NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL 2 SEMIFINAL - MIAMI (FL) VS VILLANOVA

March 24, 2023

Katie Meier

Destiny Harden

Jasmyne Roberts

Bon Secours Wellness Arena

Miami Hurricanes

Sweet 16 Postgame Media Conference

Miami 70, Villanova 65.

KATIE MEIER: Well, first of all, I've never done this in my career. I apologized to Denise in the hallway because I was so excited I forgot to shake their hands, and that's just not my style. That's the first thing I wanted to say.

They are an awesome program. Very, very difficult team to defend, obviously. They did a great job surprising us with that pressure. We were in some foul trouble, so they picked a good time to do it, but all the credit in the world to them.

Maddy is everything she's been advertised. And we really pride ourselves on our defense, and only thing I can kind of brag about is it took 29 shots for her to get 31 points. And I think at the end she missed some shots that she normally doesn't, but maybe it's something to do that we were down a little bit.

But we had some really special performances, but Jas Roberts, that's 26 points on 16 shots. That is -- Cool Hand Luke is her new nickname. She doesn't even know that movie, but that's -- Cool Hand Luke. And her efficiency numbers are incredible. When the team is like, D-Jas, let her eat, she's beasting, she's bullying. The whole team was on the Jas train.

And that's what's special about our team is we'll find a matchup. Destiny was a great matchup for us, too, 15-9, 26-9, great matchup. And then we went -- we were in a lot of foul trouble in that second half. We got a big lead, seven minutes left in the third they're already in the bonus, something like that. Completely changed the game for us, and we had a lot of foul trouble.

It was very much a lot of decisions and a lot of choices, but our bench held, and particularly I thought Lashae Dwyer was special off the bench for us, and that might have been the difference for us.

When the starters got back in, we know how to close out a game, and I'm really proud. I can't believe it. I'm not going to act cool. This is awesome.

They asked me yesterday, somebody asked me was that Indiana win the biggest of your career and I just wouldn't answer that question because I just thought no. Because "est," it's kind of final, "est".

And we still had another big win ahead of us and so this is -- I'm not going to say this is the biggest win in our career, either. I'm just not, right? We're going to keep pushing. We're going to keep plugging. We're going to keep preparing to win.

Q. For both players at the end of the game when it's tight, you've had that big lead, now it's close, what allowed you guys to be able to make the plays to pull this game out?

DESTINY HARDEN: I think it's just going back to what we do in practice all the time, all those plays we run a thousand times in practice. And we trust each other a lot, and for us to execute those plays is big time for us, especially having the starters out there.

We know executing the plays was going to get us the big win today.

Q. Destiny, there's that moment, 38 seconds left, Jas hits that bucket and she's fouled and she's on her back and you and Haley are in her face slapping her on the chest. What kind of confidence are you feeding her?

DESTINY HARDEN: I've been giving Jas confidence since the season started. I call her my twin because I feel like we've got a similar game, and I've been in her head since the season started. I see so much potential in her.

Continuing to make her confident is what was going to continue to make us go further. But at the moment, it was just like, you won the game for us right there. Once she hit the free throw, you could seal the game for us. And for her to be so young and a sophomore, it's like you're here right now so take advantage of it. I mean, yeah. I'm proud of her.

Q. End of the third, beginning of the fourth, I think they went on something like a 23-2 run. What are the conversations at that point between the players specifically about maintaining your cool, keeping your composure and trying to sort of quell that run?

JASMYNE ROBERTS: I mean, on the court, we still continued to huddle. We did kind of lose our composure for a little bit, and allowed them to go on a run. We still would huddle as a team and talk to each other and say we're still winning, stay together, handle the press. And ultimately we did -- it got better after that. We were in some foul trouble, which was from the press, be still remained together as a team.

Q. Destiny, you had the assignment sometimes of guarding Maddy Siegrist. What were the challenges and what worked for you?

