NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL 4 SEMIFINAL - COLORADO VS IOWA

March 24, 2023

Jaxton

Frida Formann

Quay Miller

JR Payne

Jaylyn Sherrod

Climate Pledge Arena

Colorado Buffaloes

Sweet 16 Postgame Media Conference

Iowa - 87, Colorado - 77

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from coach and then take questions for the student-athletes.

JR PAYNE: Yeah. Just as always, really proud of our team, how we competed, you know, never wilted. I think we went down double digits twice and just never stopped competing, and I think that's the sign of a very resilient group, which we are very resilient.

Yeah, just a tough hard-nosed game. Credit to Iowa. They're a very good team, obviously. Just wish them the best of luck moving forward.

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions.

Q. Jaylyn, how are you feeling after this game? And do you feel like you guys left anything out on the floor?

JAYLYN SHERROD: I feel like we go out in every game and give our all. I don't think we leave anything on the floor. We all are battered and bruised from that game. But I'm proud of this team. We stayed resilient. We fought through. When things got hard, we were all in the huddles keeping our heads up on to the next play mentality. I think that's what led to the push in the late fourth quarter.

But you always want to win. We're a good ball club and all of us want to win, so it sucks that we didn't get the win tonight. But at the end of the day, it's on to the next and each one of these players have something to look forward to.

Q. I think all the way back to media day you guys talked about you like being the underdog and last year you got that taste at the NCAA tournament, which you wanted more. Now that you've sort of gotten the taste of the success, how do you continue to grow and make this program consistently have that success year-in and year-out?

QUAY MILLER: I think that our biggest thing would be just knowing and teaching our new players that we can always get better, and that we're never -- like, not to say we're never good enough, but kind of to keep that mentality just so we never get just like too about ourselves. I think that's one of the main things that we kind of focused on, wins and losses, is things that we could get better at. We never really -- like we celebrated, but it was always like, okay, so these are the areas we can get better at.

Q. You have just gotten a chance to take a look at some of the stats from the game. What's your reaction to kind of reading the full team stats now? And then for Quay, how did it feel to play in Seattle in your home state?

QUAY MILLER: It felt good to be back home. It just sucks we didn't get the win. Yeah, I don't know, I think the main thing that stands out for us is that we took 31 threes.

FRIDA FORMANN: But we had 21 O boards. That's pretty good.

JR PAYNE: 21 assists, 11 turnovers.

JAYLYN SHERROD: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Q. Jaylyn, can you just talk about -- kind of similar to the question before, but for you to help kind of get this program back to the level, like, the Sweet 16, what did it mean for you to be part of this run and to hopefully make this a regular thing for Colorado women's basketball?

JAYLYN SHERROD: Honestly, it was just about setting the standard, and I think that's something over my four years with Coach J that we've always talked about, just setting a standard of excellence and wanting to be excellent every day. So I don't think that's going to change. Well, at least as long as Coach J is here it's not going to change because that's what she preaches in practice.

Yeah, this team will definitely be back. I think everybody knows who Colorado is now and we have earned some respect behind our name, and so, yeah, just the team will be hungry.

Q. Frida, obviously a lot of foul trouble for the whole team tonight. You guys were able to weather that. Jaylyn didn't play at all in the second quarter, but you guys have a lead. Can you talk about battling through that but then how -- it just seemed like that finally caught up to you guys late in this game.

FRIDA FORMANN: Yeah, it's never fun to play with foul trouble because, I mean, you can't play as much as you want or how you want sometimes, maybe. But there's nothing really to do about it other than just keep playing, and the way we play defense, we don't really back down. So we're going to keep being aggressive. And we got those calls today and, yeah, I mean, there's not much to say about it other than, you know, it sucks to foul out of a game.

Q. Iowa seemed to pull away in the third quarter, obviously. What were they doing differently to be a little more successful offensively?

JR PAYNE: I think a lot of it was transition offense. I think if we go back and watch it, they were hitting us downhill in transition and had a lot of really just clean easy looks there.

Q. Frida, your first half was pretty exceptional shooting-wise. What were you feeling in the first half? And then what did you feel like changed defensively by Iowa in the second half toward you?

FRIDA FORMANN: Well, I had a lot of space in the first half, I felt like, and my teammates were just finding me. And, I mean, when it's this stage you just -- my job is to shoot the ball, so that's what I'm going to do. And then they adjusted defensively and were a little tighter. I had some foul trouble in the second half, but, yeah, I was proud of how I was and my team was playing in the first half.

Q. Frida, what do you think changed in the third quarter? You guys go into the locker room with a lead and then it was just seemed like a tough quarter. There were some shots that were falling off the rim and some things, but what were they doing differently defensively?

FRIDA FORMANN: As you said, we were missing some shots and Iowa is just a team that goes on runs pretty easily. They want to score fast and shoot the ball. So, yeah, you can't really dwell on your own misses too long or how you're playing, so I think we just needed to adjust. But they just come at you fast. That's how they play.

