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

March 24, 2019

Kim Mulkey

Waco, Texas

Q. I was going to ask you if you had a song for this game, but --
KIM MULKEY: I don't have any country songs about Cal Berkeley.

Q. But I was going to ask you, have y'all gone through the film of Cal? What have you seen from them?
KIM MULKEY: I think this match-up is going to have a Sweet 16 atmosphere to it because they have outstanding post play. They have outstanding guards. They are a team that has upperclassmen. They just match up well with us. I think it's going to be just a battle.

Q. Lauren talked about looking forward to playing Cal. They have similar size, and kind of reflect on that with Kalani and Lauren coming in with similar size.
KIM MULKEY: Well, Kalani and Lauren were babies -- their freshman and sophomore year they got to guard Anigwe and vice versa, so they're very familiar with Cal. Of course you guys probably, I know that y'all know this, ReceÃ© Caldwell committed to Baylor while she was in high school and then decommitted and then she went to UCLA, Texas Tech, and now she's at Cal. So they're familiar with a lot of their players.

They looked at the stat sheet with us this morning in film session, and we made them look at how many offensive boards she has on the year, and it was just astronomical, a hundred and, gosh, 20 something, 30 something, offensive rebounds. Lauren Cox has the most on our team at 62, and we think we're pretty good.

The big difference, though, is there's a big dropoff from her going to the offensive boards and the next one on their team has like 23. We have about four or five kids that are 62, 58, 40 something, 40 something. We just brought those kinds of things to their attention. They're going to have to defend. They're going to have to keep her off the offensive boards, and then they realize that she's not the only player that can play. They have a very balanced team, and their depth is not what our depth is. They want to play about seven players, and we understand that they've had an up-and-down season. They lost five in a row and then they've been on a winning streak here of late. We told them you lost to Stanford, they beat Stanford, but then they lost to Stanford, I think they played them back-to-back games. So they know how good they are.

I told them, this is going to be like a Sweet 16 match-up because we have that much respect and realize how good they are.

Q. You might have kind of answered this with that answer there, but how different is this Cal team from the one you faced a couple years ago?
KIM MULKEY: Well, they're older, just like our kids are older, but you have a grad transfer in Caldwell that runs the show for them, and then you have quickness in Thomas, the kid that's a senior, and then you have a role player there with Smith, who if you leave her alone, she's going to burn you with a perimeter shot.

I think both post players last night, those kids can bang with you. You know, you bring McKenzie off the bench and the other post player that shoots the three, I mean, they have everything -- if you look at what we do, they have everything that we have except in my opinion the depth.

Q. Bringing up that depth, could you see you guys pushing the pace like you did in the opening minutes against ACU, try to go transition and see if they can keep up with you?
KIM MULKEY: Well, we're going to do that regardless. That's just who we are. But they also do it. They're going to push the pace. You know, they're not going to change who they are. We're not going to change who we are. They play in a good conference. You know, those guys see Oregon and Stanford and Oregon State, and so they've seen teams like us.

It's just going to be who makes plays, who outlasts the other one, who stays out of foul trouble. Can't let the unexpected happen. What do I mean by that? You can't allow a player that you forget about and she has an all-world game. We know what we face. Don't let somebody be an outstanding player for one game that isn't normally an outstanding player. Defense, you know, I talked to them about look at what we average holding our opponents to, and look what they average holding their opponents to, and I think when you say things like that, they really, really understand why we just really emphasize defense.

I think Cal gives up about 70 something points a game, and we give up 50 something points, and when you play the good teams that match up with you, sometimes that's the difference in the game is who's the better defensive team.

Q. The play they made at the end of the third quarter last night was a buzzer beater but it was also a well-executed play.
KIM MULKEY: Yes, it was, and we showed that to the kids in the film room. We thought that was outstanding, and we also showed them where defense plays a factor. I showed them some kids who gave up on the play for North Carolina, not to be picking on North Carolina, but you have to show, well, why did that work, and we just got through watching that.

Q. I know you haven't played in a couple weeks, but was it important to be able to get your starters off the floor last night and get them some rest?
KIM MULKEY: It's been important all year. That's what depth does for you. The game dictates that. But if you can draw it up the way you'd like for it to, it would be get them enough minutes to get back in the flow and then get them off the floor for the next game. And we were able to do that. Yes, it was good.

Q. Is the depth of women's basketball better? It seems like some of these second-round games are a little more competitive or at least they appear to be. Is it better, and why, if so?
KIM MULKEY: Well, I think some of the first-round games, not the 1 and 16 seeds, but if you look at some of the first-round games, I think some of the lower seeds are getting beat. When I say lower, I mean the higher seeds are getting beat by a lower seed. Why is it getting better? Maybe just kids are wanting to go places to stay close to home or help start a new tradition somewhere. Maybe a relationship with a coach. I don't really know, but it sure is good. I think it's good for women's basketball.

Q. Kim, what do you remember about ReceÃ© Caldwell? What does she bring to them, and what about the match-up between her and Chloe if they're on each other?
KIM MULKEY: See, he already thinks I'm going to put Chloe on her. I will tell you what I think of ReceÃ© Caldwell. Outstanding player. I don't know if you were in here when we said we got a commit the night after her junior summer and then she decommitted, so if we were recruiting her, I tend to think that she -- we evaluate pretty good. I think she's a kid that has traveled to numerous schools and wants to finish on a high note.

I think she's their quarterback out there on the floor. She also can shoot the perimeter shot, and she's not going to get in foul trouble. They don't have much depth. I don't see any of them getting in much foul trouble through the course of the year. So they're going to play a lot of minutes. They're used to playing a lot of minutes. She's an outstanding player.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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