NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - GARDNER-WEBB VS UTAH

March 17, 2023

Lynne Roberts

Alissi Pili

Jenna Johnson

Jon M. Huntsman Center

Utah Utes

Media Conference

Utah 103, Gardner Webb 77

LYNNE ROBERTS: I appreciate you guys being here so much. It matters, and covering women's basketball is so important, I think, just seeing you all here. I really do appreciate it, the work that you do for our sport.

I want to also congratulate Gardner Webb on a great season. I was impressed with their competitiveness. I think we were just bigger. But they didn't quit, and they're well-coached, and they had won 21 games in a row coming into this thing. That's hard to do, as I've said. So just congratulations to them on a great season.

No game in this tournament is easy. I thought we controlled the game the whole time, but we had some peaks and valleys of great play and kind of loose play. But we scored 103. The statistics that stands out to me is we had 32 assists on 37 made baskets. That's remarkable, and that's a sign of an unselfish team.

We also scored 103 points and only hit seven threes. I know seven is a good number, that's 21 points, but a lot of times when teams score 100 points, it's because they've hit a ton of threes.

Our ability to score inside, Jenna and Alissa today were phenomenal, and they just didn't have an answer for it, but a combined 22 of 31, that's pretty dang good.

I'm proud of our team. Every game is hard. I also want to say that the crowd was phenomenal. Not only were there a lot of bodies there, but they were loud and engaged, and it makes a difference. It really does.

I think back to a year ago this week when we were in Texas playing -- they were the 2 seed and we played them on Sunday and the crowd mattered. I'm hopeful that we can get even a bigger one on Sunday. We're going to play -- NC State and Princeton are both really, really good. Very, very good. So we're going to need them.

But I appreciate everyone that came out today, and I appreciate all of you.

Q. Alissa, the Gardner Webb coach and players said that they felt that they were prepared before the game, but during the game they were not ready for your counters especially, and because they're a pressuring team, they left it one-on-one down low. What were you able to do down there to be so successful?

ALISSA PILI: I think just posting up hard whenever I had the opportunity. It's mostly just my teammates finding me, and like just hitting me when I'm in those one-on-one situations. Yeah, I just kind of let the game come to me and took advantage of those situations.

Q. When someone is trying to be physical with you down low and pressuring you, what are those counter moves that you can make?

ALISSA PILI: Kind of just getting them to go one way and then just going the other, and just using my finishing ability well, and yeah.

LYNNE ROBERTS: I do think it's important, she had eight assists. You know, I don't know how many points she was involved in. Math is hard. But to have eight assists and 33 points, as an opposing coach, that's really hard. So well done, you.

JENNA JOHNSON: And eight rebounds.

Q. Jenna, when things are working early, whether it's the high-low stuff with Alissa or doing whatever you want down low at the rim, how much do you try to not get away from what's working, like not trying to reinvent the wheel?

JENNA JOHNSON: I feel like we have so many weapons offensively, so I think if the defense takes away one, we can just have another one. So we're getting a lot of points down low early and then when they try to collapse on us, we can kick it out and hit threes. So I think that's really, really hard to guard, and we'll take whatever the defense gives us.

Q. For either one of you, you guys had maybe an uncharacteristic amount of turnovers tonight. They kind of did some things to be able to help that. But when you have that, is it just nice to be able to get this first game out of the way to be able to kind of settle in and feel like you've hit a rhythm? What goes into these types of tournaments?

JENNA JOHNSON: Yeah, it's definitely nice to get that first game out of the way. We haven't played in a week and a half now, and obviously our last game wasn't great. So it was nice to get another one under our belts especially back here in Utah. I think that's going to give us a lot more confidence going into Sunday.

Q. I had a couple questions. First, they got within eight at one point and Coach had a very animated huddle. I could overhear a little bit of it. I wondered what was that conversation in that moment, because you went on a run from there and didn't look back.

ALISSA PILI: Whenever we're not playing to our potential, she lets us know. I think like we respond well to her just getting at us. I mean, she just was telling us, this is not good enough because we're way better than what we're putting out. And it's tournament time, so everything matters that we do on the court.

JENNA JOHNSON: I feel like that specific time-out I remember it being about lack of focus. We had just had a time-out, talked about some things, and then went out and didn't execute them. And obviously in March, we're only guaranteed that 40 minutes each game, so there's no time to goof around and think we're going to win it. So just refocusing us to make sure we go out there with intensity?

Q. Alissa, you're close to a triple-double and Coach takes you out with 4 minutes and 15 seconds left. Was there any conversation --

LYNNE ROBERTS: Thank you, Holly.

