NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - VERMONT VS UCONN

March 17, 2023

Alisa Kresge

Delaney Richason

Emma Utterback

Gampel Pavilion

Vermont Catamounts

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Can you guys just describe what it's like walking into this arena for perhaps your first time seeing the banners and all of that and being able to put that out of your head knowing you have a game to play tomorrow. And then, again, this is not an UConn team like some teams in the past that have been like, you know, unbeatable. How do you guys feel in terms of confidence going into this game?

DELANEY RICHASON: Yeah, I mean, it's really exciting. We've been here for, I think, five, 10 minutes and it's so cool walking into the locker room and having it all decorated with the V Cats and everything. That's really, really fun.

But it's definitely something that we have to enjoy today and then kind of forget about and focus on the game for tomorrow. So I think we're going to take our time to really take in the experience today and then be focused up for tomorrow.

EMMA UTTERBACK: Yeah, I totally agree. I think it's very easy to be in awe because this is a very successful program for a very long time. We grew up watching UConn, so it's very cool to be here and this experience, but once we step on that floor, it's go-time and all of the nerves and that have to go away and we've got to stay focused.

Q. A little bit off the game, if you don't mind. Matt Veretto is a local athlete, covered him in high school. Can you tell me, each of you, if you have gotten to know him and if you have a good story about him and just how maybe inspiring or however you want to describe it his story is to you guys.

EMMA UTTERBACK: Yeah, me and Delaney are very cool with Matt. He's a good dude. He came in and he's just been very nice to everyone, and everyone's taken him in with open arms. I think that he fits in very well with that program. He's done a good job at molding with what Coach Becker wants. You can see with the success of the team, and he's been a big part of that.

DELANEY RICHASON: Yeah, I would say he's been so successful on the court this year. But also, I've never seen him without a smile on his face. So that's really, really a cool thing, because I think he's so optimistic about his opportunity to come back and play again. I think he just is enjoying it. And from an outsider's perspective, it looks like he's like really, really successful and having fun.

Q. You guys have had a couple days now to scout UConn and watch their film. What is it about them that you think is the biggest challenge you'll have to overcome?

EMMA UTTERBACK: I think a big thing for them is they have a lot of height and strength, and the higher up you go, that tends to happen. So that's to be expected.

But we have to really watch out for their transition game. They love to get out and run on the floor. So we got to communicate. It's going to be really loud in the gym, which we love. But we got to be prepared for that moment and over-communicate and be extra loud because of the circumstance.

So we've been preparing for it, but it's definitely something we got to pay attention to.

DELANEY RICHASON: I would say the same thing, their size, they're very tall, very strong, and that's something that is hard to scout for because it's just, it is what it is. So I think that that's -- we have to focus on that. We have to focus on how to combat that with things that maybe aren't as conventional, but, yeah.

Q. What's been the biggest message that Coach and you guys have talked about going into this game?

EMMA UTTERBACK: I think the biggest message is -- I mean, we kind of touched on it a little bit before, but UConn is a very, very successful program and it's very easy to kind of get caught up on the name. But we never want to go into a game not thinking that we can pull a win out. I think that's the biggest thing, step on that floor and own it and own the experience, and don't let the moment get too big. Anyone can win a basketball game no matter how good a team is.

I think if we play with that chip on our shoulder, with the underdog mentality, and say, we get overlooked and we capitalize off of that, I think it could be a really good game for us. So playing with confidence and just like we've been here before is going to be huge.

DELANEY RICHASON: Along with that, we've been preparing since July, and so we have to remember everything that we've done to get ready for this moment. We can't dwell on the mistakes or anything. We have to remember that we've been on a really good winning streak. We figured out how to win some games that were really tough games and that's definitely something we have to keep in mind.

Q. One thing that you guys touched a lot on back home was drawing on that experience that you guys had from the Indiana game, but I'm curious, what else throughout the season have you guys learned about yourselves that will make you successful tomorrow night?

EMMA UTTERBACK: I think a big thing that our team has learned is finding confidence when other teams are going on runs. I think that's shown a lot of growth in our program. I feel like in years prior when other teams were going on runs and there's a lot of momentum swinging their way and maybe we were on an away game and their crowd was getting into it, we started freaking out a little bit and we weren't able to pull out those games.

But I think this year we were really able to understand like every team's going to have their runs. That's how the game of basketball works. We stayed more calm in those situations, and I think we were able to create more runs and get out of those ruts quicker. So I think that's a pretty big thing that I've noticed.

DELANEY RICHASON: I think we've also been focusing on -- and we've talked a lot about this, is like mentally preparing for the game rather than just physically preparing. I think that is what has certainly helped us bounce back quicker from mistakes and things that don't go our way.

