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Kara Lawson - Duke Sweet 16 Presser · Coaches Corner

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  All right, good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the NCAA Division One
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  Women's basketball Tournament Portland Regionals at the Motor Center and Practice A press conferences for
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  Portland Regional three. Some reminders before we begin the press conference, please silence
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  all cell phones. There's no flash photography and no video can be taken inside
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  the press conference area. If you want to access the press conference video,
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  you can do so afterwards on the NCAA Media Hub. We will take questions
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  from the media room first, and then we will take questions from the zoom
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  room. We asked it you please state your name and affiliation before asking your
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  question, and we ask that questions asked pertaining specifically to the game coming up.
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  Join us now from Duke s Hey coach Carol Lawson, a coach,
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  will begin with your opening statement, and then we'll open it to questions.
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  Well, I don't know how to have a long opening statement, but we're
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  excited to be here, excited for the opportunity to compete, and you know,
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  looking forward to the Okay, Hi, Cara Michelle Smith from the next
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  can you talk about give me two or three keys? Do you think to
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  this matchup? The things that you have to do and the things you absolutely
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  cannot do against you come. I mean for us, things pretty much,
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  our keys pretty much stay the same. You know. We want to make
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  things difficult defensively for people, So we wanna make people take challenge shots.
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  They don't want to give up open ones. Wanna control the boards. We
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  need to take care of the ball. We've been some games good this year,
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  some games not good this year. Taking care of the ball and just
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  play with great pace on both ends. So that's that doesn't change for us
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  game to game. You know, obviously matchups some teams make it harder in
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  certain areas than others, just based off of personnel. But that's pretty much
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  what we do as we go in and we try and be really good in
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  those areas. Just remind her no video inside the press conference. Police.
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  You can access the video afterwards. Next question upfront super emersion with the Athletic
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  Kara is that sweatshirt in response to the press conference from last weekend. I
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  just like the sweatshirt. Yeah, I thought it was a good message.
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  And then just a big picture when it comes to scouting page Becker's what is
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  it that stands out to you? I mean, she's obviously really talented player,
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  pretty complete in every area. So I guess what stands out is there's
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  not a lot of weaknesses. You have to be really disciplined, really sound,
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  and even when you do that, she's good enough to still make plays.
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  So I think it's just being able to do it the whole game and
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  trying to make things as difficult as possible. For like said, hello,
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  there we go, Alexa Philipo ESPN. With having so many underclassmen and so
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  many freshmen on this year's team, what were some of the biggest challenges that
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  you faced and trying to get them kind of caught up to speed, and
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  have you noticed them turning a corner in which ways you know more recently in
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  the postseason. I'm sorry the freshman you said freshman or I mean, I
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  don't think there's one moment that you know, like, oh, they're they're
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  mature now. I think they each just on their journey, have grown and
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  through the course of the season, we've been able to add more to their
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  plate. In the beginning, we had to keep things pretty simple in terms
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  of our schemes, and now we're able to layer it more and be a
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  little more complex and that's good because they've shown their ability to be able to
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  handle that and we can change things and go in and out of things,
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  which is valuable when you're advancing because the teams that you play, obviously the
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  degree of difficulty increases and you have to be able to change things. You
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  can't play the same way you know all the time on players and teams,
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  and so their ability to be able to handle that has been good. They've
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  been confident from the beginning, but I'm sure there's increasing confidence as they now
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  are, you know, almost a full year into their career and have played
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  a lot of challenging teams. I mean, that was one of the things
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  we made sure we did. You know, we played one of the toughest
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  schedules in the country or non conference. We played a lot of the top
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  teams. A lot of the teams that we played are still playing. You
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  know that we've played in our schedule, so they know what that level feels
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  like, even though though we haven't played every team left in the tournament.
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  They know what that level feels like. And that was really important for me
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  with a young team. I didn't want them to get to March and all
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  of a sudden be surprised at the level of play. They needed to have
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  already experienced that. So I think they're excited and looking forward to compete.
