FORT WORTH, Texas — Here is the complete transcript and video from No. 15-ranked North Carolina’s press conference Friday after its season-ending Sweet 16 loss to No. 1 UConn, with Coach Courtney Banghart, Indya Nivar and Nyla Harris, and the UConn press conference with Geno Auriemma, Azzi Fudd, Blanca Quinonez, Sarah Strong. Additionally, video from dressing-room interviews with Lanie Grant and Elina Aarnisalo.
UNC press conference
COURTNEY BANGHART: Hats off to a really good UConn team. I felt like we made them go to plan B and plan C and plan D and they’re just good. You know, they obviously were able to convert more than we were.
It was a really physical game. Obviously that led to way too many turnovers for us, not getting outside hips the way we usually do, and we usually shoot the ball a lot better from three. To beat a team like this you have to be really good. You have to make your open shots. You have to take care of the basketball, and we didn’t do that.
I mean, obviously we could talk for days about the defense and how we really held them. You win two of the four quarters, but that third quarter turning it over that led to transition, you know, that really hurt us. So hats off to UConn. Really good team. We knew that, and we have to play really well to beat a good team, and we didn’t, unfortunately.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.
Q. For Indya, what are kind of your emotions right now? What does this kind of mean for you and how do you kind of — how were you able to lead the team throughout the game?
INDYA NIVAR: A lot of emotions. I haven’t really been able to process them all, but just really proud of my teammates, my sisters. I feel like we’ve grown a lot throughout this year, and we’ve grown together on and off the court, which you know, that’s something you can look back and be proud of.
You know, try to lead through the adversities of the game. They’re a really good team. They made it pretty difficult for us. I feel like we made it difficult for them, but, you know, some things weren’t going our way. But we always want to keep playing hard, and I felt like I tried to lead my team to do that throughout the whole game, but just proud of them.
Q. For both of the players, in the first half the defense was really good and really held UConn in check. What was it you were able to do the first half?
NYLA HARRIS: Yeah, I think that we bought into the game plan, and we just wanted it. We just bought into sitting down, guarding, and making things tough for them. I think it kind of got them rattled definitely in the first half. We kind of made them go our pace that we wanted to go on defense, and I think that’s why we had so much success in the first half.
INDYA NIVAR: Yeah, they were able to go against our set defense in the first half more than they were in the second half. The first level to you are on defense is taking care of the ball, and I feel like that was the biggest difference between each half.
They were able to get in transition, which is really hard to guard with all the offensive power they have. Yeah, in the first half we were able to, yeah, get into our half court. We didn’t really take advantage of that in the second half. I feel like that’s how they got a lot of points in transition.
Q. For both athletes, back-to-back Sweet 16 trips. What are you proudest of that you have been able to build with this program the last several years?
INDYA NIVAR: I’ll just say I’m proud of how connected we were as a team, how resilient we were. We went against every No. 1 seed this season, and I feel like we learned from each game a lot. We had to grow. We had to take it one day at a time, and that can be hard when, you know, you want to achieve a lot in the postseason.
Just really proud of how the group stayed together, stayed connected. We had a lot of new pieces this year, so even though I was on the team last year it looked a lot different this year in my role, in how we played. So, yeah, I feel like I’m just very proud, and I hope that they can build off this next year.
NYLA HARRIS: Yeah, I think Indya said it perfect. Coming into this program and being a huge part of it is amazing. I know that we went through a lot of adversity in the beginning half of the season, but it really challenged us, and it made us better. I think that we made it here for a reason, and it shows our resilience as a team.
I’m really proud of this team, and I’m so excited to see what Coach Banghart does with her next team. I know it will be great.
Q. Nyla, what were you seeing from Indya today and just overall how have y’all sort of been able to lead together, but also how have you seen her kind of lead throughout the season?
NYLA HARRIS: Yeah, Indya Nivar is an elite guard. I know how hard it is to play against her, and so being able to be beside her and see her growth is just amazing. It’s so motivational.
Like I was telling her in the locker room, it really pushes me as player to step up, to be better in times where I feel like I can kind of relax a little bit. Her energy is contagious and how she carries herself is very contagious. I’m so proud of her. She’s done amazing this season, and whoever gets her is very much lucky. I know she will do big things.
Yeah, I mean, she just did amazing tonight. She led in the way of her defensive presence, and it really showed why she had much success on both ends. I think having a player like that on your team, you need that, because it ignites everything else for the rest of the team, and it’s contagious. It makes everybody else want to do the same thing.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies. Questions for Coach.
Q. Courtney, obviously we know your relationship with Sarah. Talk about the impact she had on tonight’s game. In the second quarter she had four made baskets in two minutes.
