NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - UCLA VS OKLAHOMA

March 19, 2023

Jennie Baranczyk

Pauley Pavilion

Oklahoma Sooners

Media Conference

JENNIE BARANCZYK: Well, just excited to be here. I thought, you know, it's always fun to be able to make it to that next round in the NCAA Tournament. So really proud of this group. Love coaching this team and just want to coach this team as long as we possibly can.

Q. What's your impression of what UCLA brings to the court?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: I think UCLA is -- they are very talented. They are very deep. They play a lot of people. Obviously their guard play is incredible. And then they can stretch the floor on you. I also feel like they do a great job on the defensive end and play -- they have been battle tested. They have beat Stanford. They have obviously won some really big games, and so this is a game that we have got to be ready.

And I'm excited for the environment as well. I thought last night, I thought the UCLA crowd really showed up and that's what we want in our sport. We want it no matter where you are, you want to be able to play in front of a lot of people because I think the more people continue to come, the more they fall in love with this game.

Q. We talked to all your players and they seem to have this very tight-knitness. They have played together a long time. How do you think that shared experience helps you guys in this tournament?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: I love this group. I can tell, and you love that you were able to see that in, what, probably two and a half minutes, and it's real. It's authentic. I feel like these women do an incredible job of, yes, they support each other, but also can challenge each other but they also cheer each other on, and it's real.

I feel like last night after the press conference and there were different questions about different teammates and when they talk about each other, they just light up when they talk about each other, and I think that translates on to the floor.

I feel like you can face some adversity, you can trust each other and your greatness can come out when you know people cover for each other. And especially when a group of women get their minds together, it's pretty amazing what can happen.

Q. Is there a point in the season in terms of adversity where you can really remember that experience paying off?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: Well, I think every season we kind of create some adversity, and then you kind of have some adversity that hits you a little bit. And I don't know if there was a single point, I think you always look at any of your losses, those are great opportunities to be able to learn.

But even some of our wins that you really had to gut out, and we've had a lot of those in game situations; and ironically, what's fun is being able to play on the road and to be able to figure those things out. That's what's going to be able to really propel us tomorrow.

I feel like a huge part was also going to the NCAA Tournament a year ago, and having most of our core back and being able to have that experience; first, understanding we made at home last year, but you played a very, very good 13-seed and IUPUI a year ago and coming into the game last night knowing that you're playing a 12-seed, you understand how good a 12-seed is. So I felt like we were really able to understand that and prepare for that, and also understand how difficult it is to play on the road.

So hopefully that experience comes out as we step across the lines tomorrow.

Q. This seems like a youth versus experience matchup but at this time of year, are the freshmen not freshmen anymore?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: Well, I don't know if you can -- I don't know if you can actually count UCLA's freshmen as freshmen, so let's be real from a standpoint -- I mean, they are so talented.

But I don't -- we are not going into this game saying, we have experience and therefore, we are just going to show up and the experience takes care of itself. You've got to work, and it's March and anybody can do anything. Sometimes there's a youthfulness that when you don't have that experience, you just play. And then sometimes when you get to the point that you are experienced and you understand how much better it is to just play.

That's where I'm hoping in this game tomorrow, it's going to be a great game for women's basketball but it's not a youth versus experience. Some of our experience, what they have had as experience is pretty darned good for a first year.

So when you have that kind of experience, and you know, our group has built something. Our freshman year they were 4-14 in the Big 12 and look what they have done over four years, I'm so proud of that. To go from 4-14 their freshman year to 14-4 their senior year, that's phenomenal. That's phenomenal growth to really build a program.

But we are not afraid of really, anything. We are not afraid of losing. We are not afraid of falling on our face. We are not afraid of winning. We are not -- we just go and we play.

Q. How much of a challenge do Rice and Osborne present?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: Again, I think they are two phenomenal guards, and they are so quick off the bounce. I think they do it on both ends. They are very, very crafty.

What makes Osborne, I think, so special, too, is she makes other people get involved. So although she can score at all the different levels and she's very quick and she's physical on the inside, she just gets everybody around her better.

Then obviously Rice, I think is a freshman. Look at what she's been able to do as well. And so they provide so many challenges from a defensive standpoint, and at the same time, I think they do an incredible job on their defense, too.

Q. Something Cori was talking about was managing the moment and finding the line in March about having focus but also having fun and being loose. How do you do that with your team?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: I think if anybody can figure that out, they are going to be the gatekeeper of all time.

I feel like, again, it's just being who we are in the moment. There's not a special, you know, if we need to yell at our team, we need to yell at them, right. If we need to kind of steady them up, we need to steady them up; and you can see that if the first round from our standpoint. At times I feel like we were frantic and needed to steady and at times we needed to turn it.

I think just finding the balances, it's so individualized but it also really comes to, as you step across the lines, it's basketball and you want to play basketball.

And if you put everything on one little outcome, whether it's a missed layup or a missed defensive assignment or a missed box-out and you carry it to the next possession, then you're going to struggle a little bit.

But if you can literally separate play-by-play, and do it with a smile on your face, then we know we're doing our jobs.