BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 7, 2024

Dawn Plitzuweit

Amaya Battle

Mallory Heyer

Target Center

Minnesota Gophers

Postgame Press Conference

Michigan - 76, Minnesota - 57

THE MODERATOR: We'll start the Minnesota press conference with an opening statement from Coach. Go ahead.

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: First of all, I thought Michigan played well, and I thought they made life really difficult for us. They were very physical with us, and it was hard to get the ball around the rim as many times as we want, and when we didn't get it there, we didn't score it as efficiently.

But that's credit to them and how they defend. Wish them the best moving on.

I thought our young ladies really kind of showed some toughness tonight. Things didn't go our way in the first quarter for sure, and at that point in time, we really had to find a way to find the energy and the toughness and the resiliency to keep battling. I thought, to our credit, to our young ladies' credit, they did a really good job of that. And throughout the course of the game.

I thought we saw some players step in and give us some good minutes and make some good things happen. Mallory Heyer getting 17 rebounds in a game is a phenomenal display of toughness, and I thought that's something certainly we're excited to continue building upon. Amaya having two games of really trying to make things happen and make us, kind of will us offensively in a lot of ways. Did a great, great job with that.

I'm hopeful that we have a chance to keep playing in postseason. I think these young ladies have earned that. When we look at kind of the body of work for the whole season, I think they've put themselves in a position to continue playing, and we hope we have a chance to keep doing that.

Q. Amaya, what did these last two games do for your confidence? And what are your plans for this off-season after seeing what you were able to accomplish?

AMAYA BATTLE: I think that we all had a great past two games. I think our team brought a lot of energy, and we just really worked super hard.

I think it gave a lot of us confidence to see what we can do, and we were down two of our players who give us a lot. I think these past two games just instilled a lot of confidence in the whole team.

For the off-season, personally I want to work on getting stronger. I want to work on making better reads and just all the little things about basketball. As a team, we want to continue to be more resilient and get tougher.

Q. I want to kind of follow up on that. Amaya, the last two games have kind of been at a whole different level for you. What, in your opinion, is the key to your taking that step? And for the both of you, what do you think the team learned about itself, having to play without two starters?

AMAYA BATTLE: It just goes back to kind of what I said yesterday. The coaches have invested a lot in me when it comes to telling me what they expect, how I can do it, showing me film, working with me in the gym when we can.

So I think all the things the coaches have put into me, as well as my teammates, they always instill confidence in me. They always tell me what I need to hear, and they always have my back.

Seeing them work as well inspires me. I would say it's a collective effort from my coaches and teammates and obviously my family, who I rely on a lot. What was the second part of your question?

Oh, I think we all learned that we can step up, even despite the odds, that we all have a lot to bring to the table. We just need to consistently do that no matter if we're down two starters or not.

MALLORY HEYER: Yeah, I agree with that. Like Coach P said about toughness, I think we've all learned toughness goes a long way, and we all need to stick together and play our hearts out.

We just learned how much energy can affect the game and how much it can give us momentum.

Q. Mallory, I know you guys really don't believe in moral victories, but seeing how the bulk of your team is young, underclassmen, what are you guys looking forward to most about this off-season and next season?

MALLORY HEYER: I think just continuing to grow our game, individually and as a team, working on our team chemistry. Just continuing to get faster, continuing to get stronger, and work on our game both ends of the floor.

This league is very veteran, and we're a very young team, and we have a ways to go. But we're willing to put the work in, and we're excited.

Q. This goes for either one of you. Five more wins this year overall, going from 11 to now 16 with, as Coach said, a potential of now playing in postseason. What can you guys just say about the development of everybody, of yourselves from last year to this year?

MALLORY HEYER: I think this year we came in, and we've all -- it's a completely new system, and we're all just trying to learn that. It's a completely new team, new coaching staff, everything like that. The bottom line is we had to learn a lot of new stuff, but I think we showed a lot of progress this year.

We've really been working on the little things on both ends of the floor.

Q. As you said, a lot of players stepped in. Can you talk about Ajok's performance tonight?

AMAYA BATTLE: Ajok came in, and she hit a three, a couple threes. The first shot was a three. She came and got steals. She was being aggressive and she was getting downhill. She had a great performance, not just on offense, but on defense. She's super long, so she was showing her presence. She got a couple steals as well. I think she did a great job.

