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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: SIOUX FALLSMarch 24, 2016Quentin HillsmanBrianna ButlerAlexis PetersonBriana DaySioux Falls, South Dakota THE MODERATOR: We're joined from Syracuse university head coach Quentin Hillsman, in his 10th season at the university. The Orange are making their first appearance in the Sweet 16. We'll take questions for coach. Q. Coach, do you like the bravado your player Day made the other day when she made those comments about South Carolina? COACH HILLSMAN: I think that's twofold. I think the first thing is in the context of the way that the conversation, it was taken a little bit out of context. Obviously, you want your players to have confidence. They do have confidence in their abilities, what we've done so far as a team. But make no mistake about it, we have played South Carolina twice and we've lost twice. We understand they are a great program and they play really hard. Their post players are All-Americans, they're very deep at their positions. We understand what's at hand. I really do believe that comment was taken a little bit out of context. Q. Do you feel like you can take anything from those games last year with that familiarity? COACH HILLSMAN: Not really, because we lost them both (smiling). Have to figure out a way to win the game. The first game we played well, played well for about 36 minutes. They changed their defense that really caused us some problems and we couldn't score anymore. Second game was one of those things where they came at us tough, made shots early, really spread us out, took advantage of things she saw in the first game. Dawn is a great coach. She's going to make adjustments to win basketball games, get her teams to compete at the highest level. We have to give them all the credit. The game plan we had in place obviously wasn't good enough for those two games. We have to change the game plan for game number three and hopefully we can come out on top. Q. What do you see in Alexis Peterson when you recruited her to make you believe she was going to help your program and has she exceeded that? COACH HILLSMAN: Just her toughness. First time I saw her play, she took a charge in an AAU tournament, did a backflip, got up and cheered. That's a tough kid. First of all, you don't see charges in the summer, start with that. Secondly, she was really excited about the contact. The more and more I watched her, she was a really tough kid, very heady. Tough competitor, very skilled. Obviously when you look for a point guard, you look for those attributes. She's a leader and very vocal. When you can see that in a guard and you know they can come in at the next level and do the same things, you're excited about it. She just really excited me with her skill set, her determination and her will to win. Q. Being mentioned it was your first Sweet 16, how do you avoid being too excited in the moment just to get here as you try to push further? COACH HILLSMAN: We kind of just don't live by that creed. We just come to games and try to keep it in the context of what it is. It's a basketball game. I think if you look at each round as being closer to a national championship, I think it makes you play harder. We just try to focus on the end result. I think some people sometimes really get hesitant and reluctant about winning championships. I'd rather fail at doing something I really want to do, trying to reach that goal, not to have the courage to try to do everything you can to win it. We just go game by game and try to take it step by step. It's a process. We understand this is another step in the process. Q. You talked about the season-ending loss to South Carolina last year. This year you're pressing more. What has led to y'all getting to this point this year? COACH HILLSMAN: It's just we're trying to create offense with our defense. That's the most important thing for us. Easy shots in transitions, as many points and turnovers as we can get. That's a key to our success this year. We've been applying more pressure. We've been applying it more frequently and with different looks. We've had success doing that. Q. About the pressure, they have two senior starting guards which makes the equation a little bit more complicated. I know you have full confidence in your press. When you have two experienced veterans you're pressing, did that change anything at all what you do, how you try to do it? COACH HILLSMAN: No. Everybody does it. It's just about us doing it better. They have two guards that can really attack off the bounce, they can play at the rim, create opportunities at the back end for their teammates. It's our responsibility to make sure we can keep pressure on them, run through the back end of our press. They are very good guards. I thought they handled it pretty good the second time we played them. We have to do a better job of just doing what we do well: pressing and getting up and down the floor. Q. I think I heard you correctly after the Albany game, that you went to sleep 10:30 the night before because you were that confident. What time are you planning going to sleep tonight before tomorrow's game? COACH HILLSMAN: Haven't slept yet. Q. (No microphone.) COACH HILLSMAN: Never, till the last game. Q. South Carolina talked about how much fun they had throwing snowballs at each other yesterday. You leave beautiful Syracuse and get here, it's like a December wonderland. What was your impression? The weather offer any opportunities to have fun, or just another day in central New York? COACH HILLSMAN: No question, we are way past the snowball fighting thing. We can do that anytime (smiling). We're here trying to figure out how we can win this game. I think when you get into that mode and you just try to get into this moment, lifetime, this opportunity, which is 40 minutes against South Carolina, we're just focusing on that. Obviously we let our kids get out, they've had and are going to have some free time. For us, we're not going to go play in the snow. We'll probably do that when we get back home, I'm assuming. Q. Both you and South Carolina had home-court advantage the first few rounds. Do you think it neutralizes the matchup? COACH HILLSMAN: I think it's about your execution and your game planning. I think when you get to this time of year, there are 16 really good basketball teams left playing. Whoever can execute their game plan and play hard, understand the importance of every possession, I think that's who wins the games. Q. Having faced South Carolina last year, does it give you guys an advantage in terms of going against their bigs? Do you feel more confident in your players' ability to handle them? COACH HILLSMAN: A better job in helping our post. We don't have the luxury of having four, five players that can come in in waves and continue to do the things they do, throw the ball in the paint. We have to do a better job of collectively rebounding and taking care of the paint. We don't have the luxury of having one person that can do that. Briana Day and Bria are capable players, but we definitely have to have our team to help rebound and shrink the floor on the defensive end. