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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 10, 2019

Chicago, Illinois

DePaul - 85, Providence - 60

DOUG BRUNO: The Big East is a great league, and Coach Crowley and the Providence Friars have had a really, really good year. The quirk of the scheduling gods have us playing the first weekend of the season, the last weekend of the season, two months apart and then eight days apart. And this is a really good Providence team that's only going to get better, so we were really just -- we don't ever play scared or come into a game with fear, but we knew we were going to have our hands full. And the score at the end of the game is not indicative of how hard we had to fight to be able to win this basketball game. We had it at 19 early, they cut it, they cut the lead back to 10. We had it -- it took a long time for us to be able to pull away from this Providence team. So great job by Providence.

Our players I thought were focused and ready to play, and that's always a concern that you just -- at this time of the year, I don't know how you could ever not be focused, but sometimes stuff happens. So I was just -- I think our players came out with a good solid edge on. I thought they maintained it. We still had some ups and downs throughout the game. It was nice to have Mart'e Grays play the amount of minutes she played because it was our choice, not because it was a situation, a foul situations choice.

Kelly Campbell did what she does, and Mart'e had a really strong ballgame. And then Kelly had the 12 assists and multiple rebounds, and Coach Bruno still got mad at her at that one possession where she actually made the play to get the ball and then gave up the ball to a jump ball, all right. I was irritated that -- once she got the ball she didn't keep the ball.

That's about what Kelly Campbell does for us. Mart'e did a really, really nice job, and their defense was packed inside, so I thought Mart'e did a good job of getting a good strong effort and good strong production but still shared the ball, all right. So again, it's a good strong Providence game, and now we're going to play a very good team tomorrow in either Creighton or Butler.

Q. Why do you think you were able to have so much success in the paint tonight?
MART'E GRAYS: Just I wouldn't say it's the offense we were in, but the way our team executed the offense, my teammates looked for me inside, and they delivered the ball.

Q. Kelly, can you talk about the start you guys got off to tonight?
KELLY CAMPBELL: Yeah, we've really been focusing getting off to a quick and efficient start, especially now that it's one-and-done time, so it's been very important for us, and I think we did a great job of really getting off to a quick start today.

Q. Mart'e, what makes Kelly such a special passer?
MART'E GRAYS: She measured twice and passed well once, hit the open (laughter).

DOUG BRUNO: I didn't say nothing.

MART'E GRAYS: Seriously, though, she does a great job of measuring twice.

Q. Kelly, you had five steals tonight. Can you talk about your defensive effort and the team's effort as a whole?
KELLY CAMPBELL: Yeah, I think the steals are just a result of our pressure. I mean, our guards up front were wearing the ball handlers down. I feel like I was just in the right place at the right time a couple times.

Q. Kelly, could you speak about the play of some of the younger guards and how big they were?
KELLY CAMPBELL: Yeah, Lexi and Sonya definitely had great games today. Lexi had like four threes tonight, so she was definitely hitting tonight. And then some great play from Sonia, some big offensive rebounds, and nice to see them playing this well at the end of the season.

Q. As an upper classman, when you are seeing some of the younger players having success in the tournament, from your experience how much confidence is that going to give them going into the next round?
KELLY CAMPBELL: Yeah, I mean, the tournament definitely brings a whole new level of pressure, so to come out and play well in the first game, I think that really gives a lot of confidence, and going into the next game, you'll have that confidence from the first game, so that's super important.

Q. Mart'e, you guys had a 42-23 rebounding advantage tonight. How big was that for you guys?
MART'E GRAYS: Yeah, that was very big for us because the first game -- I mean, the second game we played Providence, we had trouble offensively rebounding, so we made a big emphasis on rebounding the ball and getting second shots.

Q. Mart'e, how big was that run that you guys had at the end of the third quarter?
MART'E GRAYS: It was very big because coach Bruno came in at halftime saying that we were up 15, I believe, but if we would have took care of business, we could have been like -- had the game to our advantage even more, so that run was very big, and I'm glad we made adjustments to have that run.

