NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - EAST CAROLINA VS TEXAS

March 17, 2023

Kim McNeill

Danae McNeal

Micah Dennis

Synia Johnson

Moody Center

East Carolina Pirates

Media Conference

KIM McNEILL: I think I've said this a hundred times in the last week or so but I am so proud of our team and what we've been able to accomplish this year, you know, at the beginning of the year, people pretty much counted us out, picked us to finish last in the league and we get 20-plus wins, we finish third ask now we're dancing here in the NCAA Tournament.

So I'm extremely proud of this group. Just the resiliency that we've shown all season long to put ourselves in a position to be here. We're looking forward. We're actually excited to be here and Austin, we are looking forward to playing Texas tomorrow, unbelievable team, a very well-coached team, a team that can attack you in a lot of different ways, whether it's inside, whether it's from their guard play, a team that's going to get after it defensively which is something we have in common.

You know, we both pride ourselves on the defensive end of the floor but just really happy to be here. We are going to make this a place that we want to be every single year. You know, we have got a lot of youth in our locker room from the standpoint of experience. No one with an ECU uniform has been in this position before. This is a first-time thing for all of these young women.

So it's a growing situation for us, and it's also something that we are going to take back with us and continue to grow and understand what it takes to be able to be here and be in this place year after year.

Q. Danae, start with you since you're the Defensive Player of the Year in your conference. Going off what your coach said, how important is defense? You guys and Texas like to force turnovers. How important is defense?

DANAE McNEAL: Defense is very important and something we emphasize 24/7 and something we work on all the time in practice, of course, so it's big. Big for us.

Q. For each one of you ladies, if you'll say what is the key to having success against a bigger, stronger Texas team? What do you have to do to have success tomorrow night?

SYNIA JOHNSON: For us, just going little things. Everything is going to matter going in. Diving for loose balls, boxing out, none of those things take skill. So going in, we have to want it more, basically. Playing ECU defense and just being scrappy, the scrap year team.

MICAH DENNIS: With that, also, just staying poised. With the rise of the game and the other team being at us, I feel like that's one of the most important things is to stay poised and to stay under control.

Q. It's been a long time and this is not somewhere East Carolina has been a lot. Can you talk about the moment that you're presented with here and what it would mean, do you think for the program to move on to advance and take what Coach is talking about, to represent East Carolina in a way that it's something you guys are going to do every year, be here in the tournament?

MICAH DENNIS: I think that's going to be a big for us, especially me coming in new, being part of a new family and succeeding this far.

Yeah, I think this is definitely a good start and look forward to many more to come.

DANAE McNEAL: I think it's a very big opportunity for us. Of course we want to make Power Nation proud.

Q. What do you think about the facility? It's a new arena, and how cool would it be to shut up 10,000 people tomorrow night and advance to the next round?

SYNIA JOHNSON: Yeah, going into it, we know that they have home-court advantage. But we've been here, just last week, we've been Texas, no fans really at all. You could hand pick; you can count on one hand how many fans we had, and we still came out on top.

For us knowing we have each other, our family, our bench, we are going to be into it the whole game, so that is not really going to faze us.

Q. I'm sure Coach doesn't need any help with her scout, but do you have any tips on Texas?

MICAH DENNIS: From what I see on the scouts, it's kind of a whole new team. Just going after it, they still say the same. They are aggressive offensively and defensively, so just take what we have. Going over our personnel we know how to beat them on both ends of the floor, so just got to stick to it.

Q. For any of the players, are any of your folks back home or friends back home complaining about the ten o'clock tip time back home?

SYNIA JOHNSON: Yes, I've had many people text me saying, "Is the time right? Like ten o'clock?" It's like, they love playing y'all late games.

For us people have said, we have got a lot of late games, so we are used to it.

Q. Going off that last question, how do you prepare the team for a tip that's so late? Will you be at the arena all day or the hotel? How do you go about your business tomorrow?

KIM McNEILL: Yeah, in the American Athletic Tournament last week, we had the last game every night. Sitting around all day waiting, I think we've gotten used to it.

But we'll try to keep a routine: Get up in the morning, eat breakfast, watch some film, do a shoot around, come back, get some rest, do a pregame meal, maybe watch film again. But we'll just trying to keep them in routine as much as possible as we did last week in the American tournament.

