NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - PORTLAND VS OKLAHOMA

March 17, 2023

Jennie Baranczyk

Taylor Robertson

Madi Williams

Pauley Pavilion

Oklahoma Sooners

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We have Oklahoma with us, and we have Madi Williams and Taylor Robertson.

Q. For the student-athletes first, what are your impressions of Portland's style of basketball?

TAYLOR ROBERTSON: They're really good. Looking forward to playing them. Their offense is really good. Our defense is going to have to be like spider's webs on them because they're really good on offense.

I think that their team likes to get up and down, and we'll have to be ready to play.

MADI WILLIAMS: Just to kind of reiterate what T. Rob said, we're just excited to be here, and regardless of who we're about to play, we're going to be us, and we're going to come out and play Oklahoma basketball.

Q. Last year this was an all new experience when you were at home. How did last year help you? As you go into this one as your final NCAA Tournament, is there any strange feeling or leaving it all on the floor kind of attitude to these games here?

MADI WILLIAMS: I think it's a leave it all on the floor type of attitude. It's March, and it's win or go home. So everybody has that mindset that you bring your all or it's not going to cut it.

Last year was kind of an experience for us, just being in the tournament for the first time, and it was a great experience. Now we know what it feels like.

TAYLOR ROBERTSON: Agree. We know what it feels like. Last year we learned a lot from what happened last year, and we're just excited to be here and just be us and see where that takes us.

Q. Is it any different being on the road? Because last year you're hosting, you're the higher seed in both games. You're supposed to, quote, unquote, advance. Do you like being -- you're obviously the higher seed for this first game, but do you like being on the road and just kind of the us against the world kind of mentality of this?

TAYLOR ROBERTSON: It doesn't really matter, home or away. We have the same mentality going into it. We just want to be us, and we know what we can do, and we're just really excited to be here.

Q. Madi, how's your knee? It didn't look like in the Big 12 tournament, especially that second game, like the brace hindered you at all? How is it feeling? Are you still going to wear the brace here in these games?

MADI WILLIAMS: (No microphone). No, it's feeling good. We're fresh. I'm fresh. We're ready to go practice and play.

Q. When you get in the NCAA Tournament, that 5-12 seed matchup has been one that people have made sort of an upset matchup or something like that. Is that something you even talk about, or do you look at seeding at all when it comes to this game?

TAYLOR ROBERTSON: I think we're just focused on us and how we're going to play against Portland because they're a really good team. We're not worried about 5 or 12 or whatever the seed is. We just need to do what we do and play basketball.

Q. I'm curious, given your ages, how aware you are of the history of UCLA basketball? Obviously you see the banners. Does it mean anything to play in one of the hallowed places of college basketball history?

MADI WILLIAMS: Yeah, I mean, it's beautiful here. Just in L.A. generally and on the campus. And even just coming in, I was kind of in awe of all the banners hanging around and walking through the hallway and seeing all the great players that played here before us.

I mean, it's a great opportunity to be able to step on the same floors that legends and greats were able to play on.

TAYLOR ROBERTSON: Yeah, what she said. I'm just excited to go out there and just be on the court and shoot and practice, yeah.

Q. You are a self-described basketball junkie. How hard will it be to wait until Saturday night to play while it seems like everybody around you is playing in the men's and women's tournament?

TAYLOR ROBERTSON: I'm kind of glad we have the late game or a later game on Saturday because today we get to watch everybody else play. I like to watch all the games I can when we're not practicing.

It's just really fun to see everybody else play and just take it in and just get ourselves ready and get our minds right.

Q. How glad are you to be out of the Big 12 against somebody else for a change who isn't used to playing you?

MADI WILLIAMS: I love playing people we haven't played before. Even nonconference is really fun, to play and just to see different styles of basketball and play somebody who doesn't really know you as well. So that's always pretty fun.

THE MODERATOR: We now have our Oklahoma head coach Jennie Baranczyk. We're going to start with an opening statement from the coach.

JENNIE BARANCZYK: I don't know if there's a better time of the year than March. So to be able to be here and to be able to play in the NCAA Tournament, you never take for granted, especially with a group that we have that just loves playing.