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  I'm back Stuke Athletics kind of piggybacking off that coach. You mentioned the tough
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  schedule. How about the league and the ACC still three a SEC teams playing
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  right now? How much did the league prepare you for this moment? Yeah,
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  I mean, I think you see stylistically a lot of different types of
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  teams in our league, and that's helpful. There's obviously great players at every
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  position, and so you know, we've played against great guards, and we
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  played against great front court players, and obviously the team we're playing tomorrow has
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  great guards and great, great front court players, so we're gonna have to
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  be prepared for that. And so I think just the different styles and the
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  different game plans that we've had throughout there as well is helpful because we're able
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  to say, like, hey, you know, this scheme is like when
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  we played X, or this scheme is like when we played why, or
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  this player is like player X, and this player is like player WHY.
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  So there's a little bit of recall for them, which is valuable. Jim
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  take Raton Booth from the Associated Press. I know, the NCAA tournament's only
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  one piece of a bigger puzzle as you're developing and building a program, But
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  getting to this stage of the tournament, getting to the second weekend is what
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  kind of significance is there with that? As you you know, and to
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  take over as a coach and start developed the program the way that you wanted
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  to, Huh. I mean, it's definitely accomplishment. I don't know.
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  I'd like to get to the next weekend. I think for our group to
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  be able to go on the road and win a game, you know,
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  like we did on Sunday. Obviously, you know we're a lower seated team,
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  and I guess we're the lower seas team, lower seed team left in
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  the whole tournament. So we know that, you know, we're be on
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  the road, and we know that we'll be you know, not the team
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  favored in in in in any matchup, and so being able to get a
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  young team to be able to focus and lock in and be able to to
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  win that type of game. I think that, more than anything than getting
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  to a second weekend was valuable and it's something that you know, kind of
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  accelerates growth. Being in those moments, you know, top ten team on
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  the road and being able to win as it was was big for our group.
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  Bob Joyce, you kind of sports network, hy Cara. Uh,
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  two things. We only had four field goals in the first fifteen minutes,
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  and then talk how that game turned around so fast. And then Reagan's development
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  as a player. What have you seen from her? You Ohio State game
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  you're talking about, Yeah, I mean we didn't start off the game really
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  well. I thought their pressure impacted us and affected us. We turned it
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  over and obviously dug ourselves a really big hole. Once we got settled in,
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  I thought we started to get some stops that helped our offense, helped
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  us with our pace and getting out and running, and then you know,
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  some shots started to fall for us. I think Ash made a three,
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  you know, take it from thirty to fourteen to thirty to seventeen. That
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  I thought kind of gave us some confidence. And you know, Reagan's It's
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  been a continuous growth for Reagan. Obviously this time of year, if you
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  have a big game, everyone wants to talk about it, but really for
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  her, you know, it's started, you know, I didn't have her
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  her freshman year. She she's first year with us. Last year was a
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  starter for us as a sophomore, but not one of our main main players
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  in terms of offensive options. We had a you know, senior leaden team
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  last year, and so she was, you know, more of a supporting
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  player, an important player for us, but not a featured player on offense.
