NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - ARIZONA VS MARYLAND

March 19, 2023

Brenda Frese

Diamond Milelr

Shyanne Sellers

XFINITY Center

Maryland Terrapins

Media Conference

Maryland 77, Arizona 64

BRENDA FRESE: You know, just obviously loved our start, our intensity on the defensive end, which led to our offense. We started forcing three turnovers to begin the game.

And then I thought, you know, I don't know if it was Arizona's intensity that ramped up, maybe we relaxed a little bit in that second quarter. Obviously the impact that Shy has and how important she is, that second foul impacted us greatly. So she's going to stay out of foul trouble here the rest of the time.

But then your All-American does what she's supposed to do. I thought the third quarter it was Miller time coming out. You know, 9-0 to start the third and like we've seen Diamond do so many times in this building is just will her team, and I thought it started with her defense, the impact she was making there to her offense. They had no answer for her.

Just really, really special, to be able to get back to a Sweet 16, this journey, I'm happy for everybody in our program, our staff, these players. So many things that were unknown last year and I know this group is not satisfied just to be able to get to the Sweet 16. This started with their work last summer, and the trust and the belief that you see how much we love each other, how much we want to continue to keep playing on.

Q. What was conversation/message at halftime, and what flipped when you came out to start the third quarter with your hair on fire?

DIAMOND MILLER: At halftime we were talking about simple things that we're messing up and could easily tweak. Personally for me I was just missing layups and even Faith was like, come on Diamond, you've got to make that."

It was just like, "I do got to make that." Simple stuff like that. We realize our defense in the second quarter Dell dropped and that was probably mainly because we were not scoring, so we still need to be consistent with our defense and stuff like that. So definitely tweaking some things.

Q. As Brenda was just saying, your impact, after watching Arizona go on that 10-0 run you checked back in the game and looked like you were talking to yourself, probably a little peeved. What was going through your mind and what was your thought process?

SHYANNE SELLERS: I was really itching to get back on the floor. Every time B walked past, I'm going: I won't foul; I won't foul; I won't foul; I won't foul; I won't foul.

Honestly staying disciplined, I knew my team needed me and I really didn't want to pick up that foul in the third quarter heading no halftime, so just stayed disciplined.

Q. So just tell me about your performance, you scored 24 points, it was a tremendous evening and everything, and Shy, you scored 15 points. Talk about your points and the performance that you had, and also talk about what both of you are going to have to do to advance further into the tournament?

DIAMOND MILLER: I think we just play hard every day. I don't think we really care about who is scoring or not. It just happened to be today. She had 15 and I had 24. But we don't know how the game is going to turn out when we step out on the court and we are just making reads and stuff like that.

But yeah, we play Notre Dame -- and I see that shirt, nice. (Laughter).

It's definitely going to be exciting to play them again and we're going to watch film and scout on them, and we'll be prepared for film whenever, Monday or Tuesday, yeah. Probably Tuesday, I don't know.

Q. Just curious, when you start out slow in a game, what do you do mentally to like find your flow and get back into being the player that you ultimately know you are capable of?

DIAMOND MILLER: That's when I, like I said when Faith was saying certain thing, just having people be like, "You got it. "When other people are saying, you got it, you've got to be like, "I got it" as well, like I know I can do this.

One thing about me is sometimes the ball just don't go in the basket. You can't dwell on it and suckly I had a second half to regroup and continue to play basketball and that's what I did.

Q. Was it extra motivation --

DIAMOND MILLER: Yes and no. Faith helped but I also knew I needed to play better for myself as well, yeah.

Q. Last game at the Xfinity Center as a Terp. What are the emotions going through your head in this moment and like when you leave the court and immediately go and hug Coach Frese, like what was your thought process right there and how were you feeling after the game and kind of your whole senior year?

DIAMOND MILLER: Of course I'm biased, but I believe this is one of the best colleges to go to, university. I feel like every top player should come here. You're going to play with a wonderful coach who let's you thrive at who you are.

