NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - NORFOLK STATE VS SOUTH CAROLINA

March 16, 2023

Larry Vickers

Deja Frances

Camille Downs

Colonial Life Arena

Norfolk State Spartans

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We have Norfolk State with us. Joined by coach Larry Vickers and student-athletes Camille Downs and Deja Frances.

Coach f you'd make an opening statement.

LARRY VICKERS: Well, there's nothing other than to say we're excited to be here. We worked really hard for this opportunity all year. Being from a one-bid league, that puts so much pressure on one week of basketball.

We have a pretty complete team, some bench depth. Our starting five, pretty much everybody on our starting five has led a game in scoring this year.

When you get to a tournament format, you never know. So our first two games I felt like we kind of dominated them in our tournament. In our championship game, we worked really hard, made some free throws down the stretch, and it got us to this point.

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions for the student-athletes.

Q. For both of you, you watched Selection Sunday, you see you're matched up against the defending champion, what are you thinking about?

DEJA FRANCES: Well, pretty much just thinking it's just a blessing all in all. Just thinking how hard we're going to have to work to pull off whatever we can going into this game.

CAMILLE DOWNS: I was kind of disappointed watching the bracket, but just thankful to be here. Not a lot of teams get the opportunity to play against the No. 1 team in the country. Dawn Staley, too. Getting scouted by her. I'm just thankful to be here.

Q. Whirlwind week for you to be able to play in the championship game of your conference, then Selection Sunday, traveling, get scouts in. What have the last few days been like for each of you going from a championship to now the NCAA tournament?

CAMILLE DOWNS: We've been mentally prepared since the tournament started, since our regular-season tournament started. We just continue to do what we do in practice every day, keep the confidence high, and yeah...

DEJA FRANCES: I'll say for me it's kind of been unreal knowing, like, where we've all came from to get to this point. It's just kind of super emotional, as well. But thankful nonetheless.

Q. For both of the players, it's been a while since Norfolk State was in the NCAAs. Coming into the season, was there a belief that this team was an NCAA team or did that develop as the season went on?

DEJA FRANCES: For sure Coach LV instilled that from the beginning, we was going to win three championships. We did.

Since last year when we were the runner-ups, we knew what we were coming into this season to do.

CAMILLE DOWNS: Yeah, piggybacking off of Deja, from what happened last year, we knew what we wanted to do this year, how far we wanted to get. We made it happen, manifest. Throughout the whole season worked hard, and now we're here.

Q. Talking from the perimeter perspective of the game coming up tomorrow, where do you feel you're able to match up well with South Carolina's guards? Where do you feel you're able to impose your style of play when it comes to meshing up with the guard play?

CAMILLE DOWNS: Deja (smiling)?

DEJA FRANCES: I'll say our guards are pretty much just as talented. We're just going to have to work to make the right reads and probably utilize our floaters and pull-ups a little more.

CAMILLE DOWNS: Honestly, yeah, what Deja said. We just got to work hard. We know what we came here to do. Try to get a little upset, you know.

DEJA FRANCES: We're going to have to battle. It's going to be a battle.

CAMILLE DOWNS: For sure. For sure.

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for Coach Vickers.

Q. Do you have a game plan for slowing down Aliyah Boston?

LARRY VICKERS: Of course, everything always looks a lot easier on film. But it kind of takes everybody kind of being unified all on one page.

She's seen everything. She's seen man, zone, she's been fronted, doubled. Teams have dug, teams haven't dug. Teams have tried to score and take away everybody else.

I mean, at this point she's a senior, and she's been playing since day one. She's really seen pretty much everything. But hopefully you can get her on one of those days, take away potentially her favorite move.

Q. You are the second straight MIAC team to face South Carolina in the first round. What are your thoughts on that opportunity to play on this stage and play against a team that has done the things that South Carolina has been able to do?

LARRY VICKERS: Well, you know, we've had team dinners. We've had different things throughout the year. They've been on TV, so... They're probably the face of women's basketball now at this point.

You know, just playing against them and seeing them, it's funny, we're all together when No. 2, I think her last name is Watkins, when she got the dunk. Everybody was, We ain't going to let her get no dunk (smiling).

It's just things like that that we're a lot more familiar with their program than they are with ours.

We know obviously any time you play a South Carolina team, you got to rebound the basketball. They play I don't know how many bigs, 10 it feels like (smiling).

The trenches is something we've been really good at this year. You can look at our stats and tell that we don't shoot a ton of threes. We've been a team that kind of plays within the trenches, and so do they, so...

Q. Have you had the opportunity to cross paths with Dawn Staley through the years? Do you know her a little bit? Does she know you?

LARRY VICKERS: No, I don't personally have a relationship with her. Through AAU everybody is kind of seeing the same players. She recruits the Nike circuit. I recruit the Nike circuit. There's always that piece.

But, no, we don't have a personal relationship.

Q. When it comes to the matchup problems that South Carolina offers, is it a balance for you and your staff to say here is how we can adjust our game plan versus what we need to do to specifically take on South Carolina and the matchup problems they pose?

LARRY VICKERS: Before every game, me and my coaching staff, we try to figure out holes in another team's defense. As great as they are, and they're great, there's some spots where we can try to get some things. So we're aware of that.

It's just going to be a matter of can we mentally stay together. They're at home. I didn't realize how at home they were until I walked through the building, I saw the picture of her on the wall (laughter). I wasn't sure, but...

They're at home, so this is a place where they definitely feel comfortable.

Q. (Indiscernible) were coaches able to give you any tips from that?

LARRY VICKERS: No, I didn't call anybody. They play a completely different style than we do. Then Terrell, who is the North Carolina coach, he played them during the COVID year.

Our teams are generally regionally pretty close to this, so they generally send us here for the No. 1.

Q. How do you go into this preparing with having a younger team, this being the first since 2002? What does the preparation look like for a team like y'all?

LARRY VICKERS: Well, we want to embrace the moment, enjoy this opportunity. We know we're the best team in our league this year. But a couple bounces go left, then the best team isn't here. That's why it's been so long.

We want to enjoy this opportunity. We want to take advantage of playing on the main stage. I do play five or six sophomores a lot. But these are our two all-conference first-team players. They're going to have to be emotionally locked in, ready to play tomorrow.

Kind of just from there we're just going to play it media by media. I've kind of been here in a different capacity. I was just telling my team like, Hey, I was a part of the biggest upset on the men's side from Vegas when Norfolk State beat Missouri in 2012. I was an assistant on that staff.

You just have to take it media to media, media to media. Don't keep looking up at the score. We can try to win the game within the game, have different game goals. It's not necessarily we're looking to go 80-79, or whatever that case might be. We're going to try to win every media. We have a number that we're going to try to win.

It's a game within the game, as well. These ladies have aspirations to play overseas, and they're more than good enough. They're really good basketball players. There's nothing better than a film that you can send against the No. 1 team in the country to help them get the money that they deserve.

Q. Did you see the drive from this team after their runner-up finish a year ago that they wanted to complete what they couldn't a year before and get where you are now?

LARRY VICKERS: Well, I'll tell you last year we brought in, we had two players returning back from ACL off of COVID and I brought in two new ones. Last year we were a little ahead of the curve. I wasn't sure how the year was going to go.

Now, we should have won that championship probably if we could have rebounded the ball a little bit letter. We played four guards last year. In a tournament format, you got to rebound the basketball. So we played a lot of four guards this year. We went and got Kierra Wheeler, who is the most outstanding player in our tournament, averaging 16. Skye Robinson. Both of them really kind of anchored what we already had.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.