NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL 1 FINAL - MARYLAND VS SOUTH CAROLINA

March 26, 2023

Dawn Staley

Aliyah Boston

Kierra Fletcher

Brea Beal

Bon Secours Wellness Arena

South Carolina Gamecocks

Elite 8 Pregame Media Conference

DAWN STALEY: Excited to be a part of another Elite 8. It's always the hardest game to play because it's the next -- it's the step prior to going to the Final Four, and we get a familiar opponent in Maryland, who's playing extremely well. But also excited just to continue to be here in Greenville where all the accommodations are great.

Q. Maryland is obviously a repeat opponent, but you played them so long ago. Is there anything really accurate that you can take from that game considering that Diamond didn't play and that's changed so much since you first played them?

DAWN STALEY: I do think they're playing the same way. They're just more efficient. They're playing with certainty now. I think we played them the second game of the season, and there was a lot of uncertainty because they had a lot of new players, new faces, and they hadn't quite figured it out. We really hadn't quite figured ourselves out, either.

It's just a more lean team on both sides of the basketball.

Q. Going off of his question, what does Diamond bring to Maryland? What kind of elevates them when they have her on the court?

DAWN STALEY: I mean, she can score it at any time. She's a willing passer. She's a leader. Like she's a player that can score in bunches and impact the game on both sides of the basketball. So they have someone that can impact it.

I know they missed her the last time that we played, so they'll get a boost because for someone that can score as much as she scores and defend as well as she defends, I wouldn't want to be without that type of player at that juncture of the season where you're trying to figure out who you are and what your identity is.

Q. I was hoping you could speak a little bit about Kamilla and the ceiling for her. What do you want for her career? What do you feel like she's capable of?

DAWN STALEY: I want Kamilla to be dominant. She can be just that. Not just an in the paint scorer, I want her to be able to shoot 15-footers. I want her to be able to shoot some threes. Not become Jump Shot Judy, but to protect what she does best. What she does best is in the paint. She can make lay-ups. You have to balance that.

And then in order for her to have what I think is a great WNBA career, she's going to have to be able to stretch the floor a little bit. She's going to get pushed out there. I just want her to be comfortable. I just want her to shoot them. If you can shoot them in games and shoot them in practice, it becomes a little bit easier to her. But she's hesitant to shoot the basketball.

We're just getting her to get used to doing that because she's pretty good when she does it. Like when we're shooting, having some shooting drills, she's pretty accurate. It's just in a game she's gets a little frightened shooting it.

I think once that happens, we'll see a more dominant Kamilla.

Q. I was hoping to ask you a big picture question with UConn losing last night, hoping for your perspective on a streak like that coming to an end, and what this could potentially mean for women's basketball moving forward.

DAWN STALEY: I mean, it just means the streak is over. UConn is going to continue to be UConn. They're going to reload. If you see their roster that's coming in and who they're bringing back next year, they'll reload. They'll start a new streak.

I don't think any of us that's outside of UConn, we're not panicking. They're going to be who they are. They're going to always -- you get a chance to beat UConn, it's always going to be a big win for you and your program.

It's not over. I think it's probably -- it's a scary thing because you think because they lost a lot more games than they normally lose. But they were hampered by injuries, and once they get healthy, once they get Paige back, once this year's recruiting class is able to play and who they'll bring in, it's back to the drawing board.

Q. With Kierra and Raven, that feels like it could have been a contentious relationship at any point in the season and it's not; they truly support one another and there's a mentorship and friendship there. For you as a competitive point guard yourself, how have you seen that relationship grow, and how have they pushed one another to make this team even better?

DAWN STALEY: Yeah, I think it happens very early in the process of recruiting Kierra. Like I was very honest with her, like we need somebody that's going to help Raven. We need an experienced point guard that's going to help Raven grow and become a seasoned point guard. That was part of it.

I didn't tell Kierra she was going to start, I didn't say Raven was going to start. I said they were going to have a healthy competition.

Then from there, you can just see -- they both were injured, coming back from injuries in the very beginning of the season and the summer. Like Kierra really never practiced this summer. She was hampered with a lot of injuries leading up to the season, and she never really got completely healthy until probably a quarter way through the season.

Then they would just lean on each other. I do believe the last time we played Maryland, Raven was the starter. Raven started the first two games of the season, and then Kierra just started getting more comfortable.

