NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - ALABAMA VS BAYLOR

March 17, 2023

Nicki Collen

Sarah Andrews

Caitlin Bickle

Gampel Pavilion

Baylor Bears

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We are joined this afternoon by fifth year forward Caitlin Bickle and junior guard, Sara Andrews. Start up front.

Q. Caitlin, what has the energy been like this week in practice? Now that you are here, is there a little bit of kind of renewed energy? This is what you play for.

CAITLIN BICKLE: Yeah, definitely, I think a little bit of renewed energy. Obviously, we didn't need to get what we need to get done for Big 12 tournament play. I think this week, trying to keep up energy. Trying to execute everything that we need to execute. I think we are definitely excited. New start. We can go one game at a time and hope that we can get through the tournament.

Q. Caitlin, I think the team played 11 top 25 teams this season. Obviously, the reason behind the schedule like that is to prepare yourself for March. Can you talk a little bit about how it has prepared you. Despite the ending to the conference season not being what you wanted, do you guys feel confident going into this game?

CAITLIN BICKLE: Yes, I think we have definitely have been tested compared to years in the past, at least as long as I have been here. This regular season schedule has definitely been the toughest we have had. I think it just prepares us. We can see our weaknesses, you know, rather than waiting for a tournament get deeper in the schedule. We got to see weaknesses, usually we wouldn't see, until conference play or even until big 12 tournament play or you get into this tournament now. I think that's prepared us, being able to correct those mistakes or kind of comparing games. This is kind of what this team has done to us. We didn't do great on that. We need to work on that. We need to grow on that. Other teams use the same thing and may use it against us. I think ht has been great, and I think it prepared us.

Q. Sara and Caitlin. How much does your tournament experience help, that you have been through it, you have -- you were at home last year. In San Antonio the year before. How has that tournament experience helped you?

SARAH ANDREWS: It helped me a lot. I think going into it, 0-0. It is win or go home, fresh slate, it is about playing your best basketball now, honestly. Everybody is 0-0.

CAITLIN BICKLE: I think experience, obviously. I think you just don't get as rattled in my opinion. I think, obviously, freshman year we got to travel a bit more, it wasn't post-pandemic, things like that. Obviously, we were in the bubble at one point. It is so different, obviously, getting to play on the road. It is so much more exciting, the atmosphere is more exciting in March Madness. Having a calm presence, having that experience.

Q. Sarah, you didn't come in hooping and hollering. My question is this. You guys, we have talked a lot about it, you guys have been good on the road. Beating tough teams and stuff. Obviously, this is a road environment. Neutral site for the first game. If you are fortunate enough to play UCONN. What has just been the focus on the road? Why are you so much better maybe on the road?

SARAH ANDREWS: First, I didn't come in here hooping and hollering, cause I didn't want to give you that side yet. It will come out. I think we are better on the road because we know we need to be ten points better. It is a different crowd. We want to send more people home mad that we beat them. We feed off that type of energy. It is just us against anybody else in the gym. I think we feed off each other, and that is when we are the most connected.

Q. Start with Sarah, Caitlin as well. Where are areas, when you think about to the beginning of Big 12 season, January, even the fall, do you feel the team has grown the most, that maybe are you a different team than you were back then?

SARAH ANDREWS: I think we really showed it in the Texas game. How we can defend. We play together, move the ball. We play like that every game. We are locked in, connected and communicating the way we were, I think we can beat anybody in the country.

CAITLIN BICKLE: For us, it is all when we are locked in on the same page, I think we are one of the best teams in the country for sure.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us for the second have the of pre-practice press conference. Welcome head coach Nicki Collen.

Q. Nicki, Y'all are here. What is the energy been like?

NICKI COLLEN: We are here, we made it here.

Q. You haven't gone through practice yet. Do you like the vibe you are getting from the team?

NICKI COLLEN: I think there is always good energy when you talk about the concept of new beginnings and everybody at this point is 0-0, and you spend all day yesterday kind of in some ways, we did practice here yesterday, not at UCONN, but at St. Joe's. You are watching the men, seeing the upsets and kind of the excitement around the tournament.

Just in general, it is a great time of year if you are a basketball fan.

Q. Coach Nick, you spent time up here with the Connecticut Sun. Is there any connections that are interesting to you or you meaningful to you here at UCONN?

NICKI COLLEN: I don't know if anyone knows this, but Dan our bus driver drove us all the time when I was with the Suns. That was the first comfortable feeling. Yes, I mean, I know I have even had a lot of the UCONN fans that are cross over fans with the Sun reach-out. It is such a loyal fan base. The fans of the Sun tend to be UCONN fans as well. So, yes, spent a lot of time up in this area. Not exactly Storrs, but definitely Connecticut is not a real big state.

Q. Nicki can you talk about what practice has been like since coming off two losses, what you have been concentrating on. Then what season where you played 11 top 25 teams prepared you for that.

