NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - FLORIDA GULF COAST VS WASHINGTON STATE

March 18, 2023

Kamie Ethridge

Ula Motuga

Charlisse Leger-Walker

Finneran Pavilion

Washington State Cougars

Media Conference

Florida Gulf Coast - 74, Washington State - 63

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Washington State. We'll begin with an opening statement by Coach Etheridge. We'll direct questions to student-athletes.

Coach, if you would.

KAMIE ETHRIDGE: Obviously just want to congratulate Florida Gulf Coast and Karl. Just an amazing program. This isn't a one off. This is what he does every year, wins 30 games, and comes in under seeded and plays just an unbelievably seasoned, tough game.

It just felt like we didn't quite get a handle of how to guard them. I felt like we made enough mistakes in the first half, and I really thought we'd clean it up. Then that third quarter really just did us under a little bit, giving up 30 points.

It's a credit to them and their style of play and the toughness that they are as a team and a program. We just couldn't quite match them. We didn't guard them good enough to give ourselves a chance to win tonight.

Q. Congratulations to you both on the seasons that you've had. I guess I just wonder, with the Pac-12 tournament being a good week and a half, almost two weeks in the past now, was it a challenge to kind of stop and start again the way that you guys did?

CHARLISSE LEGER-WALKER: I think -- I'm thinking a lot of things actually. I think it is hard when you don't -- you haven't played a game in a while, but I don't think that's an excuse in our performance coming out tonight. I think we had enough time to prepare and really lock in.

Again, like Coach E was saying, just too many mistakes on our end from defensive schemes. And going into the game that's something you have to be so locked into, and I don't think we have in that first half. Again, credit to that team. They're a really good team. I think they'll do really well going forward.

But, yeah, I don't think that's really much of an excuse. It is hard to come in obviously like that. But I think it was just more on us not being locked in and prepared enough.

Q. You and your sister have come to define this program in so many different ways. Is it a comfort to you in this moment to be able to come back and do more with the program next year?

CHARLISSE LEGER-WALKER: Yeah, it is. There's so many things that I need to work on individually in my own game. Especially in these big games and big moments, I just feel horrible about my performance tonight and how I kind of performed for the team.

So definitely I need to go away and work on a lot of things. Obviously very, very hungry to come back and help this team get past that first round. Obviously the last three years we haven't managed to do that. So that's something that's definitely personal for me that I want to help this team do.

So, yeah, going forward it's definitely -- I guess you could take it in a positive way too and think of how much we have accomplished as a team. I'm so proud of how we've performed throughout this season. I think the most wins we've ever had this season. We won the Pac-12. It's just something unheard of in most people's eyes, impossible for us to do.

So I don't want to take anything away from our season and what we have done. Just only one team wins the last game in this tournament, so it's hard, but yeah.

Q. I guess I'll direct this to Ula. Their style of play, was that something that maybe caught you guys a little off guard? Was that something you'd seen before, something you expected them kind of using the speed and going at you guys like that?

ULA MOTUGA: Yeah, they're a very unique team, like Coach E said. I don't think anyone in the Pac especially plays the way they do. They spread you out really well, and they force you to guard one-on-one. They're a tough matchup especially because they can shoot the three ball really, really well.

I think, at the end of the day, we, the players mainly, whoever's out there on the court, we just didn't do our job. We made a lot of crucial mistakes. Obviously, if you look at the third quarter, they blew us out, and that's pretty much where it went downhill from there, but yeah.

Q. Charlisse, what was it maybe that they did in their game plan to limit you in some way tonight? Was there anything special or anything that you could notice that they were like keying in on you?

CHARLISSE LEGER-WALKER: I don't know if it was specifically schemed against me, maybe it was. Like I still got up shots. I just didn't really hit them.

Again, they're a great defensive team. They have a lot of pressure on the ball, and they kind of get you out of offensive schemes, which is, again, something you have to adjust to on the fly, and I don't think that, me personally, I don't do that well enough.

As a team, we didn't adjust quickly enough to those schemes. But I think they just took a lot of us out of what we're kind of used to and comfortable doing.

THE MODERATOR: Questions now for Coach.

Q. In that third quarter, what seemed to be the turning point, or how did they maybe come out a little differently and try to attack you guys?

KAMIE ETHRIDGE: Again, it was a little bit different. We made enough mistakes in the first half, just how we were going to guard the ball screen. We worked on it all week and really just couldn't -- again, that's the hard part. You're putting bigs in ball screens, and it was a little bit out of their comfort.

