NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - CLEVELAND STATE VS VILLANOVA

March 17, 2023

Chris Kielsmeier

Destiny Leo

Brittni Moore

Finneran Pavilion

Cleveland State Vikings

Media Conference

Q. Playing as 13-seed can be daunting but how is it coming into another team's postgame court and knowing they will have a big crowd, does that make the challenge tougher or is it the same no matter where you're at?

DESTINY LEO: I think we are going to embrace the big crowd. I think we are excited to play in front of a bunch of fans. The March Madness holds what it holds and you never know what can happen every night.

BRITTNI MOORE: I think would say I think we are going to be okay. I think we are used to playing in front of a crowd. Obviously not one as big as Villanova but I think as long as we come in and settle down, I think we'll be fine.

Q. What are your initial impressions about facing Villanova?

BRITTNI MOORE: Well, I mean, you know, they have the -- Maddi, obviously, but I think for us, it's just not so much worrying about her. Obviously she is a big part of the scout.

But I think just, you know, making sure that we do everything that we can as a team to, you know, kind of limit them in some areas and just play our style of basketball and pretty much just rely on everything else to take care of itself.

Q. You guys rank second in the country in free throws per game. How important will that be in this matchup with Villanova and be able to throw the game down?

DESTINY LEO: I think absolutely getting to the free throw line is something that we take pride in every game, getting to the basket and kind of drawing contact is something that we'll definitely focus on like we do every game.

Q. This is your first NCAA Tournament, what is the feel coming into it, are you excited?

BRITTNI MOORE: I think for me, I'm definitely excited. I think nerves are always a factor. I guess not so much as any other game but mostly just excitement and just ready to get on the court and show what we can do.

Q. How many interviews do you think you've done over the last week and a half?

DESTINY LEO: More than I've ever done before.

Q. And I guess that follows up into my next part, from Selection Sunday, learning that you're going to come here out of nowhere and then coming to this day in between all that trying to prep for a specific opponent, things like that, how tough is that?

DESTINY LEO: I think it's pretty cool. I think it's pretty cool getting an opportunity to play somebody that we've never played before and then before knowing who we were going to play, having a wide range of, like, teams that we've never had the chance to come against before. But I mean, this is definitely a really cool experience.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, if you can give us an opening statement about tomorrow's matchup with Villanova.

CHRIS KIELSMEIER: Thank you, everyone, for coming to this and supporting women's basketball, Cleveland State University. It's been five years in the making for our program. When I first got here, you know, I was motivated for this day and to make this happen. Boy, the last three years have been kind of crazy for life, right, for everyone, and our players and staff, our administration has done a phenomenal job to put us in a position to get here, and we're really excited to compete and show that we're not here just to show up. Happy to be here.

We understand that Villanova is an elite team. They have been all year. They are dominant on both ends of the floor so we understand how big a challenge this is for us. But we are certainly confident in our abilities to -- for the reason we are here and we are excited to show up and really compete tomorrow.

Q. Having beat especially Green Bay, which is no small accomplishment for where they were in the conference, how much of a springboard was that getting into here?

CHRIS KIELSMEIER: Well, in the past, you know, they have been the standard of the Horizon League, and over the last couple years, we've showed that we're right there at the top of the Horizon League and maybe we're the new standard.

It took a lot. You know, Green Bay, extremely well-coached. Tremendous players. It took a heck of a battle for us to be able to win that game, and you know, we are -- I hope that that gives our players a tremendous amount of confidence going into this but you know, again, we won 30 games.

So this isn't about one team or one opponent. We're a confident basketball team and have been all year and have some big games. Have some big wins, on our schedule and know that this is going to take a great effort but we understand how good we are as well.

Q. Does it make the challenge more daunting, the fact that you have to come here and play in front of a largely pro-Villanova proud and on their home court?

CHRIS KIELSMEIER: It's the way it is. So we have never set -- we have never talked about it. We've never doubted it. It's the NCAA Tournament, baby, and you're excited to be in it no matter when, where, what it is. And you know we don't make excuses in our program. We don't talk about hypotheticals and what if this or whatnot. We are excited that it's going to be a tremendous environment for women's basketball, and let's embrace it and be ready to play.