We're going to play a great team. We're excited. And to play at UCLA, I think is a really big deal, especially this year. Billie Moore obviously was such a matriarch of our game.

And on a personal note from our standpoint, I was about 22, 23, and I got to sit next to her on an airplane and had one of the most impactful conversations of my entire professional career. She was so gracious, so incredible. We never connected again. It was just by happenstance.

But pretty special this year to be able to play here and to be able to just understand her presence of what she meant to the game of women's basketball.

Q. Same thing I asked the players, Jennie. I don't know if glad's the word, but to be out of the Big 12 -- and you said it the other day, you play them at least twice, maybe three times a year -- and now you get to play someone who's not used to seeing you.

JENNIE BARANCZYK: It's March. So you get to play great teams. Now, what I think the Big 12 does an incredible job is there's so many different styles of play in the Big 12, so it does prepare you. Then you play everybody twice, if not three times.

So I think from that standpoint, you're glad to play in a league like the Big 12 that prepares you for March Madness and the NCAA Tournament. To be able to play somebody new, it does, it reignites you. It gives you a standpoint -- I mean, we're playing people not even in our region.

So you're playing a Portland team who's a very good team. We kind of joked as a team where it was like, okay, do you know where Portland is? And do you think they even know where Oklahoma is, right? So you have that. But you're playing a great team on a neutral court in March, I don't know if it gets better.

But I am really glad to be part of that Big 12 Conference that has prepared us for this moment.

Q. Does Portland remind you of anyone in the Big 12 or anyone you've played this year?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: I think from a talent standpoint they're very talented, and I would say Alex Fowler could play in the Big 12. I think she's a very, very good basketball player.

I feel like from a similarity standpoint, I feel like the closest team in the Big 12 would be like a Kansas State, especially more from a defensive standpoint. But they also, they press a lot like a Texas, and they're in the zone a lot like a Kansas State zone does.

So you kind of have to put some teams together, but I feel like they've got bigger guards that are going to post up that's similar. But at the same time, you're playing a team that you don't really know until you get on the floor. You don't understand their length. You don't understand their size. You don't understand how they move. You've got to be able to adjust.

I think the teams that adjust the most, especially to teams they don't know -- and you can only get so much from film. You don't necessarily get a great, great feel. You can see what they do, but you don't necessarily get the presence. So for us, it's going to be can we play our style? Can we play the way that we want to be able to play and then be able to adjust?

Q. How different is your team -- other than personnel with a couple of true freshman and everything, how different is your team than they were a year ago with a whole roster that have never played in the tournament and now they've got the experience as well as a conference title as well?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: I think one of the biggest things, and we've been asking this seeding question, right? For me personally, I have been that 12 seed, that 13 seed, that 10 seed. You've been the under seeded team on a different floor. So I feel like we understand also.

We played a very good IUPUI team last year on the home floor in the first round, and it was a 13 seed. So they're coming in not looking at whether it's a 5 seed and a 12 seed and whatever the seeds matter, they're coming in and saying, okay, these guys are good because you compare it to the team that we got to play last year that was really, really good.

So I think that experience helps you to understand you've got to step on the floor and be ready to go. You also, the experience of one game at a time, and also the NCAA Tournament, however you end, it fuels you into that next year. So I think that's reigniting some motivation and some fuel, the way that we ended a year ago.

Q. In terms of Power Fives, the Big 12 played this past weekend, where four of those played the week before. Is it an advantage this time of year for the Big 12 playing the weekend before the tournament whereas some teams have had two weeks rest?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: I think it depends. I've really only known that, to be honest with you, because when I was at Drake, it was the same way.

So it depends on the travel because it's a lot, right? You're playing a couple games, and then you travel. So you've got to refresh yourself pretty quickly, but you're still in game mode so you can have some of the game shape.

But then at the same time, you don't really get to practice and work on the things you got to work on, and as coaches we love to do that, right? Sometimes we overpractice because we've got to work on so many different things.

Is it a clear-cut advantage? I think there's going to be pros and cons either way. You've got to assume that what you're doing is the right thing and it's the perfect thing you need.

