ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL TIPOFF MEDIA DAY

October 8, 2024

Tricia Cullop

Jasmyne Roberts

Haley Cavinder

Miami Hurricanes

Women's Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Happy to have the Miami Hurricanes on set with me. Head coach Tricia Cullop, Haley Cavinder on the end and then Jasmyne Roberts.

Tricia, welcome to the ACC.

TRICIA CULLOP: Thank you. I'm excited to be here.

THE MODERATOR: 16 years at Toledo. So successful. Six coach of the year awards. 11 postseason berths. Why now? Why Miami? I know you have had a lot of opportunities, but what made Miami the choice?

TRICIA CULLOP: I always said if I left, it had to be an incredible opportunity. You look at Miami. It's a $93,000 a year private education. It's in the ACC, one of the best leagues in the country.

Then you look at the success. Coach Meier did an incredible job, and the players, at Miami building it into just an incredible storied program. Lots of success.

Then the final thing is what an incredible location. So when you put all those things together, there's not many places in the country that can say all those things in one sentence.

THE MODERATOR: One thing in preparing for this is you said you want to raise banners, and you want to raise attendance. How have you gone about that, and how is it going so far?

TRICIA CULLOP: One thing that's kind of exciting that's coming up is November 1st we have Cheryl Reeve coming down for a tipoff dinner, and we've already sold it out.

We're trying to do everything that we can to get the players out in the community. They've been doing community service. I have always been a big believer that you have to go out and build relationships in the community. If you don't do that, billboards and ads don't matter.

So what we've done is really start to facilitate relationships in the community, show them that we care, make sure that we're providing opportunities for them to meet and greet our players.

When our games are over with, we're not going in the locker room. Our players are going to stay out and talk to the fans and get to know them. All those things combined hopefully -- I'm not going to turn down a lot of speaking engagements. I want to make sure that our community knows we're there for them.

THE MODERATOR: Give me a quick intro into this year's ball club and what the style of play is going to look like.

TRICIA CULLOP: I think, first of all, we want to be up-tempo. This group is in great shape. They want to run. We've got players that can really run the floor. We have great leaders.

The two sitting beside me have done a phenomenal job. But we want to be a team that takes care of the basketball, finds high percentage shots, and in that first seven seconds is looking to score first. If we don't have something, we're going to work it and find the best shot.

That's something that I think my teams previously really did a good job of.

I think we're getting there. I think that it's taken some time because we have a lot of new faces, but I love how hard they're working. And they're so intelligent. We have a lot of veterans players. Haley and Jas stand out as some of the best leaders because they set the tone every day in practice. They're very skilled. They can do a lot of different things on the floor. Yet, they've been there, done that.

These two were in the Elite Eight along with Hanna two years ago, and so they can show our younger players, hey, this is what the standard has to be every single day.

Q. My question is for Coach. Coming into the ACC, pushing the play is the MO for a lot of teams and got kind of a West Coast influence now with Stanford and Cal. How much have you studied some of those conference opponents and what they bring to the table?

TRICIA CULLOP: I've watched them a lot through the years. I think one thing to note is that in the last six or seven years my Toledo team played Notre Dame several times. Last two years we played Duke, a home and home. In the past we had played Virginia.

I'm very familiar with a lot of the teams in the league and I have watched them. I watched NC State. I sat third row up in the Final Four and studied them knowing I was the head coach at Miami.

I think the most important thing that I'm studying right now is my team. I want us to be prepared and I want us to be ready to go. I do think that we're going to take into consideration the closer we get to league play, we know what we're about to face.

I think studying ourselves and preparing is job number one right now.

Q. Coach, is there any part of culture from Toledo that you are bringing to Miami, or are you going to continue what Kate Meier built for years? What's new that you're bringing, Coach?

TRICIA CULLOP: Well, I wasn't in the building. I wasn't in the locker room with Kate. I think success tells you it was great.

You can't say enough good things about what she did for the Miami program. I walk down a hallway, and the benefit of a lot of plaques and All American things and a lot of professional players whose names are listed outside of our locker room that she coached.