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  And then this year as a junior, becoming more of a featured player
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  for us. She's grown into that, being counted on every night to score
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  and getting the better defenders, you know, now as a junior, and
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  she's continuing to to just learn how to how to handle that and and certainly
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  the last two games she's she's shot it really well and we've needed we've needed
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  all her points. So I'm proud of of how she's grown and developed,
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  and she continues to to be I think one of the best two way players
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  in our league and in the country. But you know, obviously there's a
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  lot of good players out there too, but for us, she's really important
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  to what we do. Shade Watson Fisher Ralli News an observer. Kara,
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  you posted back in twenty twenty one a photo of you and pat summit and
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  you said, I wish you were here to see me coach as you kind
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  of meet these milestones in your coaching career. What do you think she would
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  be telling you if she was still here like right now. Yeah, I
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  think she would probably tell me to make sure that my players are really confident
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  going into the game. You know, they have great belief in themselves,
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  because you have to have that this time of year. You have to have,
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  you know, a high level of belief in what you can do as
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  an individual and then what you can do together. That's the most important thing,
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  more important than scheme, you know, or game plan, and probably
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  rebound. You know, she was big and rebounding, so I'll say she
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  probably telled me to tell them that they got to rebound, So I'll probably
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  tell them that Joe's own Channel three in Hartford. A lot of common opponents
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  between you and you got. Is there anything you can take from that as
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  you prepare for this game. I looked at it like that. I mean,
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  certainly watched a lot of film on them, and you know, they're
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  a terrific team, and I have a lot of weapons, I think more
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  than common opponents. You know, you look for stylistically, maybe teams that
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  do similar things that you do to see how they play, you know,
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  against them. But I haven't watched every game that was a common opponent or
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  anything like that. I think that probably just speaks to that they play a
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  lot of hard teams, and we play a lot of hard teams, you
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  know, I think from the looks of the schedule, you know, we
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  both try to challenge ourselves, you know, in a non conference and play
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  some of the top teams, and you know, I'm sure I know for
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  us, that's a big reason why we're here. You know, I don't
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  know if they'd say the same thing, but we definitely want to make sure
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  that we challenge ourselves outside our conference. Going back to the question about Reagan,
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  was there anything particularly over the last week or ten days that you noticed.
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  Was it maybe something that clicked with her or something that really led to
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  this kind of performance that we're seeing recently. No, I mean, you
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  can ask her. Maybe Reagan's pretty steady, you know, like she's you
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  know what you're gonna get from her every day. She's one of my most
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  consistent players that I've ever coached. Really, now that that's a long time,
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  only my fourth year. So don't don't go crazy here. She every
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  day in practice, great effort, great focus, like great attention to detail,
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  and and she was like that when when she came here. I didn't
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  do I didn't do anything to make her like that. She she was like
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  that. She came like that. And so I think that's more the story
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  than anything. Is just over the last couple of years, every day she
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  consistently has come in practice and worked and worked and shot before practice and shot
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  after practice, and you know, had a good weekend. You know.
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  That's that's how this tournament is. You know, like now we gotta have
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  another good day, you know, and and that'll be hard to do against
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  his team, uh mag given own ect inside the last time you put Yukon
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  was here, however, they did not have Page Beckers. How much just
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  how much different difference does she bring to that team? Yeah, I mean
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  I think they're a totally different team than the one we played here. You
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  know, I don't, I think I mean most of the player I think
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  it's a different. I mean think Asy was playing, I think Lopez was
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  playing, do charm was playing. Maybe, I mean it's like totally different.
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  I mean, Paige obviously makes a big difference. You know, she's
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  one of the best players in the country, and so it's you know,
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  they're just they're different to me than last year. You know more fore guard
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  obviously, and last year they had m you know, bigger players at least
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  when we played them. Uh, be honest, I didn't watch them a
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  ton like after we played'em. So yeah, but sh but she she
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  makes a big difference. I mean, no matter what team she was on,
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  she would make a a really big difference. This will be our last
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  question. Care. I know the schedule is really busy, affiliation, please
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  did that already? Want Michelle Smith from the next I know you're really busy
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  with your team and you guys have a hectic schedule. There are some really
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  fun matchups this weekend. Are you going to have any time to watch games
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  and just see how things are going turn it out for other and other matchups?
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  Yeah, I mean mostly, Uh, I'll probably watch the Duke Men's
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  game tonight. I know they play Houston. I know there's games maybe going
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  on right now, but clearly I'm not watching them. Uh maybe, I
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  mean, I don't know. It just kind of depends on when they tell
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  me. When my free time is then it's sometimes, but for the most
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  part, I spend my time watching the teams we're about to prepare for,
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  or you know, making sure we have all our ducks in a row.
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  But I think our team will probably watch our men play tonight in the Sweet
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  sixteen. That's all the time we have, coach, Thank you very much,
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  Thank you luck. Tomorrow, we'll have our student athletes from Duke up
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  in about four minutes.