I like the momentum. I like the fact that, okay, we lost a tough game, and the next day we have a new opponent. That part's really nice. I think it's hard -- in our world, one day is a lot of time. In most people's world, it's not.

So if you ended a week before and you have to wait a week and a half or a week to find out who you play when you have that kind of itch to get better. So from that standpoint, I really like being able to finish it and then go right into the tournament.

Q. You spoke a little bit about this, but just your general impressions of this Portland team? I've heard that they play a unique style.

JENNIE BARANCZYK: I think Portland's a very good basketball team. I think more so than their offense, I feel like defensively they really get into people. They do a great job of playing really hard. They're very aggressive. Their length is special. You can see that. Obviously they have size on the interior as well.

So I'm excited to be able to watch us go against a team that's going to press us and trap us and is going to kind of get you out of your comfort zone and to be able to read and make adjustments.

I think we are at our best when we're playing basketball and we're not super scripted and we make those reads. So they're going to make you make those reads. So I'm excited for that. I think they're a very, very good basketball team.

Q. We have a few questions in the chat. While at Drake you had great core players like Lizzy Wendell, who helped swing things towards 20-win seasons. There's a lot of basketball to be played in front of you, but how much will these three seniors be remembered for swinging the OU legacy in these past two seasons?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: What a special class that we have here at Oklahoma, in Madi Williams and Taylor Robertson and Ana Llanusa. Coaching transitions are not always easy, but it's been incredibly easy here because of the women, their character, the culture. They're fun to be around. They practice really hard. They believe and trust in each other. They're the consummate team. I love, love, love coaching this group.

So I'm not ready to say it's almost done. We want to coach as long as we possibly can. You're going to put everything you absolutely have into this group. What they've done is spectacular.

You go back to the Big 12 Conference, in their first year they're 4-14, their last year they're 14-4. I don't know if there's a better story. They stayed. They stayed together. They stayed at the same school.

They've done it by working really hard and believing in each other, and I think sometimes that goes unnoticed. I love, I love what they've done. They will always have a home at Oklahoma. They're just absolutely incredible people that happen to be pretty good at basketball.

Q. You were coaching at the mid-major level just a few years ago. What do you remember about being a mid-major team coming into the tournament, and how do you use that to help prepare your team in this situation?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: A lot of times, you're coming in feeling really good because you won your conference tournament. You had to face some kind of adversity that you overcame. You schedule really hard in the nonconference, which is exactly what Portland did. They did a nice job of being able to schedule in their nonconference. They're going to get to a point where people aren't going to want to play them, and that's where we got in terms of being at that level.

You're hungry. You're versatile. You have this great belief in each other. You typically have a pretty good -- you're known for something. And when you're known for something -- so they're going to be known for their defense, their aggressive defense, their trapping. So you believe in that, and you feel like that's your X factor.

So that's what our team has to be prepared for is to go against a team, they're not their seed. They're going to be a lot better than what they're seeded, right? Because they have that, they have their X factor, they have talent on their team. They're able to score the basketball, but they also have that confidence that they -- I mean, I watched them play Gonzaga too, and Gonzaga, we all know is a very good basketball team.

So for them to play that hard and have that much energy, you've got to be ready. You've got to be ready for them.

But I know, I know the chip on your shoulder. I know looking at that number and looking at your opponent and saying, you know what, we can do this. That's exactly what we need to be able to do is to be able to come into this game, and we need to play our game. If it's enough, it's enough.

Q. At this time now, seedings don't mean anything, but when the bracket came out, was there any frustration, being a fifth seed, because with those 5 seeds, you're so on the verge of hosting and kind of that first team out?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: Frustration, I don't know if that's the right word, but I do feel like I would have loved to have seen more than one team in the Big 12 be able to host. I think that's unfortunate because I think we do have a lot of parity and we have some great teams in our conference. So that part, maybe the coach in that part is a little bit frustrated.

At the same time, you go to play, and we've been fortunate, we did host a year ago. This year now we're on the road. So there are some things that you look back at the season, and you say okay, we could have done this different or this different or maybe this is different and this is different, and then you do host.

