ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 4, 2021

Kenny Brooks

Virginia Tech Hokies

Postgame Press Conference

Virginia Tech 72, Miami 64

KENNY BROOKS: Tremendous win for our program. So happy for these kids, the fashion that we won it. Obviously had a little bit of adversity. Didn't hang our head, built a lead, faced some more adversity, came through.

So these are the type of games that will allow you to grow as a basketball team, a program, but also the kids individually.

I thought D'asia Gregg did a tremendous job; 13 and 10, just really came through for us. Liz was steady facing double teams a lot. Cayla King got us going really in the first half, and then the star of the night to me was Georgia Amoore. I thought she did a tremendous job of just controlling the narrative, controlling the tempo. Made us very effective early. Kind of calmed us down late.

The kid is growing up right in front of our eyes. But I'm also proud of Aisha Sheppard. She tried to give it a go and we just didn't want to risk it. Obviously with a sizable lead at halftime we just made the decision to not play her.

But she was such an influence on the bench and did a really good job on the bench. It was tremendous. Good win for us, and we'll get ready to move on to the next one.

Q. You talked about on Monday what it took to win against Miami last time was Georgia having a good game, and she did that tonight. Did you guys have that conversation this week or is this one of her games that she pulled out all the stops and made it happen?

KENNY BROOKS: Well, we conversate all the time. I think I've said this before. She's seeing the game through my eyes. Very seldom in film session -- we have individual film sessions, and when I talk, very seldom do I stump her. When I ask her a question she pretty much knows the answer to it whether she did it right or wrong.

It's amazing to me not really having a summer and a shortened preseason how much we're on the same page. She's like my little mini-me now. We think alike. We're starting to talk alike. But she's an extension of me on the floor, and I thought she was fantastic today.

Q. Can you tell us is it an ankle or what is it with her, and are you confident she'll be able to go tomorrow?

KENNY BROOKS: Yeah, she sprained her ankle last game against North Carolina in the second half. She was pretty ineffective in the latter part of that game; we just didn't disclose it. She tried. She actually didn't practice at all this week leading up to the tournament. We just kind of held her out as a precautionary measure.

I think if this was championship game she probably could have given it a go, but where we were, we just decided to keep her out. But I'm just so proud of her attitude when we decided to do that. But hopefully we'll get some treatment tonight and we'll see how she feels tomorrow.

Q. Let me ask you about the sequence at about the five-minute mark. You guys had sort of stagnated a little bit offensively; Liz gets a big board and a big bucket and-one, and kind of stemmed the tide a little bit. Can you walk us through that sequence?

KENNY BROOKS: Much needed. You're exactly right. It was stagnant for a couple different reasons. I was really trying to rest them, and it was like, Okay, going down the stretch and you're just trying to be very effective with our time, with our minutes because everyone had been playing so many minutes because of Aisha's departure.

And so when she got that one, that really put us back into a position where, Okay, I thought we had a little bit more pep in our step because we had gotten so stagnant. But we've got to learn how to play through those and be a little bit better during those situations.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Georgia Amoore. You talked about how she's seeing the game through your eyes. It's sort of remarkable for a freshman to kind of play with so much poise on this stage, and the whole game tonight she looked like she had it. When did she start to have all that? When did she start to see the game through your eyes?

KENNY BROOKS: Probably a couple weeks after Christmas. She was going through some stuff, and obviously she hasn't been home -- she hasn't seen her parents, her family, in over a year. A lot of things are coming at her.

Early in the season her defense was atrocious, but we knew that it wasn't because of lack of athleticism. It was that she was trying to analyze every word, every syllable that we said and she was trying to do it. It got her overthinking.

And then suddenly, probably a couple weeks after, probably it kind of coincided with us starting this winning streak, she started to understand everything and things started to become a lot clearer. You almost could see the lightbulb go off.

The conversations we would have, she was answering my sentences before I could even finish the question. She's really calmed us down. She's the point guard that I knew she could be. When she got her last year we knew that she was out future at point guard. We knew it.