Q. For either one of you or both of you, Coach talked about the physical nature in the way Michigan plays defense, actually plays the whole game. Can you just talk about the challenges that Michigan offers as a defensive team? Are they maybe the most physical team you will face in this conference?

AMAYA BATTLE: Yeah, they're super physical on both ends. I think all teams in the conference are super tough and physical in their own way. On offense it felt like any shot you got, it was earned like you had to work for that. Even then it still wasn't super easy.

They were crashing the boards super hard as well on both ends. Even on offense, they're imploring themselves as well. So they're super physical.

Q. Amaya, as you were subbed out near the end of the game, there was a loud cheering for you from Gopher fans, and there was also a sign that said "Battle Zone." I saw a lot of young fans there for you. How does that feel?

AMAYA BATTLE: The "Battle Zone" sign is from my sponsor, so shout out them.

Yeah, it felt great. I'm from here, so I love that I'm able to represent my state every game every day, and just knowing that they have my back and the team's back is just amazing.

Q. My last question for either of you. What did you guys learn most about yourselves and your team this year?

MALLORY HEYER: That's a great question. I just think sticking together. That was the biggest thing. Obviously we went through some injuries this year and some bumps in the road, but just sticking together and bringing energy every single day and continuing to be optimistic and have a positive attitude.

AMAYA BATTLE: I think I learned a lot of resilience and just a greater understanding of what the process looks like when it comes to growth. Dawnie preaches a lot of mental things, and the process you think goes like this, but sometimes you're going to go like this and plateau. You've got to stay resilient through it and keep going. I think I gained an understanding of that, and that can help me going forward.

Q. I know you don't believe in moral victories, but how much confidence does this give you heading into the off-season about why you guys can accomplish next year?

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: I think we went through phases, and I think Amaya talked about it, is that we went through phases where we did things, and we're trying to add to them. You hope that all of a sudden you're really good at that next piece, but maybe you're not quite as good but you're not quite there.

Then all of a sudden, you see this breakout game, and you saw that. I thought both of them had breakout games in this tournament. I thought Amaya had it on offensive end. Actually yesterday and today. But Mallory defensively and rebounding the way that she did. She's always been a good rebounder, but, man, she's continuing to really, really battle.

So what I think we've learned is that we've said this from the beginning. I've said this very openly. We have a group of young ladies who cares a great, great deal. They want to be good. They care. But it doesn't always happen as fast as you want it to happen. There is a growth process with it.

The fact that we're continuing to see growth, even when things are really hard, is something that is, I think, a tribute to who they are and how badly they want to be good.

Q. Coach, with the potential opportunity to have some postseason play, just how much would that mean for this young team, not only for this year, but for next season and future seasons.

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: It means a great deal for us, and I believe this group has really earned that opportunity. When you look at the quality -- some of the quality of wins that we've had and you look at where we've positioned ourselves in terms of the NET, I think they've earned that opportunity, and I'm really excited for them.

It's important for them to continue to experience what postseason is like. To win a game now in the tournament, in the Big Ten tournament, but then also to have an opportunity this week in between. The Big Ten Conference is one of the conferences obviously that plays the tournament early, and then you have that week before Selection Sunday, and what does that look like? That's completely different.

But now we have a chance to get used to that and to do that. That's going to be a part of our growth moving forward.

So I'm really excited for us, and then you have a chance to see a different style of play. So that's fun too.

Q. Michigan came into this game tied for the best scoring defense in the conference. Can you talk a little bit about what your game plan was defensively and if there were any specific players that you were kind of looking out for on the defensive end.

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: Well, Laila is someone I've known pretty well -- as a matter of fact, Laila and our daughter played AAU together when I was coaching at Northern Kentucky. So I've watched Laila play for a lot of years. It's really a lot more fun when she was playing on the team with our daughter than when you have to coach against her.

The goal is to go in and limit her good opportunities, but that's easier said than done. She's really a force to be reckoned with on all levels and on both ends of the court.

Then I think just overall the way that Michigan can shoot the basketball from the perimeter. You're trying to limit good opportunities. So we were trying to in the first, kind of the first half, take them out of some ball screen opportunities that way, but then you've got to really scramble and you've got to get the shooters on the perimeter because you're kind of stretched at that point in time.