Q. They have "culture" written on the back of their practice jerseys. What does can an event like this do to instill that culture for years to come?

KIM McNEILL: Every year we've had something different on the back of our practice jerseys. I'm not a big believer in putting names on the back because at the end of the day it's about ECU Women's Basketball and not one individual player. We've had "family" and "mentality," and this year we chose "culture" because we feel like culture is a big part of our success; buying into our culture.

And our culture is not only on the basketball court but it's outside of the court. We do a lot in the Greenville community and in the schools. We feel like we are blessed and every student athlete is blessed and we want to be able to give back to that community.

Family, you hear them say that word a lot. Family, we're big on that. Them understanding that we are sisters, and just as any family, there's ups and downs and highs and lows, and but at the end of the day we have each other's backs and we are going to fight for each other.

Q. I'm sure you're happy to play anywhere at this point in the tournament but is it a disadvantage to have to go to someone's house in this first round and play what is a road game instead of a neutral site game?

KIM McNEILL: You know I was actually surprised. I thought they were either going to send us down the road to either Durham or Chapel Hill because you know, the closer, and it was a bus drive.

So when I saw Austin, Texas pop up on the screen it definitely really caught me off-guard. But that whole day on Sunday everybody kept asking: Who do you want to play, where do you want to go? And for me, it doesn't really matter. I'm.

Just so excited for this program, just what we have been able to do this year and what we have been able to do in the last four years for Pirate Nation, for ECU Athletics, for ECU Women's Basketball alumni; for us to put ECU women's basketball back on the map.

I didn't really care who we played. You know, I was kind of torn whether or not I wanted to go close so that the Pirate Nation could come and follow us, but I also wanted the girls to get the experience, you know, just everything that goes into the big charter panes which we charter (in our) conference anyway. But I want them to get this experience because I did it as a player. I did it as an assistant coach, and this is memories that you'll never forget; that they will share with their families; that they will share with their kids growing up.

And I want them to take it all in, but I also want them to understand that we came here to make some noise. We didn't just take our ticket and accept it. We wanted to come here and make some noise and put ourselves in position to win the game.

Q. Can you speak on what kind of player Danae means to you offensively, defensively, a team leader?

KIM McNEILL: She's quiet in nature. She's not a young lady of many words. But when you talk about work ethic, I think if you open up the dictionary there should be a picture of her beside it. She really dedicated herself this year. You know, last year, dealt with some things, lost her grandmother, broke her hand. So in April as soon as the season was over, she lived in the gym. Didn't go home. She's from Swansea, South Carlina, which is about five hours from the campus. Went home for a couple days, came back and was here all summer stayed in the gym with my associate head coach/husband Cory McNeill, and just really elevated her game.

We always knew she was a scorer but you know we really wanted her to understand that she could do more for us than just score the ball. I think it really starts for her on the defensive end and it took time for her to buy into that but when she can get three or four steals and get out in transition early, the rim just opens up for her.

I think any time on the floor, I think she's probably one of the most athletic guards out there but she really -- just buying into doing other things for us besides scoring, and I think she's really bought into that.

Q. With so much attention with the defenses both your teams play, what makes Texas difficult to break down? They just don't let people score a lot of points. So what do you have to do against them on what they do on defense?

KIM McNEILL: That's kudos to Schaefer and what he's instilled in these young women because at the end of the day everybody wants to score the ball, nobody looks at defense as being, you know, that thing that people want to do.

So you know, it takes a lot of time to get kids to buy into your system and to buy into what you want, and obviously they have bought into it. They are long. They are big. They are long in pretty much every position of the floor. They make it hard for you to get the ball in and then once you get it in, they make it hard for you to reverse the ball which most offenses need ball reversal and they make it really hard for you to reverse the ball and they are big inside.

They do an unbelievable job on the offensive glass, and they are leading the Big 12 in offensive rebounding. And that's been a big focus this week, not just rebounding but boxing out. Like you've got to put a body on these kids.

And so you know, we just finished playing Houston who is very similar defensively to Texas as far as denying and face guarding you and all in your face. So that has led us into this, you know, kind of being prepared to what we are going to see defensively on that end of the floor.