BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 7, 2025

Amy Williams

Alexis Markowski

Britt Prince

Alberte Rimdal

Gainbridge Fieldhouse

Nebraska Cornhuskers

Postgame Press Conference

UCLA - 85, Nebraska - 74

THE MODERATOR: We welcome Nebraska, Coach Amy Williams, Alexis Markowski, Britt Prince, and Alberte Rimdal.

Coach, if you could go ahead and make an opening statement.

AMY WILLIAMS: Right now we're just feeling the disappointment of this tournament run being over. This is a really special group of young women that are tough and gritty and hard-nosed, and I thought they came down to this tournament to fight and to win with a champion mindset.

Obviously it hurts when you lose, and that run is over. But we are incredibly excited that this will not be the end of the season and that we've got more basketball in front of us.

Q. Alexis, a lot of people around the country have an opportunity to guard Lauren Betts. What's it really like up close and personal? How difficult is she to handle?

ALEXIS MARKOWSKI: She's a really great player, honestly one of the best I've ever had to guard. She's 6'8", so that alone brings its challenges, but she's also pretty physical, pretty strong. She's able to guard on the perimeter, which I think kind of affected us when she was switching ball screens and stuff like that.

Yeah, she's a really hard player to move. She gets really deep in the paint, good positioning. So those finishes are easy for her. I just think we tried our best, but she's a really great player.

Q. You guys talked about the trip to California being a low point for you guys either personally or as a team, but all three of you did significantly better this game. Can you talk a little bit about what was different this time of around versus the first time you played UCLA?

ALEXIS MARKOWSKI: I think the Big Ten season has taught us a lot of lessons and we've learned our lessons. We knew today that we didn't want to get outrebounded as bad, and we didn't. I think we're a much different team now in March than we were in January when we played them.

I think, even though we lost this game, I think we gained some confidence heading into the rest of our postseason. We hope that we get a lot more games to play. I think we've just gotten better and we've learned from those tough losses in games like that and adjusted.

Q. Britt, a freshman, how do you think that your game and Nebraska's game played tonight? This is your third game, so you've got to be a little weary after all this. How do you think you did during the tournament and your team?

BRITT PRINCE: I think we fought really hard as a team. We knew coming into this game it was going to be a really physical battle and rebounding was an emphasis for us. I think we just gave up a little too many offensive rebounds, but we did improve from our last time playing them.

I think this tournament was a good tournament for us. We kind of built some momentum going into the postseason, and I think that's really important.

Q. Can you talk about the experience of what you got here and how you'll take that moving forward? For nine days you'll get your name called and get ready for another event like this.

ALBERTE RIMDAL: I think we learned a lot from this tournament. I think we showed out and show what we can do. I'm really proud of everyone. I think we fought really hard.

Yeah, we learned a lot from this game. We can definitely use that going into the next tournament.

ALEXIS MARKOWSKI: I think we competed with one of the best teams in the country tonight. I know that this group is going to give it its all every night, and every opportunity we get to play together. We just want to keep playing together and go as far into March as we can.

I think we gained a lot of confidence. Just beating Illinois yesterday, that was a tough, gritty win, and then really competing with one of the best teams in the nation. I just think we're going to learn and grow.

We have a week or two to get even better, and this just kind of prepared us and gave us momentum heading into March Madness.

BRITT PRINCE: Obviously the Big Ten has a lot of great teams, and I think just throughout the season we've gotten a lot better handling the really good teams, especially the new additions, UCLA, USC, Washington, Oregon.

Just being this close to UCLA, they're one of the top teams in the country, and I think we showed how we can hang with them. I think that's like really important for us and a big momentum booster like heading into the rest of the season.

Q. Amy, obviously no moral victories in this game, but what do you take as a coach from this game? How well you played against that team, what do you take from this?

AMY WILLIAMS: First of all, Abby, thanks for being here and just appreciate the way you cover our team.

I think we talk about this being a gritty, tough team. I'm so proud of the way that they keep fighting. I think, to be honest with you, when we played UCLA in December, we did not do that. We kind of hit a rocky spot in the game, and we crumbled. It was a totally different outcome.

So as much as I would like to say that we're putting together 40 minutes, we've kind of dug ourselves a hole again. We got down in that first quarter by double digits, but this team found a way to kind of find that next level and just be gritty and tough and keep fighting. We fought all the way back to take a lead in this game. I just think it shows the resilience of this group.

Q. With Betts setting up so deep, she sets up so deep in the post. What were you planning on doing, the opposite of where she was setting so you could score your points and run your offense?

AMY WILLIAMS: To be honest with you, I'm pretty proud of the fact that we had 40 points in the paint even with the Defensive Player of the Year that's camped out in there and really makes things difficult. We found a way to get 40 paint points, which is a big part of what our plan and attack is.

It allowed us to score enough points to win the game. We just didn't defend good enough to be able to win a game or rebound. The second chance points, I feel like, were a huge difference in this ballgame.

But just proud of the way that our kids found a way, even with an outstanding shot blocker and defensive player hanging out in the paint.

Q. Coach, your girls gave up a really tough game to a really talented team. How would you say they executed your game plan going into this game today?

AMY WILLIAMS: I think it's like we said, no moral victories. We came into this game expecting to win. We felt like we were a completely -- we are a completely different team than the team that played UCLA in December, but we knew the number one thing that was going to have to flip was the rebounding.

Even though we did much better, we still got outrebounded by 12. We still gave up 17 second-chance points. That's ultimately why we didn't come out on top.

But for the most part, I thought we made a concerted effort to really put our energy toward the things that needed to change and we saw some improvements.

Q. You've talked in the past about how unique this season has been in terms of you play most teams one time, so you don't get a lot of time to kind of say, okay, I've played that team before, we know what to expect; there's a lot of turnaround. How do you think that will help now that you've got the Tournament coming up?

AMY WILLIAMS: That's such a great question. I think it has been unique because every night it's like a new opponent, shift your mind, learn new personnel, guard different actions, put together a different defensive game plan.

Our team is really an IQ team that it kind of really plays to personnel, plays smart to a scouting report. They're really locked into those kinds of things. They study. They quiz each other over it. They're watching the scout film outside of just our team time together.

I think the fact that we got lots of opportunities, like 17 opportunities to play a team that we hadn't seen or didn't really know has kind of taught us to pick things up really quickly, and that will serve us well when we're getting into postseason, March Madness time, and you're seeing teams that you're completely unfamiliar with.