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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: ALBANYMarch 24, 2018Joanne P. McCallieLeaonna OdomLexie BrownFaith SuggsAlbany, New York UConn - 72, Duke - 59 JOANNE P. McCALLIE: Just obviously a strong, tough game for us. I think I like our turnovers. I think that's good. I hate the fact that we're out-rebounded. I think that's really bad. And I think that when that happens, good things can happen for the other team, which they did. I'm very proud of our team. I like our team a lot. I think we've handled a lot, a lot of adversity, and we've had some excellent leadership, and playing our best basketball in a lot of ways at this time of year, which has been great. We're just going to have to keep battling, keep getting after it a little bit, be more consistent with our rebounding. I love that Erin had eight. I love that Nay had eight. But there's a big drop-off after that, and you see they've got 12 and 11 and 7, so that kind of -- that certainly helps the game. We need to get to the free-throw line more. We did not. And got to credit some good defense by Connecticut. Like I said, I'm really proud of our team, and I certainly hope Connecticut does well. Q. Lexie, you guys I think had 13 in the third quarter and they held you without a point for the rest of the period. Is their defense that tough to play against, or was there anything they were doing special that caused problems for you guys? LEXIE BROWN: No, I just think we missed a lot of easy ones, some lay-ups we missed, some wide open shots we missed. I think their defense was solid, but it wasn't something that we couldn't handle. I just think it was just us locking in offensively and knocking shots down because I think we were getting enough stops, just needed to convert a little bit better. Q. Coach P talked about turnovers and eliminating turnovers today with only 10. You had seven steals yourself. How proud are you of the way you kept those turnovers down to 10? LEXIE BROWN: Yeah, it was something we've been talking about all week, not turning the ball over, fuelling their transition offense. I think I had the most turnovers actually, so I'm really proud of everybody for handling themselves offensively even with their pressure. I think we had two in the second half total, so that's awesome for us, something that I wish we could have built on for future games, but I think that's something super positive to end the year on. Q. Lexie, just wondering, in light of the way you were able to manage the game and turn them over as much as you were, what do you think that says about your ability to do that at the next level? LEXIE BROWN: I just think I've worked hard on defense. Growing up I wasn't the most athletic person, so I learned angles, reading people's eyes, passing lanes. I think I'll be able to translate that to the next level because defense is not something everybody wants to do, and I love it. It's something I'm super proud of myself for. Q. Nay, your third game in the NCAA with 20 or more points; is this just the beginning for you? LEAONNA ODOM: You know, my teammates gave me the ball in perfect position, and luckily I was able to score, so it could be a beginning, and I'm looking forward to next year. Q. Faith, what does it mean to have Nay for another year to see the potential that she has given that what she produced these past three games? FAITH SUGGS: I think it's about time. (Laughter.) I'm excited. We're all excited. I told her next season, I'd better not see a game where she's 20 under. I want to see it every time. She gives you energy, she keeps going, and no one can guard her, so it's exciting. Q. What did it mean having Lexie as a leader, and what has she meant to you here at Duke? FAITH SUGGS: Lexie has been great. She is the most competitive person on this team. She may get annoying and you may want to fight her every second, but she's someone who teaches you how to be competitive. She really is. When she plays defense, you feed off of it. Her energy, her steals, it's just really fun to play with somebody like Lexie, and anybody in the future is lucky to play with her. Q. Lexie, I know you only had a couple years at Duke, but put into perspective what your career was like there and how proud you were to put on a Duke uniform the last couple years of your career. LEXIE BROWN: Yeah, coming to Duke has been amazing. The relationships I've built these three years here have been incredible. You know, basketball has been so much fun, I mean, playing with people like Faith and Nay. The list can go on. This is the most fun I've definitely had playing college basketball. We've had our ups and downs, and I think we handled it as best as any team could have handled it, and then taking things off the basketball court, being at Duke has been life-changing. I mean, the people I've met, the connections I've made and people that I've run into on campus, at basketball games has been incredible. Definitely something that I'm super -- I mean, the decision I made is something I'm super happy with, and I wouldn't change it for anything. Q. For all the players, I was wondering, now that you've played South Carolina and UConn, I wonder if you could sort of size up for all that A'ja Wilson has accomplished in her career she's 0-4 against UConn and never been within 10 points. Do you think South Carolina can beat