I remember in the recruitment process, everybody is like: You're a 4, 5; you're going to be in the paint.

And Coach was like no, "You're going to play the position you were in high school." I think she recruits you to be the player you were in high school and who you were going to be in college. I think everybody should commit here but I'm biased.

Q. Can you talk about the vision and just setting the tone offensively, running the tempo and dictating the plays and you do that little thing to yourself?

SHYANNE SELLERS: Hopefully you didn't see that. But I just think it's important for us to push pace. You know, we've been really working on when teams score on us we have to get the ball out quick, run it down their throats and keeping them on their heels. That's just exciting and obviously want to get my teammates involved, and when we're going on a run, I always fun to add a little bit of flair to it, so it's just really great.

Q. There was a moment in that last minute right after you went to the bench, you put your face in your hands for just a couple seconds. Was that kind of appreciating what you guys have done tonight, was it taking in the whole weight of your career? What was in your mind at the moment?

DIAMOND MILLER: I think it's just -- it was like a lot of emotions. I was so happy that we're going to the Sweet 16 again and it's like, this could be my last time playing here, too, which is also like, wow, like a lot -- four years go by so quickly and then when it's your last home game you're like, wait, what does that mean. So yeah, it was definitely a surreal moment.

Yeah, I definitely sometimes need a second to just live in the moment. That's what I was doing right there.

Q. Starting the game with a block, had another one later in the game. You guys went off that great start; talk about setting the tone defensively in the first quarter.

SHYANNE SELLERS: Setting the tone defensively is huge for us. It leads to our offense, so bring that energy, making teams feel uncomfortable from the jump can really set the tone and lay a path for the rest of the game.

Obviously we laid off in the second quarter which was not what we wanted to do but just really setting the tone early really sets you establish how you're going to dictate the game and you want to be the dictator, not being dictated.

Q. I know you and Brenda have talked about how after last season ended, you kind of needed to be re-recruited back to the program. How would you describe how your relationship with Brenda has evolved off-season your four years and how you've come to be more aligned in a lot of ways?

DIAMOND MILLER: Yeah, our relationship has grown so much freshman year -- since freshman year. I just remember freshman year, I barely talked to her, I don't know, like I didn't want to. I was just like, yeah. But now I can easily talk to her, text her, whatever. We have a good friendship, relationship. Yeah, it's good.

Q. I was just wondering, obviously Coach Barnes talked about how they know you guys switch everything 1 through 5. When you're at the 1 do you feel you guys, you obviously have more length at that spot but how different is it as a defensive mentality when you're playing the point versus you at the two, that type of thing, and what did you see out there when you were playing that lead guard spot?

SHYANNE SELLERS: I just think it makes it difficult for teams to exploit anything on us when you have every person out there over six foot. I mean, it's pretty huge. So you're not really going to get much, you know, like a mismatch that you don't like. I mean, everyone has each other. Everyone can guard every position, so it's really not that big of a deal. So I think that's just a big factor for us and being able to have those -- able to have that, you know what I'm trying to say.

Q. I think a theme throughout the season has been you get into tough situations and the team makes runs and you guys always find ways to run and that's been your identity. How are you guys able to respond in these situations?

SHYANNE SELLERS: I think just talking in the locker room, we have three things, three E's in our locker room: Energy, effort -- what is the other one -- execution, thank you. (Laughter) I knew that. I knew that. I was just testing you guys.

But that really helps us open the conversations for where we think those three things are, and then just positive talk. I mean, sometimes we're like talking about what we need to do better but honestly just trying to regroup essentially is what our halftime is used for.

DIAMOND MILLER: Yeah, just to piggyback on what she said. We just used that time to really regroup and tried to execute the game plan.

