NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - GONZAGA VS OLE MISS

March 16, 2023

Lisa Fortier

Brynna Maxwell

Kaylynne Truong

Maples Pavilion

Gonzaga Bulldogs

Media Conference

Q. I would love to get you guys' opinions on these hats that you guys are wearing. I know they're giveaways here, but it seems like you guys are enjoying having them on quite a bit.

BRYNNA MAXWELL: They're double featured, you can go southern style or a plain old bucket hat, so it's like a two-way feature.

Q. What does it mean to get back here especially after a season where you didn't win the conference where you obviously could get there, but it shows that the committee thought you guys were good enough to even be worthy of being here without a conference title.

KAYLYNNE TRUONG: I think personally I'm just very grateful. I know everyone wants to go to the big dance. Very grateful that even though we unfortunately didn't win the conference, I think we played a pretty good schedule and just proved ourselves to be at this level.

Again, grateful, excited, and just ready to go.

Q. For both players, how have practices gone? It's been a week and a half and you've had two games in two weeks, if that. And what's that been like, back to full strength now and getting ready for this moment?

BRYNNA MAXWELL: I think there's been a lot better focus this past week especially and fine tuning some things, and like you said, we're back to full strength, so it kind of means figuring out our team and the dynamics for the full roster, and it's kind of shown that we have some depth, and it's really cool to have players with experience this whole season and our whole team. I think because we were so short numbered, we've had players that have been able to play -- almost everyone has been able to play heavy minutes so they have that experience, so I think we have a lot of depth to bring to this game coming up.

Q. You guys were both logging mid 30s during a big stretch of that. Is this like hitting the reset button a little bit, refresh and feeling a little bit better going into this?

KAYLYNNE TRUONG: Yes, I think so, and then just knowing that people were back and we have a full roster again. Close to a full roster. I'm just excited, honestly.

Q. Take us back to December. You guys both took the court against Stanford, seven players, obviously that was a tough game. How does this feel a little different, not just with the numbers but the feeling of hey, we've got a -- this is the big moment.

BRYNNA MAXWELL: I think we're not really focused on Stanford right now.

Q. But being back here --

BRYNNA MAXWELL: Oh, yeah. I think it's cool because we have played on this court before, so I guess half of us because everyone was hurt, but we have experience on this court. We kind of know the feel of it. I think our whole team is really hungry. We're not just happy to be here, and like yeah, we got an at-large bid, good for us. We want to show who we are. I think we have the potential to go pretty far.

Q. Knowing that you have gone through so many injuries and now you kind of have this team that's coming back together at the right time, how dangerous is that, because you think about a lot of teams that are tired by the end of this time, and now you guys seem to be gelling at the right time.

KAYLYNNE TRUONG: Yeah, again, it's like with the two games, two weeks, I think we have had enough rest as a whole team and just starting to prep for Ole Miss, and having players that haven't played much of the season come back, it's fresh legs, and then they bring the energy, so we feed off that energy, and I think we're ready to go. We're just all hungry to get far in this tournament.

Q. All week we've heard a lot about their defense against your three-point shooting. Talk about the other end of this matchup that no one is talking about, your defense against their offense. What do they bring?

BRYNNA MAXWELL: They're a very talented group. We've watched a lot of film on them. Obviously they're super athletic, they're very tough. They've got the SEC physicality to them. I don't think they've seen a team like us this season, and flip-flop that around, I don't think we've seen a team like them this season, as well. It'll be a fun matchup. We've studied them a lot. We think we know some of their tendencies, and we've just got to dial in for one more practice before we play them, but yeah, they're a great team.

Q. Is there another team and experience that you can describe the physicality that might have prepared you for this?

KAYLYNNE TRUONG: I would say probably like the earlier teams that we played like Louisville, probably Tennessee. Got to watch their game against Tennessee. Got to match their physicality again and match their energy and execute on offense and defend their tendencies.

Q. I would love to hear you talk about the other person's form as a three-point shooter since you guys both shoot at such a high volume. If you were scouting each other, what would you see as a three-point shooter about each other?

BRYNNA MAXWELL: Well, I'm not going to give away Lynne's scouting report to the public, but I will tell you what she's great at. I think she's one of the best players who can -- she plays at her own pace. She doesn't let anyone rush her. It's really hard to speed her up and when she gets in that zone, just being able to play at her speed, she's really dangerous and she can get that shot off anywhere on the court, three-level scorer, and she can go either way. It's a pretty hard scout. You can list all the things you want to about her, but in the end you have to guard her, and that's a pretty hard match-up.

KAYLYNNE TRUONG: Brynna is way too nice. I would say about Brynna, and I'm still in awe, during warmups, during practice, just how quick her release is. I know some of our practice guys back home, every time she shoots it and they're very close to her like this, she gets it off in time and just splashes it.

My reaction is probably the same as everyone else's in the crowd. Her shot is so quick. You've got to be so much closer than you think.

