CHAPEL HILL — Here is a video and a complete transcript of North Carolina’s postgame press conference, with Coach Courtney Banghart, Alyssa Ustby and Indya Nivar, after defeating West Virginia 48-47 to earn the program’s 19th Sweet 16 berth. In addition, video of an Ustby dressing room interview and the video and transcript of the West Virginia press conference.
COURTNEY BANGHART: Man, I just am over filled with pride for this group. If you think about what Carmichael looked like tonight and how many people have wrapped their arms around this team and willed us to wherever we need to be.
Carmichael is a great place to host. Our kids earned it, and they showed up for us. That was one of the better environments that I think anyone’s ever played in or, from my case, coached in. That’s a night I will remember for a long time, how many people just have wrapped their arms around these guys, and they deserve it.
I’ll be honest, that’s a really good team, as you all know. There’s no bad teams in March, unfortunately. I was tired of hearing about their defense. I was tired of hearing about their defense. Not because it’s not one of the best defenses in the country, but why was no one talking about our defense? Right? These guys can defend. They’ve done it all year long.
We knew exactly how we were going to defend them. I know those of you that have followed us know that’s no surprise how we defended them tonight. So I think us hearing about their defense allowed us to sort of say, okay, we’re going to show, and we’re going to prove it.
These two sitting next to me, grateful they chose Carolina and how they’ve represented us. Alyssa, thank you. Thank you for how you’ve handled your career, how you’ve worn Carolina on your chest, and who you’ve brought along with you.
I know people are going to talk about that being your legacy game, and you deserve everything you felt tonight. It’s a joy to coach you. You’ve made me better. You’ve allowed me to get better players here as well. And you doing things the right way show that that’s enough always. So thanks for choosing Carolina.
Q. Indya, this one’s for you. You guys had that run at the end of the third quarter. You kind of closed it out you had the sequence with you blocked the shot, ran the court, and then you got the layup to end the quarter. Just take me through that sequence a little bit. What do you remember about what you were seeing in that play? Also, how much did that third quarter run spark you guys for the rest of the game?
INDYA NIVAR: I think our preparation prepared us for that moment. We knew they were going to fight back. So we just know we had to match their toughness.
That end of the third quarter, we were just staying with our principles. We stayed disciplined. I was put in a great position to get that block, and Lexi passed it up for me to the layup.
We were really focused this game. We really wanted it for our seniors because we didn’t get it done on Senior Night. We wanted to end tonight with a win for them.
Q. Congratulations on the great win. Alyssa, your determination is amazing every game, but tonight I saw it in all the players. If you all could both speak to what you all said as leaders and captains to be able to get the team so focused tonight.
ALYSSA USTBY: I think Indya kind of talked about it a little bit there. Losing on Senior Night is tough, and not knowing if we would for sure be able to secure a hosting spot, that’s what’s been kind of driving us since that Senior Night.
We just had a lot of fire. We are really excited. We love playing with each other. We want to keep playing, and we want to keep the season going. So there’s not anything that’s going to stop us. We’re going to keep being determined and locking into our game plan and making sure that we can come out with these wins.
INDYA NIVAR: I think this group means a lot to all of us. Like our connectedness, it’s a lot on and off the court. I feel like our chemistry is really great, and we just wanted to fight to play again because we love each other and we wanted to get another opportunity to play another game.
Q. Indya, North Carolina girl, Duke waiting in the next round, North Carolina State already making their way through as well. Seeing where women’s basketball is in this state and being such an integral part of that, how does that feel? And how excited are you for that Sweet 16 game?
INDYA NIVAR: Oh, yeah, the Triangle is a hoop state. North Carolina is a hoop state. I think it just shows that all three schools making it to this next round.
It’s really exciting to be in my hometown. A lot of people get to come to my games, which I didn’t have my freshman year. But having that support has really helped me along my journey here.
Q. Alyssa, can you kind of comment back on what Coach Banghart said about your legacy here at Carolina? Also, Indya, can you kind of talk about what Alyssa has done for you and for the team as a whole? Just kind of to be a leader for this team.
ALYSSA USTBY: Just coming, my decision to come to Carolina, I felt like Coach Banghart stuck her neck out for me because I wasn’t in the ESPN Top 100 and I was bringing our class rank down. She trusted me, and I knew that would take us a long way. I would do so much for this program, and I’d run through a brick wall, which I hope I’ve shown over my career here for five years.
