NCAA Women’s Lexington Regional Semifinals
Friday, March 23 2018
Lexington, Kentucky
Baylor
Kim Mulkey
Kalani Brown
Alexis Morris
Dekeiya Cohen
Oregon State – 72, Baylor – 67
Q. You came in on such a roll. Your statistics for the last couple of games were outstanding. What went wrong tonight that you didn’t do particularly well that you had been doing maybe all season long?
KIM MULKEY: Hey, can you get the athletes first like she said and save that question and then I can elaborate a little more? Save it for me, okay?
Q. Y’all had come in on such a roll. Your statistics the last couple of games were outstanding, and tonight it seemed like you could never really get into a rhythm, get anything going that you normally do.
KALANI BROWN: I think it starts with myself not being able to score the ball. I let my team down tonight, honestly.
DEKEIYA COHEN: I just think that, like you said, certain things weren’t falling for us tonight that we usually get, and we try to make adjustments, but it wasn’t working, so I think we suffered the consequence.
Q. Ms. Brown, I’m sure you’ve seen all kinds of defenses this year. You went out to the top of the key and hit some in the first half. Did they change anything against you to make you change your game?
KALANI BROWN: No, there was nothing we hadn’t really seen before, I just couldn’t finish my shots. And at the top of the key, she started denying me that shot after I had hit a few, so I had to rearrange some things, and I was just out of rhythm tonight.
DEKEIYA COHEN: I was just playing within the flow of the offense, and if things came my way, then I shot it, and some shots fell, some shots didn’t. We didn’t try to force anything that we don’t usually do.
Q. For Alexis, you guys did such a good job defensively in that second quarter, held them to nine points. Did they do anything to change, or what did y’all maybe not do in the second half that you did really well in that second quarter?
ALEXIS MORRIS: I think our defense was good in the second half. I think we got stops. It wasn’t nothing they did, it was us. We wasn’t Baylor tonight. We’re going to watch film, get in the film room, and we’ll get it right.
Q. Kalani, you mentioned last week after the early part against Michigan that you couldn’t afford to play like that again in a game the rest of the way. Did something not click again tonight? Did you feel kind of the way you did after the first half against Michigan when things went wrong?
KALANI BROWN: Not really. She was able to finish and I couldn’t. That was the end of it.
Q. Only senior up here, realizing this is your last game, how tough was this and how tough is it to go out this way?
DEKEIYA COHEN: Very tough. It’s not like expected, obviously, but I think we fought hard. I think we fought until the end, and that’s all I could really ask for. I know that we all wanted it the same way I want it, even though I was a senior, but we fell a little short. But I’m proud of our overall season.
Q. Kim, I think they finished 9 of 20 from three. You knew that coming in. Did you feel like overall, though, y’all did a pretty good job on defending the three?
KIM MULKEY: No, I don’t. I think their offense exposes you a lot, particularly when you’re a man-to-man team, and that’s what you’ve played. But then you think, I can’t go to a zone with as many perimeter shooters as they have. I thought their big girl, that kid, she has to be older than a senior because she played like she was older. I mean, she was dominant. We had nobody that could guard her. She just reminded me of my days back in international basketball, where she just dominated the floor, shooting, rebounding, finding open players. She was by far the best player on the floor tonight, and she controlled the whole thing for her team. I should call her name, right, Gülich? Heck, just a great player.
Q. Talk about things that you would like to do that you didn’t do well —
KIM MULKEY: Well, look, they’re good. We’re good. The next two teams are good. When you get to this level, it’s just the nature of the business. Whoever hits shots, makes shots, executes, you know, does what you have to do to win is going to win. We couldn’t score the basketball. How many lay-ups did Kalani miss? How many lay-ups did — executing against their zone. We got the looks we wanted for Cox. It’s partly what we just missed, but give your opponent credit. I believe in giving your opponent credit.
Guys, we milked that tournament about as far as we could milk it. Y’all know what that means in Oregon? With all the stuff we had this year happen to this basketball team, I can’t go in there and chew them out. We lost to a very good team, a team that shot it extremely well, and we seem to bring out the best in people, and that’s respect for our program, as well. We lost one kid. We signed the No. 1 recruiting class in the country. They’ll be on campus this summer, and we will go back to work.
Q. I think it was early in the game, Alexis had missed two or three lay-ups, seemed to be going too fast. Was that the case with her, almost like she was going too fast?
