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WOMEN'S NATIONAL INVITATION TOURNAMENTMarch 26, 2017June DaughertyPinelopi PavlopoulouCaila HaileyIowa City, Iowa Washington State - 74, Iowa - 66 JUNE DAUGHERTY: As you can tell, we're a little new at the postseason media stuff. Starting off, thanks for being here. I'll tell you what, Lisa has got a hell of a team, and those kids are young and they play lights out, and there obviously was no quit in this group. I just want to congratulate them on their season. I'm sure that you, the media and the fans, the great fans that were here today and all over Iowa are going to be really excited to continue to support that group next year. That's going to be a team that I'll bet you is going to be in the NCAA. I'll put a bet on that if I'm allowed to legally with the rules. But they are very impressive. We had to give it our all today to win, and really excited about the win and to advance. Q. Seemed like you guys made all the really big plays in that fourth quarter. Whenever Iowa would make a run, somebody would make a big shot or get an offensive rebound. CAILA HAILEY: We work really hard in practice, and we always talk about finishing plays, and at every practice we always talk about finishing plays, and when we came into the game today that was the most important factor at the end of that game was finishing plays and gutting it out and getting those last-minute rebounds and finishing those tough shots and just staying sound offensively and staying poised defensively. PINELOPI PAVLOPOULOU: The other thing I want to say is through these postseason rides so far, we've had really close games, and we've learned that you have to play for 40 minutes, and you can't give up until the end. We battled today it felt like, it was an awesome game. It was an awesome atmosphere. We really wanted it because of the adversity that we've been through this year. It's just that we can't give it to anybody. If the other team is better than us, they will have to get it from us. They will have to take it. But at this point, we really, really want it. Q. Why was your defense so effective, not only just interior but outside? You rarely gave up an open three. CAILA HAILEY: In the scout we talked about them being really good on the inside, but we didn't want to sleep on them outside because their bigs are good at finding them on the perimeter so we wanted to make sure we stayed focused and made sure we were aware on the outside and limit their three-point shooting because that can put a team back in the game like it did UC Davis when we played them. Q. They were 0 for 13 from the three-point range in the second half. Did you guys realize that? CAILA HAILEY: No, I didn't realize that. Q. What was your game plan against Megan? PINELOPI PAVLOPOULOU: This is a question for the post players, but we know that she's a really good player, and she had a double-double today. I don't know, I think she's averaging a double-double, right? Close, yeah. We knew that she was going to do a lot of damage to us, so we wanted to make sure that the post player, our post player is on her, switching around, just trying to make her feel uncomfortable, and then the weak side guard would double on the pass. Q. Coach, how was your defense so effective? JUNE DAUGHERTY: You know, I'm so fortunate. I've got a great coaching staff, and I know you guys don't know us real well, but Rod Jensen joined my staff two years ago, and Rod was on the men's side for 44 years, and he's a defensive genius. You saw some of that genius today. Not only does he get the kids to believe and buy in defensively, but you know, they just play so daggone hard because right now we're a little bit down with our injuries and stuff offensively, so we've got to go work on the other end and try to turn people over and try to limit touches. You know, once again, he came up with a fantastic scout, and these kids just -- they can't wait. It's really, what was it 35 -- I don't know how many games, but they can't wait to get into the scout when Coach Rod comes into the room because he's so passionate about it and he's so excited about it, and they believe in him, and they believe that he's going to have us ready; what are we going to do, let's do it. He mixed some things up today. We were in our match-up player-to-player, we were in our match-up zone. We were covering down a lot. Actually in our match-up zone against the post player you were talking about, No. 10, fantastic player, and we were just trying to keep that ball from going in there because so much of their offense goes through her. I think the other key for us was trying to get tremendous pressure on the basketball on the outside. We knew that they were very capable of lobbing because we were mixing up fronting a little bit and stuff. But, you know, a big key was just making sure our exterior people were really getting up and pressuring the basketball. So if the lobs went, we had time to rotate and maybe get a charge, maybe get a tip away. But try to maybe get a rushed shot by her because, enormous respect -- that kid keeps the ball so hard and just turns, and she's automatic. So that worked well for us. But Rod Jensen, it's just a pleasure to have him on staff because he gets it done every day. Q. The players mentioned the atmosphere. Can you comment on the environment? JUNE DAUGHERTY: Yeah. You know, I think for us, we're so fortunate that we are in the No. 1 league in America in the Pac-12 and that we've been on the road at Stanford, we've been on the road at Oregon State sell-outs, we've been on the road at UCLA, huge crowds, and the list goes on and on and on. I think the Pac-12, especially for these young people, the games have really helped us get ready to come into this arena. I'm a Big Ten girl. I played a few years ago at Ohio State, and I don't remember crowds like this when we came to Iowa. They were good crowds but not great crowds, and they were so loud and they're so proud of their team, and they should be, and they're in it all the way through. Great crowd. I think that -- you talk about answering the bell. You know, late, hey, they made a run, now we've got to answer the bell, big shots and stuff. That's us playing in the Pac-12 and being able to get ready every night. Washington sell-outs, Stanford sell-outs, on and on and on. So I think it really helped this young group toughen up a little bit, and say, you know what, that's part of basketball; you made your shot, I'm going to make mine on the other end, and that's important right now for us to continue to build that confidence. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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