or just posting to get inside or driving to get it there. They can offensive rebound to get it there and they're really good in those traffic scenarios.

Then when teams that we've seen try to do everything they can to take that away, well then they just kick it out and shoot it. Obviously they shoot it at very good percentage, too.

So the pressure they put on you isn't just on one end of the court and they're really good on the defensive end and turn teams over as well. We have to be really good at being in attack mode, if you will, on both ends. Attack but in control.

That's something that I think as a team has been a mindset for us. Early in the year we would attack but we weren't very controlled. We turned it over a lot more or we attacked on the defensive end but fouled a lot more.

So now to I think just kind of carry into what we've been working on and take that to another game, it's going to be something that's really important for us.

Was that a good scouting report? Did you get it all. Gave you a lot without giving you anything. Okay, perfect.

Q. That was good.

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: Yeah.

Q. What would you say is West Virginia basketball? What are you going to bring tomorrow that is just what -- you know, how you put your stamp on the program?

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: Well, I think our young ladies have done a great job of competing. Obviously when you look at our stats, and obviously you have and studied who we are, and so has Arizona, our opponent, but we're not an offensively efficient team compared to a lot of other teams out there, so we have to find a way to put our young ladies in positions to compete for possessions and finish plays and make our opponent try to feel as uncomfortable as possible.

And give ourselves opportunities. When you can really score and you're an offensively efficient team, you can make up for a lot of things. We don't have as much of a margin for error because we are not that high powered offensive team yet.

Now, maybe tomorrow it'll all change. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Reality is probably not that, that's who we're going to become by tomorrow. So for us, we have to be really good at competing on every possession.

We have to scramble and find a way, whether that's on the offensive end or the defensive end to put ourselves in positions to battle that possession. So when you hear coaches say, we've got to play one possession at a time, we really do. We have to try to battle for every single possession. We have to find a way to win that one, because every one is important for us since we don't have a higher ceiling or margin for error, if that makes sense.

Q. What have you seen from Madisen's play, especially in the back half of the season? She was having a really good season before that obviously. She's just turned it on.

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: She has. Madisen is someone who is so competitive and has learned as well to be competitive and composed.

She's someone who has always been a leader, from our understanding, long before we got to West Virginia. She's been a great leader within the program, and now she is leading in so many different ways.

When you look at -- and this will be an interesting matchup because you have two point guards on both teams that are leading scorers for their teams. That's not really that typical.

So for Madisen to be a point guard for her first four years of college that would score when it was her time to score but facilitate for a lot of other players, to becoming recently certainly a player that has carried the load for us is something that is a really neat evolution for her.

And yet she's done it in a way that has been within the scope of our offense, too. Not kind of doing things outside of that realm. I think she's someone who is continuing to get better and that's been really fun to watch.

Q. I know you weren't coach last year at West Virginia. You didn't coach Esmery Martinez, but you have players like Madisen and JJ who played with her.

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: Right.

Q. Have you had conversations with them, what it's going to be like going up against a former teammate?

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: We've had a chance to do that at least one other time this year. I thought our young ladies handled that with a lot of competitiveness and also a lot of class. I would anticipate our ladies will do the same thing.

We have a lot of respect for Esmery and how she's played within our program and how she's playing now, so I think we go about it as it's -- it is very similar. This is what we do. This is personnel and this is who we have to guard and this is how we have to guard her. These are her tendencies.

I think they obviously know her tendencies probably as well as any player we've played against all year.

Q. And how was this week of practice leading up to this? Were you able to take a little bit of a break and sort of refresh, you know, catch your breath a little bit and then start focusing?

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: Well, that's exactly what it was. We played on Friday; had Saturday off; traveled on Saturday; got back home; came back on Sunday before the selection show and really worked on fundamental skills for us.

But not knowing exactly what tournament you'll be in, your opponent, what day you're going to be playing, and so then from there, once we knew Sunday night what the game plan was, we could kind of start to approach it like a normal week to the best of our ability.

I think our energy has been really good. Our intentionality, if that's a word. Not sure if it I just made that up. We are very intentional to be locked in and focused and try to put ourselves in as many good positions as possible to win those possession by possession.

Great conversation. We did a great job. There you go.