AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 10, 2025

Ashley Langford

Kendall Sneed

Sherese Pittman

Dickies Arena

Tulane Green Wave

Postgame Press Conference

USF - 69, Tulane - 59

THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and get started with an opening statement from Coach and then take questions for the student-athletes.

ASHLEY LANGFORD: Yeah, I mean, it's tough. Obviously it's not the outcome that we wanted, but just really proud of this team's fight. We hit adversity early in the game, and we just punched back, then South Florida would throw another hook, and we would get back up, and then we would throw a punch.

So I'm just really proud of our team and their resiliency throughout the game. It's just been a good season. Watching us grow from when I took over and took the job in April to now, it's night and day. Just really appreciative and blessed to have coached these 14 women this year, especially in my first year coming back to my alma mater.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. Questions, please.

Q. We talked yesterday about maybe preparing for a team that you had not played during the regular season. How much of that might have been a factor tonight and was there anything that maybe you either learned from game action that you might not have been able to pick up from video?

ASHLEY LANGFORD: Yeah, I think there's a feel piece to a team when you see 'em in person. When you're watching 'em on film, you don't know exactly how athletic Brito is or how physical she is or -- you know, you don't know those things. You can kind of tell, but there's nothing like in real person.

Statistically, though, and game plan-wise, I think we were pretty on par with it. Obviously our defense wasn't the issue today. We held 'em to 35 percent from the field. We did a good job defensively. It was just the glass for us. We just needed to make a couple more shots. I think if we had a few more shots go in, it's a different outcome for us. Overall, maybe a little bit having an effect, but I don't think it was too much.

Q. When the game starts as it does, when they go on the big run to start, and you have a game under your belt -- not that you second guess your ability to come back because obviously you made a run there, but how much does them landing that early haymaker affect how you approach the game the rest of the way?

ASHLEY LANGFORD: Yeah, you got to -- you're operating from a disadvantage, right? So you got to give a little bit more. You got to be 12 points better, right? Instead of four or five. Again, we've had that during the season. It's happened before. And that's what we just kept preaching as a coaching staff, and they never gave up and they kept fighting.

But, yeah, it starts the game in a negative effect. But again, like I said, I thought we kept fighting, and South Florida's an experienced team, and they have been here before, and they have got veteran players. For me, us playing two freshmen a lot of minutes, again, I'm just proud of their effort. They have gotten so much better and, to me, the future is bright.

Q. Talk about the two players here with you today, one a newcomer, one a veteran, what they have meant to your team this year between -- and then the accolades they got in the All Freshmen team and First Team All-Conference?

ASHLEY LANGFORD: Kendall, I'll start with her. She's tremendous. It's tough being a starting point guard, right, as a freshman and then also playing for a point guard -- and probably hard too, a little bit (laughing).

I've always said this about Kendall, is that she's got a really high IQ and she's a one-time learner and when you're a one-time learner, you're able to get over that learning curve pretty quickly. And she's always curious and hungry for more. She's put in the work, watching film, extra shots. It helps that she's a coach's kid as well. So she's worked for this. She's earned it. I think she had a little chip on her shoulder too to start the season because there was people, obviously, that were doubting us at the point guard spot and can a freshman do it. And we all believed in her from the beginning. We didn't care what the outside world said. But she's done that and then some. She's not a freshman anymore, in my book. Obviously, she was a sophomore once we started conference play. But really proud of her and her growth this year.

I already cried about Rese on the radio, so hopefully I don't cry right now, but Rese is such a good person, so kind, giving, cares about everybody, just wants to win, wants the best for everybody. I know that I'll never coach another player like Rese. She obviously helped me win a lot of games, right? Over most of the games that we've won, right? So we're always locked in forever. But it's just been fun to watch her grow as a woman and a human and trust me to come all the way down here to New Orleans far away from her family in Virginia, and just trust my vision for her.

We got her at Stony Brook and she didn't even take a visit, right? Just trusted me, trusting us. It's turned out pretty well for her. But again, it's been fun just to watch her grow, and I know she's going to continue to do good things when she goes and becomes a pro.

Q. Can you reflect on what Coach has said and how you feel this year with her has gone and with this team.

KENDALL SNEED: I think Coach Lang welcomed me with open arms. I came to school not even, I wasn't even, she wasn't even the coach that I signed to originally, and then I came injured as well in the summer. She did nothing but help me get to the point where I needed to be to prepare for this moments like this. So I think that she helped me grow a lot, and I appreciate the work that she helped me, or the work that I put in with her. And just along side my teammates, they never made me feel like a freshman or made me feel like I wasn't doing good enough to be the point guard of this team, so I'm nothing but appreciative for the season that I had.

SHERESE PITTMAN: You know, Coach Lang really like just trusted in me. Like she said, Stony Brook, like I didn't even take a visit, I just trusted her. I trusted her vision, and I just wanted to do all I could do to help my team win. I love Coach, I appreciate her for everything that she's done for me. Thank you for trusting in me and believing in me and thank you for helping me grow and become a better person.

Q. Many times when there's a coaching transition it's because there's a rebuild necessary, but this program's on pretty steady ground. How do you approach the off-season and what you need to do to keep this thing going?

ASHLEY LANGFORD: Well, we lost a lot of seniors and point production and a lot. So we got to recruit. Obviously we're going to get in the transfer portal a little bit here and there. But I feel good about having Kendall and Sadie, they got a lot of minutes this year. And a part of building a program and winning a championship is you need experience. You need veteran players with experience, whether they're sophomores with experience or fifth-year seniors with experience, it's experience. Like I said before, the future is bright, we get in the off-season we're going to work, we're going to continue to work. In a year or two you're going to be knocking down a bunch of threes, right, nobody is going hungry any more. So we just got to work on that. We just got to work. I think the pieces and our culture has been established and we're going to grow from that and it helps to have returners that are going to teach the newcomers the way we do things. To me culture is everything and we've taken the right steps this year to get it started and the foundation.