NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - LOUISVILLE VS TEXAS

March 20, 2023

Vic Schaefer

Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda

Rori Harmon

Shay Holle

Moody Center

Texas Longhorns

Media Conference

Louisville 73, Texas 51

VIC SCHAEFER: Just first just want to congratulate those kids at Louisville. I thought they were really special today. Played really tough. Really competitive group, and they have gotten better as the season's wore on. I've seen that on film in the last two days. You know, the games even that they lost in the ACC were all down to the wire and just thought they were really, really good today. I thought they were tough and really had a competitive spirit about them. And so congratulations to them, and how hard and competitive that they played today.

And then in the second breath, I need to apologize to the University of Texas for today and how my team played. I'm accountable for that, and I'm the head coach. You know, it's my responsibility to make sure that we play a lot better than that. This university deserves better than that and I'm accountable for that.

So I'm certainly disappointed and disheartened, and at the same time, it's, again, my responsibility. So I'm proud of these girls and this team this season. You know, we've said all along, we give God the glory to victory and we are going to give Him the glory in defeat; 26-10. It's just not the way you want to go out and have that happen but this is athletics.

Again, it's nobody's fault but my own, and I'll be accountable for that. We'll move on.

Q. Really quickly, Rori, how are you feeling?

RORI HARMON: I'm not feeling too good. But the season's over now so at least I get to recover. I've been battling with some lower leg issues the whole season, so me landing on it the way I did definitely hurt it a lot more. So I'll probably get it looked at sooner or later.

Q. Obviously it must have been really frustrating, the layups and missed shots. What was wrong on offense tonight for y'all?

RORI HARMON: We just didn't make enough shots, like he said. The ones we probably should make, they didn't go in. I wouldn't say our offense was that stagnant because we got good looks, but you know, we just didn't make them all.

SHAY HOLLE: I would say it was a focus thing for sure. We got good looks and we were getting in the right positions to get the shots we wanted, but we just weren't finishing what we needed to?

Q. What was the plan going in? Knew they were a big team just like you guy, but what was the plan going in and why did it get off to such a tough start?

RORI HARMON: The plan was to be the aggressor. We knew that they were probably going to be the most aggressive team we played the whole season. They crashed the rebounds as hard as we do.

It's just going to be a battle and they definitely battled a lot harder than us. Since that was the game plan and we didn't follow the game plan, we ended up losing the game.

Q. You drew a lot of Hailey along with Rori. What made her such a tough cover tonight?

SHAY HOLLE: Yeah, she's just a really skilled player. She's über competitive. She works really hard. She's always moving. We respect her a lot. She was definitely a focus going into this game.

But yeah, she made a lot of shots. She played well. Yeah, I mean, she's super skilled, so always tough to guard?

Q. I guess for Rori and Shay, 15 missed layups tonight. That's not really characteristic at all of you all. What was it, you said it was a focus thing, but what do you think it was in terms of just not having it to be the?

SHAY HOLLE: At the end of the day missed layup s is usually focus. They are definitely physical and we knew they were a physical team and we needed to match that, and I don't think we necessarily did, which translated to missed layups.

RORI HARMON: Yeah, they play so hard, and everybody is in the air trying to get rebounds or jumping up, you're tired, the game is going on, and not saying it's an excuse, but you get something finally wide open or that's something that you should make, and you know it's not easy anymore because you missed.

Q. Where does this program go, and how do you guys attack the off-season?

SHAY HOLLE: Yeah, you use it as fuel. You watch the film. You learn from it. You look in the mirror and see whatnot only the team could do but you personally could have done, not just in this game but the entire season leading up to this, and that starts tomorrow. That doesn't start next year. You know, if we want to get better, it has be to tomorrow and over the entire summer and into the preseason.

Yeah, just got to learn from it. Use it as fuel. Obviously you don't want to go out this way but it happened, so you've got to deal with it.

Q. You had a little surge in the fourth quarter. I guess contributing like you did tonight, I guess looking at the season overall what did you learn about yourself and this team and how would you assess your season?

NDJAKALENGA MWENENTANDA: Well, I would say not taking anything for granted, because it can be taken away so soon. And just learning to play as a team and rely on my teammates. I mean, it looked like I had a surge but really, I just listened to the coach and I listened to Rori and my other player, Shay, and the other people on the floor. And like I said, not taking anything for granted because you never know when your time is, and you never know when you need to fight.

