NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - EAST CAROLINA VS TEXAS

March 18, 2023

Kim McNeill

Synia Johnson

Danae McNeal

Moody Center

East Carolina Pirates

Media Conference

Texas 79, East Carolina 40

KIM McNEILL: First and in front of the most that's a really good team out there, Texas. They play their hearts out. They got a lot of good weapons and they are an experienced team that understands what it means and what it takes to win at this level.

I'm so, so proud of my team. We've had an unbelievable season. We did a lot of firsts: Finished third, the highest we ever finished in the American League. We won the tournament, first time ever happening. We won 23 games, the most since 2010.

I couldn't be more proud of this team. We fought all year long and we fought a lot of adversity and we are going to make this a place that's familiar to us.

You know, this is the first time any of these young ladies have been to the NCAA Tournament, and I think we have learned in order what it takes to be successful at this level. It's made us hungry and made us understand the level of dedication that we have to give.

So this won't be the last time you guys are going to see East Carolina in the NCAA Tournament, I promise you that. But I couldn't be more proud of just what we have done this season on the court, off the court, in the community. We set forth to make priority nation proud of us, and Pirate Nation is talking about women's basketball at ECU right now, and I hope they are proud of what we've been able to do this season, and we will continue to make them proud.

I just want to say, go Pirates. I'm excited about the future of ECU women's basketball, and I'm excited that we had the chance to play in this tournament.

Austin has been great. Texas has been great but we'll be back. We'll be back in the tournament.

Q. Going off what your coach was saying, what did this team accomplish this season and where do you all go in the future?

SYNIA JOHNSON: We made a lot of history this season. We were picked 11th in our conference. No one really had faith in us. We proved a lot of people wrong. To come back and finish top in our league, to win the Championship just to make it here, we have accomplished a lot, and we want to keep improving on that going forward.

Q. How tough is this Texas team, and what kind of challenge did they present y'all?

SYNIA JOHNSON: Yeah, we knew going in that they were going to be physical. You could say that we definitely got out-toughed. They out-rebounded us I think by like 14. Size was a factor, but I think we got out-toughed.

Q. We talked about how they were bigger and stronger, but were they even better than that when you got on the court with them?

SYNIA JOHNSON: They are a good team, but like I said, I feel like our effort could have been a little better. Playing against people like that, you have to do a little extra work, and I feel like at times, we got outworked in the trenches.

Q. Coming in, we knew they were bigger overall, but how much tougher was it to get in the lane and get rebounds against those big bodies?

DANAE McNEAL: It was pretty tough. But at the end of the day, in order to do it, it takes heart, and we didn't show that tonight.

Q. That was a very physical game. There were some bodies banging. How much of a toll does that take on a smaller team when they have five bodies like that that are leaning on you for 40 minutes?

KIM McNEILL: Yeah, it was extremely physical. But this is what you get at this level. You know, obviously we are not as big in stature as Texas is. They can keep throwing big bodies at you, big bodies at you, not only from the post, but just from the guards, just big, strong bodies.

And so it definitely takes a toll on you. You know, I thought we played decent in the first quarter but I think it just wore on us as the time went on. You know, as the game went on it just really wore on us.

I really hope that people don't remember us on how we finished this season on this one game and I don't think one game define you. I can't say enough how proud I am of this team and the fight that I have shown all year. We ran up against a really good Texas team and I think they are going to go far in this tournament.

But I just hope people don't remember us just off of this one game because we did some unbelievable things this year. I can go down the line: Triple overtime against Houston, scoring two points against Houston in the tournament and ended up beating them. My team showed a lot of resiliency all year. Just unexperienced and just didn't know what to expect and what it took to really, I guess, get ourselves prepared for this tournament.

Q. From where you took over this program up till now, when you play a team like Texas, was there anything that Texas did that surprised you and how they gave you fits in your team?

KIM McNEILL: No, no, they didn't surprise. I mean, if you've been watching the tournament, even if you watched the Drake v. Louisville game, the pace of the game, the pace is just really, really fast. The physicality of the game is extremely fast.

The closest team in our league to maybe the physicality of a Texas is maybe Houston but they still don't have the big size and big guards like Texas can throw at you. We knew it was going to be physical. We knew they were going to pound it inside. We knew they were going to pound us on the boards, and all we could do was prepare for that in practice.

But when you don't have that size to go against every day, it's hard to prepare for, but that's a really good team out there. And then like I said, I'm just really, really proud of my team and what we were able to accomplish this season.

Q. If you were talking to the coach of Louisville or any other team that Texas might play, what would you say to help them guard against Texas?

KIM McNEILL: One thing I thought we did a really poor job at was our transition defense. We did a really poor job in the first half of allowing them to get out in transition and hit ahead for layups. We tried to make the adjustment in the second half of just pulling two people off and getting back.

But I would say first you've got to stop the transition-D, and you've got to find a way to put some bodies on those big kids and keep them off the glass I thought they got really, really comfortable.

We weren't able to turn them over like we normally do and that's a big part of who we normally are is making our defense create offense for us. They did a good job of taking care of the ball. And Harmon, I think in the first half, she had her eight assists. She did a really good job, just the flow of the game, the pace of the game and just finding people and hitting them.

Louisville is a good team, too. They will come out, they are used to this. They have been in this situation before. You have two teams that are experienced and have been in the NCAA Tournament. So both of them know, you know, how to prepare and just being in this environment.

Thank you, and go Pirates.