But through what they were going through and getting limited minutes, they just forged a bond. And it helped us, it helped our team grow quicker than normal. I kind of equate it to I was the backup point guard in 1996. I got hurt early. I was probably going to be the starter from how I came into camp, and I was at the top of my career. I was in shape, I was healthy, and I was head and shoulders above. That's hard to say, but then I got hurt, and then Teresa Edwards came in, and like she never gave it up. I couldn't get it back. I mean, I was competitive, but I was still looking like damn, can't get it back.

Then you just help each other. You just find a way to have healthy competition and communication and then you just -- we had knock-out drag-outs, though. She had the first team, I had the second team. And we made our team better because of what we were bringing to the table. And that's what Raven and Kierra are doing for our team.

Q. Talk about Brenda Frese. Are you guys good friends off the court, or is there a good -- a mutual respect?

DAWN STALEY: Yeah, we have a mutual respect for each. We've seen each other on Under Armour trips and we've had really good conversations then. Brenda knows what she's doing. Brenda has been doing this for a very long time, taking teams to Final Fours, winning National Championships.

But I thought she did probably some of her best work this year in the type of team -- who she lost to the transfer portal, and then transforming this team into an Elite 8 team, one step from going to the Final Four. You definitely have to take your hat off to someone that -- she only saw -- I would imagine she would be thinking, you gain by losing. You have to take an attitude like that when you've lost what you've lost in the portal.

And she got her team to buy in. The quicker they buy in, the more happy days you'll have. And as you can see, the last probably -- probably the last 25 games, they just were playing some of the best basketball in the country.

Q. At full strength you've now been scouting Maryland for this game; do they compare to some of the SEC teams in terms of style, and in general, Big Ten compared to SEC in terms of style, how similar or how different?

DAWN STALEY: I would say they're more like SEC than Big Ten because they spread you out. They don't have a back-to-the-basket post player. They take advantage of who they are and what their strengths are. They can flat out shoot the ball. They've got some athletes in different spaces on the floor. They drive it. They make you pay. They make the extra pass. They're just well connected.

So I think they look more like an SEC team.

Q. You're on the road for a long stretch here in tournament time. What is your travel essential? How do you -- I'm like a face mask girl. What's your travel essential to stay comfortable in these stretches during the tournament?

DAWN STALEY: Probably shouldn't say this because you probably shouldn't have them in the hotel. Candles. Candles.

Q. (No microphone).

DAWN STALEY: No, they're like trophies so I don't even use them.

Q. Following up on that question about UConn, this year we've seen No. 1 seeds go down. In your opinion, does this help bring more excitement to the tournament? Because especially now some people maybe didn't tune in to the women's tournament before, they can say, well, the No. 1 seeds, they're not guaranteed to make it to the Final Four?

DAWN STALEY: I mean, when you lose UConn, you lose part of a section of the country that enjoys watching UConn, their dominance. But I think the game has grown. Like it's grown. Not just this year and not just because UConn is no longer in the tournament. It's just we are in demand.

Like there are so many great narratives, so many great players, so many great coaches, so many great storylines that we're able to hold our own even if UConn is not a part of -- they'll still be a part of it. They'll still be a part of -- like once this advances, we're going to have a UConn story. They're not here; where are they? It's just going to be a part of the storyline of our game.

Rightfully so, because they've been dominant for decades. And we need to do a better job not with just UConn. Like all the teams that have been dominant, we need to talk about them as part of our women's basketball history. I think that's part of it. Like this is a new history that we're venturing into because there are so many great players and parity in our league that we need to start documenting.

Because we probably lost a lot of our history because we chose not to -- we probably got it documented, but we chose not to share it.

Q. A big picture question. I've been talking to a lot of men's and women's coaches this year about how their athletes cope with social media, both the positive side of it and the negative side of it. For you, how have you approached that with your players, especially with the level of success that South Carolina has had, and how much has it become a part of your job description to deal with that aspect of coaching?

DAWN STALEY: I mean, probably a few years ago I was more like, hey, let's sacrifice social media for the season. Then as you continue on this space, I do think it has a psychological disadvantage, to ask the players to sacrifice that. It's a part of who they are.

I've got to meet them where they are. Social media is a part of it. I think now we just have to educate what should be posted and let them know that they have to be super responsible for what they post. And quite honestly, when NIL comes around, that polices it because they have a brand, they have a name, image, and likeness that they're trying to uphold because they are the faces of some corporations.