COURTNEY BANGHART: Yeah, you know, she’s just such a hard guard. I mean, I love the kid. I love the kid, who she is, her core. I love her family, but I really love her as a basketball player. She’s so fun to watch. And she’s a problem, right? She was off the ball, hurt us in off-ball action and non-ball action.
You know, she’s so unselfish. If she wants to score 40 next game, she can. She gets to make that choice, right? So, you know, we said — I’ve said it multiple times, but coming in second for Sarah Strong is a tough one to come in second for, right? When you recruit someone with all you got, you root for them wherever you go.
I’m leading the Sarah Strong fan club, and I hope she continues to find the success that she’s earning.
Q. How proud are you of Indya’s performance tonight? I think it was a career high in points.
COURTNEY BANGHART: Yeah. I appreciate the opportunity to speak about her, because she’s kind of all that’s right, right? I told our guys, it’s a good life lesson that when you give something all you got and you have enough courage to tell the world how important it is to you, things usually work out for you, right?
Indya came to us, felt like this was the right place for her to grow and develop, and her journey has been authentically hers.
I remember last year she was surrounded by our three seniors and Reniya Kelly who has been out, and the team looked really different. I looked at her and said, I’m going to surround you with good players, but they’re going to be young. I’m going to trust our recruiting and development. Now I’m going to ask you to lead. I have asked you to do everything else, but I haven’t asked you to lead. Now I need you to lead. She looked at me like oh, no, because that’s not what she really wants to do. She’s leaving North Carolina a leader, a winner, and a really good basketball player.
I think she’s going to play. Obviously there’s a lot of teams in the W that she would make better because of how she competes.
You know, it doesn’t always work out like this where you do things the right way and it pays off, and she’s just such an example of that. Really proud of her and have loved coaching her. She has always been easy to coach because she was in her own way. She really had some — she let her doubt kind of carry her, and then we were able to kind of squash the doubt. Now watch her shine. It’s been fun.
Q. In the first half what worked so well defensively? Geno said that the half court — your half-court defense was giving them problems, so they tried to score more quickly in the second half. What worked so well?
COURTNEY BANGHART: In the first half they played against our set defense. Our defense has been so good all year. I told them before the game and I tell them all the time that the story had been — the narrative had been written about us before we wrote our story, right? The narrative was that I lost three elite defenders, and we’re not going to be as good defensively. I’ve just challenged them all year to just write your own story.
So what happened in the third quarter is we turned it. We missed shots. We shot, what was it, god — I’m not going to want to look back at it — 2 for 17. Then I think we probably had ten turnovers in the third quarter. So they were not playing against a set defense. I’ve said it all year. There’s no defense for a turnover.
I think when we watch that game back and you look at how many times they scored against our set defense, it’s not a lot. So that game came down to missed shots and ball control. That’s to the credit to them. Obviously their ball control was because they were really feisty on the ball. Like you said, adjustments he made at half. We take better care of the basketball. We make some shots at a higher rate, at a more normal rate for us; I think that’s the game pressure we were looking for.
Q. Courtney, you mentioned the turnovers and the missed shots. Some of the players talked about how they felt sped up, they felt the ball pressure, and there were some opportunities they just missed. How do you grade the difference between what UConn was able to force and maybe some mistakes that you guys just made?
COURTNEY BANGHART: The arc. I mean, I think the arc. You don’t take contested threes. That’s just not what we do. So the arc, right?
So shooting 4 for 22, I think there’s one other game where we shot poorly from the arc. I think the turnovers are mostly a function of their ball pressure, but the three-point shots are not sped up, because they’re unguarded, you know. And so you just have to shoot better in a game like this when you are playing the No. 1 team in the country, and we didn’t.
Q. Talking a little bit more about Indya, what’s kind of your favorite story or memory from throughout her career? How do you think that reflects kind of the impact that she’s had on this program?
COURTNEY BANGHART: Not my favorite, but I remember we played another No. 1 team her sophomore year. We played South Carolina and she played four minutes in the whole game. I pulled her in, and I said, listen, this is not how it’s going to go, but this is where you are. You’ve got to get better, right? She just doubled down on herself. A lot of people would have walked away, right? She just trusted us.
She just said in there — I don’t know if she realizes how much — when she was talking to the team, you know, she thanked the coaches, and she thanked what I’ve done for her. I’m thinking, that’s how it’s supposed to be, right, that you coach a kid that means as much to you as you mean to them.
So probably her growth, and I think her leadership this year. I’m not sure it could happen to a better kid.
Q. You know, on the outside you’re losing at the same point that you lost last year another game. In what ways has this season or has it felt like a step forward for the program?