We didn't do as good a job with that, and then tried to change rhythm with switching some ball screens and tried to change rhythm with going into a zone, and then came back into a man and tried a couple different things.

I think that's all a part of our growth, too, for our team. That was good to see us be able to make some of those adjustments. I know it didn't really answer your question about Michigan, sorry. But talk about our group.

Q. If you could just talk about just the challenge that you guys faced to find points both with Mara and then Sophie out of the lineup. The effort was usually there. The want to, right? But just the challenge of finding points without those players. I guess is there a chance that one or two of them could be back, if you do continue on this year?

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: I think certainly to identify we do have challenges to score without those two on the court, but again, I think what's the positive part of it is that we've seen different players step up in different opportunities and learn that they can maybe do a little bit more than they were before. So that's the positive part of it.

The opportunity to maybe have one or both of them back, well, we're hopeful, but we don't know that that's going to happen. That would be a nice gift if that were the case and kind of go from there.

I know that those two young ladies are working their tails off and doing everything they can from a recovery standpoint. That includes having that bone stimulator on for endless hours a day to find a way. From what they're eating and how they're working out and training and being smart, they're doing everything they can.

I think in the meantime trying to be great teammates and encouraging and leading in a different capacity.

Q. Amaya talked about how much this staff has invested in her, but can you speak to the growth that you've seen from her throughout this entire season and since you first got here in June in those first practices?

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: If you remember back to Amaya in March of 2023, that's when we first had a chance to work with her and do some team things or some individual workouts. Amaya was a player that we said over and over and over again, you have to penetrate to score. You have to catch to shoot. You have to be a threat, because right now teams can play off of you because you're not a threat. When you penetrate, you're penetrating to pass, so teams can take that away, and they're daring you to almost score. When you penetrate to score, you're going to create opportunities for everyone else.

From that time to where she's played in the last two games, it's been really, really fun to watch her play and to see her confidence grow and to hear her voice continue to grow, and to see her defensively continue to make strides and make plays.

So I think it's just been really fun. I think her best days are still far into her future. She's invested in wanting to continue to get better.

Q. You talked about growth and experiencing new things. How does like wondering what is this next week going to be like for you and your team. You're uncertain about what's next. Could be the off-season. Could be to continue playing. How do you tell your young team like how to prepare?

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: The first thing we'll do is take a couple days off, rest, and then come back. When we come back, we'll go back to basic, simple, fundamental basketball and work on scoring at the rim a little bit more efficiently, hitting open shots, swinging the basketball. We'll look at a couple things defensively that can continue to help us.

We'll just really work on the basics of how we have to continue getting better. That's really fun to get -- it's great during the season because you're game prepping all the time, but it's really fun when you have days where you can focus on who you are and how you want to continue to improve. So that's what we can continue to do during that week before we know.

Q. Just how huge can it be for this program to have so many returning players next season, knowing that it's a completely new system from last year, knowing how you implement video? Just how big can that be for their growth?

DAWN PLITZUWEIT: It's so important. Being able to make plays when you're kind of thrown into this environment, it's kind of a challenge when you haven't seen it for a while and understand what it looked like. That's a challenge.

I looked out at one point in time, and I think I had to smirk a little bit, there's three freshmen and two sophomores out there right now. They were playing their guts out. They were doing good things. But the ability to do it consistently is not something that -- you're not supposed to be able to do that yet. You haven't done it enough times.

So we make a change, a switch in how we're guarding in action, or how we're guarding maybe in the post, but then we move to something else. To be able to kind of counter that is something that it's easier to do the more times you're in it and you understand and you can make that adjustment.

I thought, again, our young ladies did a really good job of that. Then it would be one possession where we just didn't do that to the ability. We forgot that Laila likes to step through. We forgot that we have to help on that baseline scenario. We forgot how physical that really is in going to finish that play, whatever it is.

Then I thought there was a possession where Ayianna Johnson did a great job. She played behind and understood, I'm not going to let her get by me and walled up and made it a really tough possession. Again, those are all just kind of growth things in so many different ways, but you're not supposed to be able to do that when it's your first season of college basketball or even your second season sometimes. That's why you have veteran kids. So we'll have veteran kids, and that's a lot more fun.