Latest / Coaches Corner / The Dailey Recap - USC
Transcript
- Congratulations. Oh my goodness, gracious, this team just refuses to lose. Well, they they certainly make it interesting. But it's just you can't even put it into words because if if you would have asked us, you know, even in the Caymans, it was a different team. We were not in a good place and and there were question marks back then. And then we just kept you know, every day working and working and becoming more of a unit and having guys buy into everything that we needed them to do and just make plays. And it was different this weekend than last. And I uh, I think Nica had two really good games floor games and made some big shots today. Page was Paige. You know, I don't work with free throw shooting though, I'll tell you that, but it was, you know, our defense has been good, Our defense has been solid, great, a great scap by Morgan and a really good solid game plan going in and to limit you know, Juju to twenty nine and she really had to take a lot of shots toget them. I thought we did a terrific job on her. Chris, they beat up pretty good on the offensive glass early, but you look at the second chance points, they didn't make it pay seven seven of the second chance points department. That had to be pretty big, and yet we're yeah, won by one. The whole rebounding battle to that and that was key. I mean, yes, against Duke, I think we were rebounded by twenty. Yeah, but they had a lot of turnovers, and today I thought we battled and really did a good job on the backboard. You know, I can't fault any any of our efforts. You know, we had to, you know, make some smarter decisions. I think some of the fouls were not really smart bowels, and we are just not in a position to be able to do that. Some of them were not great calls either. But the game was physical and we knew we weren't going to get a break and we handled that really well. Chris, what can you say about the fact that you got contributions from a lot of people? Yes, you had Page score twenty eight. You had and Leah scored twenty four. I said coming into the tournament they would have to average, you know, both in the twenties to be successful. But you got a little bit from KK, you got eight from Nico Boy, you got eight from Ice that you probably weren't expecting. Cadence gave you three, Ashland came back and gave you five in the second half. Well, you know what you tell your players all the time, they have to be ready because you never know when your number is going to be called. And you know, Q could have really not been ready because she hadn't played a lot in the NCAA tournament. And she comes in and knocks into three and gave us some quality minutes when we had foul trouble in the first half, and that says a lot. Ice did the same. And when we went with two bigs and KK got in foul trouble again with her fourth, we went with two bigs and Ice came up big. You know, she made a couple of shots really, you know, helped us out the baseline, the three from the corner, just a lot of really great plays. And then Page is page. That's always one way to put it right, say enough about her And I don't like, I don't want it to sound like we're whining, but I just don't feel like she gets the same calls that Juju or Caitlin or anybody else gets and it's really not fair. But you know that's something we have to live with. And you can't worry about it. You can't whine about it. You gotta keep playing. But hopefully at the final four we get that, you know, she gets the same respect that those other players do, and hopefully somebody asked her. You know that was bugging me. They always ask Paige about the other good player, like they asked Paige about Juju. I never see they ask anyone else about Paige. She's forgotten that, and I, you know not, she would never say that, And I'm just saying it. I think she's she's one of the best, and she's she's ours. So we're happy. This doesn't get old, does it. Nobody ever takes it's surprising some here. This is probably one of the more surprising trips given what you've gone through this season. But the great thing about this program is you guys never take this stuff for granted ever, And boy did you have to work. I mean this is fifteen of the last sixteen final fours. You CON's been in them. Well, it's interesting. I think when you go every year like we had on a stretch, you get kids start to and coaches maybe although we're a little we know a little bit more, you think that, oh we're gonna go every year, and then last year happens. You get smacked in the face and you're like, no, it doesn't happen every year, and that you really have These games and what we do in preparation are really really important, and we have to learn from what we did last year. And I think we've done that. All right, go and enjoy and we're all going to Cleveland. I've got some travel plans to change my flight. Is it twelve forty overnight? Oh? Okay, I'm getting at least to Minneapolis. I'm gonna say, hey, can I change that second leg to Cleveland? Good luck? Thank you, Thanks Chris, thank you for stopping by. Appreciate it.