As much as we worked on it, I thought we would be a little bit better at that. They did get some just dribble drive downhill, angled. Again, bigs out there trying to guard one-on-one from the three-point line to the rim, it's just not their comfort.

So it was just a competition of styles. We couldn't get to our advantage with the size that we had in the post, and they took advantage of our bigs on the perimeter with the ability to get by us. We didn't do the right things in some of their dribble drive stuff.

So some of our mistakes, some of our -- you know, again, the contrast of styles and who can get to the advantage based on your style, and we just did not score enough in the paint. We didn't take advantage there. Some with foul trouble, and then obviously just losing a little bit of -- losing it a little bit in the third quarter.

Q. Charlisse talked about this a little bit, about the things she's working on. What are those things that you want to see in her game between now and when you guys hit the floor in November?

KAMIE ETHRIDGE: I just still think there's a lot of growth for her. Her one-on-one individual moves before she puts the ball on the ground needs to get better. I think any of the really good players in this league, in the country, are really good at that, especially as much pressure as they put on her. Her outside shot's got to become a little bit more of a sniper like.

It started the season that way. I think the disruption of her being with us kind of hurt her flow that she was in. But clearly, I think she has the ability to shoot a higher percentage. We just have to do a better job as coaches of getting her to good spots on the floor. Her post-up game could get better.

Again, we've had one summer to work with her on kind of her individual stuff. We'll get her again this summer. She's playing for her national team. So a lot of that isn't working on necessarily her individual stuff.

We'll get real concentrated and real detailed about how we can improve her game and obviously put her in better positions on the floor where she's more effective.

Q. You answered my followup question about her in terms of the national team, but for you guys, coming up against FGCU, where you see this every year, like you said, under seeded every year, at a certain point, it's unfair to FGCU, it's unfair to teams that play them in the first round. Do you think FGCU has earned the right to be better seeded than they are at this point?

KAMIE ETHRIDGE: I mean, it's hard. I'm sure the committee does the best that they can do, but they put a lot of weight on how you finish the season, and again, the Power conferences get a lot of -- thankfully. I'm happy about that. We carry a lot of weight.

But I do think Karl has earned a lot -- at least within the coaching community -- I mean, I can't tell you the number of people -- I know there was a collective, oh, poor Washington State that came up, because of the respect that people have for Karl and what he does.

Again, styles, his style might not match with someone else. That's the thing. He might not -- it might have been a perfect matchup for him in this setting. I think that's the thing about the NCAA Tournament. It is all about your matchups, and that's why you go or don't go.

We just came up against someone that we really didn't guard good enough and didn't keep that game close enough to give us a chance to win at the end.

Q. Besides foul trouble maybe, what made it difficult on Bella and Charlisse to get them going, do you think?

KAMIE ETHRIDGE: They were really good at their ball screen. They kind of kept us to a sideline, but we just -- I felt like we were teeing up the ball screen offense a little bit, and we couldn't get our bigs to get out of those and to create an advantage. I mean, that's the point.

Whatever you're running, you've got to create an advantage, and they did a really good job of kind of slowing us down and making us double think and hold onto the ball a little bit too much. They had a lot of pressure.

Honestly, we probably just need players that are probably a little bit better at ripping and going past that kind of pressure like they did to us. We were a little bit more system oriented. Again, things that a lot of our players could get better at.

And missed some bunnies, missed some easy shots, missed some things at the free-throw line that maybe could have kept us in it. Again, got to find ways to stay in games, and we just didn't quite do that tonight.

Q. Obviously I know it's tough to stomach. What do you say to the team after the game?

KAMIE ETHRIDGE: Again, there's so many great moments of the season that we're going to celebrate and not forget, but I hope it's a gut punch for the ones that are coming back.

My worry and my sadness really falls on the fact that we just couldn't do it for our seniors, Emma Nankervis, Grace Sarver, and Ula, those three. They're just as good as gold in character and loyalty and the standard that they carry, the voice that they were, the sense of humor that they are -- I mean, everything about them on and off the court is just exactly what we want our program to be about, and I'm sad for our program that we couldn't have done it for them.

That's the biggest regret I have right now. Everybody else gets another chance. Put yourself in the game. Put yourself in the arena. And if you do that enough times, you're going to knock through some doors.

We did that at the Pac-12 tournament this year. We have some work to do to get further in the NCAA Tournament.