I’m just super grateful for her for having that trust in me, continuing to invest in me, challenging me to get better, and then just continuing to recruit great kids.
I’m so glad that Indya came back to UNC, and we have so many great girls on this team that make the experience enjoyable, and they continue to fill me with joy. This last season has been my most enjoyable season because of the people that are here on this team.
Q. Indya, your thoughts on Alyssa?
ALYSSA USTBY: I could go on a whole rant about Alyssa, but she embodies the Carolina culture. She sets our standard, and she demands the best of everybody around her. She makes everybody around her better. I’m going to miss her so much.
Even on my down days, Alyssa picks us up because she never has a bad day, which is surprising, but that’s just her. She’s a dog. She always works hard, and it’s just an inspiration to everybody on this team.
Q. Alyssa, your freshman year here, there were no fans in the stands. Your last game here, you heard what your head coach said about the environment. What did it mean to you just on your personal journey to see the arena loud, rowdy pretty much all night really supporting you guys toward this win?
ALYSSA USTBY: It is such, such a special feeling. Again, just to see the growth over the years, I think that’s just a testament to what Coach Banghart is building here. I’m just so glad I was able to be a part of it and give everything I could to it to leave it off better than we found it. And we’ve been doing a great job so far.
I think the community that is here to support us is committed to the players that are on our team. They love our team so much because we have built a relationship with them, and we continue to thank our fans and make that connection.
So it feels like a family environment, and I bet it’s a really tough place to play when teams come in here and try to get the smoke with us because we have an incredible fan base and our players are really fun to cheer for.
Q. Alyssa, I saw you jump up on the scorers table. When the players all walk off the floor too, you’re the last one sort of waving to the fans and stuff. Can you just kind of walk me through the thoughts and emotions of not only the excitement of jumping on the table, but then walking off the last time as a player?
ALYSSA USTBY: I’ve always wanted to jump on a table, on a scorers table before, and I was like this is just set up to be the perfect moment, and I have to go for it.
It took a little bit of courage because I was like should I do it? I asked my assistant coach, Coach Jo, like should I do it? She was like, without a doubt, no question. That was so much fun. I loved it.
Again, that was like a reaction or a chance for me to like hype up the fans and kind of celebrate them too because they’ve been a part of my journey for so long and have trusted me as a player to develop over my years because I didn’t come in as like a star athlete or a star player. So they’ve just trusted me along this journey.
Then walking off the court and just giving one last good-bye, taking a good look around because I know that’s a moment that I’m going to cherish for so long. I am really sad that was our last — my last game in Carmichael, but overjoyed at what’s ahead.
Q. Indya, their leading scorer was held to single digits for the first time this season, season low. What did you and Lexi and Reniya do to hold her down?
INDYA NIVAR: All year we focused on our defense, and we knew our defense was one of the best in the country. That’s because we have everybody on our team takes accountability to stop people on the other team, stop them from their favorite moves and stuff.
It wasn’t a one person job at all. I think we all bought into being in the gaps and helping one another and not having anybody on an island because it was going to take everybody to defend their really good guards.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Banghart.
Q. Coach, I know sometimes when the brackets come out, you want to just focus on the one game ahead. It’s also human nature to sort of, hey, this might happen. Now it’s here. You’re going to play Duke in the Sweet 16. What are the emotions like kind of going into that and setting up such a monumental matchup on a monumental stage?
COURTNEY BANGHART: Yeah, and how fun if we weren’t because I think these three North Carolina schools could go even further. Now of course one won’t advance.
As I told our guys in the locker room just now is that these moments are so hard. They’re hard to get to. I remember all the hard times, and I’m still living them, right?
It sounds like coach speak, but I told them in the locker room we’re going to enjoy this one because I know how I’m wired, and tomorrow morning I’ll be right back in my zone. So super cool for this area. Super cool for our state. Again, a disappointment that someone’s got to lose that game because the ACC will have one less team advance, but I’ll have more thoughts on that as we get closer to the game.
Tonight I’m just two Sweet 16s in four years and this team making it this way and hosting in front of their own home crowd, and people showed up for them both nights. If I don’t take that in, I’m not going to last long in this business.
