PAC-12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 10, 2024

Lindsay Gottlieb

McKenzie Forbes

Rayah Marshall

Kayla Padilla

Stanford Cardinal

Postgame Press Conference

USC - 74, Stanford - 61

LINDSAY GOTTLIEB: Best day ever. I just first want to say how much gratitude I have for the Pac-12 Conference. I mean, it has meant everything to my professional career. Quite honestly, it's meant almost everything in my personal life. I met my husband while coaching at Cal. It's all I've known professionally for a New York kid.

It is meaningful to me to get the championship in the last one, in this iteration of what it looks like. It's also meaningful to me, I don't know that I'd be in coaching if it wasn't for Tara and people like her who did it when there was no money and none of this. They paved the way for us.

So those things are significant to me and I feel like I need to say that. But most importantly this is the best day ever because this group that I really love and admire so much got to celebrate. You don't always get that.

Everyone puts the work in and everyone tries to do their best job. But to see the confetti falling and see them have success at this level, it is beyond words. It is beyond belief. That's the emotion of it.

From a game-plan standpoint, Tara Tara'ed and came out with a defense that I've never seen. Again, you have to credit JuJu that there was not one, not two, not three -- five people around her because of the respect they have for. And we found a way because we know that we're a true team.

And I think you can't account for the type of winner that she is, and she's going to figure out the best way to win. And these people up here stepped up as we know they would.

We outrebounded them by 20. Rayah, we gave up only six offensive rebounds to Stanford. That's wild. We weathered every storm. McKenzie made huge shots. Rayah has been a beast this entire tournament. K.P. took the task of locking up Jump, and also making big shots for us.

So it was a complete team win. And I'm really proud of and I'm really happy for this group right here.

Q. McKenzie, it seemed like, from Jump maybe feeding off Lindsay's comment about the defense they threw, it seemed like you were bringing the ball up court. When you were in control of the offense, you were putting people in their place and it seemed like you read into that the ball needed to stay away from JuJu immediately because of what they were doing. Did you see something right from the jump? Because it seemed like you took control from jump?

MCKENZIE FORBES: I wouldn't see that I saw the ball needed to be away from JuJu. But like Coach G said, Tara was going to Tara. I knew they were going to come with something considering the last game. I tried to be advantageous where I could and be aggressive.

I tell K.P. every game, we have to be aggressive as the two lead guards because we never really know what they're going to throw at Ju.

I knew I had to be aggressive from the start if we were going to have a chance to win the game. Just try to get people where they need to be.

JuJu, when she doesn't have the ball she's a great floor spacer because they have to be attached to her body. That opened up a lot of things for me as well.

Q. You got emotional talking to Holly on stage. I know you started your career with Lindsay, go to Harvard and come back. Overall emotion and sort of full circle what today means?

MCKENZIE FORBES: It's truly unbelievable. I literally -- when the confetti was falling, I said to G, am I dreaming, bro? It's just unreal. I've been through a lot in my career, but I've never wavered and never stopped believing in myself and my capabilities.

It just feels really good to get this win and to play well. And to do it under Coach G is such a full circle moment. She always believed in me since I was 15 years old. To be able to win this championship with her is the greatest feeling in the world.

I'm so appreciative of her. She's more than a basketball coach to me. She's a mentor. She's someone that I look up to. She inspires me. And it's just been incredible to be on this journey with her.

Q. Lindsay, you've spoken all year about how this team is so much more than just JuJu. Did that make the game like today even more gratifying that you were able to do it, everyone stepping up in different ways, when she's not having her best night?

LINDSAY GOTTLIEB: I said to them at one point, I'm not sure we win this game two months ago, if this is how it happens, or six weeks or eight weeks ago because we've had to grow and learn.

This entire team's been sort of -- has embraced her so much and the way we kind of play. And my vision, the dream, is that you gotta figure it out, you have to pick your poison. What are you going to take away?

I felt like we wouldn't have won that game at Stanford even with her 51 if we didn't have the bigs to battle and other people to hit open shots.

And now when they tried to completely take her away, you know, Rayah's making plays one-on-one and Kenzie and Padilla are hitting shots. And how about Kayla Williams coming in and making two gigantic 3s?

And we can go to K.D. in the post. That's what we are at our best. We certainly have not been at our best every single game all year; nobody is. But the growth towards that and the messaging of, hey, if they do this, we have this. If they crowd the floor here, we've got shooters. Or let the posts eat when it's time.