Losing money because of what they post is not something I think they want to be party to.

Q. I was just wondering, does Aliyah ever act like she gets any extra juice from going up against a Diamond Miller, an Angel Reese, a Cameron Brink? Does she get herself even a little more pumped up for those kind of matches, or is she just steady, steady, steady Aliyah?

DAWN STALEY: I mean, Aliyah doesn't let me into that part of it, if she does. I do think at this point in Aliyah's career, she doesn't care about anything but winning. Seriously, it's all about winning. She doesn't care about stats. She doesn't care about double-doubles. She just wants to win. I think she wants to go out as winners with her team. Like that is it.

I think for someone that is our reigning national Player of the Year, you get to a place where you did that, now let's -- really, let's win this thing.

Q. Brea and Aliyah, Dawn was in here a second ago saying the Elite 8 is the hardest game of a tournament, the last step before a Final Four. Is that true? Is the Elite 8 the hardest game of a tournament run?

ALIYAH BOSTON: There's just a lot of intensity around it because you know that the next step is a Final Four. I guess I would agree, just off the hype that comes with it. But honestly we just look at it as another time to step on the floor and compete.

Q. Aliyah, how different is Maryland with Diamond in the lineup? You didn't see her the last couple of years when you played them. Do you get any extra buzz from a game like this where you're going up against another All-American like you did against Angel, like you may have done against Cameron Brink earlier in the season?

ALIYAH BOSTON: Yeah, Diamond helps them a lot. She likes to get out in transition. She's long and strong and can play a lot of different positions that they need her to. So she really just opens up the floor a lot more.

Not really I take it as another game, just opposing five players that we have to compete against.

Q. What do you bring on the road to make it more comfortable? You guys are on hopefully a strong stretch of a couple weeks in hotel rooms.

KIERRA FLETCHER: I bring books to read for fun. I have two right now that I'm reading. That's about it. And a blanket if we're flying or driving.

Fiction, true crime, mysteries, crime, murder, stuff like that.

BREA BEAL: Me, I have a book, thanks to her that I read. But other than that I just have probably some shows downloaded. But I'm big on YouTube, just learning some new things off YouTube. That's about it.

ALIYAH BOSTON: I bring my iPad and everything is just on there. I'm a Netflix girl, or FaceTime.

Q. I'm curious, we talk a lot about match-ups at this time of the year. What's the challenge in playing a team that basically runs five perimeter players as opposed to having somebody in the post key?

BREA BEAL: Definitely good for us. We have the starting five and then we have bench players who can also get out and run, get out and defend, play perimeter defense. When we play those teams that play five out a lot of the time, it's definitely difficult, but we have the players that are able to do it.

Q. Is there any team in the SEC that reminds of you Maryland's style, kind of that five out that likes to get up-and-down?

BREA BEAL: I feel like playing in the SEC, you kind of get that -- points of every aspect throughout different teams. There's really no one team, but I think the SEC is so athletic and talented you kind of get a piece of that no matter what game you play.

ALIYAH BOSTON: That's a great answer. That's a great answer.

Q. When you have a schedule like this where you face Maryland early in the season, Stanford, a lot of big teams, how does that prepare you for this moment right here?

KIERRA FLETCHER: I think it prepares us a lot. We had a pretty tough non-conference schedule and our SEC conference schedule was tough, as well. Just being in the tournament now, I think it's definitely prepared us, and we're prepared for any team that we have to face moving forward.

Q. Kierra, that Maryland game, other than the injury, was the last time you didn't start. You've come a long way since then. What's the biggest thing you've seen in yourself from then until now?

KIERRA FLETCHER: I think I've come definitely a long way just being more comfortable in the role that I'm in. The team kind of joked around I looked totally different from that game to what I do now, and I feel like I've jelled with this team very well at this point. Super excited.

Q. You both laughed when she said that. What is it about that?

BREA BEAL: Well, in the beginning, I just feel like her hair grew a lot, so I just said she looked kind of like a little freshman when we were watching film on Maryland. That's why I laughed.

ALIYAH BOSTON: I agree.

Q. (No microphone).

BREA BEAL: Oh, definitely. Especially like her confidence and stuff, too. We got to her learn her just like she got to learn us. She definitely came a long way and we came a long way with that.

ALIYAH BOSTON: And I think she does a great job of running our team. Since the beginning of the season until now, I think her growth reset the confidence and just her ability to run our team has just been spectacular.