Q. I want to talk about the strategy with the point guards, your development of three point guards — Grant, Townsend, and Kelly — to take on West Virginia. Could you speak to your trust and development in them.
COURTNEY BANGHART: Absolutely. I think it’s the one position you really can’t play basketball without. No offense to any of the other positions, but the person who can handle the ball while also running tempo for a team is critical.
Knowing that we had Reniya, and I trusted her from the very beginning. I always trust my recruiting. Just like Alyssa said, I didn’t need ESPN to tell me she was good enough or wasn’t good enough, I watched her with my own two eyes. Reniya, you might remember, started here as a freshman. I trusted her.
Grace, when she went in the portal, I was the first coach to call her. You can say all the things — some people might say, oh, she’s too short or she never played Power 5. Again, trust your eyes. That’s a kid I knew could help us. And she plays the game so different than Reniya. I didn’t want her to try to be Reniya. I wanted her to be her best self. She’s a tempo creator, and I thought she’s really throughout the season settled into that.
And Lanie, you can see how special she’s going to be and needs to continue to have time to marinate how she’s playing throughout the games. She’s giving us a ton of versatility there, and she’ll play the 1 even more differently than the other two.
But I like all the options there, and we’ll continue to develop them.
Q. Awesome moment at the end of that game. When you guys were coming off the court and all the practice boys were lined up. You come in there, and you’re like in the mosh pit in the middle of them and invite them into the locker room. What do they mean to this team, and also how important are they in preparing this team for the press you guys faced today?
COURTNEY BANGHART: I mean, everything. They come at 9:00 a.m. in the morning op Saturdays. I told them I was bummed out the game might be in the middle of the day, and they’re like, well, we’ll just miss class. We’re not missing it. These are like their sisters, and they’re like our brothers.
They’ve been as much of my journey as my own team is because they’re with me all the time. I got onto the fellows group chat, and they’re with this team whether we’re home or away. I can yell at them if they’re not doing what I’m asking them to do. They watch film to know how they’re going to have to play.
These guys were pressing for the last two days, like everywhere on the court, and they just did it. Sometimes I go to the next thing and they don’t even get water. They’re like, we’re fine. Keep going. Every team has scout guys, but I’d put mine up against anyone in the country.
Q. Coach, you guys fouled out two post players, almost a guard JJ Quinerly. Can you kind of talk about the approach in your toughness and how you approach the post and help them kind of get out of that situation?
COURTNEY BANGHART: Maria does a really good job of that on her own. She drew five fouls. We actually decided late in the third, middle of the third there to put Alyssa at the 5 because they were not as mobile given their foul trouble. So you probably saw we ran a bunch of isos on different spots on the floor so she could attack hips.
Even that late inbound, we ran the same inbound all three times. All three times, I just said attack a hip, attack a hip.
When Alyssa can defensively play the 5, it’s a real advantage for us on the offensive end. Again, we just needed to attack hips. You can’t play a press team — I don’t want to break their press and break their defense. We wanted to be aggressive all night, and that’s different than how we had to play against Oregon State.
Q. There was a moment fairly early in the fourth quarter where Alyssa got a block, ran back for a fast break. They called a timeout. You showed a little more emotion than you usually do on the sidelines. There was a stomp. There was a yell. What was going through your mind at that point? Did you feel like you had it?
COURTNEY BANGHART: When my guys are aggressive, we’re really hard to beat. Obviously with the time and score and how well we were defending as the lead was extended, I just didn’t think they were all of a sudden going to score a ton of points on us, right?
And how much we love these guys, I wanted it so bad for them, and I wanted it so bad for the community that wanted us to host and helped us get there.
So I think that was real. That feeling was real. I was just so joyed for them, and watching how they came together starting in June and all of them have their own journeys and we’re right there with them, it was just so rewarding.
I do, I try to keep focused on what needs to happen next, but in that moment, I was just overjoyed for them.
Q. Two quick questions. One, you look like you were shivering. Was it a massive water dump there?
COURTNEY BANGHART: Cold water too. It’s interesting because on the way to shootaround this morning, someone handed me a water from an ice tub, and I said, do you think the population prefers room temperature water or cold temperature? We had a big debate about it. I’m on record that I think people would prefer room temperature water.
That’s not what got poured on me. It was marinating all day, so I’m freezing.
Q. In the last 11 minutes, they had one field goal. Was that the best defensive stretch considering the competition that you’ve had all season? And how did you do it?