Q. Quay, you seem to kind of -- your demeanor changed a little bit when you guys got down. You got very aggressive late in the game. Can you talk about your run there at the end, rebounding and scoring? And then, Jaylyn, if you could just talk about how difficult it was for you with the foul trouble and getting quick fouls and having not to -- or being able to not play very much tonight.

QUAY MILLER: Well, I think my teammates were just waiting for me to get started and, I don't know, I just didn't want to, you know, leave anything out on the floor. I started realizing how the calls were going, and I just was like, okay, I don't need to play like scared to foul. So if I get a foul, oh well, but I'm going to try to get to the rim.

JAYLYN SHERROD: Yeah, definitely it messes with your rhythm when you're not able to just do and play freely. I also think it's hard as a player not really knowing like where you can be aggressive, where you can't, because you're thinking about picking up a foul that you don't necessarily need to pick up.

But, I mean, it is what it is. I don't really have much to say about that. It is what it is.

Q. If any of the players want to respond as well, but what happens next? What's the rest of this evening look like? How do you talk to your team and then what will you be doing this evening?

JR PAYNE: Yeah, I told the team just how unbelievably proud of them that we are, and then also just how proud Buff Nation is of this team. There's a lot of people that are reenergized about our program and the way that these guys play and just unbelievably proud of what they represent on and off the floor, and that's really special, that's more than basketball, you know, the way that these guys carry themselves.

So, yeah, so I don't know what the plan is. Matt, our DOBO, who is the best DOBO in the world, probably has some good dinner planned and we'll rest, and then I think we'll go home and hopefully these guys will have a lot of time off to rest and recover and at some point really reflect on the incredible things that we accomplished when no one believed we were capable of really anything that we accomplished. A lot to be proud of.

JAYLYN SHERROD: You want us to answer that? Well, our families are here, so I'm sure we're all going to hang with the families. And I just told the team, it's nothing to hang our heads down about. Like, this was a great season. We answered a lot of questions that people had about us and, like I said, we're going to hang out with family and enjoy before we have to get back to school.

THE MODERATOR: All right. We'll excuse the student-athletes and take questions for coach.

Q. I want to sort of jump off that point you just made, just how proud you are of this group and what you guys have accomplished, picked 8th, you finished 3rd, you make the Sweet 16 for the first time in a long time, just the growth you've seen in this program over the last couple of years, especially finally taking the monkey off the back of winning an NCAA tournament game and getting this far, just how much pride you have and how far you can continue to grow it.

JR PAYNE: Yeah, I am so proud. I love my team so much. You guys see the basketball, you know, you see the tenacity and the toughness and the fearlessness. I see young women that celebrate each other in their hardest moments. I see young women that pour into their studies and their academics. As hard as they play, they study just as hard. Think how hard that is to pour all of your heart and soul into basketball and school and being in our community and celebrating the other sports on our campus.

So I absolutely love our team. I love what the young women in our program are about. I just couldn't be more proud to be the head coach at the University of Colorado.

Q. I think I've asked you a lot this year how impressed you are with the way this team fought back from adversity, but tonight -- two-part question: How tough was it for you guys to like deal with some of that foul trouble and how much did it change things? And then also can you speak to, again, how they continued to fight and stayed in this game?

JR PAYNE: Yeah, I mean, it is really hard. Like, Frida gave you the political answer, like, yeah, it's very difficult to do. It's really hard to play like that, you know, when you're not exactly sure what is -- you know, what is going to be a foul or what -- and I thought our team did a great job of just trying to stay the course and stayed aggressive, stayed active, rotated aggressively, surely rebounded the basketball like we needed to.

But it definitely was difficult with rotations as far as Jaylyn and Kindyll and then Tameiya having to play the 1 when both point guards had foul trouble for a little bit. That just makes it tough. But I thought our team kept their heads when they had to play different positions and things like that.

And then, yeah, just the second question, just resilient continues to define these ladies individually and as a group. Like I said, to be down twice by double digits against Iowa and to be able to fight back and continue to never wilt, never hang our heads, and just keep playing, stay the course, was awesome.

Q. With Iowa's ability to score the ball, was that run coming out at halftime something you anticipated? Did you warn the team about it in the locker room?

JR PAYNE: No, we didn't necessarily say, oh, they're going to go on a run because we believe in ourselves defensively to stop runs. But it definitely hurt to have Jaylyn pick up a quick foul -- or I think her third foul so quickly in the half. Yeah, I thought they got out in transition in the third quarter, and they do that, and so tried a timeout or two to stop it, but in the end, they're just really good.

So I kind of looked at the numbers here and both teams were about at their averages, 87 to 77, and they can rack up points very quickly.

Q. What's the pitch to get Jaylyn to come back?

JR PAYNE: (Laughing.) Jaylyn is a strong, incredible woman who will weigh all options and make the best decision for herself and the program.

