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PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2014Deven HunterScott RueckSydney WieseSEATTLE, WASHINGTON USC – 71 THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the Oregon State Beavers. Coach Scott Rueck, Sydney Wiese, and Deven Hunter. Coach, I'll let you open. COACH RUECK: All right. First off, what a great week. Pac‑12 did a phenomenal job with this tournament. Seattle has treated us great. Then today, credit USC. They played a great second half. They punched us in the face to start the second half and gain momentum and it was hard to get it back. Proud of our team for weathering the storm and fighting like they did. But they played a really good game today. So credit them and Coach Cooper. With our team, you know it's not a happy locker room. It's not a mad locker room. It's, I don't know, heartfelt, sad kind of a sense of mourning a little bit because this team has done everything right. When you stick yourself out on a limb like that and you invest everything you have and you care about each other and it doesn't go your way, it hurts. I've been part of groups that do that, and most of my teams do that, and I've been part of some that don't invest everything and it doesn't hurt that much. I couldn't be prouder of this team for the way they compete, take care of each other, the way they represent Oregon State, the Pac‑12, basketball and the west coast. These are champions in my book the way they carry themselves. This is an incredible team that's learning and getting better every day and that's not going to stop. Q. Scott, can you talk specifically about the things in the second half that changed? Their back court pressure, obviously, ramped up as you guys went. COACH RUECK: Yeah, the full court press was obviously the biggest difference. I thought we came out soft to start the second half. For whatever reason, that is something that's happened to us a few times this year, and they gained momentum right away. They came to fight. I thought we did early and I thought we did late, but we didn't during that stretch. I thought that was the key stretch of the game. It allowed them and gave them confidence. We didn't respond really well on the offensive end to that, you know, which gave them the opportunity to relax and then shots started falling for them. Q. Scott, Deven was mostly on Plouffe in that first game, locked her up. And tonight had one of the best all‑around performances of the tournament. Could you attest to how important she was for you tonight? COACH RUECK: Deven's a warrior. She's in many ways our heart and soul. She and Ali are household hustle players. They're chasing down balls, and now Jamie is back. Those players are known for that. Deven has been as important to this run and the improvement of this team as anybody. She's not necessarily the one that's mentioned. You hear Ruth and you hear Syd, but she impacts the game in so many ways. So it's the little things. You know, she had an incredible tournament, and she's got an incredible future ahead. Q. You guys have had a good run, but you haven't been in this spot where you're playing for a title before. Do you feel like that inexperience played any role in how you guys reacted in the second half? COACH RUECK: Maybe. It's like anything. We hadn't played a team like Penn State until we did, and Notre Dame until we did, and going to the Bay, that was a first. So like anything, experience certainly helps you prepare for the next time you go through it. So today, being in that situation, it may have. I thought we started the game great though. I thought we played a great first half. It was just being on our heels in that environment in the second half, we didn't shoot the ball like we're capable. So maybe there was some, I don't know, hopefully we'll be in it again to find out if we improve. Q. Jamie missed more than a month but got three games under her belt here. How important was that heading into the postseason? COACH RUECK: It's vital. I'm so happy for her and so proud of her for rehabbing the way that she did and kept herself ready, kept herself engaged. She had an incredible‑‑ she was off six weeks, five or six, and she was a part of things every day. So it was like she didn't miss a beat getting back out there. So really proud of her. That obviously makes us a better team having her out there and deeper. So I thought she played great basketball this weekend. Q. You guys were down five late there with a minute and you decided not to foul Jamie. I think one of the plays was Jamie attempted a three and missed it. But what was the decision making there? COACH RUECK: Yeah, two different thought processes. That was one of them. The way they were shooting free throws, you know, that was just the gamble that we took. Score and press and then foul was the thought process on that. Q. Obviously this is an emotional loss. But can you talk a little bit about how you think the game went and what you guys take from it? SYDNEY WIESE: It's just another life lesson. We're going to learn from it and we still have a lot