COURTNEY BANGHART: I thought we defended Ta’Niya Latson really well in the ACC Tournament as well. So it’s hard to pick from the two. We knew that we needed to stop her initial attack chest to the ball. And then we knew she can snake you back. So your gap is actually sometimes the one that, as she goes away from you, you’ve got to follow her.
So there were some tactical things that our guys just totally — we said no islands, no islands, no islands, and our guys were really shifty, and we really tried to clog up. We wanted to be high at the point of ball screens. We really wanted her to play in a crowd and all night, like we did Latson, and our guys have done a good job of that both times we’ve asked.
Q. You coached against a Mark Kellogg coached team in 2022 with Stephen F. Austin out in Tucson. Was there anything tactically or strategically that you took from that game to prepare for this one?
COURTNEY BANGHART: No, just that he’s a really good coach and has really good teams. He ran more of a five out at SFA. They still pressed a lot, but he had that international kid that was a bear to guard, but more so because she was a stretch shooter and could stretch you out.
This team is totally different because they’ve got some of the more dynamic guards that we’ve seen. Thankfully the ACC has prepared us for that. Totally different game plans in those ways.
To go to a Sweet 16, I was watching games all day, and it’s just hard. There’s so many good teams. Not a lot of takeaways. Well defended tonight by a team that never got talked about how good our defense was.
Q. A year ago today I was in a press conference with you after a really tough game, after a really tough finish to a season. I was just kind of wondering what you make of sort of the journey in the past year, especially of the players that got through that adverse situation, battled through it, and now you’re here and you’re hosting and now you’re going to the Sweet 16. Just a lot of players are still here that were on the court that day.
COURTNEY BANGHART: For sure.
Q. Just what you make of their perseverance through all that?
COURTNEY BANGHART: Well said, perseverance. When I got with Alyssa after the season, I said, here’s the deal. You have to add another layer to your game, and I’m here for you. But you have earned the right to make the decisions that are right for you. Don’t worry about me. She right away was like I want you to help me keep getting better.
I said, but I also want to make sure that you trust us that we can host in the NCAA Tournament. We can do that. She said, that’s why I’m coming back.
Indya’s journey, who has a much bigger role this year. Maria had made major strides. Reniya made major strides. It validates the work because people don’t see the 8:00 a.m. in this gym. I feel like I live in this gym. They don’t see the 8:00 to 9:00, 9:00 to 10:00, where you’re just working on their own skill set, and sometimes you’re just talking to them about like, hey, where are you in this moment? How are you in this moment?
Then of course you come back in the afternoon and have your team practice. It’s just so rewarding when their journey turns out that they — as I told them, you deserve it. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to get it. You’ve got to go earn it. And they were able to earn it in a 40-minute game. It all came down to that.
Q. You wanted to host for so long. How did it compare?
COURTNEY BANGHART: It was even better. Thank you for asking. When I was at Princeton, someone said I’d been to like 13 of the last 18 tournaments. I’m telling you it’s way better when you’re hosting. Way better.
Then of course I wanted it so much that you’re like, oh, God, what if it’s not as awesome as I hoped for? Sort of like when I told the Carolina team, we’ve got to get to the NCAA Tournament. There’s nothing like it because they hadn’t been, of the group that I had. And then it was COVID. And I was like, I promise it’s usually way better than this.
I was so hopeful we’d host it, and then when we did, I thought, imagine if it’s not all that we wanted. It was more. It really was more. We’ve had great crowds here over the last two years or so, three years. This one felt different, as did whatever night the last game was. It just felt different.
Maybe it’s me, or maybe it’s recognizing that people, they willed us here, we got here, and they showed up again, and they were loud. And they wanted it as much as our guys did. So it was even better than I could have hoped for.
THE MODERATOR: Room temperature water?
COURTNEY BANGHART: You do cold water? You just gave me room temperature water. Guys, room temperature water or ice water? Let’s do a straw poll. Yeah, it’s a lot of people.
West Virginia transcript
MARK KELLOGG: First and foremost, a ton of credit to Coach Banghart. That team, what they’ve done, their performance tonight. I thought it might be a game a little bit like that, to be honest. It was two elite defensive teams. I thought it might be a little bit of a slugfest. I certainly thought we had a better offensive performance in us, and it wasn’t our night on the offensive end. Certainly they had a lot to do with that.