Q. For Rori, being the leader of this team, everything that y'all have been through, all the injuries, what does it mean to lead the team to this point of the year, knowing everything y'all have been through?

RORI HARMON: Like you said, injuries played a really big part. I think only losing 10 games out of the season and winning 26 is not too bad. Everyone is bound to lose a game except for one person at the end of the season.

But you know, I'm always going to want to lead. This is my position. I'm not going to shy away from it. I don't want anyone else to have my position. I know there's a lot of responsibility, and I'm accountable. I'm learning to be more accountable. This is my second year and I'm trying to learn through as many mistakes and just learn through my successes as well.

But my teammates hold me accountable for sure, too, so I mean, I'm always willing to listen to what they have to say to me and it reflects, and so definitely have a whole bunch of respect for them because they put me in this position and they respect that I can do it.

Q. You said yesterday that you talked to your bigs and you couldn't get bullied. Do you feel like you got bullied in the post tonight, and could you explain pulling Gaston so early and for as long as you did there in the first quarter?

VIC SCHAEFER: Yeah, she got that quick foul, and I wasn't that thrilled with certain other things, but I had to get her through the quarter because I've left her in before and she gets that second one, well, now I'm in real trouble. And I thought we weathered the storm in the first quarter and I got her back in.

You know, things happen in a game you guys don't notice but me as a coach, I notice them and so -- but I had to get her through the first quarter. I wasn't going to get her a second. I just had to try to get her through over there, and I thought we weathered it a little bit.

But you know, she's five out of ten, had five rebounds and 12 points. That all looks good on paper but there's more to the game than that.

Q. Going back to the first part, you had said yesterday you had told your bigs that you had pushed them to not be bullied in matchups, and I was wondering if you felt like your team got pushed around and bullied a little bit in the post tonight?

VIC SCHAEFER: I thought their whole team played really tough and was very -- they were tough. Just they played like a lot of teams that I've had, very aggressive but tough.

I tell you the biggest thing today. Defensively, we had forced two turnovers at halftime. That's a great indicator of how hard we are not playing. Again, my responsibility. And so that is -- there's certain things on this paper that are indicators for me of what I'm getting and not getting, and we had forced two turnovers at halftime.

If you would have seen my shoot around today, and seen what we were doing defensively, and then seeing that, two different, completely different things. It's like we left it in the practice gym.

And so I spent the whole, you know, first half trying to get them to do what we had done in two days of working out, and we just didn't -- didn't have it.

Q. You said the word "tough" like eight times, I know that's a state of mind that's more than physical.

VIC SCHAEFER: Yeah, for sure.

Q. How do you coach toughness? A lot of it is either you're tough or you're not. How much do you manufacture?

VIC SCHAEFER: I think you manufacture a lot. It's what you practice and what you demand in practice every day. It's the drills that you run. It's competitiveness of your drills. So I think all of it, to me, is manufactured, quite frankly.

And I feel like we've had, you know, during the course of the season, we've had some games where I really felt like we had grown in that area, but you and I both know, we've also had games where I felt like we've been out-toughed a little bit, and, so, but let me clarify that.

You have to give those kids credit at Louisville for their toughness and competitive spirit today, and I don't want to take anything from those kids. That's a good basketball team. That's probably not a 5-seed, and they probably need to be ranked.

But it is what it is. And so you try to convey that to your players, in, what, a day and a half? I do think you can -- yeah, I do think you create that.

As coaches, no matter what sport, you've heard me say this: If somebody describes your team as a tough, physical aggressive team: I don't care if it's Sark (ph), I don't care if it's Pierce, I don't care who it is. I don't care if it's Angie Kelly, you're going to like that.

By the way, that doesn't say anything about your skillset. It doesn't say how far your quarterfinal can throw it, how fast your running back can run, doesn't say how fast your pitcher is throwing it. But if a coach has somebody describe his team as a tough, physical, aggressive team, man, you love that.

Again, we did not play today the way I felt like we were ready to play, and it's not anybody's fault but my own.