I just think I credit all of them for really believing in that from the beginning. And we needed it today. Don't win a championship today without being able to rely on everything that is truly our team.

Q. Rayah, you guys didn't really let them back in this game. They did not get closer than eight points in the second half. And there was probably an expectation from everybody in the gym that Stanford was going to make a run at you and tighten up this game. How did you hold them off the way you did?

RAYAH MARSHALL: When we woke up this morning, we were excited. We were all screaming it's championship game day. So for us, we came in. We had the momentum and honestly we didn't fall down.

I'm looking at the rebound count, and we just did what the game plan was. We outrebounded them. We outran them. Honestly, it's like a feeling when you want to win. We just have our adrenaline rolling. We were super excited to be out there playing. We were grateful. We were picked sixth in the conference, so to come out and beat a top seed by 13, it's fight on.

Q. Lindsay, did you prep JuJu for what you thought that Tara might "Tara" in this case?

LINDSAY GOTTLIEB: I've long learned I shouldn't try to outsmart Tara or outthink her. She's going to do something. I thought there could be a number of things, right? I thought we might have seen almost exactly the same as what we saw at Stanford, because they might have rolled the dice and she's not going to do that again. And maybe if they score more -- I thought that.

Then there was a clip, where on College Gameday today Cam says we're going to trap or double more. Actually it turned into -- it wasn't a hard traps. It wasn't Arizona traps where we're blitzing. It was two or three kind of shadowing her all the time. I thought they might play some zone.

So we tried to prepare the entire team for it -- it might be this or this. This was a little different than I even saw.

I think the closest thing we saw to it earlier in the year was UW, but these guys are so much longer and more athletic. So it took us a while to figure out on the fly. But while we as coaches were trying to figure it out, I do think the players just made plays.

At one point K.P. seemed really opened and we're like shoot it. We tried to get -- because they pulled their bigs away from the basket in this tandem zone, Rayah and K.D. were eating on the boards a little bit.

And I thought when, given the opportunity, Rayah goes 5-for-10. She made shots in the paint and finished. So we were trying to navigate it on the fly.

And I thought, again, what you can't account with Ju, no water you take away from her, is she's a winner. She's going to figure out what needs to be done to win. And the rest of the players also, I think, just were confident enough. No one looked rattled.

I felt slightly rattled in terms of how can I help them because it looked so different. But the players were all confident.

I think Rayah makes a good point -- I hope we stay this way -- I think we had no pressure on us. I think we played with all the joy in the world, but the urgency of what a championship game feels like. I think that was to our advantage.

Q. McKenzie, you've seen a lot of things in this game. Had some tough shooting nights over the past month or so, but you came out, clearly the confidence was from the time you hit the two small, can't guard me variety of things. For you, where does that confidence come from? What was your mentality just going into this? You talked about the aggression, but just the sheer kind of confidence you play with?

MCKENZIE FORBES: I think I've always been that way, just growing up. I have three older brothers. So I've just, my whole life I've been punching up. Nothing really scares me.

And I think as far as the shooting, like, yeah, I had a couple of rough shooting nights. Like the last weekend of Pac-12 play and even the start of this tournament. But I never lose confidence because I know my work is what it is. Whether I shoot well or I don't, my workouts are the same the following week.

I just try to tell myself, keep shooting. If it goes it goes, if it doesn't it doesn't. It doesn't really change my mindset.

I knew I had to be aggressive tonight obviously considering the game plan that Tara laid out if we were going to have a chance. So I just tried to be aggressive, and I think the work always shows.

Q. Lindsay, to go through the gauntlet of bigs that you have in the Pac-12, two nights after a double-overtime win, what Rayah did, what Clarice did, what K.D. did, what does it say about the heart that this kind of front court plays with?

LINDSAY GOTTLIEB: I wouldn't trade our trio for anyone. They are warriors. I think we saw it the last weekend of Pac-12 where Rayah played, like, 45 minutes in a double-overtime game and wanted to press at the end. She was juicy, really impressive.

I think they buy into themselves as a group, right? And we needed that. We needed that to win the championship because of how good Stanford's front court is as well. They give us a dimension and a weapon that people probably don't talk about enough.

And, yeah, they play the way we need them to play. Like, they're so athletic and buy into game plans and hard to score on. We're also outrebounding people. I don't know that -- that's the level that we need to be at to be as good as we can be.