I know a crowd is -- when the crowd's all cheering for you at home, that's helpful, but I think that's definitely something that we have to mentally prepare for, and I think we've done a pretty good job of that so far.

Q. In this fast-pace environment with all this attention, how do you find a moment to step away and kind of collect yourself mentally?

DELANEY RICHASON: I was just going to say, I think we're a very together team and I think we all lean on each other. I think that's our biggest way to get out of the outside noise and just focus on, okay, there's five of us on the court, there's 10 or so of us on the bench, like, let's just all stay together in this moment and let's focus on what's happening right here rather than out there.

EMMA UTTERBACK: Yeah, I totally agree. I think specific moments where we kind of find each other is during free throws, timeouts, especially media timeouts where we have a little bit more time to gather. We've done breathing stuff before when it's been really intense, when we really feel like we need to do it. It's actually really helped. So I feel like those times, like small seconds that we have together, we really make it worth it, and you can tell in our successes that it works.

Q. Can you just explain what your feelings were initially when you saw that you were matched up against UConn in the tournament?

EMMA UTTERBACK: For me personally, I was extremely excited. It's a team that I've looked up to ever since I was a kid. So to not only win the first time in the American East championship, but to also play a team that you so highly look up to is a dream to me. It's a dream to play on this floor. I knew that our team was going to own it and I knew that we were going to rise to the challenge. So I don't know, I just -- my first thought was definitely excited.

DELANEY RICHASON: Yeah, me too. I think it being not as far away from home is a really good thing to hopefully get a little bit of a fan base. Then thinking about like how exciting this could be playing against a historically known team that we've all been looking up to since we've been playing at a young age. That's just super exciting. So I think definitely that.

Q. For those of us who don't know you guys very well, could you just describe the strengths of your team and what it is that has made you a conference champion this year?

EMMA UTTERBACK: I think our ability to have a balanced attack. I think that we have a lot of talented players on this team that work hard, and it pays off on the floor. You can definitely see their hard work they put in in the off-season and outside of practice as well.

I think that our togetherness, it brings out a lot of other facets, like really good defense. When we're together and we play really good defense with really good communication, we're able to turn our defense into offense and we love transition game. So I think for us the main thing is to be together and everything else kind of comes after that.

DELANEY RICHASON: Yeah, we focus a lot on our defense, and so team defense is our number one thing. That's how we kind of describe it. That, and then having a lot of different weapons, that on any given night someone could score 20 points and the next night someone else could.

Q. When you're celebrating after you beat Albany, from a players' perspective, what were you celebrating, winning the conference or going to the NCAA tournament?

DELANEY RICHASON: That's a tough question because it's both, obviously. But I think in that moment, we were focused on what we had just done, and then I think we focused more on the NCAA tournament kind of the next day or on Selection Sunday.

But in that moment, I think we were focused on this is crazy what we just did and we're so, so excited.

EMMA UTTERBACK: Yeah, I think I agree with her. I think initially it was like, oh, my gosh, we just did it, and all that hard work paid off. I think all of us imagined that and visualized that all season long. So with the fact that it came to life was like -- for a second we're like, no way, like, we did it.

Then I think as time kind of went on, we were like, wait a minute, okay, now we're going to the NCAA tournament. We've all wanted to do this since we were kids. Then it was just like a wave of a lot of like pride for our team and for our community and it was really exciting.

Q. How hard is it when you're waiting in -- as you're going through your season, I should say, when you know that no matter pretty much what you do during the regular season it kind of comes down to three days in March? How tough is that?

EMMA UTTERBACK: I mean, I think that all those games are in preparation for those three games. I think we went into those three games with a lot of confidence because of our regular season. But at the end of the day, like, we're facing each game first, like, not really thinking in the future too much, because when you think too much in the future, you tend to build a lot of pressure, and it kind of gets in the way of the present.

So we really try to stay focused on the present. But it is really hard to do that at times. But, yeah, I think the fact that we were so successful in the regular season we gained a lot of confidence from that and we just kept it rolling.

Q. You guys mentioned watching UConn teams growing up. What were some of your favorite players or teams and moments to watch growing up?

DELANEY RICHASON: I would say I really liked watching Katie Lou Samuelson play, not only because I'm pretty sure we wear the same number, but I think we were similar positions too, and so that was really cool to watch.

EMMA UTTERBACK: Yeah, I think for me it was definitely Maya Moore. She is extremely talented and she's been very successful in her career, and so growing up I loved watching her.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you. We'll take some questions from coach next.

(Pause.)

THE MODERATOR: All right. We'll take some questions for coach.