NICKI COLLEN: First of all, happy St. Patrick's Day, great shirt. We have had these ebbs and flows in the season in terms of stretches of wins, stretches of losses. Obviously, played as well as we played all season in Texas, and you know, didn't play as well against West Virginia. Conference tournament, played well for 37 minutes and not great the last three. I was happy for Iowa State and Bill Finley to go on and win that thing.

I think the good part about kind of NCAA Tournament or any post-season tournament, we have a double home at home with everyone in our league. Everybody knows each other well. You are playing teams for the third time when you get to the conference tournament. One of the nice things is just playing against a team that you haven't played yet, that hasn't scouted you, that will look at you differently. You can exploit different things, and use to different things, try to evaluate who plays like us in the SEC. There really aren't a lot of teams that play super similar to us, SEC, maybe Arkansas, maybe as close as anyone. We are not as much of a five-out team as Arkansas.

For us, this game is about all-screen defense, it is about covering up the three-point line. We certainly have teams in the league, we would compare them more closely to Oklahoma State, who we weren't very successful against this season. In terms of volume of threes, percentage of three, Alabama does a great job making three, not just taking them.

The idea of us playing in Iowa State and Oklahoma State, kinda of prepares us for how they can spread you out and how they can make threes. So our focus has been very much defending the three-point line, knowing personnel, great ball movement. They are a little different from a lot of teams in our league, they switch 1 through 4, pretty much everything.

We have to dial back to early in the season when we faced Maryland, that switches a lot of screens in terms of slipping and what works, how to expose kind of some of their switching actions, but they have had a really, really good season. They are so veteran-ladened with transfers. The they do a good job sharing the basketball.

Q. Brittany Davis, I think is her name. She is their only double figure scorer. How much of your defense do you focus on that? Or do you try more to contain the other four?

NICKI COLLEN: I mean, think is a balance in that. You don't want to see her get 30. She is super effective when she is scoring from three, and getting stuff in transition, and playing downhill, and you know. I think that any one of those players, the Barbers, Nye, Barker, those kids can all get double figures. It doesn't mean they average double figures, but they are more than capable. You have a balance. Davis will take enough shots, she will get double figures, she is kind of the player, they pretty much play small ball the entire time. You time your mismatch and vice versa. So, she does a good job of getting downhill. She does a good job of getting the three-point shot off when she is being guarded by bigger defenders. So, I think it is a combination. It is, you know, Nye is as good as anybody in the country in making threes, but she hasn't made a three on three of the bounce. So being there on the catch, not giving her the catch and shoot three.

Understanding kind of personnel wise, who does what, where and when and be able to take away option 1, option 2, make them play 3, 4, 5. It doesn't mean 3, 4, 5 players, because I think they have such great balance. It is not understanding when they are in actions, what is their primary look in action? Do you take away the pocket pass? Do you take away the riser? From there, do you sit down and guard them and make them play through your chest? I think that will be key.

Q. I wondered if you could reflect for a minute on your time with the Sun. That was the job before you went to coach the Dream. Was it a good part of your career that you look back on?

NICKI COLLEN: It is interesting, I have never been a big believer in thinking about a five-year plan type of thing. You know. My husband was a head coach at Arkansas, when he got let go there, it was kind of this unique time in our lives, our family's lives to figure out what direction my career was going to go.

I was lucky enough to work for Karl Smesko for two years and to work at Florida Gulf Coast. During that time, Tom happened to still be under contract with Arkansas, so it made it nice. Curt and I worked together at Colorado State when I first got into coaching. We always said, if there was ever an opportunity to work together, that we wanted to. We feel or brains fire similarly. Our personalities are oddly very different, but how we think is the same. I tended to be the calm to his crazy a lot of the time. You know, I like to say that my job was to stand in the park lot at Mohegan Sun after the game and explain to the players what he said, not how he said it.

I just think that it was a really -- it was kind of a foundation for me, honestly being here. You know, I think it was -- I never had a dream of coaching in the pros, it was an opportunity to work with someone that I respected and liked and a new experience. Amazingly, that experience lead to my first head coaching job. Without that, I am not here. I personally think God has a plan, you allow him to lead you. I had a great experience in Connecticut.

I mean, when I think about the success that that team had, it was all laid, the first two years, because of starting to build around Jonquel Jones and Alyssa Thomas and Jazz Thomas and Courtney Williams. That team stuck together and was the team that went to the finals. I know it is disbanded, Curt is gone, it is kind of a new era in Connecticut. That band was together for a long time.

One of my favorite coaching moments, I will never forget Griner dunking ironically, on us in a game that when we won. That is a first, the first time I had been in a game when we got dunked on and it wasn't a big deal. The ball just went in the other direction?

My first year coaching in Atlanta, when we came back here, Tiffany Hayes hit a half-court shot to win the game. You know, watching that celebration from 17 different angles never gets old. Tiff basically reposted every year on the anniversary. I still get goose bumps. I don't think Kurt liked that very well that year, since we swept them that year.

I love being up here. I summered in Connecticut, wintered in Florida. I had the best snowbird life of everyone on my block in Florida. Connecticut in the summer, southwest Florida in the winter. It doesn't get much better than that. Thank you.