KIM MULKEY: You know, I’m not one to make excuses. They’re a young team, we’re a young team. We lost two starters in the last four weeks. It matters. It matters. Alexis Morris stepped in and did a remarkable job as a freshman. Juicy Landrum stepped in and did a remarkable job as a sophomore. I thought there were moments tonight where the lights were too big. To have to look at Juicy, did Juicy even score tonight? She played almost half the game and didn’t even score. I’ll have to go back and look and see why. Were you nervous? You know, sometimes kids — the lights are bright, the deeper you make a run in the tournament. I don’t know. But I know we wouldn’t be here today without her stepping in and doing good when Natalie went down. Morris is a freshman, and she will learn. She will get better. The good thing is we have them all back.
Did we miss Kristy Wallace? Guys, you don’t miss — look, you lose your quarterback, yeah, you miss them. We missed her tonight. But that doesn’t mean that we couldn’t have won the game. That doesn’t mean we went in there thinking we were defeated. We fought to the very end. It was a two-point game, and you make a defensive stop, we made a mistake on coming to help when I didn’t think we needed to help, and that was a sophomore that made that decision, too. So they’ll learn from it. We’ll get better.
Q. 33 wins, and with everything that this team went through, was this the most impressive way a team could get to 30-plus wins?
KIM MULKEY: Hmm. Well, it wasn’t easy. That’s for sure. It seems like from the beginning of the season until just, what, two, three weeks ago when we lost Kristy, it never stopped. You keep thinking you’re going to get a break, and something is going to make all the stuff stop, and it never did. It was just one thing after another.
It started in November with the death of my grandchild. Then it was Trinity Oliver tore her knee up. We only had 10 to begin with. Trinity Oliver tore her knee up. Then we’re stranded on the side of a highway with fog and bus on fire, 3:00 in the morning. Then we come back and Chameka dies. It was just something that we had to deal with, and you have to deal with it. You’re human.
I’m so proud of how they dealt with it because they really made coming to work enjoyable. And then you had Cox with the ketoacidosis, didn’t even play in the UCLA game. She’s trying not to go into a coma because of her diabetes, then we find out her sister has diabetes, we have to deal with that. Then we have two families going through marital issues.
It’s stuff — I don’t have a book to go find what page I find how to deal with this on. You deal with it with your heart. You deal with it as you would your own family and as a mother and as their coach, and yet we don’t get a break. You’ve just got to keep going to work. And you don’t go to work with this stoic face like, oh, be strong, be brave. You cry with them, you laugh with them, you bring it out of them, and it’s a testament, and I’ve said this many times, to the parenting of these kids, because they do care, they do hurt, they do have feelings.
But they just kept playing. They won a Big 12 championship. They ran the table in the Big 12. They won the Big 12 tournament. They got a 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. You know, there’s a lot to be proud of.
But probably the biggest thing that I’m going to take away from today is the experience that a lot of young people got. I looked out there on that floor one time, and I didn’t have a senior on the floor. I had two freshmen, three sophomores on the floor at one time. And the value of their playing time tonight and throughout the year will make us a better team next year and the year after.
Q. Is it almost to a point with all of what you said that you have set a standard that not many people have reached in women’s basketball that when you keep knocking on the door and are falling just short that it could become something that you want too much and players feel that when they get here?
KIM MULKEY: No. No, who wants to go play somewhere that doesn’t have a standard? I don’t. That’s called mediocrity. Name me another program right now that has that standard around central Texas. Men, women, football, name them. I’m proud of that standard.
I don’t like finishing in the Sweet 16 or in the Elite 8, but as I tell you many times, we’re going to keep feeding that monster. If we break through that door, we’ll break through it. If we don’t, we’ll just keep feeding it.
Does that help a little bit?
Q. You talked about Gülich earlier. How did you want to guard her? What were you trying to take away from her?
KIM MULKEY: Well, she’s hard to double because she faces up. She gets away from the basket. So she is one of those that’s not just a back-to-the-basket post player. She sets those picks for the guards, but it’s not like she’s rolling to that block where you can double her a lot. She got some on-the-block stuff one-on-one, but they run a system where you have to respect the shooters on the other side of the floor, so you don’t know how much do I really help off.
I just thought the kid shot lights out. I mean, guys, they shot 60 and 45 percent in the second half. You know, that’s what seniors do. She was the best player on the floor, and she carried her team basically. She really did. She carried them in that she made everybody else better. She gave them good looks, good shots, one more rebound. I was very impressed with her.