Q. Out of the players not up here on the podium, who should we watch out for tomorrow?

KAYLYNNE TRUONG: I would say everyone, but Von-Von. I think she's a sleeper. She's undersized but she's very strong. Her strength makes up for it.

BRYNNA MAXWELL: I would also say McKayla Williams. She has that tenacity that you can't really teach, and she's always just -- she just wants to win. She's really hungry. She's scared of nobody. You can say you have to guard this person, you've got to go against this person, and she won't blink an eye, she'll be like, okay, and she'll get the job done.

Q. You're one of the winningest teams nationally, only four losses all year and two of them came very early in the season but you're coming off of one. What's your mentality? How do you come off of a loss or is that so long ago that you don't even feel that?

KAYLYNNE TRUONG: I would just say that I need to move on and then just get my mind right for, again, the big dance. The loss does seem a while ago, so it's in the back of my head now, and I'm just so excited and ready. I need to play another game. I'm ready to play.

Q. Lisa, how have practices been going since a week and a half ago in your last game?

LISA FORTIER: Pretty good. We've been getting after each other. It's a long time to practice. I think we were saying that between prep for the WCC tournament and prep for the NCAA Tournament, we've had more practices in the last two and a half weeks than we had for the last two and a half months, kind of with just the way that the season goes.

Lots of practice against each other, lots of getting after each other, trying to get better, and high energy. I think our team is trying to stay focused and doing a pretty good job of it and competing. We've had a lot of competitive practices, which is fun. Usually we're practicing more against our scout team, and they're all on spring break.

We've just been getting after each other, and it's kind of like the beginning of the season; it's a lot of fun, as long as you can keep it focused on the task at hand, which I think we've done a pretty good job of.

Q. There's been a lot of talk about your three-point shooting against their defense, but what's this game going to shape up with their having the ball?

LISA FORTIER: Oh, I mean, they're great offensive attackers. They're a slashing team that they of course have players that can shoot the ball well. I think when they have the ball, they're looking for whatever good shot, great mid-range jump shooters, they're great at getting to the rim. I think maybe the best thing they do offensively is offensive rebound.

So there's a lot of things that they -- they don't necessarily shoot as many threes as we do, although they've got some who do that. I think it's going to be us trying to keep them out of the paint, keep them off the glass, and do what we normally do, which is try to defend as a team.

We rarely say Vonnie or Kay-Kay or Kayleigh, you need to shut down so-and-so; it's always that we're going to do it as a team whenever we play great players.

They've got some pretty talented and athletic offensive players, and we're going to just try to stop them as a group.

Q. There's not many teams that shoot as many threes as you guys do in the country in that way. When you have the quality of three-point shooters you have between the Truongs, Brynna, how difficult is it when you can basically have two sometimes three of them on the floor at the same time for a defense to have to game plan against?

LISA FORTIER: Well, hopefully it's really difficult. I don't know if that's the case or not, but the more versatile offensively skilled players you have on the floor, of course the more challenging it is for the defense.

I think we can shoot it, but what we do better than even that I think is we share the ball, and we work together. There is not a player in our locker room who is thinking that they need to get all the shots. They might take them all in a particular night, but they're not thinking that that's their goal. They're just thinking what's the best thing for our team right now. That's what we're hoping to be able to maximize is maybe one particular player gets a bunch of them and they're ready to knock them down, but maybe it's just everybody gets a few.

So sharing the ball I think is even more important maybe than the way that we have potential to shoot it.

Q. The guard for Ole Miss, Angel Baker, all-SEC First Team, just fills the stat sheet. What's your scout on her, and how do you hope to limit her a little bit?

LISA FORTIER: Yeah, I mean, she's really good, and she can score it from all three levels, which is a challenge. You like to defend players who are more limited than she is, and she's just not, is the reality of it.

So like I mentioned already, we're going to put whoever we think is the best matchup available. If switching happens, it could be any of us, though. It could be that you see McKayla on her, it could be that you see Vonnie on her, Eliza could have her, Brynna could have her, just because of the way the run their offense and how we transition on defense.

So just -- I would say applying the proper amount of pressure and then not leaving anybody out on an island, trying to be in the good position -- at this time of year you can't rely on them making mistakes. Teams don't do that. So you have to be at your best. We're just going to rely on our defense being where they're supposed to be when they're supposed to be there, with their hands up, and us being energetically scrambling around and trying to make it difficult for her.

Q. Something you said about creating new competition in practices, especially with your scout team being on spring break. Kind of something in your eye that I feel like somebody surprised you during that time. What kind of came out of that, seeing them compete against each other these last two weeks?

LISA FORTIER: Well, I think we spend so much time in game planning, and you're in game prep. You have one day that sometimes we call it competition Monday, but it doesn't feel quite the same because we're just trying to rest their legs or you're trying to do whatever.