of work to do. USC is a great team and they earned this championship. It hurts and it's going to burn today. But we have to get back to work tomorrow and finish the season strong. Q. Deven, can you talk a little about the pressure in the second half? You were able to get some shots to kind of break those droughts that you all had. Can you maybe talk about the change and playing against them in the second half? DEVEN HUNTER: They brought the pressure. I thought we could have hung a little better. But I credit them for their pressure and their denial and everything. They worked hard for it and denied well. Q. To see that half court pressure from them, this was their fourth game in four days. Were you surprised at all at the legs that they had to execute that down the stretch? COACH RUECK: No, somebody asked me about that going into the Washington State game and I didn't feel like‑‑ I mean, these are great athletes, you know. So, USC, if you think of them, that's what you think of. You think they're elite athletes at every position, and that was evident today. I remember when I was 20 I could run all day every day. So with the media timeouts and with all of that, I didn't think fatigue would be an issue, and I didn't feel like it was. Q. If you think about takeaways in this game, your first half zone worked pretty efficiently against them. Is that one of the positive keys you'll take away from this game? COACH RUECK: Yeah, it's worked for us the last month. We used it extensively against them in Corvallis, and that was one way to slow down Cassie. There are not many ways to do that. But it was effective in that game. It was effective against UCLA as well, and we've used it in spots ever since. That's been a signature of my team's first two years here. It's all we ran. So it was neat to see this team execute at that high level again. It's most effective though when you're scoring. Once we got in the drought, they were able to relax and found open looks against it, then we ended up back to man, which I thought we executed well down the stretch. Q. Between your conference finish and this run, do you sit pretty comfortably for the next two weeks leading up to the selections and then what will that mean for the program if you guys are able to get in for the first time since '96? COACH RUECK: We were certainly hopeful of that. I'm not on that committee. I think this team certainly deserves it. I don't know why we wouldn't be in the tournament. I don't see that argument. I've looked, of course, and I think this team has earned the right to play in it. But it's not up to me. But I feel like we do deserve it. So until then we prepare, and it doesn't matter who we're playing or where we're playing, we'll prepare to improve every day like we have to get here. Q. Do you have any sense from USC's side of how much they're already very quickly a reflection of Cynthia's style, her passion? I mean, you guys both coaching at your Alma Maters and there is something that comes from that. Do you feel you are picking that up from her? COACH RUECK: I think so. They played with a lot of pride in this tournament. It takes time for any coach to put their stamp on a program. As this season has progressed, we've all season that with her and with their team. They played with passion and pride today, and I think our team did as well. It's good to see with any program. Q. Even though it burns right now, do you have a perspective on what you've done in such a short amount of time? DEVEN HUNTER: I think it's amazing being part of this experience, and with my five freshmen, or four freshmen in this new freshman class with Ali and Alyssa, I think it's amazing to be part of this and be part of a team that can play in a championship game and go even farther throughout the rest of the tournament. And we have so much to keep reaching for and we can do whatever we put our minds to. Q. Can you talk about Cassie and what they were able to do inside? COACH RUECK: In this game? I don't know. What did she end up with? We made her really work again for her points. 12 points on 15 shots, and Ruth is I think a good match‑up for her, but she does have the ability to step out. When we played them at SC, she hurt us from the perimeter. She was very comfortable out there. At our place we zoned and doubled when we could to get the ball out of her hands, obviously. Today we did that again, and it was effective. It was effective until they changed momentum and made offense a little tougher for us, then they got control. But she's such a great player. I can tell I can probably count on one hand how many people I've doubled in my career in 18 years and she's one of them. So I have ultimate respect for her as a basketball player and as a leader on her team. Q. (No microphone)? COACH RUECK: Oh, yeah, they did a good job on Ruth. She and X, they did a great job fronting and keeping Ruth off her spot. It was not easy to get Ruth the basketball today.  So they're good athletes. They're a good team. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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