ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL TIPOFF MEDIA DAY

October 24, 2023

Nell Fortner

Kara Dunn

Kayla Blackshear

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Women's Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: I have Nell Fortner in her fifth season, Kara Dunn and Kayla Blackshear. Excited to see you in the building. Thank you for everything that you do. Excited to just talk about this season. I would be remiss if we didn't start and acknowledge one of your former associate head coaches Tasha Butts. I know you're wearing the pins right now, and Tash-Tough, and just how we saw how many people rallied together, being a standout at Tennessee, a coach now at Georgetown, and how she impacted the community, especially for other women and communities that didn't have healthcare. If you can just begin with that and what she meant to you as well as her legacy that she left.

NELL FORTNER: You know, Tasha was one of the first phone calls I made when I accepted the job at Georgia Tech because I've known Tasha for a long, long time. She wanted to come and work together. I'm so grateful that she did. She was a fantastic worker, recruiter, coach. She was tough. She was tough. I'm sure everybody here has stories about Tasha. Everybody has great memories of her. Just a fantastic human being, hard worker, and we're going to miss her. But we know she's going to be with us in spirit.

She fought the good fight, and she's resting now, and we're happy for her in that regard, that she's no longer hurting.

Q. If you guys would share one fun story of how she impacted your lives. How did she challenge players?

KAYLA BLACKSHEAR: It's one of my favorite stories about her, because I'm not a person who wanted to take a charge, and she was like, do you know how, and I was like no, and she goes, I'm going to teach you.

After practice one day she called me over with Tonie and she was like, we're going to take charges. I took 32 in a row, and she was like, okay, now I want to see one tomorrow. Then the very next game, I think it was Clemson, and I saw my moment, I barely got outside the circle, and then I got the charge and then I got up and I had the biggest smile on my face. I didn't feel it. I had fell the wrong way. She was on the bench, like yeah, yeah.

KARA DUNN: For me, Tasha definitely taught me to have a standard, and I didn't even realize she was doing it. On the defensive end -- like defense had never really been my thing. In high school it was mainly offense and I could get a few blocked shots or whatever, but I would say it was right before the Wake Forest game. The Pitt game I had had one of my better games offensively, but defensively it wasn't up to her standard, and she let me know that.

I told her that right after, I was like, I know everybody is telling me I had a good game, but I know that's not where I want to be. That's not the player I want to be.

Then the next game I had to guard a very well respected player, Jewel Spear, in the ACC, and the whole week she had been prepping me in practice. I was getting ready for it, and it turned out to be exactly how we wanted it to be.

I felt like I made her proud and I made myself proud. It was one of the best feelings seeing the biggest smile on her face after that game. She gives us nicknames. She called me Sissy. She was like, Sissy, I'm so proud of you. Honestly that's probably my favorite memory of her. I've never seen her more proud of me.

Q. Coach, returning three starters for this season, what does this look like having your freshmen that led you in scoring in last season with Tonie Morgan, but also building on that with the group and the core that you have?

NELL FORTNER: Yeah, it's definitely the place that we start. We are anchored by them, and they were able to get some really good experience last year throughout the season but really in the ACC. Tonie really finished strong being on that freshman all-ACC team.

Kara I think would have been on that team. She suffered the injury at the end of the season, but she really was coming on, playing very, very well. Now heading into this season you have to use that experience to really -- and parlay that into something special this year.

I think Kayla Blackshear having just -- she's such a versatile player. You've got three players here that can do multitudes of things on the floor, and that's what we're trying to build around.

We're not there yet. We're still learning where we can really take advantage of our moments offensively. But we'll get there, and we'll get there behind these three showing up every day and practicing at a level that they have shown us they can do, and then everybody jumping on board.

I like the attitude and the effort of the team we have. We're still a little on the young side, but that will not be any excuse for us ever. We're hungry, and that's a really good thing when you're hungry and feisty.

Q. Tonie Morgan, two-time Player of the Year and Kayla Blackshear returning as your leading rebounder. Kayla, just as far as what have you prepared for this season, being dominant on the glass, something that I know Coach Nell Fortner has really emphasized and instilled in you guys, but how do take it to the next level and also lead by example in that department for your team?

KAYLA BLACKSHEAR: Well, I had the title last year and it's just motivation for me to keep it and every day in practice helping my teammates, telling them crash the boards, and I can't be the only one crashing the boards, so just having that motivation to lead by example but also bring them along, too, so that we're all crashing. It's hard to double box or anything like that with just one person.

Q. Going back to what Coach Fortner was just mentioning, being a young team and not having the season you wanted, how do you take moments that you saw a glimpse in your schedule, like we do have the potential to be great? What was that like for you guys last year and just taking that nugget and saying, we can build for next year?

KAYLA BLACKSHEAR: I think that was just, again, that motivation to want to do better because last year we had little small glimpses but we never could put two or three games together. Now taking that into this season just wanting to put games together and be consistent throughout the conference and throughout the season in general.

Q. Kara Dunn, what does the season look like for you as far as stepping in? You have one season under your belt. What are a couple things you've worked on in your game?