UConn, and if so, what would they have to do? LEXIE BROWN: I think they can beat UConn. I think we could have beat UConn. I think that people just need to not play the UConn on the jersey. Of course they're a super talented team, super competitive, but Asia is probably one of the most competitive players that I've played against and I've watched, and I think she can carry that team. They feed off of her energy, and she's a super energetic player. I'm definitely rooting for South Carolina, but you know, UConn is a great team, and if they win it, it's only because they deserve to. FAITH SUGGS: I agree with Lex 100 percent. I think for them to beat UConn, I think that they need to stay together. Playing a team like that, you can have moments where you have emotional lapses, you break away from each other, but Coach P says when things don't go right or not perfect, you stay together and you trust one another, and I think if a team can do that, then they can beat them. LEAONNA ODOM: They just need to play together, play hard and focus on themselves as a team, focus as a team to play together, and I think they can win. Q. You guys cut it in the first half to seven but then they held you without a basket or a point in the third quarter. Was it something they were doing defensively or a combination of things? What was the offensive lapse? JOANNE P. McCALLIE: I think you've just got to be prepared for all 40 minutes, and I think as you make runs, Connecticut is very good about responding to that, and I think you've just got to keep going and have the immediacy and intensity and the smarts that when you're making a run -- I mean, I know we got a little bit faster when we were making our run. We did some very good things, but we also turned the ball over and did some things that you can't do. Or maybe took a quick shot or something that you want to make them play defense longer. When you've had that much success as the Connecticut team has over years and years and years it gets passed down, there's that confidence of they keep coming at you, and you've got to be ready for it, and you've got to be ready to make the stops continuously, and I think that we did in circumstances, but we couldn't get it consistently across the board. And that's what you have to do because they're going to keep coming at you. They have too much experience not to, especially with Gabby and Nurse. They've got too much experience. Q. Curious, I spoke to Lexie briefly about it, but what kind of player you see her being at the WNBA level, and same question for Rebecca Greenwell, who's projected to be drafted this year? JOANNE P. McCALLIE: Yeah, Lexie is a great player for the next level because she's so diverse. I mean, first of all, she's going to play both sides of the ball for you, so you're just not signing offense or defense, you're getting both, and she's going to get that done. She also can play the point or the 2 -- she's a little small for the 2, but she can still do it. She can still get it done because she's such an excellent shooter. She's got a work ethic and a commitment to the game that goes back to when she was just a little girl with her dad, and I think there are no limits to what she can do with those kind of great players around her. Obviously as you know there's fabulous players in the league, and for some teams she's really just a lot of things, and they've got their roster limitations, right, so you've got to get a lot with each person that signs, and I think she'll be terrific in the right place and learn a lot. I don't think she'll mind being a rookie and learning the ropes a little bit, being taught by the older players. But I just think that's fantastic, and she loves the game. Very passionate about the game and committed to the game, so that's a great thing. For Becca, just as a sharp shooter, again, around excellent players where she can spot up and really be a difference maker off the pass, that's her game, and she brings intangibles because she does work so hard. She'll take advantage of any opportunity given to her and be really committed. So the two of them are pretty special that way relative to work ethic. Their talents are different, but they're very special players, and I'm hoping for both of them that they can find something exciting for them in the future. Q. Coach, from the very beginning in Italy to now, how proud are you of this team and the way that they've been able to accomplish with all the obstacles that they've been through? JOANNE P. McCALLIE: Who would have thunk it? When you think about Italy and having everybody healthy and the way we played without Becca, Bego or Lexie in that very difficult game against a pro team, it was extraordinary, and then to see what we had to go through through the year, I just think -- not to mention a special visit from a Chinese coach who taught us a great deal, as well. It just goes on and on and on. It's been an incredible year at Duke. I'm very proud of the team. It's not been perfect. Those three point guards had to sit through this and see it, and they're all coming back. So they're excited, motivated, and I think everyone is willing to take the lessons. But again, we don't have 35 wins, but we have incredible stories and incredible opportunities to be brave, and you need to be brave a lot in life. I think we all know that as adults, and this team got a lot of those lessons. Q. You