Q. K.P., Lindsay talked about playing with no pressure. I tend to think, just listening to the broadcast throughout the tournament, paying attention to what they're saying, they talk about the front court. They're talking about JuJu. It's almost like you're the forgotten starter. And you don't -- to you there's no pressure. You just come out there and do your job, and whether it's defense, whether it's a timely shot. Two-part question: For you, do you kind of just feel like that, like they have the spotlight on them, and I'm cool with that; and, Lindsay, how critical is her play which people don't actually, maybe give her the respect for?

KAYLA PADILLA: I'm just here to win. If I play zero minutes or 40 minutes, I don't care if I'm the star of the broadcast or if no one mentions my name. This is what it's all about. This is what it's all about. I don't care if I'm the forgotten star or whatever.

LINDSAY GOTTLIEB: A lot of people can say they live it. They really live it. We just have a group that has I think embraced what this year's been about and to do something special as a group.

But make no mistake, Kayla Padilla is not forgotten in our locker room, in our game plans, in our huddles. I mean, she's coming from a place where she was leading scorer for four years.

While we have selfless people who play roles, they're hoopers. When it's their turn to step up they step up like an All-American because that's what it is. And now the attention is on everyone because we're winners, and we're champions.

We sometimes want her to be more aggressive in terms of hunting her own thing. But I think the steadiness and the ability to say, okay, you're not going to guard me I'm going to go 3-for-6 from 3; or, OK, I'm going to get to the free-throw line. It's unbelievable.

I thought today the number one thing besides hitting shots was the job she did on Hannah Jump. We knew that Kiki and Cam alone, with our bigs, weren't going to be able to do it. They had to get a third scorer and it probably had to come from the 3-point-line. And she just did a tremendous job on Hannah Jump.

MCKENZIE FORBES: It's not easy to get only six shots in the game and be expected to go 50 percent from 3. When you're only getting four or five shots, you go 1-for-5, everyone's going, oh, my God.

To me, that's an extremely hard role that we don't overlook. And for someone who came from the Ivy League, torching me in the Ivy League last year, averaging 18 a game, the selflessness that she is, I've never had such a selfless teammate in my life.

To come here and frickin' chase Hannah Jump around for 40-minute, chase Londynn Jones around for 40 minutes, and she might not, after 15 minutes of that, maybe get one shot in the corner. And she's going to sink it every time, and I have the faith in her, I think it's incredible. I don't think that's an easy job at all.

Q. Coach, just talking about how everyone stepped up in the room, how much do you think this has prepared you guys for going into the tournament?

LINDSAY GOTTLIEB: I think we're playing our best basketball now because of that, because we've seen every game possible in the Pac-12. We've seen gigantic teams. We've seen teams that play a more guard-like 4 player. We've seen everything.

I said from the beginning, we were a new team together. Rayah really and Kay Will, the returning player who played a ton last year, but all kinds of new pieces -- I said the whole year if our growth trajectory could be steeper than everybody else's, we'll end up where we want to be.

I think we should go in with a lot of confidence to the NCAA Tournament that whatever they throw at us we have something to counter that without losing our humility and our sense of urgency, that it's another one-and-done tournament.

And there's things we want to accomplish in front of us, so we can't lose the mentality of being the hungriest team, the team playing with a chip on our shoulder, no matter where they seed us. But I do think confidence will be at an all-time high.

Q. Kayla, Lindsay was saying maybe few weeks ago you don't win this game because the focus was plan was on stopping JuJu. What's been the biggest growth in terms of what you guys needed to do to learn how to gel together and step up in those types of moments?

KAYLA PADILLA: I think we've been battle tested. You look at our schedule; we're playing the toughest teams in our conference almost twice, and not a lot of other teams can say that.

So, having gone through the double-overtime games, learning how to overcome adversity together and being in these tough situations, you kind of learn as you go through it. And not a lot of teams get that.

So I think we just credit sort of our togetherness from the beginning, our belief in what we can do, I think that just shows through and we'll continue to do that the rest of the season.

Q. Rayah, Lindsay sat up here a few days ago and said you're the starting piece of this team. What did you see then that led you to believe that this was possible?

RAYAH MARSHALL: Coach G, just look at her. I remember my freshman year we were pissed leaving home the first round. Last year, same thing first round. So, this year now having a bye, just the growth in the program.