Q. Both Delaney and Emma were talking about growing up idolizing UConn players and watching UConn all the time and how exciting it was to step into Gampel and know that they're going to be on the floor tomorrow. So how do you keep that from overwhelming your team, the fact that they're playing a UConn team which has shown they can be beaten this year and still enjoy this moment of being in this place that a lot of girls grow up dreaming of playing in?

ALISA KRESGE: Yeah, we've talked about it. You've got to identify that, talk about it, and know that why are we here, right? We are here to play hard, to fight. We worked really hard to get here. So kind of that mentality of we got to rip off the name UConn and it's a faceless opponent, in a sense, and remember that when tip happens.

But before it, enjoy it. Look around, take a moment, realize you worked really hard to get to this level and play at an amazing university against a really historical program. So take that in for a second, but then when tip goes off, we got to go to work. We are here to show everybody what the University of Vermont has worked so hard to do and for so many years. So we talk about it, we identify it, and then we are going to go take care of business.

Q. You guys have six international players on your roster. UConn has a lot as well. Just what has been your approach in recruiting internationally and how have you seen that grow across the sport in recent years?

ALISA KRESGE: So our situation's a little unique. Most of our first-years are -- or excuse me, most of our international student-athletes are first-years. There's one sophomore. For us, it is -- kind of was late in recruiting, and I feel like internationally, while the world is very small and there's a lot of international recruiting, there's a lot of players over there that either decide late or haven't been seen yet.

So we dove into international recruiting this last year late. That's where I felt like we found some players. We missed out on a couple players in the portal. So that's really how we went international. But everybody knows everybody now. The game is -- you're tied to everybody, and it's really easy to recruit internationally now. So we see it a lot now. There's a lot of great players coming from overseas. For us, it was, I think, a couple players that got missed and fortunately we found them late.

Q. You played against UConn yourself. What do you remember from that game here in Storrs, and then just to see Geno still coaching the program, obviously a different program now, but to be able to experience that now as adult and as a coach?

ALISA KRESGE: You know, the positive was we were up three at halftime. So that was good, right? And then the second half came and it was 44-21 in the second half. So that was tough.

But it was a great experience. It was pre-season my junior year. I was part of a group that was able to understand what an awesome opportunity it was. But playing UConn is only going to make you better.

So playing them tomorrow is only going to make our program stronger and our players better, and that's what it's about, you got to play the best in order to be the best.

Sorry, what was the second question?

Q. What's it like to see Geno coach this program and how it's changed?

ALISA KRESGE: So I grew up watching Geno. He's done so much for the game. And I've always been the type, like, keep winning. Like, I didn't want to change anything. I loved that. You can keep winning. Like, that is so impressive.

So I've really always been so impressed by him and what he's able to do. It's so hard. I know people take it for granted. But it's incredible what he's doing, and I think he's a huge part of the game. I'm not looking forward to the day that Geno's not on the sideline. I think it's incredible what he's done for our game and what he's done for USA basketball. He's really helped elevate this game. I'm a big fan of his.

Q. Delaney's mentioned a couple times how you guys have had a goal to be here since July. There's probably been messages throughout the year, winning the conference championship. Was there a specific message this week, maybe even if it wasn't just about UConn, but just a message for the team?

ALISA KRESGE: It's staying true to who we are. I think that is something, and this group has surprised me in a lot of ways. But winning 17 games in a row is pretty tough. The one thing they have really done is stayed true to who they are. This is a big moment, but we got to remember who we are and what we worked so hard at. We can't let the moment get too big for us.

I think they have done that, even in our championship game, low scoring, but they stayed true to what we're really good at, and that was staying together and playing defense. I think we're going to have to stay true to who we are in this game because it's going to be really tough. If we start going individual directions, that's only going to give UConn a chance to really try to run up a score on us.

Q. You mentioned the 17 straight wins, but you guys almost started 0-3 in America East play. So what was the change, what switched for you guys, to go on this run?

ALISA KRESGE: You are very correct, we were on the road at Bryant and had to hit a big shot to take the game into overtime, and then gutted it out in overtime.

Really, halftime is probably the moment that I realized, okay, we're going to challenge this group, and they can go one of two ways; they can give up or they can find a way to fight, and they did. And from it there on out, the word had been grit and they just have run with it.

Every time we've challenged them and kind of got after them, they responded in a really good way. Not all teams can respond to kind of how we got after them. But it wasn't working. We were 0-2 in league, something was not working, and we decided to get after them a little bit harder and see how they would respond and, man, did they run with it.