Q. How disappointed were you with the missed layups and the play by the rim? In the third quarter, did you give any thought to getting Sonja in there to get an offensive spark?

VIC SCHAEFER: I played the kids that obviously I felt like I needed to play. You know, the whole game, I don't think there's one thing that was disappointing. There was a lot going on that was disappointing. So I mean, the missed layups, the giving up layups that we gave on the other end.

Again, we didn't take them out of anything that they wanted to run. Like we worked two days on that. You can't let the wheel get started to turn. When the wheel starts turning, then you have a whole plethora of problems. But if you top the wheel, if you don't ever let it get turning, you've got a chance.

I could not get my guards to get up and take away some things that we worked on and did for -- for two days, and so it's just something that happens every now and then, I guess. It doesn't really happen a lot for me but it happened today.

Q. You played them on November 20th. How different or what is different about Louisville right now as it was? Where have they gotten better, do you feel like the most?

VIC SCHAEFER: Well, I know he's got a different layup and he's got kids that have really embraced their roles. I think his bigs have improved tremendously. Keep in mind, my kid that had 19-12 didn't play tonight.

And so I just think from a rotation standpoint and who he's playing, I think he's really -- I think those kids are really comfortable in their roles and they are doing a good job. As you know, Van Lith can get hot, and she shot 50 percent tonight, a little over. You know, I feel like she really made some tough shots tonight. You have to give that kid a lot of credit.

I think his bigs, to me -- I mean, he's got good guard play, and that's who boat us up there, or down there, wherever we were down there in the Bahamas or wherever that is on the map, and so you win with guard play. I thought his guards were really special tonight.

But then seemed like every chance we made them miss, especially early, we could not get that critical rebound, and you know, we missed quite a few shots. It's hard to win scoring 51 points. I think you just have to really give those kids credit. I thought they were really tough today.

Q. Louisville mentioned how they wanted to press Rori. How do you think that affected the flow?

VIC SCHAEFER: I don't think it affected it one bit. I don't think it bothered Rori. I don't think she turned the ball over against somebody that was pressuring her. I see she has five turnovers and I don't know that was because somebody was after her. I think she had one or two early where she was trying to push the ball up the floor and maybe had one there. But look, our five turnovers is -- in the big scheme of today isn't that big of a deal.

I think from an offensive standpoint, we had the same energy on offense that we had on defense, which means we didn't have any. I felt like we could have done, you know, if we had a little bit more in the motor area, it could have been a little bit different.

But my team typically feeds off of what we're doing defensively, and again, it's a great indicator, two turnovers at halftime, man, that's the only stat I need to see.

Q. Looking forward, the kid who had 21-12 in the Bahamas will be back next year. Talk about what you're excited about in terms of growth from this year into next year?

VIC SCHAEFER: Well, it's a locker room full of some really good kids. I mean, they are great kids. I've loved being around them. I hate it that we went out like we did today. It's just, pure competitor, you don't want it for those kids. I don't want it for Texas. Like Texas deserves so much better than what I gave them today.

That locker room's got some great kids. I've just got to do a better job teaching them how to be competitive more consistently, and you know, they have had quite a bit of success this year. You know, it's bad going out with a stinker like today. But they are Big 12 Champions, and they have had a lot of growth.

The potential of only losing Sonya is encouraging. A-Mo coming back is encouraging, but you and I both know those knees can be -- it's not just something you wake up one day, and you go, well, it's been ten months or 12 or 14 and I'm healed and I'm ready to go back to full speed, that's not how it works.

So you've got the potential of her back and again, I love my recruiting class. I mean, potentially, we could -- and then if we could add the right kid, you know, recruiting, it could certainly benefit us. I think we need to do that as well.

But potential having that locker room back is encouraging but again, there's certain things that have to change. I mean, toughness has kind of been an issue all year off and on. You've heard me talk about it numerous times. I think it's an Achilles and I think it showed up again today, and I've obviously not done a good enough job of developing that.

So those are some great kids. I've really enjoyed being around those kids. They are going to be great ambassadors for the University of Texas at some point when they graduate from here. In the meantime, they will work at it. We'll give them some downtime. They need some downtime, and then we'll get back after it.

But I'm proud of them. They have been through a lot. It's hard, you know.