Certainly, congrats to them and good luck as they move forward.
Really I’m just so proud of our group. I’m proud of the seniors. I think we always talk about leaving a legacy, leave things better than what you found or what it was when you started at whatever place that is, and I think these guys did that.
We’ve had a heck of a run. We’ve had a great season. Did we fall a little short in some of our goals? Yes, we did, but that’s sport. That’s life. In this tournament in particular, only one team is going to finish with a win, and we’re not going to be that one. Like I said, I couldn’t be more proud. Special group of players.
To me two years ago when I got the job, you have a vision, you try to paint a picture, and you hope that those current players, which these two to my right were a part of that roster, would of course stay and ultimately buy into what we were doing.
They did that. They’ve been so much fun to coach. We have a great environment. We’ve changed the way I think our program has been looked at. We’ve been a perennial top 25 team. Our attendance numbers have kind of shot through the roof. We have great players, staff, administrators just to do something really, really special.
I hope we can continue to build off of it, use this as a growing pain for those that are coming back. Again, super proud of them. Proud to be the coach of some really, really talented individuals.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll start with questions for our student-athletes, JJ Quinerly and Kyah Watson.
Q. JJ, obviously not the outcome or performance that you hoped for tonight, but when you look back on it when all is said and done, how you do you hope to be remembered as a mountaineer?
JJ QUINERLY: I hope to be remembered as probably one of the best guards to play at West Virginia University. I think I did a lot under a lot of different coaches.
Honestly, like he said, I think I left a legacy here, and I left the program better than it was when I first came in.
Q. For Kyah and JJ, can you just talk about, it just seemed like there were moments in the game that were tough matchups for you guys, whether it was Ustby or Maria when she was in the game down low. Can you talk about the struggles and defending those different matchups at different times in the game?
KYAH WATSON: I would just say I think they did a good job of maybe finding mismatches. We just couldn’t really like get stop after stop, and that kind of hurt us. I thought our effort was there. So —
JJ QUINERLY: Honestly, same thing as she said. We couldn’t pull our stops. We couldn’t get any kills. Like Coach Kellogg says, and it kind of just wore on as the game goes and the score got a little wider.
Q. JJ, a lot’s been made of you sticking around through three coaching changes at WVU, especially in the era of the transfer portal. What has kept you in Morgantown, and what has WVU meant to you during your four years?
JJ QUINERLY: Honestly, the group of girls that I had around me like Kyah Watson, Jayla Hemingway, those girls that stayed, Kylee Blacksten, those girls who stayed, especially Jordan Harrison, I could have left probably any time in my career and probably could have went anywhere in the country, but I chose to stay at West Virginia just to make that legacy that I told you all about earlier.
Like I said, I think I’ve done that, and yeah.
Q. Can you speak to the crowd and the noise and being an away game, so to speak?
KYAH WATSON: I’d say it’s kind of like any game. I don’t think anything will compare to what we played in last year at Iowa. They had a good number of fans come out. So it’s always awesome to see.
I think for the most part we just try to stay together, kind of tune it out and play our own game.
Q. You weren’t really able to get anything going. What was the mindset to flip the switch in the fourth quarter and get to the foul line a couple of times? What was kind of your mindset going through that?
JJ QUINERLY: I’m pretty hard to guard on the perimeter, so just attacking them. I would say — never mind. Yeah, that’s it.
Q. Kyah, we’ve talked about JJ up to this point, but you — (no microphone). From your perspective looking back over your career at WVU, what are you going to remember about your time?
KYAH WATSON: I would say that each year I was there was special. I can’t thank Coach Kellogg and the coaching staff enough. I love all of them. They’ve helped me grow as a person both on and off the court.
My teammates all my three years were great, and the fan base in West Virginia is awesome. They love us. We love them. I think just that, I’m going to miss that.
Q. Question for JJ or Kyah. What’s it like trying to handle someone who’s so dynamic like Alyssa Ustby? How is that in game time just trying to limit her possessions, limit her shots?
KYAH WATSON: I would say just trying to make it as difficult as we could for her to even catch the ball, kind of push her out to further away from the basket.
I mean, she’s a good player. She scored, got to the free-throw line. We didn’t do a great job, but yeah.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies.