Like a lot of people don't see behind closed doors what Coach G does, but from our strength coach to making sure she's keeping our locker room beautiful to making sure we have security around Galen, it's just a culture shift that she brought to SC.

I feel little things like that it's a reflection of our success on the floor to now literally we just won a -- she just won the last Pac-12 championship. It's major. It's everything. So shout-out, Coach G.

Q. Stanford was down by eight in both of their previous games, down eight to Cal and Oregon State and then outscored both of those team's 43-18 in the in the third quarter. What was the halftime message knowing Stanford has been there before this tournament and they were going to assuredly have something in them?

LINDSAY GOTTLIEB: The pregame message was never get off the treadmill. We've got to keep going, keep pushing. We had the last two games we started out really hot and then kind of got pushed back a little bit. So we wanted to just keep going and going.

But it was really the continue to lock in on defense and try to figure out the offense a little bit and help them be as comfortable as possible. But it was really just we're playing for a championship. We can't take the foot off the gas. Continue to be aggressive. Continue to win in the trenches and battle.

We knew they would make a run. Like Kenzie said, I was going to looking it up, like, oh, my gosh, there's only five minutes left, four minutes left.

MCKENZIE FORBES: Four minutes to one minute was crazy.

LINDSAY GOTTLIEB: Exactly. We obviously have a ton of respect for what they're capable of. But we also knew we have the pieces to be able to continue to battle. I thought we did a good job of still being aggressive and scoring on offense when we needed to get stops as well.

Q. Rayah, you already mentioned it, picked sixth to finish in the conference, betting underdog against UCLA. Betting underdog against Stanford. How does it feel not only win but to prove a lot of people wrong while doing it?

RAYAH MARSHALL: Where do I start? I feel like starting with ourselves, I feel like we owed it to ourselves every day, day in and day out. Just grinding. We're locked in on scout. We're having scout. Watching film twice a day.

And then I told our (indiscernible), I told him, we're in Vegas. Anything is possible. Literally a guy said you just won me $10,000. I said fight on.

Just really anything. Just the magic of being competitive and wanting to win. And we did just that.

Q. Lindsay, was there a moment throughout the season or even recently where it really kind of dawned on you that this team could be capable of winning a championship? And for Aaliyah Gayles to bring home a championship. I saw her waving the USC flag back home in Vegas, how does it mean for you to see her celebrate and what does she mean to the team too?

LINDSAY GOTTLIEB: Aaliyah means everything to us. Championship or no championship. I mean, her life is just a gift to me. It's hard not to be inspired every day that I see her. She's just giving and energetic. She's hugging me saying thank you so much. Thank me? You're such a huge part of this.

That's obviously hugely gratifying, just to see the joy of everyone but knowing what she's been through for her to be home in Vegas and be part of a championship team. That's what it's about.

I know we look at the stats and who is doing this, but we're a team all the way through. Otto doesn't get on the court much, but she's just as part of this as much, if not more, in terms of changing culture, and Aaliyah all the way down the way. And in terms of moment, because we won a championship, definitely early on I was like, oh, we've got some pieces.

I think JuJu stepped into workouts. She stepped into workouts, she was better than any of us expected. I think the way they bought into Coach Kelly Dormandy. I don't know if you can see it: Rayah is in way better shape than even last year, which makes her better at everything.

And what we saw with our grad transfers and the chemistry has always been there. I think we started thinking we're capable of things. Then I would say in terms of moments, it is the way that we've responded to adversity. We're not undefeated.

Shoot. Not like we have a ton of losses. But every time we've hit something, we've tried to figure it out together. I think those are the moments, I'm like, okay, maybe we're special as a group. And then we've been -- I never watched film on teams in this league, going they're not as good as people think. I'm watching film on UCLA thinking they're really good, we've got to find a way to win. Watching film on Stanford, they're really good, we have to figure out a way to win. Oregon State.

And each time we put in a game plan, here's what it is going to take, and they've done it. If we haven't done it, look, oh, okay, we got that the next time, that, I think, is what has allowed us to believe that we could be really good.

Outside validation of these other people saying you look like the toughest team in the league, now you look like you have multiple pieces.

Rayah has had four double-doubles in the last five games. Obviously we know what the rest of our guards bring along with how spectacular JuJu has been, that's built up for us this belief of what we're capable of. Nothing is guaranteed.

