NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - BAYLOR VS UCONN

March 19, 2023

Nicki Collen

Jaden Owens

Bella Fontleroy

Gampel Pavilion

Baylor Bears

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Last night obviously a huge win. Do you try to ride that high into tomorrow night or do you have to kind of like come down from the mountain top and just sort of refocus?

JADEN OWENS: I would kind just start off with, yeah, there's a high, but at the same time we have a lot to learn from that game, obviously first quarter specifically. But, yeah, I think as we keep the high but at the same time it's on to the next. You don't want to think about the past and you don't want to get too low. You go in with a positive mindset and I think that's what we've done and I think it's carried into today, but at the same time refocus again.

Q. Bella, that was your first tournament game. So were there some nerves maybe? I don't know that that was all that the first quarter was, but was there a little bit of nerves there early?

BELLA FONTLEROY: I won't lie. Yes. But I don't think that I let it show, you know. It's more a feeling of excitement than actual nervousness because this is something that everyone on the team has worked really hard for their whole lives. But to have this moment with this group has been really special. So a little nerves, but more excitement to get out there with them.

Q. Can you speak to the growth of the freshman a little bit. Because obviously she was huge last night hitting free throws, getting a big offensive rebound. Obviously we have seen Buggs grow throughout the year and even Kyla step up at different times. I mean, has it been fun to see the babies grow up?

JADEN OWENS: Oh, my goodness. I don't even want to cry talking about this one. They're amazing. I can honestly say we have the best group of freshmen, without a doubt. I wouldn't want any other freshmen. Those three are just like -- they're sponges. They want to learn. They want to get better every day. Every time something happens they want to learn from it. Every experience they get they're going to grow from it.

I just feel like the amount of growth that they have had is insane. Like, I don't know, they're just amazing. I'm just so happy I got to be on the team with them three because it's an honor to play with them. I love 'em so much. They're like my little sisters off the floor. I feel like I love it how it's not just basketball and it's not just off the floor. I think it's just, they're just a well-rounded bunch, in my opinion.

Q. Jaden, there were a couple of stretches yesterday where the team was just on fire from three, and you were dishing the basketball. It seemed like anyone you passed it to was hitting it. What's your mindset in a stretch like that? What changes for you as the point guard when you've got a bunch of players who are hot?

JADEN OWENS: Get them the ball in the best position. I feel like we had so many hot hands, and I feel like just over time of playing with them, I know where they hit best and stuff like that, but yesterday's game, they were hitting from everywhere. So it made my job very easy just getting them the ball. That was my first thing. As soon as I got the ball, my head's on a swivel, I'm trying to find them. One thing about them, they made my job very easy and, hey, I'm happy.

Q. You happened to out-rebound Alabama by one last night. So definitely the things that you worked on this past week certainly worked. But UConn has a lot of size, and so are you looking to kind make the same adjustments as y'all did this past game or what's kind of the approach with a team that's just a little bit bigger?

JADEN OWENS: That's up to our coaching staff. I think whatever they say is what we're going to do. We don't have a specific say right now. But we're going to do what they say.

Q. Can you talk about the dynamic between the players and the coaches, kind of what personalities or roles you each take between support, whether it's in practice or off the court?

BELLA FONTLEROY: I feel like the leadership that we have on this team, not just our upperclassmen but everybody, every coach wants us to have our voice and feel like we're being heard. So even if it's something as simple as asking a question when we don't understand or if we have a suggestion on how to improve or tweak something and we think it might be better, just because we're out there actually experiencing it live, our coaches are really receptive to that.

But at the same time, they're like, okay, guys, this is the game plan. I know you might think this will work better, but it's our job to put you in the best position. But they definitely are very open and receptive to any feedback we have.

Q. Bella, in terms of UConn, going up against them, I'm sure you guys will get a lot of the scouting report today, but -- I don't know how much of their game y'all got to see, but what kind of impresses do you have about them?

BELLA FONTLEROY: I think they're a really well-rounded team. I don't think they have a single kid on their bench or on their roster that doesn't know how to score the basketball or be effective within the role that their head coaches put them into.

But at the same time, I think that that's the same for everyone on our team. We can be just as effective from every position. The big focus for us is most likely just going to be matching their intensity the whole game and playing 40 full minutes with them, minute for minute, shot for shot.

Q. Jaden, I know you don't always necessarily go against the other team's point guard, but Nika Mühl, what do you see from her? It seems like she's kind of the one that makes them go.

JADEN OWENS: Yeah, she's a great point guard. I think she's also very well rounded. You can tell she's huge on a pass first, just getting her team involved, just a true point guard. So I think, one, that will be a good challenge, I'm excited and, yeah.