DESTINY HARDEN: I respect her game, so we knew that she was going to come out and score. She scored 20 plus points in, I think, 32 games, so we knew we had to try to stop it. But stopping somebody like that is almost impossible. You've got to kind of respect her game. We always said if she scores and we win, then it don't matter how much she scored. But you do have to respect a player like that.

Q. Destiny, you guys played in a really tough league, obviously, this season, but at this point you guys are peaking, you seem to have caught this momentum. What is it like to be playing with this kind of momentum behind you right now at this time in the year?

DESTINY HARDEN: It feels great because now we're the only eight teams in the country playing right now. And we're going to continue to stay humble and blessed and take advantage of this opportunity, stay together and just enjoy these moments. Because this is my last year with this team and this group of young ladies.

Just enjoying the moment and staying together, remaining humble, and continuing to try to get some more wins.

Q. Jasmyne, obviously the bucket and the foul was huge at the end of the game. Can you just describe what you were feeling, what you were seeing as that play was happening? And the second part, you made history for Miami getting to the Elite 8 for the first time. How does that feel?

JASMYNE ROBERTS: It feels amazing. I just always crash the boards like offensive or defensive rebounding. So I saw the shot go up and I'm like, all right, I need to get this ball. I put it back up and getting the foul, and it felt great. And like at the free-throw line, honestly, I was just telling myself like these are the biggest free throws of your life, you've got to hit these.

I put a lot of work and I practice my free throws so I had to tell myself good things like positive things in my head, and it worked out.

Winning the game was just crazy. I'm so happy.

Q. Katie, your players were just talking a little bit about composure, that it's a hard situation to be in where it was at the end of the game. What does it say about them that you can take that punch and wobble and still come out on top? Usually teams don't hold on after they blow a big lead like that.

KATIE MEIER: I know it. We had some really surprising fumbles and lay-ups at the rim. It wasn't like -- it didn't feel as if like oh, my God. It was like, wow, this is shocking.

Then one time I just put my hand up and had to laugh. Like wow, we did -- called a time-out, run a certain press break to get Des a lay-up, she has the lay-up. I was like, that didn't even go in?

So it got a little bit panicky for sure, but a lot of it -- also if you think about it, like we go up 20, I believe, when Karla Erjavec hit a three with five minutes to go, and went nuts. And from that point on, we couldn't have our starters back in for a while. It was frustrating for us.

Villanova did some wonderful coaching, so I've got to give them a ton of credit for that. You know, we've learned -- we beat other teams when they've had the lead on us. We know it's a lot -- it's kind of fun and freeing to charge back and try to come from behind. So we've been on both sides of it in the last week.

But if it's a close game, we feel like we're going to win.

Q. Katie, you were very emotional after the game. Considering everything you and this program have gone through this season and where you are right now, to make it to an Elite 8 for the first time, I was wondering if you could put words to the emotions you were feeling right as the game ended.

KATIE MEIER: I just am so grateful for the toughness. I'm so grateful for -- they're really super women. My team, they're good-hearted, honorable women. They are wonderful people. But if you try to come after us, we're going to rise up.

Maybe that came from some of this. If that's the case, then they had my back, so good for them. And let's go, because we have got a spine. I keep saying it, we've got a spine. I'm grateful to them. I have their backs, they have my back, and we feel like we deserve this.

I told them in the locker room, you are not going to apologize for blowing whatever the lead was because you earned that lead. And don't you dare apologize and don't you let anyone put something in your head about blah blah blah. No. We're in the Elite 8, you've got to be crazy if you think we're going to doubt ourselves. That's not going to happen, so maybe that's the spine they have, too.

Q. There was moments in the game especially during that run where you both had a big lead where you looked bigger and faster and stronger than Villanova. Was that just a matter of effort and aggressiveness?

KATIE MEIER: Yes. I think the versatility of these two. And I've always said, when you watch if we have big wins, one of them plays well. Honestly today both of them played well. Because they're great match-ups for me. Their shot charts are very versatile.

We absolutely were trying to run Maddy off -- treat her like a pinball. Make her chase you, screen her. Because I have so much respect for her, but we absolutely were trying to exhaust her on the defensive end with some of those play calls. And they were working out for us, and we were on the balls of our feet. They started switching, and we still had two of them out there.