NCAA Women’s Lexington Regional Semifinals
Friday, March 23 2018
Lexington, Kentucky – Rupp Arena
Oregon State
Scott Rueck
Marie Gülich
Mikayla Pivec
Kat Tudor
Oregon State – 73, Baylor – 68
SCOTT RUECK: Well, what can you say? It’s been a heck of a week to this point, and we’re excited that it gets to continue. I can’t say enough about this team, coming out and coming into another situation and game where you’re playing just an unbelievable team in Baylor that has so much ability, so much talent, so much expectation, so well-coached, so efficient. One of the most efficient teams in the country. You look at their numbers, and it takes a lot to keep looking at them because you don’t want to believe any of those things because they’re overwhelming.
For this team to take the floor and once again know they belong, play like they belong, believe that they should win and play that way the entire time, I couldn’t be more proud. It starts with Marie sitting next to me, and it filters through our team, and you saw incredible performances throughout her roster. Hats off to Baylor for just continuing to fight and never going away.
I can think back to the first quarter where it felt like, man, we’re in control of this game, and you look up and we’re up by two because they seemed to score so easy at times. This game had incredible runs to it, and then when that final three went down, our ninth three of the game, Katie knocked that down in the corner after Mik’s pass, man, we might actually get this thing, and then what a great feeling the second that buzzer went off, and I’m so happy for this team.
We go into every week throughout our conference schedule, play Friday-Sunday just like this, and we always talk about there’s 80 minutes on the weekend, and you’ve got 40 down and 40 to go. I’m so thankful that we get to complete that this weekend. So proud of the fight and the courage to get the W today. Excited and honored that I get to coach them again.
And I have to say, so grateful to Beaver Nation for traveling like they did. We had a good crowd here a long ways from home on short notice, and they never disappoint. I always say that, and it’s true. Really grateful, and proud of our team.
Q. Marie, going up against Kalani, I know she’s finalist for National Player of the Year. What was your mindset going up against her and really being able to dominate the game?
MARIE GÜLICH: I think our scouting report said just attack her, and that was my plan today was just like my quickness, I think I just used my quickness really well against her. She’s really tall and she’s strong, but I think I could get around her and have the shots over her.
Defensively my goal was just to keep her off the block, to just take away her left hand, and to not make it easy on her. She’s a really tough person to guard, and I’m proud that we as a team accomplished that.
Q. Kat, you all made a lot of three-pointers and very efficient, as well. But did you want to take more, or was Baylor’s defense a little bit quicker than maybe you thought?
KAT TUDOR: It adjusted as the game went on, but whatever helps our team win, if it’s me making threes or not, just going to do whatever is best, and just everybody found shooters so great today, and it just worked out.
Q. Marie, just a quick follow-up on Brown. When she started hitting those mid-range jumpers, how much of an adjustment did you have to make on that down low?
MARIE GÜLICH: Well, our game plan was to like let her — like make her hit those shots, and she did. So my goal was just to make her think a little bit more about her shot, if she should pass it, drive it or shoot it. I think I just adjusted a little bit by getting a little closer and backing up again, just to make her think.
Q. Kat, can you talk about just how physical this game was and how there were many times I saw you try to go up for that signature hook move and a lot of times bodies would just end up on the ground, but you guys didn’t seem to get rattled by it at all.
KAT TUDOR: I mean, the Pac-12 prepares us for this, too. You kind of have to play through it. You get a foul or not, the game is still going on, so you have to play through it.
Q. Marie, key sequence in the game obviously was your three-point play, about seven minutes left to extend the lead to six, and then Kat, your three to go up nine, can you each take us through those plays and what happened? You draw the foul on Lauren, and how important do you think that was to get you guys home?
MARIE GÜLICH: I think it just gave us a little bit more momentum. We were trying to get to the rim all the time. We were trying to draw fouls, too. I was just glad that I was able to just like spin off her and get the ball up and make it, and yeah, got the call. I think it just helped us to get more momentum and get more energy for us to like defend them.
KAT TUDOR: Yeah, there are more comfort points, too, so it gives us that extra lead, but to be honest I didn’t really check the scoreboard at the end because I don’t like to do that. I like staying present in the moment, not letting myself get ahead or anything.
Q. In the closing seconds there when it was just a two-point game, you had the ball, you were able to find McWilliams there. What did you see out on the court, and was it just that she was the open player, or what was going on out there?