Q. You didn't have a lot of live ball turnovers, not a lot of terrible shots that led to transition. Why is Iowa's transition offense so good and is it unique compared to any other team you face?

JR PAYNE: Yeah, I think it's unique in that, you know, when I was doing the scouting report on the personnel for their team, every single player had runs in transition next to their name. So a lot of times teams will have one or two kids that can really get out and beat you down the floor. Every single one of them had transition clips of them by themselves at the basket in transition. I mean, that's unheard of.

So I think part of it is Clark's vision is so great, her speed is great, she's a willing passer, and she has willing runners, and so for them to be able to get out and go like they do -- I actually thought we did a pretty decent job for most of the night compared to how they typically score in transition.

But, yeah, they're just relentless as far as just putting their head down and running the floor.

Q. You guys scored 40 points there in the first half and you got some open looks. Was it just a matter of you guys moving the ball really well or was Iowa doing something defensively, breakdowns, or was it a mixture of both?

JR PAYNE: Yeah, I mean, in the first half, I thought they really mixed up their zones, you know, triangle and twos and zone defense and man defense, it was a lot of different looks. I thought our team did a really good job. The game plan going in was don't try to figure out what they're in, just be aggressive and score the ball, attack their feet, see if you can get paint touches, and things like that.

So I was proud of our team for that because we haven't seen a lot of that this year. Typically teams aren't throwing triangle and twos and things like that, and so our team did a great job of just sort of staying aggressive and sort of staying true to who they are.

Q. This is the first time you've seen Caitlin in person, I'm guessing. So she lives up to the hype. What does she do in person that you like that doesn't translate on film? Like, what surprised you or impressed you even more?

JR PAYNE: Yeah, she's definitely up for Player of the Year for a reason. She's a great player. I don't know that there was anything in person that was different because the film's pretty impressive. Yeah, so I thought she got a lot of great looks at the rim. I'm not sure if she often scores that much at the rim. But, yeah, she's great and she was great tonight.

Q. What was your specific game plan on Caitlin and how successful do you think it was?

JR PAYNE: Yeah, I mean, we didn't really have a specific game plan other than to make everybody's touches difficult. We wanted to try to shade her to her right a little bit, if we could. But she's got great speed, and so she can get downhill when she wants to. So I don't know, she finished with 31 points, eight rebounds, four turnovers -- or I'm sorry, eight assists, four turnovers, three rebounds. So maybe kept her off the glass a little more effectively. I think she averages double-digits rebounds. She's very good and they're a very good team. So not only is she great, but Czinano is great and their shooters are great and it's a tough team to guard.

Q. Can I ask your assistant a question? What's his name?

JR PAYNE: Jaxton.

Q. Jaxton, I wonder, who is your favorite Colorado player and why?

JAXTON: Of all time?

Q. Oh, yeah, how about of all time, and on this team?

JAXTON: Probably Jay Sherrod because she works the hardest out of all of them, and probably still.

JR PAYNE: Still, still Jay Sherrod?

Yeah, we love Jay Sherrod. We love 'em all, yeah, and they're all pretty special. It's been really great to have my children here with us, and my mom's here with us to celebrate this incredible time together.

Q. Now that you guys have been at the stage, where do you hope -- like, what are the next steps of kind of continuing to build upon the success? And what do you hope that the players returning on next year's team and beyond can take from this experience, even with a loss, moving forward?

JR PAYNE: Yeah, that's a great question. I thought we learned so much from last year's experience to this year's experience. Going to the NCAA tournament for the first time in such a long time last year and losing to Creighton, who was such a great team, but still the bitter disappointment of losing in the first round. We really carried that throughout the year. Not the disappointment, but just the desire to not let it happen again, and to really work daily. I mean, Jaylyn said it here earlier, like we work towards excellence every single day, and I think that was driven by last year's first-round loss.

Wonderful to get to the Sweet 16. I think we'll be disappointed that we didn't make it to the Elite 8 because, again, we want to be great and we were great this year. But I think we'll take that daily and we'll talk about ways that we could have, should have, been one round deeper or whatever. So the makeup of these players and the makeup of our program is just toughness, grit. We want to outwork people and I don't expect that would ever change. Kind of like Jay said, as long as I'm here and Coach T's here, I think that will be who we are.

Q. Frida came to you as a very experienced and mature player a couple years ago, but did you feel like she might have hit a new level as the stakes got higher in the last couple weeks?

JR PAYNE: I do, yeah. I thought Frida -- she's one of the highest IQ players I've ever coached. We've always known great shooter, but she's done a lot of different things besides shoot. I mean, even just some of her cutting, they were face-guarding her in sort of a triangle and two tonight, and she was able to get off that defense and make plays at the rim. Really excited for her to come back for her senior year, and I think that she will continue to blossom and grow into an incredible player.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you.