So for me it's I want our standard to be incredibly high because she set the bar, but I think the things I bring from Toledo are I've always believed that chemistry is worth 10 to 15 points.

I want our players to really know each other on and off the court so well that when the game gets tough, we'll play that much harder for each other.

So we've done a lot of team-building activities. They've done cooking classes. We've taken personality tests. We're trying to do some things out in the community because that brings us closer together.

That is something I firmly believe in. I also firmly believe in recruiting players that think that's important too. So when we don't have to worry about personalities clashing and people doing things off the court that maybe aren't something that we want, we can focus on what's most important, and that's winning.

I think that we've got an amazing collection of people who are also great leaders and great teammates, and that makes my job that much easier.

Q. This question is for Jasmyne and Haley. Coach mentioned chemistry. How is it going to be playing together again after not doing so?

HALEY CAVINDER: I think it's going to be great. Me and Jas always stayed in touch when I was in season last year. Just being able to get back on the court with her, she's a great teammate. She's a great leader. And being able to just lead our team and just build off that chemistry.

JASMYNE ROBERTS: Yeah, going off of Haley, playing with her a couple of seasons back, it was amazing. Haley is an amazing player, great play maker. She can get a bucket, but she can also find the open man and I think that we have a good connection on the floor.

So to be able to play with her again and just have her energy around, her tenacity, her willingness to always win, always be consistent, it's going to be so exciting.

Q. Haley, when you made the return to Miami, I know one of the big reasons was to play with your sister again. Can you talk about the conversation between you and her and perhaps your parents, hey, I'm going to come back to Miami?

HALEY CAVINDER: Yeah, there were multiple conversations, I would say. I think it's hard to be in a position where it's either you stay at a school or you go back to a school to play with your twin sister for your last year. Hanna and I played the game forever together. I've never played a game without her.

But at the end of the day I'm really excited to be back with her, with Coach T.C. as our leader and her new staff to play our last season together at Miami.

Q. Jasmyne, you all beat NC State last year, one of two ranked wins on the season. Again, a lot of -- this is a really deep conference. How much do you all take pride in kind of going into another team's house and pulling off an upset?

JASMYNE ROBERTS: Yes. I mean, this conference is so competitive, so tough every night. You never know No. 1 team could lose to a bottom team just like that. It's about bringing your best effort every night.

Yes, we did beat NC State, and they ended up in the Final Four. I was, like, dang, we beat them by, like, 18 points.

It's exciting to be able to go into another team's home and just have a chance to compete and win. So I'm excited for that this year.

Q. Then just as a quick follow-up, y'all have a great back court in your own right, but so do The Wolfpack. What are some of the things that you see that they do well on that side of the ball?

JASMYNE ROBERTS: I think that they have amazing playmakers in Saniya rivers and also James as well. I feel like they bring versatility and their quickness to the floor, but we have that as well in our back court. I think we match up pretty solid to them, and it's going to be a great game.

Q. Jasmyne, watching you on the court is phenomenal. Can you talk about how your game has transcended coming into the offseason and your role as the leading guard for this Miami team?

JASMYNE ROBERTS: Yes, so I feel like in the offseason I worked a lot on my ball handling, but also just knowing my IQ of the game. I feel like that's grown a lot as well.

Just also focusing on getting my mind right. I feel like your mindset, your mind is -- if you have a great mind, you can have an amazing season. I feel like that's a lot of things that I'm focused on.

I'm just excited to see it, see myself playing at the highest level that I can with a new coaching staff, with new players around me, more positive vibes, positive energy, and have a great season.

Q. You talk about coaching changes, new players. How do you adjust with that, the new coaching changes and all that? Especially being a senior, a leader. How can you gather the team around when it comes to a situation like that?

JASMYNE ROBERTS: Yes, I think that I have a very different role this year as captain on the team. Obviously I can't always think about myself. I'm also thinking about the whole of the team, how to support people every single day.