MIKAYLA PIVEC: As the shot clock was winding down, I tried to attack to see whether either I had my shot or whoever helped kick it out, and once I attacked, I saw Natalie helping, and so I just kicked it, and I know Kitty is a great shooter, and I was confident in her ability to hit that, and I was happy she did.
Q. Mikayla, how were you all able to stay so patient against their defense, not forcing — particularly not forcing shots, and how did that help you all today?
MIKAYLA PIVEC: We knew with patience we could get whatever shot we wanted if we executed well, and at times we didn’t execute well, but we know when we did, we would get good shots. So going through our first read, second read, third reads, if that first option wasn’t there, just staying with it and going into motion.
Q. Marie, you were in Dallas two years ago for the big win against Baylor. How does this one compare?
MARIE GÜLICH: It’s pretty close. I mean, both — I don’t even know, but I think this year it’s just more special to me because I heard so much with like the losses we had and the ups and downs we went through as a team, and I’m just so proud of the accomplishment we have had so far, and we’re playing so confident right now, and it’s just so fun. I’m just really proud, and I think that just makes this win even like bigger and more important to me, and I’m just very excited for the team.
Q. Going up against one of the most potent offenses in the country, second in points per game, second in field goal percentage, you hold them to 20 points below their average and under 40 percent shooting. What was the key to doing that?
SCOTT RUECK: I mean, well, A, it’s what we do. I mean, it’s by design, the way that we defend, the way we keep people out of transition. I would say it’s our signature. We’re in the top one, two, three or four in defensive field goal percentage every year, and it’s because we like to stay basket side, and you look at this team and their ability to throw lob passes, their ability to rebound offensively. You see teams play top side, which makes sense because it’s hard to stop them one-on-one, and it’s one of the trade-offs. Are you going to allow Kalani to catch the ball? Some teams say no. We say, well, let her catch it, but let’s keep her a little bit further away and let’s let her take that shot over the top of you, so at least you have rebounding position. Then you want to give them different looks like that.
Well, this team transitions incredibly well. They’re one of the best assist teams in the country. They shoot 52 percent from the field on the season, and they themselves only give up 32. I mean, that’s what I was saying. Their numbers are crazy.
And so our game plan was stay basket side and keep this team in front of us. Don’t let them get to the spots we know they love to get to and make them work for everything, and then hold your own on the boards. These are two of the top four — I think we’re third or fourth in the country in rebound margin. Baylor is by far No. 1, plus 19.1 a game. I mean, that’s incredible numbers.
And so I knew if we can keep it close on the boards, just like two years ago, we’re going to have a chance in this game, and we’re going to put pressure on their shooters, and that was our goal.
I thought we did a great job keeping them out of transition for the most part. We made their posts work for everything. I didn’t want Kalani to be quite as wide open. I think we had a German-English translation issue with Marie maybe. I’m just teasing. But I didn’t want her to be that open because I know how good of a shooter she is. I mean, a 77 percent free-throw shooter can make free throws, whether it’s a free throw or a jumper. But for the most part, we made them take the shots we wanted, and we knew it was just going to be a war on the boards every time that ball went up.
That was our game plan, and that’s what this team has done a great job of, and I said, I think defensive transition is going to be the most important tonight that it’s been all year, and that’s saying something when you’ve got UCLA coming at you twice and you’ve got other teams in the Pac-12 coming at you, including Tennessee the other day. Transition is so important to that team, as well.
Like Marie said, we’re playing extremely confidently. We’re executing our stuff. They’ve bought into our scheme, and it’s because of Marie. She trusts it. She knows it. She’s been a part of it. And she’s holding them to that standard within our locker room, and so then our execution is on point. Tonight it had to be.
Q. Can you also address how they were able to stay so patient on offense against Baylor’s defense?
SCOTT RUECK: Yeah, and I think that — again, I don’t want to sound like I’m selling our conference, but our conference is good. If you look at who we play against night in and night out and the schemes that you see, it does — it prepares us. You know, we had Notre Dame early this year. We had Duke early. Those were the painful losses that Marie talked about. Both those games ended in tears for her. She had tears in the locker room. Marie is a winner, and those were hard for her because she’s used to dominating, and the last three years we have for the most part, and that was tough for her.