guys, seven points in the first minute and eight points in the last minute of the half. How difficult does that make -- you can't minimize that damage going into the second half and it's an eight-point game instead of a 20-point game? JOANNE P. McCALLIE: Yeah, and it's a problem, too, because I had to burn a time-out to get everyone to calm down. Just again, they're a team that plays with terrific runs, and you look at their rebounding second shots, they got into transition and that spells the game pretty quickly there. They're in terrific shape, they can play forever, and yeah, I thought it was problematic for sure. The runs were. I felt good about coming out of the first time-out. I thought we did settle down. I thought we did play, which was great. But that was for a quarter, and it needs to continue. Again, I'm very, very proud of my team. I can only say that for what we've been through, and Connecticut is a great team, and I know they were all speculating here. As far as I'm concerned, the team that beats you in the tournament is the one that needs to win it, so I don't know if I share all this dialogue to my left. I hope Connecticut does well, and I'm sure they will, but that's just how I feel about things. Q. It's easier said to prepare for Connecticut. How did you simulate and prepare the athleticism, the quickness, in practice to get ready for a team like Connecticut? JOANNE P. McCALLIE: Yeah, that's a great question, and I think actually it's a advantage to play them at the time we did relative to having more prep time. We have a heck of a scout team at Duke if you'd like to check them out. They're pretty good. So we had them for two full days in prepping for Connecticut. I think it's very difficult playing them because you had no time. You played and there's no scout guys coming in, and that's all you've got. And so I think that getting exposure to the transition speed, physicality, of course, and finishing with contact in those things. I definitely think it's much harder now in the second game. It just is. And you can say, well, we've played against them before and that type of thing, but I still say it's difficult, a difficult thing to turn around very quickly. Q. What was it like playing in the Sweet 16 with three grad students? JOANNE P. McCALLIE: We are a smart team in the Sweet 16. That's what we are. Just so proud of them. Again, the story, I know, guys, it's not basketball, but it's never going to happen again. It's history making. Three women in graduate school at Duke playing basketball, two of which are the go-to players, and Bego could have been if we could have had her longer. We only get her for one year, which is very sad. So no, we're very proud of that story. It's very hard to balance the workload that they have in a business school, and I think it's really interesting how the business school got around them and came to the games, and they had all these smart signs. They weren't just your basic signs. But I thought that was great. We're very proud of them, and I'm sure it will never happen again, so I just want to say we did make history for any history buffs out there, but we're very proud of them. Q. You mentioned briefly UConn's seniors and what their experience is like. Can you just talk a little bit more about Gabby Williams, 15 points, a dozen rebounds, six assists today? She did a little bit of everything. JOANNE P. McCALLIE: She always does. I mean, I don't know her personally, but she seems just fabulous. She seems low maintenance, wonderful to coach, always goes hard. I think I'm going to echo Jay Bilas. Jay Bilas loves her, talks about her all the time, about just a wonderful player in women's basketball. I'm going to go with him and be on that club, the Gabby Williams fan club, because I think not only is she so consistent, but she just doesn't bat an eye to anything. She competes at an Olympic level of focus, and obviously I'm sure she's learned a great deal from Geno and his staff. But I'll tell you what, she's a very special player. They just don't come around very much, and she's the closest thing to Maya Moore to me without the outside shooting as much, but still with that body type and the way she's consistent. She's very clever and very good, and she was a big problem for us. Q. Wanted to give you a chance to clarify, you were asked about comments you previously made about Azurá Stevens by the Duke Chronicle, and you said you were completely misquoted. I saw the Chronicle today posted audio consistent with the comments that were made. I wanted to see if you had any clarification you wanted to make about that? JOANNE P. McCALLIE: No, again, it's all out of context, and I don't think this is the time for that. I think we're very proud of Azurá, and she had a fabulous game, and she's been doing extremely well. It would have to take too long to understand what the points were there, and I'm not going to go into it. I'm simply going to say that -- again, Azurá is a special player, and she's improved a great deal. Her inside game is getting stronger and stronger. Obviously we miss her. Obviously we would have liked to have had her on our side, but those things happen. Again, we'll move forward and they'll move forward. I can't go back to that stuff. I don't appreciate it, so I won't. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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