Q. I know it's the smartest thing to do, but was there any temptation to leave you in or did you talk about that at all?

ALISSA PILI: I don't say much when she takes me out of the game. I just down the line and high five and take my seat.

LYNNE ROBERTS: Yes, I was tracking, but we needed her -- once the game was in hand, it's tempting, as you say, but the smart thing to do is to rest and make sure there's no injury.

Q. For Alissa, I read a couple things from your season from you and your Coach talking about how you've really thrived at Utah this year. How satisfying has this season been for you.

ALISSA PILI: Very. I think just seeing that the hard work has been rewarded with just everything that's come with this season, it's just been great to be a part of.

I believe everything happens for a reason, and like this was just meant to be my home. So I'm just glad I made the move, and yeah, I'm just happy to be at Utah.

Q. For Jenna, what's it been like to have Alissa as a teammate, for her to come in this season, to get to watch this unfold.

JENNA JOHNSON: So good. No, she's been great. I mean, you guys see her, she's a phenomenal player. She makes all of our lives a lot easier. She gets banged up in the post, takes a little bit of that for me, so that's nice. And then also if, like, I'll double down in on her, she kicks it out. Eight assists, again, she's so unselfish, so you just like to play with people like that. She's an incredible teammate, so I'm really thankful to have her.

ALISSA PILI: Thank you.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about what a special place the Huntsman Center has been this season and kind of after having the break and the loss to Washington State and coming into this arena?

JENNA JOHNSON: It's been great. I mean, our attendance has just climbed a lot from the start of the season to now, and today it was rocking in there. It just gives you such an advantage. And especially just being -- kind of putting Utah on the map now. All the great teams have really good home-court advantage, and you see we're starting to have that, too. It helps us a lot, it's really fun to play in, and yeah, it's great.

ALISSA PILI: I agree.

Q. Lynne, there's more parity in the women's game than there has been in recent years, but a team like Gardner Webb probably has not seen a player like Alissa playing in the big south. Did you get a sense they didn't know what to do with her, especially early?

LYNNE ROBERTS: Yeah, I think we realized early that they were going to go one-on-one in the post, and so we just kept going high low and then they were trying to front. Then they got in foul trouble.

But yeah, I've been on that side of it where you watch film and you go, okay, we've got this, you know what you're going to do. And then you get out there and it's not as -- everything is easier on film. It's that Mike Tyson quote of everyone has a game plan until they get punched in the mouth. It's such a luxury to have a player like that.

But I think the size, our size, I think, was a big factor today.

Q. Lynne, can you tell us your perspective of when they cut the lead to eight as well as the turnovers and all that was going on at that moment?

LYNNE ROBERTS: I think we were on a good positive stint here. But it was frustrating. I was frustrated. There was no panic or -- I still felt we had control of the game. We were just not -- we were just in a word, casual. Some of the turnovers were infuriating. Passing out of bounds and just things that if you want to advance in this tournament, if we want to go farther, we can't have.

It's nice that -- we're lucky that we were able to win and still make those mistakes. But moving forward, that's not going to be the case. My mindset was just to try to get their attention, splash some water on their face, figuratively. I did not do that. And just to get them to focus.

There's a lot of distractions. The NCAA Tournament is different. It just feels different. These guys are young and they're figuring it out. But it was a good learning experience, and it's one thing to say it's a learning experience, it's another thing to actually apply it and be different on Sunday.

Q. Circling back to about Alissa a little bit, what has it been like for you to watch her blossom this year, to really come back and thrive, and what do you think made the difference?

LYNNE ROBERTS: I mean, it's been very rewarding. I mean, I think all of us coaches, you coach to empower and impact young people. Yes, we need to win, and yes, recruiting and all that stuff. But it's the most rewarding when you see a college kid choose to make the right choices.

She came here because she felt like she wasn't reaching her potential in a sense, and she put responsibility on herself for that. It was less about where she was and just kind of how she was, her choices, and all that kind of stuff.

When she got here, we had very candid conversations about here's what you need to do and you need to adjust and adapt to us, we're not going to adapt to you. You need to get in the best shape of your life. And as I've said many times it's easy to say, yep, I will. It's really, really hard to do.

And the discipline that she's had, when no one is watching, when no one is looking, when everyone else is asleep, all her teammates are asleep, to get up and get herself in the shape she's in. And then the buy-in that we've had from her has been really fun. You can hear how her teammates talk about her. There's no ego with Alissa, which allows everybody to support her and promote her.

It's been really cool, and like I said, as a coach, to see a young person kind of choose the right way and have the discipline to do that is incredibly rewarding.