A lot of people questioned, wondered where we were going to go with the departures that we had, but we knew we had something very, very special.

To me it's great when I tell her, Look, we've got three more years together, and she quickly will correct me and say, No, we have four more years together. She is going to be tremendous for us in just the understanding she has of the game.

You have to understand, too, she's still learning the American game. We were at Clemson the last game that we played before North Carolina and I had to teach her that you can go into the backcourt to retrieve the basketball on an inbounds. You can't do it in FIBA basketball.

Those are the little nuances that I'm teaching her right now where she's trying to adapt to the American game.

Q. That 1-0 mentality that you guys started with that NC State game, you guys face NC State again. How do you use that mentality again as you try to face teams for the third time this season?

KENNY BROOKS: Yeah, the crazy thing is I don't really think I have to because I came in on the tail end of Georgia's interview and she just said 1-0. We'll put this behind us, have a nice little meal tonight, and it doesn't matter who we're playing. The objective is to go win the game, go 1-0.

These kids are really, really -- you know, you can say it, you can say it, talk about it, but these kids believe it. If we focus 1-0, we give ourselves a great chance to win. And I don't think it'll be hard. I don't think it'll be hard, and they're looking forward to this opportunity.

Q. To finish up with Sheppard, did she reinjure it? Obviously she was moving pretty well early in the game.

KENNY BROOKS: Yeah, you know what, I haven't had a chance to speak with her in depth. I don't know if she got hit on it or if she tweaked it a certain way. My guess is if we desperately needed her, she probably could have gone. If nothing else she could have been somebody out there in -- you know, I don't think that's going to bother her shooting. We're going to be careful with her to make sure that everything is okay.

So I haven't had a chance to speak with her in depth, but I would assume that she got either hit or tweaked it somehow.

Q. Obviously you won without her today, but how much of a taller task is it going to be -- do you feel like you're going to need her to beat NC State tomorrow?

KENNY BROOKS: Well, you know what, she's an important part to what we do. She's very, very important. She's our best player. But I'm not going to discredit the kids who are going to be out there, going to be fighting. You never know.

They're going to step up and they're going to battle. These kids have been battling all year long regardless. We've had subtractions to our roster and next man up. Look at D'asia Gregg. She had eight straight DNP's and then all of a sudden she comes through in one of the biggest games of the year with 13 and 10.

I'm not going to discredit anybody that's going to be out there because I think whoever is out there, they're going to battle and they're going to fight.

Q. On the one hand you've beaten State already this year; you have that confidence. On the other hand Cunane will be playing tomorrow. How much different will this round 3 being knowing they have Cunane?

KENNY BROOKS: Cunane is a tremendous player. She's one of the best players in our league, but you almost look at the way Hobby played in her absence. I can't imagine her doing a whole lot more than what Hobby did to us.

We're just going to go out there, and whoever is out there is who we're going to play. Cunane is a great player and obviously there's a back story to it with her and Liz and how familiar they are with each other. They're like best friends. They grew up together. So that's going to be fun.

But we're going to go out and we're going to battle. She's a tremendous player, but I think they've got some other players who are just as talented.

Q. You went one-and-done here last year. How much do you feel like that was driving everybody this year, that they wanted to get to the quarters, they didn't want to go home after one game this year?

KENNY BROOKS: Yeah, I just think it's a different vibe with this team altogether. What I mean by that is you look at Liz Kitley and she's grown up. She's a year older. Cayla King wasn't much a part of this last year; she's grown up. Even Sheppard.

The chemistry started last year and obviously we've had some departures, but the chemistry right now is unbelievable.

Q. What did you like about your defense today against Miami?

KENNY BROOKS: I thought they -- it's not what we do, zone, but against them, you know, they're such a great downhill driving team that they are going to put a lot of pressure on you make you foul them that we took the chance and allowed them to stand around on the perimeter and shoot.

I thought that Destiny Harden was tremendous. Their little mid-range game she got going, especially in the third quarter. She's probably one of the most improved players in our league.

But I thought our kids followed the scout for the most part and did a really good job.