Q. I think anyone growing up wanting to play basketball in college probably looked at the UConn team -- probably both of y'all, so could you talk about, is there any kind of sentimental feeling that y'all get to play a very historic team in the tournament? I mean, did y'all ever dream of anything like this or what is this feeling like for y'all? Just you're playing UConn, kind of a big deal.

JADEN OWENS: Yeah, I mean, everybody knows it's a very well-known school, basketball team, but I've also dreamed of playing at Baylor. So I think that's something that's an honor. It's exciting. I love to play, I love to play good teams, for us to be challenged, but I'm happy for who I'm playing with across my chest, and I think that's the most exciting part about it.

BELLA FONTLEROY: Well said. I don't think I can follow that up. That was great. I absolutely agree.

Q. Someone mentioned the size that UConn has. You guys have played Texas in your conference. They have a lot of size. You got a win over them a couple weeks ago. How does that matchup kind of help prepare you for this game and give you some confidence going in against UConn?

BELLA FONTLEROY: We are really fortunate to have a decent amount of size in our lineup and we always make jokes that we have guards and big guards -- or we don't have regular guards, we have big guards, and then we have our posts. I think even though we have a few people who aren't on the tall side, they still come out every single game and give their best effort.

Whenever we have switches and they have to battle in their with the posts, we're coming in and helping them and they work they're tail off to make sure that there's no true mismatch. So I think that the size matchup will be just fine.

Q. Speaking of the size, for either one of y'all, is anybody playing bigger than Sarah Andrews right now? She's like y'all's Brittney Griner blocking shots.

JADEN OWENS: Yeah. No, that girl's been going crazy. I don't even know. Yeah, I watched that game back last night and one of the reporters was talking about how amazing her defense was. I don't know, Sarah's what, five-six, five-seven? But the way she rises up, that's Brittney Griner. You know what I'm saying? I don't know, but that -- we love it. That's a big guard to us.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you, ladies. We'll have head coach in shortly.

(Pause.)

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with coach.

Q. We were going through your résumé and trying to figure out if you had as an assistant coach or any time ever faced Geno before. Have you? Obviously everyone's got a lot of respect for the program, but what is the biggest thing about this program that let's them get to 29 straight Sweet 16s?

NICKI COLLEN: You know, it's kind of interesting because this is really a true story. So my first year in coaching, I was at Colorado State and then, honestly, because of my relationship with the head coach, I didn't coach my second year there.

So that second year I did radio for Colorado State, and I'll never forget, we were at the booster function on Selection Sunday -- and it might have been Selection Monday back then, but my husband had just said to our whole booster group, really excited about how we finished, we just want to avoid that 8-9 hole at UConn. And of course, UConn was the overall No. 1 that year and immediately we went up on the bracket, and no one in that room knew whether to clap, cheer, because he had just said, all we want to do is avoid the 8-9 game against UConn.

So that was like my first experience. That was Sue, Diana, Swin, Asia, and Tamika's team. So I got to call that on the radio. And we had -- we were the 9 seed. We played Maryland and beat them. I think we -- I don't remember how many threes, but it was similar to like last night. It was like 14 threes, 16 threes. I remember in Geno's press conference, he said they won't even shoot 14 threes, let alone make 14 threes.

So that was my first experience playing here. I don't know if we lost by 30 or 40, but I technically wasn't on staff because I was doing the radio that year. But when I was at Louisville, we were in the Big East, so very familiar with Geno's programs. Honestly, I got to know them really well through the W because I had Tiffany and I got to know Chris Bailey during that time, had Renee Montgomery, Morgan Tuck when I was with the Suns.

What makes them good? I mean, I think -- it's funny, as we are staying 45 minutes away and doing this drive every day, I think one of the most impressive things that Geno did here was ever get someone to come here, which sounds horrible, but when -- you know that they have to fly into Hartford for an official visit, and then they have to make that drive. And I told Tony, I said, Well, they can put shades in the limo and like talk about the 13 championships now. No one's looking out the window at the woods anymore. So I think what's so impressive is kind of the beginning here, why they became good.

Obviously it had a lot to do with Geno's coaching, his passion, his learning from Debbie Ryan and coming here and creating something where the top players in the country year-in and year-out, it didn't matter that it was Storrs, Connecticut. It mattered that it was UConn and they were playing for championships.

So no matter what league he's been in -- I mean, when the league was heavy, maybe the non-conference wasn't as good. Now he'll play anyone in the non-conference because he was going to run the American. So I think it starts with talent. He gets great talent. But I'll admit that when I was in the pros, everybody knew that UConn players were ready. Like, I think that was the thing, when you coach in the pros and you're scouting players, UConn players were pro-ready when they got there. They were pro-ready terminology-wise, they were pro-ready in terms of spacing and understanding the game.