Questions for Coach Kellogg.
Q. Can you just talk about the defensive matchups. I’m sure probably didn’t go quite how maybe you had envisioned on paper. Did their size and athleticism really kind of make a difference in this game?
MARK KELLOGG: Yes, they scored 58 points. I don’t think it was our defense. It was our offense. We shot 24 percent. What did we shoot, 24? We shot 24 percent and 9.5 percent from the 3. It’s going to be hard to win when you score 47 points.
We can win games holding teams to 58. I thought our effort on the defensive end was really good. I thought we competed. I thought we held them down long enough to see if we could make a run. We never made any runs. I don’t know the kills and the stops, but when we hold somebody to 58, there’s going to be some pretty good defensive possessions.
Obviously Ustby got us. That was the matchup problem. We had one possession where there was four fouls, I think, all on her on the out of bounds. We had three or four different people trying to defend her. We tried man, tried zone. It was a little bit of a matchup problem.
I played against her, I think maybe she was a sophomore when we played against them in the NCAA Tournament. She’s worked hard on her game and her ability to stretch it and shoot it. Always been a huge fan of hers from when we prepared for them a few years ago.
Fantastic player, but they’re great. They’re great defensively. They can spread you. They have different people offensively. I think that’s the hard matchup from the offensive end is they have so many kids and you don’t know who it’s going to be on each night.
Maria gets 5 points, and that’s their leading scorer. In certain ways you think you have a really good chance, but you let Ustby get 10-plus over her average. That was probably more disappointing from the offensive end than what we did defensively.
Q. Mark, the second year in a row it seemed like the whistle got tighter in the second half. Is that just the way tournament games go? How hard does that make it down the stretch?
MARK KELLOGG: Yeah, there wasn’t a lot of flow, I didn’t think, to that game. I don’t know that I have another comment really. I don’t think the whistle necessarily went our way, but we’re on somebody else’s home floor. Officials have human nature too, crowd gets into it, they feed it. But that had nothing to do with the outcome.
Q. In the first quarter you switched from that man-to-man press to the zone. Did you do that to give your offense a bit of a spark since it was kind of stalled out there?
MARK KELLOGG: We tried several different things. I don’t know we went to it as early as you were thinking, but we did mix it up a bit, which is normal for us. It’s not abnormal. It’s just to keep them off balance and give them different looks and switch from man to zone, and those types of things.
We just never got in a rhythm. How could we help an offensive rhythm? We lose by 11, and they beat us by 12 on points off turnovers. That’s typically a stat that we win.
We got to the free-throw line. We didn’t shoot 3s very well. We did some things okay, actually beat them second chance points, which isn’t a strength of ours. So our best strength of all is turning people over, and we didn’t do a very good job of that in this game, and that’s a credit to them.
Q. Coach, you touched upon the seniors. I’m just wondering what they meant to this program because there’s a lot that have played for a while. How hard can it be to keep the program moving upward when you lose a group like that?
MARK KELLOGG: They’ve meant a lot obviously. All of their journeys have been really different. We talked about JJ’s journey. Kyah’s journey was different than Kylee’s journey. There’s other seniors that didn’t get in the game tonight that were part of this basketball game that had a different journey. Tirzah had a different journey.
All different stories. Really close group. That’s what I’ve enjoyed about my two years here so far. They’re an easy team to coach. They’re just really good kids. They do the right things. They work hard.
It’s fun to show up to work every day when you have a staff and team like we’ve had the last couple years. That’s part of coaching now is trying to sustain it. Kids graduate every single year, so that’s not abnormal. Finding scoring is typically okay. We’re going to lose some quality players, and we understand that.
Now you go to the portal, I guess. That’s how you go about it at this point.
Q. Mark, there’s probably not a single answer to this, but how do you think as a program you kind of get over the hump to hosting and into the Sweet 16 and make that next step?
MARK KELLOGG: Well, win more games, I guess. Continue to play the schedule, win the games, the right ones. For us, we didn’t win enough probably in the Quad 1 to get the home game. I think we’re close. Obviously we’re closer now than we were a year ago. I think we’re at the doorstep.
I keep saying, every time I get into this game, though, the advantage of playing at home is significant. If that’s the rules of the NCAA, then we need to continue to work really, really hard to see if we can’t get one of these in Morgantown because I think that environment would be ridiculously off the charts and be so much fun for our community and our state.
