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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: LOUISVILLE

March 18, 2016

Louisville, Kentucky

DePaul - 97, James Madison - 67

THE MODERATOR: Coach, an opening statement, please.

COACH BROOKS: First and foremost, I think you have to give a lot of credit to DePaul. Obviously, I can't speak for Coach Bruno, he knows the ladies a lot better than I do. Our biggest fear is that they were a better passing team than I anticipated. It was really hard for us to do some of the things we've been doing all year, just because they had five players on the court pretty much at all times who were exceptional passers and exceptional shooters. Exploited some of the things we tried to do.

You know, I don't want to be gloom and doom, but after the game, our team doesn't want to put a damper on the season. We had a fantastic season, but I didn't think we played well at all today. And we picked a very poor time to play probably one of our worst games of the year.

But, again, you have to give credit to DePaul, because I think they caused a lot of that issue and they made us play that way. It was a fantastic season for us. It was a terrible game for us, but DePaul was everything that was advertised and they played extremely well.

Q. Jazmon, (Indiscernible) you fouled out, and it was a really emotional scene for you. Can you tell us a little bit about what was said in between you and your coaches and your fellow teammates as you were going down there?
JAZMON GWATHMEY: Just pretty much thank you. Thank you for giving me my last year and ending it in a good way. I mean, we lost, but this year has been phenomenal as a senior. To go out with these girls, I couldn't ask for a better team to go out on.

Q. Angela and Jazmon, you guys have had some amazing accomplishments over your careers. I know it's early, but if you could just talk about what you've been able to accomplish?
ANGELA MICKENS: I mean, coming in as a freshman, you're a kid and you don't know any better. But Coach Brooks and his staff, by the time it's your senior year, you're a woman. Not only do they teach you the ways of basketball, but they teach you life in general. And I think that Coach Brooks, that's the hardest part, this is my last game with him, and (Indiscernible) the last time he'll call me from across the court.

JAZMON GWATHMEY: The bond that we made comes from Coach Brooks all the way down to our student trainers. We laugh and we giggle, and we have a good time. We bond with people and that's going to be with us for the rest of our life, and that's something you can't ask for. Then what Jamie has surrounded us with is something unbelievable.

Q. In the fourth quarter, the game was out of reach and you made the most of the final minutes. And you just had that attitude with your teammates. Talk about that fourth quarter.
JAZMON GWATHMEY: It was just the fight. Individually I was one away from the assist record and I told them I needed two and to do it for me, and that was the last five minutes.

Q. Jaz, what are you going to take away from all the accomplishments from just this season alone and how much you've grown from these past couple months?
JAZMON GWATHMEY: Coming into my last year, I did the little things. I never once thought I was going to be Player of the Year in the NCAA or getting all these accolades, but I'm lucky I had my teammates behind me, trusting me, having faith in me and the coaching staff. Coach Brooks pushing me every day. It's a lot to take in being the last game, but I'm grateful for everything. Honestly, I can't -- I mean, I wouldn't take anything back from this season.

Q. This is for the players. Just kind of describe why DePaul was as tough as they were, and they scored a lot and it was difficult for you all, just kind of talk about that.
JAZMON GWATHMEY: Definitely, they're a really, really good basketball team, and I mean, they came out shooting lights out. I don't think we did a good job adjusting to them shooting so well in the paint, beyond the arc. I mean, their game was phenomenal. It was something that we took for granted not getting back on defense, not talking as much as we used to do through the season.

ANGELA MICKENS: You've got to go with their pace, too. Their pace was extra fast compared to what we do. And like she said, it just hurts a lot.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Brooks.

Q. You mentioned in your opening remarks kind of the way you felt about this game and coming into this game with a 20-game winning streak and how disappointed you were. But looking back at the entire season as a whole, how successful was it and what do you see moving forward for your team next year?
COACH BROOKS: Well, if you had told me the day we got the diagnosis that Precious Hall was going to be out for the year that we would be here and we'd be 27-6 in the and in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, I would have signed up for it immediately. When you lose someone of that caliber, that's obviously devastating for a group. But with this particular group, as special as they were, as cohesive as they were, they worked even more so, and they surpassed my wildest dreams of what they could accomplish. Obviously you have high expectations for your group, but every time I challenged them, they've exceeded those expectations and they past them. They did everything I asked them to do.