He does such a good job of spacing. Their defense is under-appreciated because their offense is so pretty. So I think over the years, like, people get hung up on whether it's his chin action or whatever. It's not always been the same for the last 20-some years, but it's always predicated on spacing and cutting and ball movement. So they have always been pretty, but they defend the heck out of you too. So, I don't know, that's the longest answer you'll get.

Q. I was trying to think back to another time where y'all had like a big win and then a quick turnaround after that and another game, maybe Villanova and then playing Michigan the next day. Do you try to ride the high of yesterday or do you just have to like come down from the mountain, refocus, here's the game plan?

NICKI COLLEN: Yeah, I think you have to refocus. I think you don't show up and beat UConn without preparation. I don't think that -- I certainly think we're the underdog. I saw on one, out of the 32 teams left in the tournament, we're ranked 32nd. I saw that there's six perfect brackets left. I'm sure none of 'em have us beating UConn. So I just think it's this idea that what we have to do is prepare and believe, and then own the underdog role, because we don't have anything to lose. It's going to be a packed house against a really good team that's expected to win. I haven't looked at the spread. I'm sure it's not close.

But I think we have to take the momentum away from how we played three quarters of the game yesterday, but we got to be better. You can't spot UConn 10 points, let alone 18. We know that. That's no disrespect to Alabama because I thought they were fantastic. But this is UConn's home court. So it's as much that as it is -- you already feel like when you play on someone else's home court, you got to be 10 points better than them.

So you certainly can't spot 'em points. So I think we have to be ready from the beginning and really be focused on personnel because in one day you're not going to get all their elbow action stuff done, their isolation stuff, their back screens. You just have to take away the simple things.

Q. You mentioned one of the UConn teams that everybody kind of knew going into the tournament that they weren't going to lose and they have had several teams like that. But this year they went 7-3 their last 10 games, all the games were within 10 points. Is there a difference in this year's team and is there a difference in the team that's playing in the tournament versus the one that closed out the regular season because Azzi's back and all of that? I mean, they still don't have Paige.

NICKI COLLEN: Yeah, they haven't had Paige for a game, so they got to learn to play without her from the beginning, I think. Certainly Nika Mühl being as good as she's been running the point and getting the ball to other people, I'm sure -- obviously Paige would make them more dangerous. She's as good as they come in college basketball. But I think they have -- I don't know that you compare our two programs, even this year. But we've dealt with a ton of injuries. They have dealt with injuries. They have dealt with concussions. We've dealt with concussions. Like, it's a revolving door. We've both played down numbers where I thought I was going to have 13 this year and we've rarely dressed out more than nine per game.

So I think that probably some of those losses -- I mean, when they lost at Marquette and you're talking about tight turnarounds that they were playing, because they had played South Carolina and what he does in the middle of the season on bye weeks for them. But they were down Ducharme that game, they were down Fudd that game. I think maybe they're as healthy as they have been. I don't really know a hundred percent. I just know that they're active, at least. We know that they have got more than five people that they're going to play.

So they could be peaking at the right time. I also read a quote by Nika that said: We're unbreakable because we've broken some this year. So does that make you unbreakable or does that make you -- like, it's a lot easier when you dominate everyone to just assume you're going to dominate everyone. But I think it's a really, really good team and we're going to have to play great to compete. Are they -- do they have five No. 1 draft picks in their starting lineup like they have had some years? Maybe not. Like I was a part of the Morgan Tuck draft class in Connecticut where they went one, two, three with Moriah and Morgan and Stewart, but those are some really, really good players in the Huskies uniform, so we certainly aren't taking it for granted.

Q. (No microphone.)

NICKI COLLEN: Yeah, we don't. I mean, we have to use our speed, we have to box out early, we have to pursue the ball off the rim. We're maybe quicker on the perimeter. They're longer. I mean, it's a team that they -- when you look at their statistics, I mean, Aaliyah and Dorka dominate the defensive glass for them. They don't have -- their guards don't rebound a ton. They're not one of those teams that's got guards averaging two offensive rebounds a game or five overall rebounds. I mean, those two kind of patrol the glass.

Certainly Aubrey Griffin is a good rebounder as well from kind of that swing position. But we're going to have to -- it's going to take all five of us. We're going to have to hit and hold Aaliyah, we're going to have to try to be quicker on Dorka, and then we're going to have to really use our guards to be scrappy and run down long stuff. So probably how they felt against South Carolina. Like, it's just -- you know, it just kind of depend on the matchup. But I will say, we definitely don't match them size-wise, that's for sure.

Q. We kind of laughed about it last night with Sarah and Brittney Griner comparisons and stuff. But have you ever had a guard with like the timing, the instincts, that she has in challenging a shot?