COURTNEY BANGHART: That’s a great question. First off, I want to say how hard it is. I think there’s, what, nine teams that have been to back-to-back Sweet 16s. It’s just really hard to do. Especially when we didn’t fill it up with six transfers. We did trust our recruiting and our development.
What should have been on paper as a rebuild, it wasn’t. We build every day, and so the sophomores that are now on our team are now the juniors, they got better every day last year to be in this position. So it’s really rewarding.
I do think the program — the more times you get here, the better your matchups are going to be, right? You just got to keep getting here. Obviously there are some different matchups that would have probably been better for us in this round, but that’s not how the cards were dealt.
So sustained excellence is really hard, and when you have sustained excellence, it means you got more cracks at it. I think this program is in a really healthy spot, and I’m proud of that. I know how finicky the business is and how quickly things can turn, but I feel like especially with what we have coming in and what we have coming back, yeah, I think we’re in a better spot than where we were at this point last year.
UConn press conference
GENO AURIEMMA: Well, you know, we kind of go into these games knowing that you’re going to have to be able to handle whatever happens that day, and however the game is being played you’re going to have to figure out a way to win the game that way.
I thought we did a great job of that, especially defensively that first half we were about as good as you want to be. Then that third quarter our offense caught up to our defense, and we kind of separated ourselves.
You know, whenever you get to this point, you’re going to play a really good team, and certainly North Carolina is. We knew it was going to be difficult, and it was. So congratulations to them. You know, we’re looking forward to Sunday.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll start with questions for the student-athletes.
Q. Azzi, can you just talk about the energy in the offense that Blanca brought in for you guys when you needed a spark there in the first half?
AZZI FUDD: Blanca was great tonight, and what she brought off the bench, the way she came in aggressive, on the attack, was exactly what we needed.
Being able to penetrate their defense, get in the paint, either put up a shot, kick it out, and then her crash the boards and playing great defense was — I mean, like you said, it was a game changer.
It helped us when it felt like we were in a little lull, and she came in and changed the energy we needed.
Q. This is for all three of you. Obviously just kind of looking ahead after this game, you’ll play Notre Dame, and that’s by and large kind of considered your biggest rival. What’s the difference between when you played them earlier this season and now? I guess, between both teams.
AZZI FUDD: Yeah, I mean, we’ve had a lot of time to work on our offense, our defense, our chemistry. I feel like we’re in a much better place, what am I trying to say — just as a whole. Today the way that we played, I feel like our half-court defense, our half-court offense, there are some things we can fine-tune and clean up, but I thought that we did a great job today, and that’s something that we’ve been working on since that last game with Notre Dame.
So we’re definitely a different team, and so are they. We’re looking forward to it.
SARAH STRONG: I really don’t know. We’re a lot sharper. At things that we needed to get better at, we’re better. For them I don’t really know. I’m just focused on us.
BLANCA QUINONEZ: Yeah, I think we just have to play hard and approach the game as the same we were doing, like, the last 36 games. We have to play hard and be smart.
Q. Sarah, just talk about in the second quarter you guys were kind of going, but you had four straight baskets. You scored 11 in the second quarter. Talk about what you got you going and talk about how that helped this team going after halftime?
SARAH STRONG: I started looking at the score being more aggressive, and I know that probably opens up my teammates. It gives me confidence to keep doing it, and gives my team confidence to keep shooting and keep playing well, stuff like that.
Q. Sarah, your team shoots 40% from the field and 20% from three and still wins by over 20. Can you speak to the level of intensity and the will on the defensive side of the floor as a team today?
SARAH STRONG: Yeah, I feel like it’s our mentality. It’s what we do every day in practice. We focus on that all the time, so we take all that stuff personal, and we try to do that every game.
Q. Blanca, you heard Azzi mention before how much your performance was a game-changer today. How do you feel about your performance and the ability to impact the game the way you did today?
BLANCA QUINONEZ: I mean, I’m always trying to just go on the court and just impact the game. Try to bring something to the court and to my teammates. Always try to do my best for the team and just have fun out there. I’m good, but I think we have another game Sunday, so we have to be focused on it.
Q. Blanca, when you go into the game, your mindset to bring some offense or attack inside, because you seemed to go right into their post and really get things started offensively?
BLANCA QUINONEZ: I mean, I am trying to read what is going on the court. That’s something more that I have coming from the bench. Just try to see a little bit the game before I get in. But I’m just, like I say, try to do the best for the team and just reading what’s going on.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies. Questions for Coach.
Q. I was watching you while you were on the sideline. I know obviously you’re very intense, very, very much paying attention, of course, to what’s going on. How do you keep that intensity up after being to so many Sweet 16s and obviously so many national championship games as well?
GENO AURIEMMA: It’s frustration. It’s not really intensity. The interesting thing is I may have been to a lot of these, you know. