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

March 17, 2023

Dawn Plitzuweit

Madisen Smith

JJ Quinerly

XFINITY Center

West Virginia Mountaineers

Media Conference

Arizona 75, West Virginia 62

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by West Virginia head coach Dawn Plitzuweit, Madisen Smith and JJ Quinerly. We'll start with an opening statement from Coach.

Coach Plitzuweit.

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: First of all, I thought Arizona played a very, very good basketball game. Started from the beginning, from the opening tip. Certainly congratulate them on the season they've had, but also how they played in this game.

That being said, I thought our young ladies battled. We started down in the first quarter, kind of dug ourselves a hole. I thought our resilience and our toughness kind of showed through. I thought we continued to work, to attack.

Again, I think anything we tried to get into from a defensive standpoint, we really had a hard time slowing them down and taking away some of their actions.

But all that being said, I told our players in the locker room I don't think many people, when this whole thing started less than a year ago, would have said that our young ladies would have had a chance to be battling and have a chance to do the things that we've done this year.

Certainly really proud of our young ladies, these two who are up here that have carried a lot of that load all year in JJ and Madi. All of our young ladies, I just think their ability to continue to get better and to grow is something that was really fun and something that was really special and something we can continue to build on.

Certainly just really proud of our young ladies for the whole season. I thought we continued to battle throughout the course of the entire game. Things didn't go quite our way. Even when we got some really good looks, they didn't fall for us, but not from a lack of effort.

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for Madisen and JJ.

Q. Madi, Coach talked about that slow start in the first quarter. What did you see that they were doing that allowed them to have some of that success?

MADISEN SMITH: They really pushed the ball in transition. We had a hard time getting back and stopping the ball. We fouled a lot in the first quarter.

Q. Both players, what was it like going up against a former teammate in Martinez? How close of a relationship do you have? How weird was it in some ways playing against her on the court?

JJ QUINERLY: For me, it wasn't too weird. I only played with her for a year. I mean, I'm cool with her. We was laughing and joking on the court.

Just another player, another game.

MADISEN SMITH: Yeah, it was cool to play against her. Good to see her again. She's a great player, yeah.

Q. JJ, how much do you think their size hurt you here today?

JJ QUINERLY: I don't think their size, I can't really say it hurt us. More that we could have just did better. We could have did better just keeping them off the boards, everything, so...

Q. JJ, you were able to get to the line and shoot 12 free throws tonight. Was that a point of emphasis coming in or you saw you could take advantage?

JJ QUINERLY: I mean, that's my game, getting to the hoop. The coaches, of course, they say get to the rim. Nobody stopping me get to the rim, so that's what I did.

Q. Like Coach said, you have carried the load for this team. What has it been like playing with each other and how much has your relationship grown on the court?

MADISEN SMITH: Playing with JJ, she makes me better. She's fast, she pushes the ball. It's just great to have a teammate like that. I'm really going to miss playing with her, playing for this university (tearing up).

JJ QUINERLY: I think same. Madi has taught me a lot over the years, from my freshman year (tearing up). It is great having her out there. I don't know, she makes it peaceful.

Q. You clawed back in the third quarter, came close to keeping that tight. Arizona was able to pull it out, extend their lead. What were you seeing on the court that happened?

JJ QUINERLY: I think the guard change. No. 15 is a totally different forward from No. 1. She can shoot the ball, shoot pull-ups, get to the hoop. It was a different ballgame.

We changed up our screens. Then went to our man not helping, and then layups. We just got to rotate better. Nothing we can really do now, just get better over the summer.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, guys. You're good to go.

We'll take questions for Coach.

Q. What were your adjustments at halftime?

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: We tried to do a better job of just doing what we're supposed to do if that makes sense. We're trying to do a better job in some transition defense. We call it our conversion defense. That's where it started. They're really good in their transition offense. Kind of started from what some of the matchups looked like from there.

Then talked about some of their screening action and how we were going to try to guard it a little bit better and finish plays.

Not anything that was overly significant except trying to do what we wanted to do, but a little bit more efficient clip.

Q. In the first quarter, Pellington had nine of her 18 points and all four of her assists. What allowed her to have that success?

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: Well, she's really tough in some ball screen scenarios. We kind of watched how some other teams in the conference tried to defend it in ways they had success. We didn't have success with those type of ways.

She got to the rim in transition. She got to the rim in a halfcourt scenario. I thought she came off the ball screen, hesitated, reattacked, hit some pull-ups. Got a little bit of everything at that point in time.

I think we were back on our heels at that point in time. So then when we made some adjustments, I thought we were a little bit better. But then their post kids got going. There was give-and-take in all of that.

I thought they played a very, very good basketball game. I'm proud of our young ladies because I thought we battled back. In a lot of ways we took care of the basketball against one of the best teams in the country defensively at turning opponents over.

We got a lot of really good looks. Unfortunately for us, we are not a team that shoots it at an incredibly high percentage. That's kind of tough.

Then with the adjustment we tried to make was to try to get some more offensive rebounds. Again, I thought our players did that, young ladies flew to the offensive glass. In particular I thought Isis, Jayla and Kyah were three young ladies trying to keep possessions alive, give us another opportunity to shoot it at that point in time.

Again, I think we tried to control what we could control. We tried to battle. Every time we seemed to try to make an adjustment, they seemed to have an answer for it that was effective, too.

They're obviously a very, very good basketball team. I thought our young ladies competed and tried to put ourselves in position, but it wasn't good enough today.

Q. Obviously not the resulted wanted to end the season. JJ had a wonderful season. What does the future look like for someone like her?

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: I think JJ is someone whose game continued to grow throughout the course of this season. Even from the beginning of the game until the end of the game, I thought she continued to recognize and see some situations.

She's right, we kept telling her to attack. I thought she passed up a couple open threes on top of a two. She's a good three-point shooter. I think she's someone who we want the ball in her hands a lot because she makes good decisions and she has the ability to make plays that not a lot of players have the ability to make plays like she can.

Q. Getting to the tournament here in your first season, taking over a team that hadn't made it the year prior, how does that make you feel about what you can accomplish in the future?

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: I'm really proud of these young ladies. This is our story before the game. I'm not a very good golfer, right? When golf balls were invented, they were smooth. There weren't dents or dimples in them. As soon as they'd get hit by a golf club, they realized more density they had in the golf ball, the farther it would go.

That was kind of like us during the course of our time in growing, there was a lot of adversity, a lot of learning.

When there's a transition, it's challenging. Our young ladies had to learn a new system, a new style, all those type of thing. We weren't as successful as we wanted to be early on.

We continued to battle, grow, put some dents in the golf ball, if you will. It kept going further. When we finished, I thought our young ladies really battled and continued to get better as the season wore on.

I think we played against an Arizona team that played really, really well. When it comes to tournament times, it comes down to matchup. This matchup probably didn't suit us all that well.

Our understanding of the game continued to grow. Our awareness of how to help each other continued to grow. I thought we continued to get better as the year went on.

Q. What are you going to miss most about this team moving forward?

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: I think their ability to continue to try new things, if you will. That's not something that every team has that ability to do that, to go from one system, one style, to another. Then we continued to tweak what we did during the course of the year to adjust to how our players played best.

I think their ability to continue to learn. It happened in practice yesterday. We asked one of our kids a question about how we wanted to guard a certain thing. She used a phrase we haven't used probably in at least a month. I thought, Wow, that's really smart.

We're retaining, getting better, learning. It was fun to watch that continue to grow all year.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: Thank you.