NICKI COLLEN: I think she's kind of figuring it out herself, to be honest. Like, I think when you look at those, and certainly people have been frustrated and down the stretch thinking that she's fouling, but if you see any of 'em on replay, there's tons of space. She's just running people down from behind waiting for them to go up and blocking it from behind when the ball's exposed. So, no, I've said it before, like, usually when you see guards that get a lot of blocks, especially smaller guards, they're usually strips. You're stripping them on the way up, not timing it up on the top.

But I just think she's kind of figured out it's something that she can do and sometimes those like little light bulbs go on at different points in your career of things you're capable of doing. So I thought she even had one that was called a foul that was close. But to go get Rice's shot last night, who is six-four, it is about timing. She's not even -- probably when it comes to vertical jump, she's not even one of our best verticals on the team. But there's a difference between IQ and timing and all of that on blocks.

Q. What was it about Chloe that you wanted to bring her on to your staff?

NICKI COLLEN: I wish I could get rid of her. (Laughing.) No. People think I brought overtime Chloe on staff because of the NIL stuff. People really thought I was like thinking outside the box with the timing of the hire and NIL coming into play that July 1. And that was a piece of it, but I would have created a position that wasn't a coach if that's what was important to me. I think all you have to do is spend time on the phone with Chloe to know how relational she is. I wanted someone -- I've said this a million times. Like, I'm 47 going on 14, but I'm still 47. I have kids that are these players' age.

So having a staff member that's a little bit younger and kind of understands the dynamic and personalities and has a better feel down to the music, down to like what they think. And then the social media component, you know, I do think no one's better at that than her, I mean, her understanding of the true name, image, and likeness, the concept of actually making money on your brand as opposed to collectives and things like that that are obviously in play. She gets it because she was doing it.

So her guidance for our players, her understanding how you can make money off your social media, whether it's TikTok or Instagram. So she's special that way. But I'll tell you, she knows the game. I love point guards. She thinks like a point guard, she played point guard, she played with really good players. You know really quickly, because I'm a big believer in -- when I have someone on my staff, I don't -- I don't pigeon hole them, you're a recruiter, you're a scouter, and a lot of staffs do. I believe if I'm going to help grow an assistant coach, they got to be able to scout, they got to be able to sell the scouting report. Some coaches are great at doing the scout, but then their delivery isn't great.

Chloe's incredibly articulate, she works hard, she does a good job of explaining to our players what they have to do, why they have to do it. But she connects to them in a unique way. She's really, really special. I was really, really lucky. I think people really thought I was doing it for the NIL, but she's an unbelievable coach.

Q. Kind of going off of that, how have you seen Chloe find her voice as an assistant coach and what stood out to you the most about her growth into this role?

NICKI COLLEN: I think one of the fun things about Chloe is she's pretty darn smart. And I'm a big believer in finding people on my staff with different type pedigrees. Like I just -- I really feel like because of my history and how I got to where I'm at, like, I like people that would go anywhere to coach, like, that have -- and while Chloe isn't in that situation and she came from a totally different route, I consider her a grinder. Whether it's true or not, I think that's something that young people have to learn to do. I think she already in the most positive sense had learned to hustle, just in a different environment.

I think when she first got the job, she told me, she's like, I thought, man, I could probably be a head coach in two years. Then she said, then I listen to you talk, and I thought, I got a long way to go. So I think it's kind of the humility and this idea of kind of needing words of affirmation to know she was doing a good job. She isn't someone that, as much as she projects confidence, you know, still realized really quickly that she did have a lot to learn. And she would find ways to sit next to me whenever it was her scout. She's like, you know, you need to be sitting next to me on the plane when we leave because I've got some Nikki clips. Because I'm very, when you've been in the profession as long as I have there's terminology, there's, okay, that's just chin. Like understanding, everyone understanding what chin is, what point double is. What, conceptually, what we're going to call things. She's like, now that horn's weak or that chin or is that elbow, what is that. And really, really dialing in to understanding how I think and how I want things done. Because I'm an information person and I tend to like a lot of information. But I like the information to be given to me in a certain way. I want it to be sequential. I got my degree in engineering, I like numbers. I'm like don't put a horns flex in and then the next play is something in a high ball screen. I want all the horns action, I want all the high ball screen actions, I want all the floppy actions together. So I just think she's really grown in terms of her understanding of how to teach the game. She was always good in the individual part, she's unbelievable in terms of her loyalty and how she talks to kids and how you never -- one of the challenges with young assistants is do they understand the line in the sand of, you're on staff and not -- like you can get close to players, you can't get too close. And she does that so beautifully. So I think that's one area where I think, like she just got from the beginning. She got the concept of, I'm on the staff, but I can really connect to these players and get them to hear the message a different way.

THE MODERATOR: All right, thank you.