So, yeah, we could have been 0-3 and maybe at one point I was thinking, we might not win a conference game, but they surprised me and they proved me wrong and they wanted it. I think that's a big part of our leadership. We kind of left that locker room, like, this is your team, so you tell us what team was going to come out in the second half. It's no longer on the coaches. We know you're prepared, but you guys got to want it. I think our leadership did a great job, EMMA and Del sitting here, and Carly Whiteside, of bringing the team together and really refocusing on all the hard work they put in and knowing that they believe in themselves and they have talent and they can do this.

And the other piece with that is we've really spent a lot of time on the mental side of the game, and so every Monday our team meets for a half hour off the court working on the mental side of the game and all the stuff that comes with the mental side of everything. I really do think that's been huge for this group. They are very intelligent young women. There's a real part of the mental side of the game that we weren't really focusing on, and I think focusing on that really has helped them get through some challenging times. Obviously a lot of stress leading into, okay, this is the 15th game now, this is the 16th game, there's a lot of stress in that. I think them spending the time on the mental side has really helped them get through it.

Q. Practice at Hartford this morning. How did that go and do you think the nerves have settled in now that you guys are here?

ALISA KRESGE: Practice was good. We have seen some offense again. Which is great after that championship game. So I think they're playing loose, they're playing hard. I think the nerves are going to be there when tip happens, rightfully so. But we're in a situation that nobody expects us to win, so you got to play loose, you got to have fun, you got to play hard. If you play tight, it's already over. You play in awe, it's already over. And we're talking a lot about it, but we've been through a lot this season and stressful moments, so I'm hoping that when that tip goes up they remember that and they stay true to who they are and they remember all the mental training that we've done to prepare them for this opportunity.

Q. Speaking of what you said of stressful environments. What are you hoping your team takes away from playing at Indiana earlier this season to now playing here in Storrs where the crowd will probably be just as big if maybe not a little bigger, a little rowdier. What do you hope they take away from that?

ALISA KRESGE: We talked about it. Watched those clips. One thing that surprised me when I went back and watched it is we really did play loose offensively. We had two Indiana kids that idolized Indiana growing up, so I was really nervous how they were going to handle it. And those two, they played like they had something to prove, which is awesome. I'm hoping that we take that same experience into this game because we've been there. Obviously Indiana is a really talented team, UConn's a really talented team, they're comparable as far as how talented they are on both sides of the basketball. So we've been through it. So in some ways I'm hoping it's not a culture shock because they have actually been through it. I think the crowd's going to be awesome. Fortunately we had that experience and our nice gym at Patrick has been really, really loud and a lot of energy so the players can't hear us, which I think it prepares you for a game like this. They got to do it. They're ready. They know what they're doing, but they have to do it a lot on their own.

Q. How do you scout a UConn team that was missing two of its best players until the Big East tournament? The film you've seen on them from the regular season isn't the team you're going to be facing tomorrow. So how do you do that?

ALISA KRESGE: Yeah, well, fortunately, we have a couple of the post-season games to see obviously Izzy back, but, you know, they're so talented and we know their capability that whoever they have on the court, they're all weapons in their own way. We're going to have to be able to team defense, rotate, put pressure where we can. But honestly, I don't think it really matters who is on the floor. I think they all know what their jobs are. I think Geno gets a great job out of them. He puts them in the right spots to be successful. They share the ball. So I don't really care who is on the floor, at the end of the day I know that they know their system inside and out and now we got to focus on the tendencies. Obviously some of the players who have been injured, we know that they can score the ball. So we're ready for them to come out and try to hit some shots on us.

Q. As a coach of a Mid Major in this day of the portal, do you worry at all that other programs are sitting here at the NCAA tournament with your success scouting your players and how do you deal with that with your players and try to convince them to stay with you?

ALISA KRESGE: That's a great question. Yeah, I think the scouting's going on all year long. When you make it to the big dance obviously you're in the spotlight. At the end of the day we're going to stay true to who we are and we take care of people and we give everything to them. If they decide that they need something else, I'll be their biggest supporter. I'm never going to tell somebody they can't do something or give 'em a hard time about it. If they choose to go somewhere else, that's their choice. But I think they understand what they have at the University of Vermont. It's a special place and they really support women's basketball and the grass isn't always greener. But sometimes they have to find that out on their own and it's part of it. At the end of the day it's part of it. The transfer portal is part of it. I've always said, even recruiting when players don't pick the University of Vermont, it's okay, it's okay. If they change their mind then maybe we'll get somebody that's trying to transfer on the back end. It's part of it. As coaches we can move somewhere, right? So, hey, I'm going to give everything to everybody that's part of our program and if they decide they need to go somewhere else for whatever reason, I wish them the best. I can't have hard feelings. Everybody has to make decisions of what's best for them. It's tough. I don't want to see anybody leave, but it's the reality of it and then we got to go find somebody else that wants to come and be part of the University of Vermont.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.