Q. What was that message at halftime?

BRENDA FRESE: I think what they just said is we were making things a little more difficult. We had that blueprint in the first half and we kind of went away from that in the second quarter, or we had it in the first quarter and went away from it. I thought our shot selection kind of went away from us which allowed them to get easy run-outs. Our defense starred to kind of lag behind. So just keeping it simple and going back to what got us that big lead in the first quarter.

Q. In addition to her halftime pep talk, Faith also was close to a season-high in points tonight. I think all of those came when the game was still very much in doubt. How important was her performance?

BRENDA FRESE: She was in my opinion, obviously Diamond had to do a lot of that scoring but she was our MVP. Faith just emptied the tank and you saw that with the defensive effort she had to put on Reese, the toughness that displayed and then all of the sudden, at times we're running her in the press break to bring the ball up to run our offense. And you saw she was exhausted. Like that's what it looks like when you empty the tank and leave it all out there and why she is the winner that she is.

Q. Getting a little nosy, again. After Shy is leaving, you grab her and you talk to her. What was the message and how has she handled tough conversations and coaching this year?

BRENDA FRESE: She's grown so much. Just wanted to make sure that she has to understand how much we need her on the court. So that's not a time to go for a block and put yourself in any kind of position whether it was right call, wrong call. At that point it doesn't matter. It's putting her on the bench which impacts and hurts our team.

You can coach her hard, I mean, that's why she's grown to be the player that she is for us, and a teachable moment for her to be able to learn and grow from it.

Q. How important for you all to establish consistency defensively as you move forward in the tournament?

BRENDA FRESE: Really important. A lot of these games are going to come down to defense and rebounding. To be able to have two quarters like that in single digits where we can rely on our defense, especially sometimes for us this game we turned the ball over a little bit more than we would like.

So just understanding that we've got to be able to get back if we are not getting shots on the offensive end to be able to get stops defensively.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Diamond, it's her last game at Xfinity Center in her senior season which has been outstanding. What have you seen from her this year, as not just a player but also a leader for this team and kind of the star of this program right now?

BRENDA FRESE: Yeah, you know, I think first, I'll say for Diamond, is just her journey, right, when you look at her freshman year, you know, her season was completed with COVID. She didn't get to go into the NCAA Tournament to the journey of her knee injury last year and having to battle through that to having the game that she just finished with to leave Xfinity here with.

Just has matured in so many ways. I think what makes her special this season is the trust, the old Diamond, even though she put the team on her back with the scoring, she had some really great passes tonight that really helped us to be able to widen that gap. It's just she's really learned how to trust everybody around her.

Q. Curious at what points in the second quarter do you think the momentum shifted a little bit back-and-forth between the two teams?

BRENDA FRESE: They did, I thought their defensive intensity ramped up. We started turning the ball over way too much. I was hesitant there within the last minute, minute and a half, whether I should call a time-out as that momentum was really changing. I thought we had to kind of calm ourselves down.

Losing Shy there was huge in that second quarter. But credit her. I thought that last, whatever, minute, 90 seconds after the time-out, she stayed aggressive and allowed us to go in at halftime just with a one-point game.

Q. There was a moment at the end of the third quarter as they are waiting for the buzzer to sound, Arizona has the ball and you and Diamond share a laugh as you're waiting for something to happen. Do you remember that moment, first of all, and second, more big picture, how rewarding is it to have grown closer to Diamond over these four years to now where she has come out of her shell and you can be more direct with her as a leader?

BRENDA FRESE: Yeah, I can't remember that moment. I can tell you my favorite moment of the game was I wanted her to shade No. 1, to shade her to the right hand, so I was screaming and she heard me; and then changed her stance to shade her left. I'm like your other -- your other right. It was a fun moment defensively. She got it.

But those are the times that we've been able to really grow. I can coach her hard and she doesn't take it personal. You know, you can challenge her. She just wants to win. We both have so many common things from that competitive end; she just wants to win.

Q. You like to change up your presses throughout the game, not specifically this game, or specifically any opponent, is that something that you do based on feel of wanting to change it up or is that schematic in terms of like when you do it?