So different role, but I'm very excited for that role. And I think the coaching change, it hasn't been very difficult because we have a very genuine and caring coaching staff. Coach T.C. always asks me every day, how are you doing? She understands that it can't be super easy that she just came in here and became our new coach, but she's very understanding and really genuine about that.

My teammates make it really easy every day. They're so nice to just be around. I never dread coming to practice and being around them. So it's just always very positive energy. I think that when you like who you are going to work with every day, it makes your job so much just enjoyable and easy.

I feel like that's a big difference with last year versus this year.

Q. This question is for both players. Coach mentioned the emphasis on getting out in the community and just building relationships with Miami and the surrounding area. How much do y'all as players kind of take pride in that and take initiative as far as building that connection?

HALEY CAVINDER: I think it's great for us to get out into the Miami community and just build connections, especially with the kids.

We went to a lot of boys and girls clubs and just being able to work with them and hang out with them on their recess and stuff has been fun and just to connect and really build that layer of personal level.

I think it's great for us, and I think as a leader, Coach T.C. doing that for our team shows great connections and being able to hopefully translate that to our attendance.

JASMYNE ROBERTS: Going off of what Haley said, doing community service this summer was something, like, really fun. Also, it brought us closer as a team, but also just closer to others in the community. Like we went somewhere, and we fed the homeless people or people in need. It was cool to see things from another perspective, and it also just drew our team closer together.

Those were things that we didn't really do a lot of before. So just hoping that people see the work we're doing and that we care in the community, and it translates to on the court for our team, but also bringing fans in to see us play as well.

THE MODERATOR: For both Haley and Jasmyne, Tricia is one of the most successful coaches in our game. Now that you've been under her tutelage for a couple of months, what is the "it" that she has that you now understand of why she's been so successful?

JASMYNE ROBERTS: Details.

HALEY CAVINDER: Details. I think Xs and Os. I think just learning this summer her mind of the game and being able to just put the right pieces together and the right plays together has been very good for us as players.

I think being able to be more detail-focused, and that makes the game way easier, especially in high-tense moments.

So being able to just learn that and her emphasis on details every single day allows us to stay consistent and build great habits.

THE MODERATOR: Tricia, you mentioned all the reasons of why you came to Miami. What's been the biggest surprise, pleasant surprise, so far for you?

TRICIA CULLOP: I think how hard this team is working. I was just meeting them when we were recruiting them, and to watch them get in the gym at 6:00 a.m. in the morning to do extra shots, to work out, to be so disciplined in that, it's not an every-once-in-a-while thing. It's almost an everyday thing.

I love that they're hungry. To be honest, I hoped that would happen and to have it happen and match our enthusiasm has been a lot of fun.

THE MODERATOR: Jasmyne, you guys go from Elite Eight to being the last team out last year. How much has that given the workouts and just the fuel to get back there this season?

JASMYNE ROBERTS: Yeah, that stung a lot last year, honestly. It really did suck, but it motivated me a lot to never want to feel that again.

So I have really took offseason serious. Just getting my body 100% healthy and also honing in on my skills as a basketball player. It really motivates me.

Literally when I'm working out some days, I'm, like, Elite Eight. Like, I will literally -- yesterday I had a work out and I was start starting to get tired and I was, like, Elite Eight, Elite Eight. Just getting my mind and motivating myself to prepare for those moments and just fighting through, it's really motivating me a lot to just have an amazing season as a team.

THE MODERATOR: Haley, give us that one player that whether they're new to Miami or just maybe hasn't played a lot in the past that probably two or three weeks into this season she's going to be a household name?

HALEY CAVINDER: Cameron Williams.

THE MODERATOR: And why?

HALEY CAVINDER: She's consistent. Being able to play with such a dominant post player this summer and her hands and her footwork under -- she has such a good touch.

So being able to play with her I think she'll make a name for herself in the ACC very quickly.

THE MODERATOR: Last thing for each one of you. One word that's going to describe this upcoming season.

TRICIA CULLOP: Determined.

JASMYNE ROBERTS: Electric.

HALEY CAVINDER: Underdog.

THE MODERATOR: Miami Hurricanes, here we go.