The way we come out here and fight, again it's the joy and urgency together that I said we really want to go into postseason, and they've manifested that and lived it out, and that's just really cool for me to see.

Q. The rebounding was a big differential. Also I wanted to ask you about the 21 points off turnovers because that was a big part of this, too. And then for the Ivy League transfers, could you just reflect a little more on the decision you made to make to transfer and just sort of the validation and kind of the emotions that you're feeling right now to possibly be looking at a No. 1 seed.

LINDSAY GOTTLIEB: I would say the points off turnovers, they didn't turn it over a lot. We only turned them over 11 times. But the 21 points, I can't maybe speak for them, but our team must have been so happy that we're playing in transition on turnover and not seeing that kind of wild defense, let's be aggressive, and score out of it. But we did a really good job of turning their limited turnovers into points. I think that was really important.

MCKENZIE FORBES: I think, like, we took our official visit together, and like I said, I always had a lot of respect for her game and was super excited about the prospect of playing with her. I knew going into it that I was going to commit. So I was kind of trying to rile her up.

But it's just crazy. We were just talking with K.D. the other day. None of us have won an Ivy League tournament championship. And to be able to do it here, all three of us together, I mean, you couldn't have written this better.

I think it's just the greatest feeling in the world and to do it with them, too, they're such great teammates. I love playing with them. I never would have thought I would be hugging Kaitlyn Davis, holding the trophy with her last year at this time. And just super grateful that we had this experience together and they made the transition a lot easier for me.

KAYLA PADILLA: I'll just echo. I turned to K.D. after we won. She said, "Who would have thought?" And that's sort of the narrative of the season.

This time last year, we were at the tournament and I was wondering if I was ever going to go dancing in my life. I'm now going dancing and winning a Pac-12 Championship and doing it with competitors/turned friends, and it's been like a full-circle moment for everything being back home for me, playing with Kayla Williams. I played with her in high school. Played with Rayah in high school. It's been an awesome moment. But not done yet. We've got to finish the job.

Q. The game against UCLA was so physical, the game against Arizona was so physical. I'm wondering how you guys were able to get into such a good flow in this one. And just after that, I would say you're one of the chattier people on the court most of the time. You kind of just felt like all business today. I'm not reading into that too much. But what went into that mindset?

MCKENZIE FORBES: Like you said, Arizona and UCLA are a load, defensively. I don't want to say arrogant when I say this, but to go from UCLA and Arizona and to be guarded by Stanford -- it's a lot different. Like Coach G said, it's a little bit more saggy. They're not going to come, like, take the ball out of your hands and trap you.

So I felt like, for me, personally, that helped me get in my flow because it was kind of like, oh, I have a little bit of space and a breath of fresh air when I catch the ball and I can get open on the wing by just asking for it.

Helped me get into my flow, and I'm always chatty. I don't know. When I'm making shots it gets worse. But just trying to lead today, I think, was my number one goal and making sure that we don't lose our focus for not one single possession.

I yelled at Rayah with 24 seconds, "It's not over!"

LINDSAY GOTTLIEB: I thought it was interesting, your question about getting into the flow in the legs, obviously we're playing three games in four days. And like you said, they were physical games, people playing a lot of minutes. I actually thought in warmups, we've had some trouble on the noon games on Sunday when we played on Friday.

I credit the mentality of our players. They just wouldn't be denied. I also credit the around-the-clock training stuff. After the UCLA game, Rayah got the ice bath and the leg thing, what do you call it, Normatec, at one in the morning. That's when it was. They were committed to the mission, which I've got to get ourselves ready to go because there's no excuses on a championship Sunday. You've just got to go.

I looked at us, I'm like we're really bouncy. I think our players -- coaches are always going to give messages. They're always going to give game plans, but it's up to them to bring it to life. And the way they brought this thing to life, I can't credit them enough for being in the right mind space and doing it together.

Q. Kenzie, you said last week just how kind of excited you were for this team to be on a national stage and show what you can do in that respect. You guys might still feel like underdogs, but at this point you've won the Pac-12. You're probably going to earn a No. 1 seed, but so what are you excited to just kind of put your stamp on and prove to people on that national scale in March Madness?

MCKENZIE FORBES: Obviously we're going to enjoy this and celebrate this, but once March Madness starts, it's a whole nuther tournament. I still think we as a group have felt the entire year no one is going to give us any respect.

