NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - MIAMI (OH) VS WEST VIRGINIA

March 21, 2026

Glenn Box

Ilse de Vries

Amber Tretter

Hope Coliseum

Miami (OH) RedHawks

Media Conference

West Virginia 82, Miami Ohio 54

THE MODERATOR: Coach Box will begin with an opening statement. We'll take questions for our student-athletes, Ilse de Vries and Amber Tretter. Coach Box, your comments?

GLENN BOX: We ran into a buzz saw today. We ran into a really good team. They were well-balanced today. They hit us with a lot of different things. Our kids fought. They competed for 40 minutes. I could be no more proud of a team than I am of this team.

It wasn't our day. We live, we learn, and we improve.

Q. For both players, you guys didn't have a turnover for about the first eight minutes, I believe it was. And then all of a sudden the frenzy just started. What was the difference between that and then all of a sudden they hit like a 17-0 run because of those turnovers.

AMBER TRETTER: Yeah, I think going into the game we were very prepared for what they were going to show us and I think we were executing that at the beginning and I think maybe we had one or two and it kind of just was a domino effect at one point. I think that also was part of the momentum. They were getting more momentum scoring off the turnovers as well, which doesn't help, but, yeah.

ILSE DE VRIES: I totally agree with Amber.

Q. For both of you, if you could just talk a little bit about what was it like to play in front of a crowd in an atmosphere like this? With a packed arena, it was very much the epitome of what March Madness would you describe all about.

ILSE DE VRIES: I really enjoyed it. We've informer played for such a big crowd as we had today. We came running in and everyone is screaming boo! And honestly, it was motivation to me. I was like relax, was just -- we were just synchronized after that. It was super nice. Yeah, I'm very glad, actually, that we had this crowd.

AMBER TRETTER: Yeah, it was one of the biggest crowd or the biggest crowd I have ever played in front of. Just going forward, too, these are great experiences that we can learn from. We're both going to be here next year so it's going to be great things to use for our future as well.

Q. You had a lead at one point early in this game. What do you think led to it just kind of unravelling and you were never able to get it back? And simply put, have you ever faced a defense like this? Because their defense sparked their offense and the defense is kind of the calling card of this team.

ILSE DE VRIES: We had a lead and then they had an eight-point lead in the first quarter. I think we did a really good job in the beginning with our offense and their defense. I have to say they did pretty well. We never played against someone that plays defense like that. At some point we're just trying every time and I have to give credit to them, too. They did pretty well. We just could not execute at the right time.

AMBER TRETTER: Yeah, I think a lot of basically what she said, too, and their momentum was just for them and I felt like there was that one spread where they got a lot of turnovers in a row and we couldn't really get our way back after that. We did get the lead at one point but I think they just kind of took control.

Q. Amber, collectively, you're going to come out of this feeling what this year?

AMBER TRETTER: I'm going to be proud of our team. I think we still accomplished a lot. We won two MAC championships regular season and tournament. I think coming into this, this is still a great experience for all of us and this is everyone's childhood dream just to be here. We're going to learn from all this experience as well and keep that momentum going into next year as well.

ILSE DE VRIES: I agree with Amber. It's a great experience. I think none of us in our team ever played in March Madness. It's definitely not the result that we wanted, but it's only more motivation for next year.

THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for our student-athletes? All right, thank you, ladies.

Okay, we'll open it up now for questions for Coach Box.

Q. Coach, following up with what they were talking about, that run that West Virginia hit. What led to that? Were there some things that you didn't do or was it just a little panicked on your situation? What happened there?

GLENN BOX: In fairness and being factual here, we didn't panic at all. That's not what got us. What got us was I think I called a time-out and I looked at the clock and I saw when we were close to the half court and I saw 22 on the clock and then by the time we got the time out, there was 21 on the clock and we had one second as opposed to two and we just didn't execute. It was something we had to draw up never being in that scenario.

That propelled them, they obviously scored. It jump started their press. They got excited and that's all they needed. They're a good team and when you have this kind of crowd, you have to give them credit, but you have that kind of crowd, there's a different type of bump that you have. They had a different kind of energy. It just propelled them into multiple turnovers on our end.