I think Jazmon said from the leadership down, and they did a fantastic job all year long. They are all my favorite. I could never say one is my favorite. This is one of the teams that I can't say who is my favorite because I've had so many special ones, but I don't ever remember enjoying a group of young ladies as much as I have this particular group. Everything they wanted to accomplish, it was fun. It was a lot of fun and it will be a year that I'll always remember.

Q. Coach, you told us yesterday that one of your goals today was going to be to try to run DePaul off their style, why didn't you do that today?
COACH BROOKS: They just kept putting the ball in the basket and we couldn't do anything about that. I'm anxious to get back and watch the tape to see if there was a lot that we didn't do or if it was just a lot that they did do.

Doug does a tremendous job with his system. It's a system that we were anticipating trying to run before Precious Hall was down. We would have had five shooters on the court like that, as well.

But we generate a lot of our offense with our defense. We weren't able to do that today, and they did a really good job of just really causing us to be stagnant. The game plan was terrific. I thought that we could escape, but they made Megan work a lot. She was fatigued. I thought she made some plays, which really kept us in there. But they did a fantastic job. I can see them making a deep run. But we just weren't able to get into our game the whole game.

So it's a learning curve for us. We have a really good team coming back next year. There are a lot of seniors, but we've got some kids sitting out that we feel like will help us get back to this juncture.

Q. You mentioned it a little bit with defense, but you guys led the country in three-point defense. What do you think is the biggest thing and getting those open shots and that could open up the game in the first half?
COACH BROOKS: Again, the system is fantastic. It reminds me a lot of like L.A. They set a lot of ball screens and you're one second, two seconds behind and they were throwing it up and they were really getting shots in and we were scared to leave our shooters. Then all of a sudden we tried to take away some inside stuff and they got wide open shots. It's really hard. You pick your poison what you want to take away.

As you meet your match-ups, we all, coaches across the country would call each other, people that they've played and say, hey, what did you guys do? What do you think? We talked to one coach and his suggestion was just hope that they're off because they're a really good basketball team. Tonight they weren't off, so we weren't able to do the things we wanted to do.

Q. Coach, obviously, pretty emotional after the loss. Can you discuss now that the season is final, talk about how this team, and this group particularly, what they mean to you?
COACH BROOKS: It would be hard for me to try to explain how special they are to me in a couple of minutes. I could write a book. From the time they walked on to the campus, they were a very close-knit group. They really are. The two that were here, they're two kids I'll stay in contact for life because of the way they touched my life and probably vice-versa. They trusted me, and they trusted everything we talked to them about. That's a big part of our success.

Jazmon Gwathmey is probably the most talented player I've ever had. The things that she can do has been tremendous for us. I look forward to her playing professionally for years to come. I think she's that talented.

Mickens, her drive, her determination, her leadership qualities really molded our team identity. These kids are special. They are. They played with a chip on their shoulder all year. Even through adversity, when people doubted us, those were the two kids.

It's well-documented when Precious tore her ACL, I was devastated. I was devastated so much that one day when I got the word that she was out for the year, I didn't want to go into work. I remember that. It was like you sort of -- it was a rainy day, I was sitting in the parking lot and I didn't want to go into work. I watched House of Cards, four episodes in my car. When I actually walked in, they asked me how she was doing and I said she's out for the year. And those two kids said, Coach, we'll be okay. And it made me calm, and I trusted them as much as they trusted me and we had a terrific year. A terrific year when a lot of people doubted us and a lot of people came after us, I was really, really proud of those kids, those two in particular the way they handled themselves all year long.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297

NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: LOUISVILLE

March 18, 2016

Kenny Brooks

Jazmon Gwathmey

Angela Mickens