Q. What are your impressions of this Villanova team when you were watching the tape preparing for them?

CHRIS KIELSMEIER: Extremely balanced both ends of the floor. Everybody talks about how good see crest is and rightly so, leading the nation in scoring for a reason. But they are so balanced. I mean, it's so much bigger than just her on the offensive end.

Defensively, they are just stuff. They are a big, physical basketball team, and I think the thing that I have really learned the most with them is they are not going to beat themselves. Like they are extremely tough-minded players. Extremely well-coached, and they are going to go out and make you have to really play their way, and obviously our challenge is to try to make them play our way, and kind of be the game within the game.

But they are really good and I don't think I'm saying anything that anybody doesn't know already in this room.

Q. You guys are 12-3 in your last postseason games. How will you be able to draw on those experiences to help you guys out in the NCAA Tournament matchup?

CHRIS KIELSMEIER: I appreciate you bringing that up. We've played in 15 games in the postseason in the last three years. Now, granted, they have not been all in the NCAA Tournament, which is where we want to be, and we have had to work to earn that right to be here.

I hope that it helps. But I don't necessarily play a lot into that. It's not going to give us a five-point head start at the beginning of the game or something. You know, we have to show that we can handle the environment, handle the moment, and settle in and really play the way Cleveland state women's basketball wants to play, and when we do that, we are really confident in ourselves.

Q. You've played BIG EAST basketball this year with DePaul. How does that game help compare going up against another BIG EAST school in Villanova?

CHRIS KIELSMEIER: That one there, I hope it helps us a lot because that pace of that game was fast, and they got up and down the floor and I think it kind of stunned our players a little bit at the beginning of the game, like, this is fast. We had told them that going into it and we had kind of chased from behind it early on, and kind of sunk us a little bit. And then we had to fight back and hit some big shots.

So I hope that, you know, our players can understand that we expect the pace of the game of how Villanova wants to play to be at that level, and we really have to make sure that we minimize mistakes and that starts with not makes mistakes defensively in transition, and we know that that's a huge part of how they play and how they win games.

Q. It's obvious on paper what Destiny does for you guys, but what has it meant from what you see in practice as far as a leadership role, what has she meant to your team getting you guys to this position?

CHRIS KIELSMEIER: It started off the court because she's a local hometown kid that wanted to play at Cleveland state and that said being a Viking is where I want to be, and that's special because we all have that one place that's hometown. But sometimes, that's not enough for hometown kids, and it was for Destiny Leo.

So what she's brought our program starts off the court. She's made us really relevant in northeast Ohio, and we have really cracked the media blitz in that area and made Destiny Leo and he women's basketball and women's athletics something big to talk about, even though internally on campus we already knew that all that. We had tremendous resources at Cleveland state, work for a powerful administration and AD that gets things done.

Destiny on the court in between the lines is a very confident player because she puts the work in. She works really, really hard. Expects to be a great player because of what she does year round.

To answer your question, when the ball is tipped, she wants the ball in her hands and she wants to make plays and she expects herself to do whatever needs to be done, even if it doesn't mean scoring. She's had some games where she is not scored much because the defense has been throwing a lot at her and she's been able to facilitate and find us other ways to help us win. She means a lot to our program if I haven't made that clear. She's special on and off the court.

Q. We've seen locally back in Cleveland just media interest building and building as the season has gone on. What does that do for your program? Now you have this kind of official stamp on it with the March Madness logos behind it and everything, what can that do for your program moving forward?

CHRIS KIELSMEIER: Well, dang, this thing started getting asked a question from Mel Greenberg, how big a deal is that? (Laughter).

You can't put a price tag on it. I mean, Cleveland State is hot right now, and back in northeast Ohio, we have got fans for women's basketball that we probably didn't have a month or two ago. You know, I've been such a strong proponent for the game for a long time; that don't dislike women's basketball when you've never gone to a game.

Come to a game and leave and tell me you don't like it. Because then you can complain and you don't have to come back. If you but come, I think you're going to like it, and we've made that impact on a lot of people so I think our program is really just going to be able to reach new heights moving forward from this because we are on a national stage right now.

And this is where we want Cleveland State Women's Basketball to be, and I couldn't be more proud of our players, our staff, our administration, just everybody that I get to work with. I work with amazing people and sometimes that gets overstated but it's phenomenal to come to work every day because it's not work. You get to coach the game and impact lives and give back to others, and to me that's what life is all about.