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Opening statement
"Thank you all for being here. It feels like a few weeks since we've had one of these so it's great to get back. We're looking forward to hosting a WNIT game on Friday. There's a lot going on right now within our athletic department and we're working with the NCAA to host the men's first and second round downtown so I appreciate the opportunity the administration has put forth for us to have a chance to host. It's a lot of extra added work. That's why I love where I work, they support women's basketball. We are excited for the chance to continue playing. The Pac-12 season was hard, but I think the fact that there are 10 of the 12 teams in postseason – seven in the NCAAs and three in the WNIT – is incredible. That speaks to every game in conference is grind and I think 10 of our 12 teams in the postseason validates that. We're looking forward to playing. We play a very good UC Davis team. They won the Big West Conference out-right. When I was at Pacific they were a rival so I have a lot of experience playing them and I really like the coaching staff. I have a lot of respect for them. It should be a really good game Friday night at 6 p.m. We're hoping to get a really good crowd. You can get up to six people in free with the
Family Pass. We need a crowd so hopefully people show up."
On what the team been doing since the end of the Pac-12 Tournament
"The interesting thing with our tournament is that it's so much sooner than everyone else's. The team got some time off, and the coaches all went recruiting – all the Pac-12 coaches go recruiting. As coaches we've been on the road a lot recruiting and the team got some time off which is healthy. We had a tough matchup in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament against Arizona State so we left bummed, but time can heal things. They've been doing a lot of cardio, but practices have been limited. We didn't know who we were playing until Monday night so today will be the first day of practice where we really game plan for UC Davis. It's been pretty short and light, trying to keep them engaged. Sometimes, the rest away from conference season can be good. I feel like there's great energy with the team right now. I think they're really excited to keep playing so we'll have to see how it goes."
On expectations of WNIT
"We certainly want to win. I think what we've learned this conference season that we can take into next year is every game matters. We were two wins away from making the NCAA Tournament. We can look back at a few games in conference, and thought, had we played more to our potential and we could have won. We can carry that into postseason play and we're certainly going to carry it into next season. We have the mentality of playing to our potential and everyone in the locker room knows exactly what that means in terms of expectations. I want us to build some momentum as we head into next season."
On experienced players
"There's nothing better than experience. The unique setup of the WNIT is that you don't know until after your game when and where you're playing. This year they know if you win, you find out ten minutes later that you're either playing at home or you're on the road at 8 a.m. the next day. It happens really fast. That's the way the WNIT works. It's always at host site so you're either playing at home our you're playing on someone else's court. It's just another chance to keep playing. Everyone who's still playing from the Pac-12 talks about how the conference games prepare you for postseason with how difficult it is every weekend."
On UC Davis
"They run the Princeton - the offense with a lot of movement and cutting. They have very smart players. They've adapted it over the years so it's not the exact same as Princeton, but it's the same kind of principles. This is where I think their coaches do a great job. They'll watch what you're doing and they'll find a way to attack that. If it works they'll go to it over and over until you figure it out. I think they do a good job of teaching their players how to read defenses and they're very deliberate in what they do. They try to get the look they want to get and they have all smart players who can shoot the three. We need to defend the 3-point line well. Defensively, they're pretty traditional. They run mostly man, but they'll do zone a little bit. They don't do anything flashy, just solid percentage defense."
On playing for Paige Crozon in her last season
"When we met with the team after finding out about the WNIT, the first thing out of my mouth was, 'Paige, you deserve this'. She deserves us finishing on a high note for her. Everyone in the room was nodding. Everyone respects Paige and loves her. She's our only senior and she deserves us coaching our best and playing our best to finish her senior season. This is her only senior season and that motivates me, I want that to motivate her teammates and I know it does. She's a high-quality individual and I want to make sure we respect her and coach and play to our ability of fullest potential."