KARA DUNN: Yeah, definitely I would say the first thing that I was working on this summer was my mindset, making sure that I'm being assertive, making sure that I'm being aggressive, and I'm still working on that.

Also I want to be able to stretch out my game. I know that I can drive and I can score on a post-up or anything like that, but I want to make sure that I can shoot the three and I have that in my bag for my team so I can stretch the floor.

Q. Then we have the ACC-SEC challenge. You understand the level of talent that they have within this conference, but the ACC isn't shabby, sending eight teams to the NCAA Tournament. What are you excited about for what this does not just for the league but for women's basketball?

NELL FORTNER: I think it's phenomenal. I think it's two of the best conferences in the country. I think the ACC from top to bottom is the best conference in the country, but the SEC is incredibly athletic and fast and big and just really, really strong.

We play Florida this year, and looking forward to that challenge. I think anytime you can play teams at a high level early in the season, I think it's good for you. It might be a little daunting, like oh, are we ready for that. Yeah, we're ready. You have to get yourself ready. But it also lets you know where you are right now as a team, and we'll find that out pretty early on in our schedule.

Q. We've talked about what this season looks like. I know you have two transfers but also last season you were like we have a couple of freshmen that are on the way. What do you think they can provide for you out of the gate?

NELL FORTNER: We've got -- really our freshman class this year provides great size. We've got some players at 6'6", 6'3" that really give us a presence inside defensively right now more so than anything. We're excited about that. It adds that depth to us.

We also have a nice little shooter that comes from Lithuania, and I'm just going to say it, she's just a little baller. She loves life. She's got this energy about her and this light about her. She's happy when her shot goes in, but she's just as happy when her shot goes in, and she celebrates it. It's something that you don't tell a kid, you don't keep a kid from doing that, she just comes with it.

I think she's going to be a fun player to watch, but I think she's a great addition for this team, also.

Our freshman class is definitely going to be able to help us this year.

Q. You have a couple of players that are international on your roster. You were able to spend 10 days on your foreign tour in Croatian and Spain. Three players on your roster had the homecoming there as well. Describe what that does for a young group, a young team looking to still build chemistry with one another.

NELL FORTNER: You know, just being able to have those 10 extra team practices in the summer is really beneficial. It's kind of like football and spring break. You get those extra practices under your belt.

Then to go to a foreign country where none of them have been. To be around a different culture, eat different food, I don't know, I would like you to ask them how they benefitted from it. What did y'all think about it?

KAYLA BLACKSHEAR: I loved it. I loved being able to go to Barcelona and Spain, just seeing three of my teammates being able to go home, see their families, play in front of their families. That was really cool.

Then just the new foods from Croatia. It was amazing. It was fun.

Q. Kara, we have to talk about the food because I know the potluck is going to be amazing within this group. What are some things that you tried that you liked and might have to bring back to the States?

KAYLA BLACKSHEAR: It was similar to a chicken Alfredo but it was so authentic, it was great. And then we had a risotto one time. It was amazing.

NELL FORTNER: It was just fresher. It seemed like everything was fresher.

KARA DUNN: I don't even know the foods I was trying most of the time. They just kept handing me stuff and I kept trying it.

But yeah, the foreign tour, it meant a lot to me because I had never been out of the country, so that was a really good experience in itself.

But then I wanted the full experience, so I was like to all the people that were from there, I was like, I want to stick with y'all. Show me where to go. We went swimming. We went on a boat. It was a really great experience.

I felt like I got closer to them, too, and I learned a little bit more about them.

Q. Kayla, as far as the team going into next year, you being one of the leaders for this team, what is the identity that you must have in order to continue to be better in this season?

KAYLA BLACKSHEAR: Well, like Coach Nell tells us all the time, she wants us to be disruptive, she wants us to be tough, and those are like two of the biggest things that we're trying to form as our identity as a team because we want to go far. We want to be ACC top 4. We want a championship. We want to go deep in the tournament.

Our toughness and like our disruptiveness offensively and defensively, that is something that's going to propel us far in the season.

Q. Kara, if you can explain what makes this team special.

KARA DUNN: I would say we're special. We're fast. If we learn how to use that in the right way on the defensive and the offensive side, it can really be to our benefit. Like KB said, being disruptive, we're long, we're fast. I feel like we can be intimidating. It's just if we all lock in together and decide that that's what we want to be, then that will be our name.

NELL FORTNER: That's exactly what I was thinking. I love hearing their answers. I really do.

Q. If you would build on just fast, long, if there's one thing that you were missing last season that you know that you can fulfill this year, what would it be?

NELL FORTNER: Well, I think we can push pace better. I think we have the ability to really get out and run. We just have to be able to understand what we're running into, like what are we doing when we get down here. Because we're getting down here pretty fast; now what are we running into. We're continuing to learn that.

A lot of that falls on Tonie's shoulders because she's the point guard. Look, keeping up with Tonie is not easy because that ball is going to be way out in front. Everybody has got to get out there pretty fast.

Then she's got to know what to do with it. Hey, nobody is down here yet. What do I do with the ball.

We're learning, we're getting better at that, and I'm excited to see where that can end up, where that can take us, because we've got a lot of versatility on this team, and that's something that we're continuing to work through and figure out.