BRENDA FRESE: It's both. And sometimes our kids have their own feel, so then it can look different as well. Sometimes I have to ask what we're in. But it's definitely, you know, I'd say as our staff does such a great job of scouting, you have an idea of what you want to go after. But then in the game, that can change.

So we base it off of that.

Q. Just wondering, it seemed as if the whole game you kind of had, you know, a front on Cate and then obviously someone is shading behind to prevent the over-the-top pass. What did you see in scout and film prior to the game that thought you could exploit that and maybe leave some shooters open for skip passes when it came to Arizona's offense?

BRENDA FRESE: We knew from watching their game with West Virginia and our switching D that they were going to make an emphasis to go inside. I thought that was one of the best wrinkles their staff did with our matchups being prepared for that. Just she's really, really good.

So just being intentional. You have to help off of certain players in order to be able to have that kind of inside-outside approach. I thought they did a tremendous job. Reese was physical and battled the entire night. I thought collectively the defense held true.

Q. At the end of the game, as the final buzzer sounds, everyone is in good spirits but two players in particular caught my eye and it was Elisa and Abby jumping up together, first time they have made it out of the second round, and we spoke during Selection Sunday and you said, "Oh, this day never gets old, going into the tournament with players who have not been able to experience that." Those two, and also just the freshmen, you know, can you talk about the joy in this moment of being able to bring this group to the Sweet 16?

BRENDA FRESE: Yeah, there's so many storylines, and that one is key, because there was a lot of reasons why those players chose to come to Maryland.

You know, what you can say about all of them is that they sacrificed minutes, stats, all of it to win, and so just a cool moment to be able to have for those guys, for all of our returners. Our staff has not forgotten what those locker room meetings looked like last off-season. And just the ability to trust and stay the course is, you know, for all of it right now.

Q. I want to circle back to Shy and what she brings defensively. I think when she picked up her second foul and she went out of the game, Arizona went on a 19-7 run. Can you talk more about what she brings to the defensive game plan?

BRENDA FRESE: That's great. I'm going to remind her of that, 19-7.

We ask a lot of Shy, when you look at she had to guard the best player with Pellington, one of the best players, she's such a hard matchup defensively starting out on her, and then taking that pressure with the ball handling and running offense, and oh, by the way, then score for us as well.

Just really, really valuable to us, and obviously clearly someone we need to be able to have on the floor so teams can't make those runs at us.

Q. We've seen some good environments through the season and the crowd seemed into it. How much did that help you? How was the environment today?

BRENDA FRESE: I thought the crowd was fantastic and that's why you work so hard in a season is to kind of secure that home court in the first two round. It doesn't guarantee anything, like you saw in the first half. But they were that big boost and energy we needed for a 40-minute game. Super grateful for having the best fans in the country.

Q. As you all move to face Notre Dame, what are you looking forward heading into next week's matchup and what will it take for you to advance past Notre Dame?

BRENDA FRESE: Well, they are different now with the injuries that they have had but you can see the success has remained the same. They are back in the Sweet 16 for a reason. When I've seen them even before this game, I mean, it's going to come down to defense and rebounding, which in March, it usually does.

So from our end, we are going to have to -- they are pounding it inside. They are big. It's volleyball. They are going to be aggressive, physical, use their size, they are playing three post players sometimes. So it will be a tale of two different teams when you talk about five guard and three bigs on the court. I'm just excited that we get another day to be able to scout and get our team, which I know will be fully prepared.

The MODERATOR: Coach, could you do one more question.

Q. You're trailing at the half and third quarter, you shot 79 percent from the floor. What happened and what transpired during halftime?

BRENDA FRESE: I think they just started to trust the process. Again, I think it started with Diamond and how aggressive she was and not only with her scoring. She made big plays for everyone else. I thought we started to share the basketball, settle in, less turnovers; that allowed us to be able to take that lead.