We’re going to go to work on that and see if we can’t, but it certainly helps when we’re playing at home in the first two rounds.
Q. Kyah the last couple years has been the unsung hero of this team in a lot of ways. Tonight kind of a vintage performance from her — 9 points, 15 rebounds, a couple of steals, and she really sparked the run where you guys took the lead in the third. Just as far as her play tonight and over your two years with her in Morgantown, what can you say about what she’s meant to the program?
MARK KELLOGG: I’ve routinely called her the glue of our team. She’s the kid I have the hardest time taking off the court because she does so much for us. It’s not always scoring with Kyah. I thought she was a little more assertive tonight. The rebounds, which at one point I said just go get every rebound, please, because I didn’t know what else to tell them. Just go get every one of them, which she has the ability to do.
The great part too, if you’ve seen Kyah transform her body into this elite athlete. She’s so fast twitch and so explosive, a phenomenal defender. Reluctant at times to score. So that was always our push to her, if you could be a little more aggressive offensively, that would be perfectly fine with the rest of us.
Fantastic kid, works hard, in the gym a lot. Just an easy go lucky type kid that’s a pleasure to be around. We’ll miss her and several of them.
Q. (No microphone).
MARK KELLOGG: I think what you just described, and I guess they can tell you a little bit more about what that game plan was, but from our end, which we knew, we really thought they were going to look really hard to limit Jordan and JJ, touches in the paint, they have bigger bodies. They’re going to take up a little more space. They were playing off Kyah a little bit. That was her matchup, so she was not completely all the way at the 3-point line.
The other night, I thought we got to the rim about when we wanted to. That was going to be more difficult tonight. We spent time talking about offensively moving it, making it go side to side maybe first. We had some screening actions we wanted to get to. At times we did. At times we didn’t trust it. Kept writing that on the board that we’ve got to trust each other.
I thought when we cut, we got some really good layups, but it just wasn’t enough. We had some good looks from 3. Some were forced that were bad possessions. I thought we had some good looks, and we knew we were going to have to make some 3s to win this game. I thought we needed seven or eight 3s probably to win.
Q. The WNBA Draft is a couple weeks away. What would you say to any WNBA team that might consider drafting JJ Quinerly?
MARK KELLOGG: From what I know, they probably have all the information they need. They’ve been in communication with us. She’s going to have a great opportunity. She’s going to play basketball beyond it.
What I’ve said about JJ all the time is ball in hand, I think she’s as dynamic as any guard in the country. Defensively guarding the ball, I think she’s as good of an on-ball defender as anybody, which she’s now up for the Defensive National Player of the Year. I think she’s a complete two-way player.
She’s going to be a little bit smaller, so somebody is going to have to figure out what that niche is in WNBA. Yeah, I hope she gets her number called on draft night and gets in a training camp and goes and makes us all proud, which she’ll do regardless of what it looks like.
It’s really hard in the WNBA. There’s first round draft picks that don’t necessarily stick on rosters. The hard work is in front of her, but I think she’s prepared, and the kid works at an ultimate level, always in the gym. She’s put in the time. She wants to be great. She enjoys playing in the biggest games, which is probably why this one hurts the most for her.
Q. One more on JJ, early on in the game, second quarter maybe, late first quarter, it just seemed like maybe she was trying too hard maybe. I don’t know if you agree with that or not. You had to maybe take her out for a couple seconds to get her to settle down. Can you just kind of talk about just maybe how weird her beginning of the game was?
MARK KELLOGG: I don’t know that she was — she maybe was a little bit, just probably excited and wanting to help her team. Trying too hard, I don’t know. The kid was just trying to give us everything she could. Maybe things that worked the other night, she was still trying to go back to that a little bit early.
Yeah, take her out, let her calm down, catch her breath. I thought Jordan was a little wound up also there early, and they’re fumbling the ball around and these types of things.
That’s another thing. We’ve got to figure out the balls. These balls are like aired up way more than ever all year long. I don’t know what the heck’s going on here, but we’ve got to get that figured out.
Anyway, she was just sped up, like we all were, big game, a lot of emotion. We even wrote on the board to settle in quickly, kind of control your emotions. I thought we did that really well the other night against Columbia and probably not quite as well tonight at least to start.
Transcript courtesy of ASAP Sports
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