Q. What do you think makes Kelly just that special initiator for your team?
DOUG BRUNO: I just think Kelly Campbell is a very, very -- she's a consummate competitor, number one. She loves to compete. She really does care more about facilitating than scoring, and I think she also knows how to use her vision. The measure twice, pass well once, the carpenter's rule, measure twice, cut once; we turned it into a basketball rule, measure twice, pass the ball once. That just means you make sure your eyes lead your ability to pass. I think Kelly has got great vision, but I think she uses her vision very wisely. So I think those are a lot of the factors. But her tough -- it really is ironic that I'm irritated at her because she gets -- she gets a ball and they turn it into a jump ball and I'm actually irritated at her. But she just does a lot of dirty work.

You have to play the game, and you have to respect the game, and when certain things happen within the game that the media love afterward, it's great. But she's not -- it's not like, okay, somebody comes whispers in my ear, she's three points away from getting a triple-double. Well, we're not just all of a sudden trying to turn the game into -- that's not what we do here. I think respecting the game is just play the game and had -- I put her back in late because I didn't like the stability on the floor with the group. It wasn't late.

I still felt that Providence could have had at run at us because we had it at 19 and 20 before and they cut it back. So I just didn't like the leadership on the floor. I put it back in, but we didn't run stuff. But that's Kelly. She doesn't care. She don't care about the personal -- she really just cares about the team.

I really do think she's a special player.

Q. Looking at the bigger picture when you do have a player like Kelly who's a facilitator, how valuable is that to a team?
DOUG BRUNO: I think it's one of the most important -- it's not just that she's a facilitator, it's just that she's got this toughness to her, and she goes and rebounds the ball, and that's -- she can't jump. I mean, she jumps that much, and yet she gets more rebounds than players than can really get off the ground. So it's just a statement to her toughness and her want-to, and she's a throw-back.

Again, when I've had this conversation with many people about the triple-double, it's one thing to get a triple-double when you're Oscar Robertson and you're the greatest of all time and the ball is in your hands for 22 seconds and you're going to shoot it or pass at the end of a possession. It's another thing to get a triple-double when you're Russell Westbrook and the ball is in your hand. But to even come close to a triple-double when you are a facilitator, a player that does all the dirty work, that's just a tribute and statement to what she's all about. And I think the rest of the team feeds off of her and appreciates it, and that's Kelly Campbell.

And again, I don't really -- I think all the Big East awards must be earned, and I don't get into picking fights with anybody. This is a great league. There's a lot of great players. Everybody that earned an award deserved an award, all right, and just -- I just think she's a very special player that didn't get anything this year, and I think she's probably a little better than that. But that's life. I don't get to vote for mine. I don't campaign for mine. And that's just the way it works.

And I think she'll be happy to prove people wrong as she plays basketball games.

Q. In this nine-game winning streak, your defense has really improved. Can you talk about how you guys have been able to be a much better defensive team?
DOUG BRUNO: We're better, but we still have a long way to go. We're better, but when you ask me how, we just -- people don't realize unless you come watch a practice that they think all we do in practice is shoot threes. I mean, they don't understand that we really do work very diligently, very hard on the defensive side of the ball. I have a philosophy and a belief that defense is nothing more than offensive behavior, offense when the other team has the ball. All right, the rules of sport give the other team the ball when you do something good, all right, so it just so happens that they got the ball. It doesn't mean you're defending. You can be on offense when they have the ball when you're focusing on it. We work on it. We're small, and we still have a lot of work to do.

Q. Can you speak about what you told your team in the third quarter just to get them refocused?
DOUG BRUNO: Well, we pre talked about it at halftime. A week ago we were up 10 at halftime, and we came back and we put them in the bonus in a minute and 30 seconds, and the next thing you know, it's a 53-50 ballgame with nine minutes to go in the game last week. Marquette, they were only down eight against Marquette last Sunday with a couple minutes to go in the basketball game. Marquette ran the thing out at the end. We know that they're capable. And if you don't stay focused, this is what you're going to get. And I just thought we lost our focus and lost our attention to detail, and when you do that, all of a sudden a really good team, a well-coached team like Providence will come back and fight you for not paying attention to detail, so that's really what we talked about. But we talked about it at halftime, too, because we just had practice with this a week ago.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 10, 2019

Doug Bruno

Kelly Campbell

Mart'e Grays