NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - MARQUETTE VS OLE MISS

March 22, 2024

Jordan King

Liza Karlen

MacKenzie Hare

Purcell Pavilion

Marquette Golden Eagles

Media Conference

Q. The Ole Miss coach was talking about how physical, athletic they are. They defend 94 feet. How do you guys counter that so you can accomplish the goals you want on to Saturday?

MACKENZIE HARE: I think we talked about just being fundamental, doing what we do best. We can get out in transition. They like to run as well about you just controlling the pace and getting to what we do.

Q. Ole Miss is not the best team at defending threes. How will you get open looks?

MACKENZIE HARE: Same way we have all year. We have great players on our team that do a great job of moving the ball, get to the right spots, and we just find it that way, I guess.

Q. And Davis for you, good, slashing wing. What's it going to take to stop her offensively?

JORDAN KING: I think just making them uncomfortable. They are good getting downhill. Stopping drives early and playing team defense is going to be key. When we are matched up one-on-one, taking pride in that.

And then we worked a lot on our team defense, our rotations and how we'll be able to counter some of their inside, I guess, paint touches and stuff. So just really locking into our defensive capabilities as a team.

Q. What led you to choose to play for Megan Duffy, and what sticks out about playing for her, and have you noticed anything different about her this week being back at her alma mater?

JORDAN KING: I think playing for Coach Duffy you're playing for a passionate head coach who really loves the game, and she really trickles that down to us and has a great IQ for the game. And she's taught us great things about the game and our individual games as well.

When you have a coach who loves the game just as much as the players that step out on the court, that's a really big factor in our success, too. I think just being back here for Coach Duffy is a really cool moment for her and I think it's cool for us players to see her excited to be back here, and obviously a place that's meant a lot to her.

LIZA KARLEN: Not too much to add to that. "Passionate" was the first word that came to my head as well. You see it in practice and during the games just how much energy she brings to us every single day. You know, there's not many head coaches that can get on the court and actually show us how to do drills or like show us how to do a pass sometimes.

So it's really, really cool to have a head coach that does that with us every day.

Q. Can you talk about the momentum you guys have coming into this tournament, and what you feel your strengths are?

JORDAN KING: I think concluding BIG EAST play, obviously a very tough conference where you're forced to compete every second of every game, show up every single night; and close out the regular season with a really good win and headed into our tournament, got that good win against Villanova as well.

For us, every time we step out on the floor, it's competitive basketball. That's Marquette basketball. That's BIG EAST Basketball. For us, if we can do that from the get-go and like Kenzie was talking about, just locking into what we've been capable of all year.

What's got us here is our fundamental basketball, sharing the ball, and knowing what we're trying to accomplish, what our goals are for the game. So I think once we have, you know, those couple things in mind, just being able to go out there and compete, lay it all out on the floor.

Q. Looking at the success you guys have, going undefeated in non-conference, going to your conference play, having this opportunity to come to Notre Dame and of course Coach Duffy, I know you guys had a full day today. How was your day today? They talked about the tour. What was your favorite part so far of today?

MACKENZIE HARE: We got to see Touchdown Jesus. That was cool. That was probably my favorite part.

JORDAN KING: Being on the campus, just walking around, having Coach Duffy talk to us about different stops on campus was pretty cool, and like Kenzie said, that was a cool part to see as well.

LIZA KARLEN: I had homework. But it's awesome to be here (laughter).

Q. Now for the basketball side, thinking about y'all's success, how have you guys seen your team grow over the course of this season from the beginning to where you are now?

JORDAN KING: Yeah, I think obviously as we know, basketball is a long season and obviously starting out with non-conference play in our early win against Creighton, we saw success, but I think also finding who we are through the losses was really important.

Obviously it's very, very hard to go undefeated a whole season and we knew that wasn't going to be the case and so just being able to battle through the losses, finding things that we needed to look back into, what was going to make us better and propel us into the next win. And even learning from our wins as well, making sure that you're always never satisfied, always learning the game.

And so I think for us, just continuing to grow after each game and just the ups and downs that comes with every college basketball season, but especially this one of just locking into each other and what it was going to take for the next game.

Q. What do you guys feel -- I'm going to dig a little bit deeper into that. What are some like tangible, specific things that you guys feel like you've gotten a lot better at?

JORDAN KING: I would say just the way that we've communicated on the floor. I think that there was a couple new pieces to be added to this team. And so finding our chemistry, even getting Kenzie out on the floor a lot more with us this season was a great part, and just being able to communicate on the defensive end like we talked about; that's going to be really important for this game on Saturday against Ole Miss.

And I think also, just the way that our offense flows, the ball touches every person's hand every possession. And so being able to take care of it, know what our reads are, know what our looks are on the offensive end was really important.

So I think just, honestly, it's the fundamentals of our program and of our offense and of our defense, but being really locked in and focused on that each possession.

LIZA KARLEN: Yeah, also, I would add we've had some huge growth in our role players as well. You know, to get to this point it can't just be a few players. It takes a whole roster. Even in the BIG EAST Conference, you saw a lot of players come off the bench and play huge minutes for us. I'd like to say that I think we've had some major, major growth throughout the season in everyone on our roster, not just a few people.

MACKENZIE HARE: I agree. I think our leaders have been great. These two do a great job of setting the tone in practice each day. They bring in the energy every single day.

We talk a lot about our activity on the defensive end and they are definitely the leaders and catalysts for that, as well as Rose and Frannie. But they have definitely been a big part of our growth.

Q. Liza, you mentioned you had homework, and I know you're a civil engineering major. So this is a three-part question. What attracted you to civil engineering? What do you plan to do with that degree? And how different are things for you as a student athlete being a civil engineering major?

LIZA KARLEN: I love this question because I never really get asked about it.

But I would say I come from -- I have a few engineers in my family, so that's always been around me growing up and stuff, and I'm a very analytical thinker. Almost everyone on my team knows that.

So yeah, I would just say that way of thinking really intrigued me and I love science and math and all of that. So engineering was kind of the clear option for me.

Your second question was what do I plan on doing with it? I would love to go more into project management. I do love the design part of it but I also love being able to lead and being part of a team, and that's huge for me. So I'd love to see kind of what I learned in basketball translate over to the work world.

And then how is it different? I would just say a lot more time has to be put into it. So instead of, you know, being able to go on tours, which I would have loved to have seen, it's more so, just kind of focusing on that work during the free time that we do have.

So a lot more of time spent in different areas.

Q. And Jordan, I know you're getting your master's in school counseling. Similar, I'm assuming, you have a lot of things you have to do outside of basketball and maybe volunteer work, internship. Can you take me through what a master's of school counseling involves and what you plan to do with that?

JORDAN KING: Yeah. A typical day does kind of look hectic, and it's something that's been new for me working through my master's. But yeah I've been out in elementary schools and high schools in the Milwaukee area and just been interning in their school counseling programs, working with kids on their academics, social, emotional, learning things like that.

Being engaged with the community has been something that I've really loved being a part of Marquette Basketball, and so it's kind of what led me there. I got my bachelor's in psychology and kind of knew I was going to take advantage of the COVID year. So getting my master's was kind of that next step, and so being able to make an impact on the youth is something that I've really loved to do.

So yeah, as far as this year getting my master's, it's been a lot of internship hours and then going to practice and then going to night classes. But it's something that I'm going to be suer grateful for and blessed that I had the opportunity to do.