You know, and so when you go through all those tests, then you learn what it takes. We have a rookie point guard in Mikayla Pivec out there, bless her heart, competing like crazy, thrown to the wolves, out of position, but surviving and doing it really gracefully now. And so this team knows that when we need a good shot, they know what it is. They know, okay, even versus this pressure, we’ve got to manage the clock, and we’ve got to manage this possession, and we’ve got to find the right shot.
And so when you play a team like Baylor, part of the tempo issue, you can’t turn it over. You can’t hand them possessions by either a turnover or taking a quick, poor shot.
I thought we took a couple early ones in the first quarter. They were pretty good looks, but they were quick with no rebounding position. We didn’t have good balance, and that led to leak-outs. But overall, they just know how to win. This team knows what it takes to win, and I think that leads to possessions like that against a great defense and a great offense.
Q. Katie’s three there with 10 seconds to go, especially given the circumstances, and I think she only had four points after that point and was 0 for 3 until that point from beyond the arc, was that the biggest shot the season for the team?
SCOTT RUECK: Well, this is the biggest win, so — it’s not. There’s a couple others where you think about getting into the tournament. I mean, she had a lob lay-up in an overtime win at the buzzer to send it to overtime. That was a win earlier in the year. She had a lob lay-up against UCLA against a baseline out of bounds play. So you look at things like that.
We’re up two, certainly didn’t want them to have the ball on a two-point game at the end, so it was a huge shot for that reason. But it iced the Sweet 16 game and created the Elite 8 opportunity for us. So it was a huge one.
You know, and that’s somebody that hit three threes against UConn in the Final Four a couple years ago as a freshman, so Katie has hit nothing but huge shots for us this year, so it didn’t surprise me at all, and it was a great setup by Mikayla, beautiful pass.
Q. You mentioned a lot of the stats, about how good Baylor is offensively. Was there one thing in particular that you all tried to work on in preparation, or was there one specific player you wanted to shut down today?
SCOTT RUECK: Yeah, well, the one thing we wanted to shut down was offensive rebounds. When you look at that team, that’s what you fear the most. Their guards are so quick. They create off the dribble. You know, they have side-on ball screens a lot. That’s probably the action that they use the most. And that creates — for good reason. That creates a lot of trouble. So when the guard drives middle, the help comes and they dump off passes to two probably All-Americans, right, how do you defend in a way that keeps those post players out of position to get offensive rebounds.
You know, so that was really the trick. And so like I said earlier, if you keep them behind you — in front of you. If you keep them away from the rim and you can defend in a way that does that and help in a way that does that, that gives you a chance. And so that was the number one thing. So out of transition, rebounding position, and try to force them out of the middle. Those guards are so good once they get middle. They make great decisions, and that’s where they score the best from.
Q. With all that was going on the last five days, the travel, finals, game prep for Baylor, all of that, how did you manage all that? How did you get this team into a routine to be able to be here tonight?
SCOTT RUECK: Yeah, I have no idea. I have no — it’s been hard. You know, today — I mean, I’ll tell you the number one thing is our staff is incredible. That’s number one. They, from logistics to thinking every single thing through, helping me with everything I can do, phenomenal. Everybody that I get the chance to work with. And so they’ve been a calm in this storm, and they’ve been so — they’re just the best. They’re mature, they just get it, and they’d do anything for this team, so our staff is number one. When you have a leader like Marie who approaches everything with a professionalism that her expectations for people being prepared, you don’t mess with Marie when it comes to that, nor did you with Gaby or Sydney or Jamie or Ruth. We’ve invested so much. Take care of yourself. We had finals last week. I mean, there’s still a couple, I think, to be taken still. So not only did we travel across the country and back, we took finals, and we prepared for the No. 2 team in the country and all of these things, and played people long minutes, and they didn’t seem tired.
So I think it’s just — you know, the will, and it’s an expectation of excellence throughout. You know, that’s probably the thing I’m happiest about. This team is continuing that legacy of being incredible role models, not just to young girls, not just to young people, to everyone. I mean, they’re inspirational, just the way they carry themselves, and it’s not a women’s basketball thing, it’s a life thing. They do everything right, and because of that, they can create experiences like what you just witnessed.
I mean, there’s a reason we’re supported like we are. This team chooses to operate at an incredibly high level. I would attribute it to the character of the people in our program and their professionalism and their desire to do things right, and it’s a joy to be a part of. It’s really special.