I think that helped a lot, but like I said, defensively when we need a stop, Lola Pendande, her fourth quarter defense is as good as you've seen, and she did it again for us, too.

Q. The two weeks basically between the end of the ACC Tournament and the start of the NCAA Tournament, what happened within those two weeks to sort of flush that and create this momentum?

KATIE MEIER: That's such a great question. It's a total credit to our league that we got so sloppy. We lost our identity.

When you are just grinding possession by possession by possession for two months, these close games -- we've been in them for two months, against great teams with big-time basketball players that can score a bucket without -- even if you don't make a mistake.

We lost our identity a little bit. I usually don't like that there's that much time. But this particular team, they're eager. They want to learn. When they're wrong, they don't get embarrassed. We just say what did I do wrong and help me make sure that doesn't happen to me again.

And we had a lot of time to show that we had been doing wrong, not in an attacking way. But the smartest person in the room isn't the person that knows everything, it's the person that's learning. And as long as they've got open hearts and open minds and they're trying to learn and we're trying to teach, that's where their strength comes from, and they were great during those two weeks.

Q. You talked a little bit about Villanova's press kind of caught you by surprise. I'm wondering if there's other things that went on during that run that contributed to it and if you as a staff could go back and redo that stretch?

KATIE MEIER: You know what happened? We were shy and we were drifting down the court instead of cutting down the court. So we won, so apparently the decisions were okay, but that was tough.

The three fouls early in the third with your players that really mean a lot to your program, that calm you down, that are your captains, that are your veterans, that was really difficult. And they had a lot of size so they sort of blocked us a little bit, and there was opportunity there, but it's very hard to say, hey, you're up 20, go.

We hesitated, and that's what happens. Leads are hard to protect against great teams, and they're hard to protect against not-great teams. They're hard. We were protecting instead of staying forward, and that's a credit to them. That was good coaching.

Like I said, there's going to be great players and great coaching in the tournament. I'm not going to apologize for it. Villanova is great, and we were just like, whatever, one or two points better today.

Q. When you're in the middle of that slog where it's like possession by possession, you're grinding it out in the ACC, did you have moments or how often did you look at this team and say, if everything clicks, we could be pretty special?

KATIE MEIER: Well, yeah, I did, but it wasn't really happening like night after night. We weren't consistent.

But there was that pop-up surprise player which gave you so much faith. Like Jas did this to Virginia Tech. She did it to North Carolina when Des was out, too. But the pop-up surprise player, like Kyla Oldacre is going to be a star, Lazaria Spearman is going to be a star. Today they were a little bit like freshmen, but they were in a tough spot. The pop-up players. Shae Dwyer scoring 17 in the ACC Tournament.

So we had those moments, but it didn't all come and okay -- the who, the what, the where, the why and the when wasn't all there. Today it was there -- for 25 minutes, we were pretty dialed in.

Q. One part of your celebration, you came over to the crowd and gave two thumbs up and it looked like you were playing a guitar, an air guitar or --

KATIE MEIER: That is not me.

Q. I was wondering if there was a significance to the gesture.

KATIE MEIER: Oh, gosh, no. I think I was just pumped up. I don't know. I wasn't just emotional today. Like that's who I am. One of the greatest things in moments like this is if your colleagues are happy for you. Of course your family is happy for you. My mom is here. My wife is here.

But when your colleagues are like, you know, tweeting and texting you things you can't even repeat in a press conference because they're so darned happy for you, that's where you feel like, okay.

We had a bunch of ex-players in the stands. They did a whole video today, about eight minutes in our pregame meal, of alumni that have just reminded this team -- people that -- kids are like, who's that? I'm like, okay, that's so-and-so, she played in 19 -- but it caught me by surprise, but it was very emotional.

But it was like pouring in. And being proud of you, but like happy for your success is the highest compliment you can get, and I feel like this team has got a lot of people happy for us.