I wouldn't say that any one person stuck out to me. I think that McKayla Williams and Brynna Maxwell are extremely competitive, and they will cheat, steal, fight, they will do whatever needs to happen to try to win a particular drill, and we haven't seen as much of that lately. The Truongs and Vonnie, they compete, as well, but those guys do stand out any time we do anything new on the court or one-on-one or two-on-two or against ourselves, also, for playing heads up or catch phrase or spike ball. Those are the guys who show up, and they want to compete in everything. That was evident over the last couple of weeks.

Q. Usually when you guys get here, you've won your conference tournament to get here. Obviously by losing in the last game, it says a good thing that the committee thought you guys were highly regarded enough to get an at-large. Have you seen a different focus from the team coming off of a loss into here? Then if you could also just speak to what it means that there are two West Coast Conference teams in March Madness.

LISA FORTIER: I would say the team -- I think we're very aware of what we didn't do well in the last game that we played in the conference tournament, and some of those things are areas that we've been working on all season, so then we're kind of out of character for us. It wasn't necessarily a theme that we've seen.

But I do think that we're focused on -- I don't know, I think that only the teams that lose say it's great that you lost. No team that wins is saying, oh, bummer. It's too bad that we won that game. No one wants that.

But we're trying to make the most of it. We're trying to apply it in whatever ways we can.

As far as the two-bid conference situation, that's kind of been what we have been. We've been -- the last few years, we've been at least two teams -- I guess not at least. There's not been three. But we've been two. It's nice to see someone other than BYU because it's most often been us and BYU who have been in it, and Portland is a really good team, as well.

I think our conference was six or seven maybe in RPI or NET this year, so our conference is tough. It's not as recognized nationally, but I'm excited to be one of two, and hopefully we'll continue to do that and build on other teams getting at-large bids, as well.

Q. I would especially imagine knowing BYU is leaving the conference after this year, is that kind of a sign of what you would hope would be good things to come for the conference at large, that it's a team not named BYU that's going with you guys?

LISA FORTIER: Yeah. I mean, obviously we've got to figure it out. Conference realignment is a real thing right now, and until someone else comes in or something else changes and it moves around for the West Coast Conference, that's what we've got.

Portland was right behind us all year until towards the end a little bit, there was a little bit of separation as far as the second place team, and we were tied for first for a long time. So I think that that's been BYU for the last several years, or most of them, and so I think Portland is very good, as well. They're talented. They're deep. They've recruited well. They run tough stuff.

I would like to see -- again, I would like to see all of them, I would love for us to have three next time and four the following time. But it's just a process that takes time. Hopefully we're getting closer to that.

Q. You were forced to lengthen your rotation pretty early on in the season due to injury. It's obviously unfortunate, but how helpful is that to you during this time that some of those younger ladies got their time on the court?

LISA FORTIER: Well, I just -- it definitely gives us a sense of -- these other players who might not be -- would not have maybe gotten as many minutes or might not be getting as many right now, they've still played in big games. They all played against Stanford, and we played Stanford with seven people down here in the beginning of December I think it was or end of November, and so Destiny Burton started that game, Payton Muma, Esther Little played 20 plus minutes in that game. We played that one without Kayleigh, Maud, Eliza and Calli Stokes. That could be a starting lineup at different times, those four, and you add someone else in there.

I think it's valuable experience they've gotten in big games. I think the first time we played without Kay Lee was against Marquette. In that game it came down to the wire, and then we played most of Tennessee without her, as well.

I just think that all of those different things, Stephen F. Austin we played with eight, all of those things have helped us be prepared for going forward and just the options that we have. You don't look at the bench and worry about who you're going to put in. You're looking at the bench and trying to figure out which one would be most effective right now versus, oh, I can't play that player or they're not ready or they're not experienced, because they all have that experience.

Q. How will you treat being the second game? Will you watch some of the first game? What will you have your players do?

LISA FORTIER: I don't know. I haven't thought that far ahead. My coaches I think usually will come -- they come and watch. I'll probably hang back with the team. We might watch part of it.

If we can win the first game, then we're familiar with one of the opponents in the next game and unfamiliar with the other. I don't know yet. I guess we should think about that.

Q. Coach McPhee-McCuin mentioned you had overlapped a little bit as assistants back in the WCC. Any memories of her back as a young assistant in 2008 with Portland?

LISA FORTIER: Yeah, so we were -- it seemed like it was a few years. I don't remember how long it was, but I did tell the team we were assistants together back when she was at Portland. She seems different now. She was, I think -- I don't know how long she'd been an assistant at the Division I level when she was at Portland, but we certainly, our paths crossed and we developed a friendship back then that's continued. I would call her a friend now. We follow each other, moms in coaching, and just trying to do it in a way that's different. I think we have different methods, but also just a little bit unique, and trying to do it the right way, whatever that means, without cheating, stealing.

I have a lot of respect for her and what she's done, and also assistant coach at the WCC who's now just worked her way up. She's done a good job everywhere she's been, so I think that there's a lot of mutual respect for the two of us.