Q. When you think about women’s powerhouse basketball teams, Baylor and Tennessee are right up there on the top. You just took both of them out, and now do you think that Oregon State is maybe on the verge of creating tradition and a powerhouse in women’s basketball now?
SCOTT RUECK: Well, somehow we seem to continue to remain a secret. This team is 62-10 in the No. 1 conference in the country the last four years. I know the expectations were low, but I don’t know if people expected us to disappear this year. I know we graduated Sydney and Gaby and Bre and Kolbie last year, but do you know who Mikayla Pivec is? Do you know who Marie is? Do you know who Katie McWilliams is? Do you know who Taya Corosdale is? Do you know who these people are? They’re winners. We’ve won — this is my 22nd year coaching. You know, it’s not like by accident that we won the Pac-12 three years in a row and went to a Final Four. You don’t luck into that stuff.
You know, and so we have not done it the length of time that Baylor did or has. We have not done it the length of time that Tennessee has, but I don’t think anybody that follows our sport is surprised. I don’t think our conference is surprised that we competed like we did.
I mean, we’re a weird loss to USC and a three-point loss at home to Stanford from winning it again this year. We beat Oregon, we beat UCLA, and now we’ve beaten Tennessee and Baylor.
So that’s the expectation in our program. It’s mine. I don’t look at this stuff. I just — we had an opportunity to win a game today, so this was going to be a blast. Let’s go figure out how to beat Baylor. Why not? I mean, that’s how I live. If you have a chance, why not? If you’re going to do it, you might as well win. So that’s just the belief that I took this job with eight years ago, and we had one player, and that’s probably the reason we’re here. It’s the reason Pat Casey has built our baseball program up, for the exact same reason, and I don’t see that stuff.
I see an opportunity. I get to help these young women find out what they’re capable of, and who are we to put restrictions on what you’re capable of. So we just speak confidence into them. We work like crazy, and we say why not us, and we don’t just say it, we believe it. Why not?
And so that belief — I’m so happy that this team has embraced that, but you look back, and it started with Jamie Weisner. It started with Ruth Hamblin, and they had the belief first, and now this team has followed suit. Yeah, so it’s really awesome, but I can’t say I’m surprised any longer. I don’t think anybody should be.
Q. Morris goes off for them in the last couple minutes. I was watching you, and you didn’t seem too panicked. Is that fair to say? Take us inside the huddle in that last minute after she scored nine points in like 45 seconds.
SCOTT RUECK: They’re good. They’re good. These are competitors. And she’s good. I’ve watched — I fear her. I’ve watched their last several games since Wallace went down, and she’s stepped up, and you’ve got a Texas girl representing Baylor on the biggest stage, and she’s embraced it with everything, and she’s a phenomenal player. And so I’m just not surprised. I’m a little disappointed that we gave up the last one. I didn’t want to give up that one. We just had talked about that. But she hit another deep, tough three, and so as a teacher, you can’t allow them to see you panic, you know, and so on the inside — dang it, nice shot. But we can’t do anything about it, so what’s next. Next play. Okay, now they’re going to press us, let’s advance it, whatever, the next thing happened. But now there’s no reason to be panicked.
And to be honest, that’s kind of the fun of this. It’s kind of the fun of it. Let’s figure this out now. This is another issue. You know, a big issue. Stop making these tough shots.
But if you think that Baylor is going to go quiet, you’re crazy. There’s no way that team is going quiet. 30 straight wins. I think six losses ago was our game with them. They haven’t lost much the last decade.
And so, you know, they’re used to winning just like we are, so of course they’re going to make huge plays. There was 10 seconds to go, and we’re up five, and I’m like, they’ve got the ball out of bounds. That’s why I called a time-out. I’m like, this is not over. Crazy stuff happens. This is March Madness, and shoot, it’s November madness when it’s November, too. It’s basketball. And so it’s not over until that buzzer goes off. So yeah. But me freaking out doesn’t help anybody.
Q. Would you rather face Stanford, a team that you’ve seen before? Or would you rather play Louisville, a team that hasn’t seen you?
SCOTT RUECK: I don’t care. I mean, it doesn’t matter what I think in that. I think in Louisville, they’re a phenomenal team. They’re a 1 seed. They’re the home team basically. You know, so that comes with its challenges. And in Tara, Stanford comes with their challenges. She’s an incredible coach, so nothing — I don’t know what’s going on out there, but nothing would surprise me in that game, so either way you’re facing an elite opponent in the Elite 8, so that’s all good.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