Then at the same time, you get over it pretty fast because you tell me one person that ever agrees with the entire bracket, no one. So if you spend your energy on the wrong things, you're not spending your energy on the right things. So for us, we weren't in any of the reveals. It wasn't something that it was like, okay, this is what's motivating us. We need to be better.

So that's what we're going to come out on the floor, and we're going to be the best that we can possibly be. And that's literally our only motivation. It's not to prove anybody else wrong or prove they got this right or this wrong. We've just got to be able to come out and play.

Q. By the same portion, does it show there's more parity in the women's game now because being a host is no longer the seismic advantage it used to be?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: I think it's still a seismic advantage, to be honest, and at the same time, I think there's a lot more parity in our game. Look at the talent across the country right now in our game. Part of it is I think that we're providing more opportunities on different platforms, on different media platforms. I think there's more media coverage than there ever has been.

I think we've been able to put a lot of games on TV. Now, does everybody watch them? I don't know that, but you can see the numbers are continuing to go.

Look at the attendance right now. I mean, the attendance across the country, we personally saw huge, astronomical growth from one season to the next in terms of our attendance numbers. So people love this sport, they really do.

I know from that standpoint our game is going to continue to grow. I appreciate that we went to -- you know, tried something different with the format in terms of the two regional sites. I think that will continue to grow the attendance of our game. We need to continue to do that because people, once you come once, you can't help but come again. People that really do come and value women's basketball, they understand the whole sport.

So we just need to get more eyes on us. We need to continue to grow our game. Now, I think part of our parity is between the transfer portal, you have -- people can get a little bit better faster. Between the extra COVID year, look what we've been able to do with players that have stayed. So some of that is because of those factors.

But I also think our coaches, I think we're getting better. I think at a grass roots level the coaching is getting a little bit better. So we're teaching people the game. We need to have these women continue to leave the game and give back to the game. That's going to be a huge part.

I've got young kids in youth sports, and I'd love to see more women coaching, especially former players, to give back to the game. I think that's only going to increase really the popularity of our sport.

But I love that part. I think we're becoming more popular. I think we're getting better and better, and there's more people that are coming, and there's more people that are watching.

Q. Last year you guys hosted. I felt like you probably should have hosted this year as well based on winning the Big 12. But does going on the road, you're a tight knit team with great chemistry, does that allow you to tune out some noise and just focus on being tight knit and together?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: I think that's a really good question, and that's all you have. So the answer is yes, it does.

I think this team is close, and I think there is, there's a lot of responsibility as well to get people to come to the game, and I think an allot of us as coaches spend a lot of time trying to really focus on that. So that is something that is nice being on the road, and at the same time, I'd love to play in the Lloyd Noble Center. I would love to be able to get back there. I would love to make sure that our fans continue to want to watch postseason play in Norman.

But this trip, we're going to do the best we possibly can, and I do believe in this team, and I do believe in the chemistry of this team.

Q. You've talked about how much of an impact this senior group has had on the program. How much of a balance is it to keep the focus on making a run while also having an appreciation for the seniors and their final opportunity to play together?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: I think the beauty of coaching is you get to watch these women grow, and the end of every season, if you're doing it right, is hard because you love them, you put everything that you have into them. You've watched them grow. You've watched them develop.

Although I've only gotten to see this group for two seasons, I've seen them grow so much in those two years and experience so many things for the first time.

So they're going to cross the lines. We're going to cross the lines. And we're going to be in game mode. But I think you've seen us over the year enjoy playing basketball.

I think, as a basketball coach, when our players in the month of February and the month of January where it is hard and you have to face hard things, when they can play with a smile on their face and they can point to each other, those are the moments that you remember. Those are the moments that you embrace. Those are the moments you hold onto even through some of those hard times.

So I love this class. I love our entire team. And everything great comes to an end, and you just want it to come to an end in the perfect way. But no matter what, we're going to do it together.

And no matter what, I cannot speak enough for what this class has meant to Oklahoma women's basketball, and we will embrace that daily.