To your question in regards to panic, we didn't panic, we got disorganized. It was just, I think, that's what can happen. If your pieces aren't right and that's what happened, we had a stretch right there where we just didn't get our pieces where we needed to get them. It just kind of snowballed right before the half.

We missed a layup and then they came down again. It just kind of snowballed and they're a good team. You got to give them a lot of credit. They don't need any extra help. I kind of gave them a little extra help. I gave them a bump. Give them credit.

Q. Coach, with the recent news of your contract extension and the amount of experience set to return next year, how do you take your experience this week and today into next year?

GLENN BOX: Well, we talked about the same thing. You just asked my kids about the experience here. We had a similar experience last year in the WNIT, you know? It was the WNIT, it gave us post-season experience. These two got to play along with Tamar and Nuria and they were able to take that into this season and we were able to do some great things.

The next thing I think with us right now is simply, everyone is saying the same thing, it's simply retention. We feel good about our team. We feel good about our pieces returning. Despite everything that we know is out there, we feel pretty confident, however, anything is possible but we do feel very confident.

With that being said, we intend to win multiple championships and not be in this scenario next year where we have to play a home team the first game. It's unfortunate because I think -- I felt like we did enough to not be in this situation, you know? But we ended up in this situation. I would much rather have to play someone else that's not on their home court.

Q. You think about the importance of the last five in a half and the important of the first five in a half. How frustrating can it be when you don't start the second half the right way?

GLENN BOX: It can be very frustrating. We needed to come out. We talked about cutting the lead, getting it under ten. Things just didn't work out. They made plays. They made play after play. They made shots, they made tough finishes. They got fouled. They're a load inside. They hit us with a lot of different types of punches today. Our kids, I think fatigue played a factor time.

Tamar had to play a lot. She had to do a lot for us today, even more than normal I felt like. It just kind of wore on her, it kind of wore on the team and we weren't able to really come out in the second half with the same juice that we needed.

Q. Coach, you talk about being an emotional guy. I know you have strong emotional connections with your players. What have these seniors meant to you in this being their final game?

GLENN BOX: Here's the thing: All these seniors we have, they were all transfers. With that being said, I feel like I got as close to the kids as you could get in one year because this is a different time. I think of Ashton and I think of Scalia and Clara and what they were able to do for us for this program. They were able to help take us to new-found heights. We owe a lot to them and this program and this university. It's a connection that I think I will have with these kids probably for the rest of their lives, just like I do with a lot of other kids that I've coached over the last three decades.

Very blessed to have coached them. They brought a lot to the table. I'm going to say this again. They jump started this thing. We have big goals here. This is just a step. They helped get us here, just like kids in the past. Each year we have gone, they helped get us to another level and next year, we intend to blow the roof off, so.

Q. You mentioned a couple of things about Singer and wearing down a little bit and that they got you disorganized. I'm just thinking their attack defensively, specifically generally how do they get you disorganized? How do they get you out of sorts?

GLENN BOX: You have to be on ten the whole time. You have to be on point the whole time, like locked in. Because it's a 90-foot game with them, there's more slippage, you know? There's a half a court that usually you don't have to worry so much about. Now we have to worry about it all the time.

This team, they're quicker than we were. They were more athletic. They were deeper than we were. We just didn't have a lot of room for error. Just putting their thumb on us the way we typically normally put our thumb on other people. It forced us into some turnovers that we might not have had. I still think I'm looking at this, we have 15 turnovers, but they still made us play faster than we want to play. That has a lot to do with the way they played too.

Q. Kind of piggybacking off of that, what makes West Virginia's defense unique, outside of just being more athletic and being a major conference team, what makes their defense unique and have you seen a defense like them before? How unique of a scout even was it?

GLENN BOX: They're more unique for us because they're more athletic than we are. Some of the other P4s, they're not going to have as big of issues as we did. If you're not athletic, you're going to have issues with them. We're athletic but it's all relative. We're really athletic for the level that we typically play.

I would say that I've seen presses better, but I'm not discrediting them by any means. I think they're really good. I think their pressure is really good. You have to give those kids credit along with their coach. They've done a great job and I'm just answering honestly. They're a good team, man. Really good team.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much.