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you for your time. Good luck tomorrow. COACH HILLSMAN: Thank you. THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Syracuse student-athletes. We'll take questions for the student-athletes. Q. For all three, obviously there's some familiarity between the two teams. Do you take anything from last year's two meetings? BRIANNA BUTLER: Definitely. When you have the experience of playing a team twice within the last year, you definitely have that experience of knowing their scheme, their style of play, their players. I think that definitely, you know, we can take it to advantage going into this game. ALEXIS PETERSON: Definitely, like she said. Anytime you can play an opponent twice and they're not in your conference, you can build some familiarity, kind of know what to expect, what their game plan will most likely be, how to approach the game. BRIANA DAY: Yes, I agree with what they said. I believe that playing them twice definitely just gives us a lot more to, like, go out here and try to win this game. I'm thinking third time's a charm. We're just going to go out there and play our game and stick to our scheme. Q. Briana Day, inside, going against their bigs, how much of a challenge was it for you last year? What needs to go differently this time? BRIANA DAY: I just think just matching their physicality and aggressiveness is what is really going to change the game. Just rebounding, out-rebounding them is definitely what we have to do better. Q. Alexis, we've talked a lot about the press. Coach reiterated how you have to create offense. They have two senior starters. Has anything at all changed in what you try to do with the press against players you know? ALEXIS PETERSON: Not really. You know, we're all athletes. We're all competitors. So, I mean, they're a senior-laden team. We're just going to go out there, compete, do what we do. We're going to get up and press. We're going to try and affect them with our pressure. We're going to take the same approach that we've taken all year long. Q. Briana Day, after the game the other day, your comments got a little bit of attention with regard to South Carolina. Do you have anything you want to follow up and say with regard to that, kind of the firestorm, for lack of a better word, that it caused? BRIANA DAY: I feel like South Carolina is a good team and we're a good team. We deserve to be here just as much as they do. That's what I can say to that. They're a good team. We're a good team. We just came here to play a good basketball game. Q. How excited are you just to be here at this stage? The program has worked hard to make it to its first-ever Sweet 16. BRIANNA BUTLER: I'm really excited. This is the first time in program history for Syracuse University to be in the Sweet 16. It's great to be able to be a part of history. But we're still working on continuing our story. ALEXIS PETERSON: Definitely, like she said, this has been a great year for us, a great season. We look forward to continuing this on. We've worked really hard to get to this point. We don't want it to end here. BRIANA DAY: Yeah, we're very excited. We have a good team. We knew we could make it this far and even further. I think our program has worked really hard to get us here. We're really humbled and excited to be here. Q. Syracuse is a team that has built itself over the last few years into a nationally good basketball team. What drew you guys to a place that wasn't quite there yet but was building? BRIANA DAY: I think we just put our heads together and just realized how good of a team we are. We have really good players. We've had really good players over the past couple years as well. We just couldn't get over the hump. I think we saw how good of a team we can be, how good of a team we are. We just had to build from that and play with it, have confidence in ourselves to know we are a good team. I mean, that's what I feel. ALEXIS PETERSON: I feel like, you know, when you think about a team that is building and trying to make something happen, I think that's the story that you want to be a part of. We could have went to any program that was already established, already done so many things. I think what's so special about this team and our seniors and juniors is that in 20 years from now we're going to be able to look back and say we were the ones who got this program to the highest ranking in school history, highest ranking in conference history, first Sweet 16. So many things we've done. I think that's what draws you to something like this, is because you can create your own story. No one can ever take that from you. BRIANNA BUTLER: Similar to what Lex was just saying, you really want to be part of something bigger and something better. Coming in as a freshman, you had to really believe into what Coach Q was saying. He really had a vision for this program. It's still being followed out to this day. I think that's huge for the Syracuse program and for the team. I'm just happy to be a part of the history. Q. South Carolina players were very excited yesterday to get out and have snowball fights, see the snow, which doesn't come too often in South Carolina. Different situation in central New York. When you got here Tuesday night and yesterday, was it just another day in central New York? BRIANNA BUTLER: It was like being at home. We're used to the snow, used to these types of conditions. It was just fun to see something different. Going to another state, another side of the country, seeing snow here. It's kind of like home for us. THE MODERATOR: Ladies, thank you very much. Good luck tomorrow night. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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