Even coming into this game, we're going to have to take it from them. And I think it's the same mentality for March. We didn't think anyone would hand us a No. 1 seed or even a 2 or 3 seed. We went and won the games we needed to win. I think it's the same mentality for March. We have (indiscernible) anyone in front of us and we're here to win. I don't think it changes it at all.

Q. In the start of the season, across the street at T-Mobile, and you guys up to Ohio State, and Lindsay, you said, I knew from my 30 practices that we have something special; we were able to work on what they really do in the press. And you guys established yourself. From that point to this point, what growth have you seen and how does it feel to be in this position winning the Pac-12 Tournament title?

LINDSAY GOTTLIEB: That game was unbelievable. I do think we had an advantage in the sense of they were returning an Elite Eight team and almost everybody and they added a really big piece in Celeste Taylor. I felt we had more of a scout because he didn't know who we had or what we were doing.

And so I thought that the number of times I said Ohio State in the first 30 practices was a lot and we were ready and they showed out.

We've grown a ton. JuJu picked up fouls and sat and they went on a 14-0 run. Now I think just everyone's kind of flown into our identity more so.

I just think we've grown in a lot of ways because we've gone through a Pac-12 schedule that challenges you. It challenges you emotionally. It challenges you physically. It challenges you game plan-wise, and that's where I think we've responded to every adversity.

We've challenged individuals to step up to get better, to own their stuff, to figure it out together, and I think we're a better team because of that, but it is full circle to come here. I can't put into words how gratifying this is.

The number one thing as a coach that is the most fun and the most joyous is to watch your players celebrate. It is. I just get a lot of joy from that.

Q. Rayah, taking it back further, when we were all at Park MGM, Media Day. You sat up on the stage talking about the transfers and the new look, and JuJu. You were so confident about how the team had come together during workouts and those practices, and you talked about they're going to see, they're going to see. You talk about being maybe it was McKenzie mentioned being picked sixth. I remember your demeanor going from interview to interview, sitting on that stage and talking to us and how confident you were in the bonds and relationships that had been built heading into this season. Have you reflected on that? What did you see?

RAYAH MARSHALL: Thinking about that, remembering that, I was excited. My teammates, from the moment I met them, I knew Coach G had went and recruited dogs. All these girls, we compete. That's what we came here to do.

So now it's like a full-circle moment being here, I seen it for ourselves. I knew we were capable of winning games. A Pac-12 Championship, geez, we were picked sixth. Who would ever thought that. Not even the guy who won $10,000. But we're here now. I'm grateful. I'm grateful for my teammates. I'm grateful for Coach G.

Q. About a month back I asked you about the prospect of hosting a NCAA Tournament game at Galen Center. It's now reality. How excited are you for that?

KAYLA PADILLA: So excited. We're excited to go back home. Galen Center has been such an electric place for this entire season to sort of amp up what it means to be a women's basketball player in the city of Los Angeles. I think we're taking it to a new level.

I'm excited for our fans to be able to -- we get to experience this, but it's sort of a collective experience. So really happy to bring it home and hopefully give them two more wins to celebrate at Galen.

Q. Coach, you've talked about the importance of the Pac-12 in your personal life and your career. Do you remember your first Pac-12 game, and what was going through your mind? And how do you want people to remember this conference?

LINDSAY GOTTLIEB: If you throw it way back when I was an assistant at Cal, I think it was our first year. So I was like 27. Joanne Boyle, my boss/mentor, father became ill and she had to go home for about a week. It was, of course, the Bay Area rivalry, Stanford/Cal.

So here I am, like, 27 years old. There's Tara on the other sideline. I'm like, oh, my goodness. We lost that game. It was close. Guard Alexis Gray-Lawson who went off for 30-something points. So it was crazy. That was my first time as a head coach, ever in my first time head coaching a game in the Pac-12.

The conference has just been an unbelievable platform for female athletes. Really special conference in terms of the values and what these schools represent, and there's obviously just some sadness in terms of this being the last one at the same time a lot of pride in us winning the last one as a group. Like I said, this group will be remembered forever for that.

And these guys will be off running the world or doing whatever they do next, but Ray and I will try and take the next thing to the Big Ten and say let's be the first one to win the new Big Ten, and we're excited for those challenges, too.

There's amazing people working at the Pac-12 that this is the first, I think, group of people who really put women's basketball as a priority, and you see the growth of what happened there with our league and so a lot of pride in terms of being the final champions of this league.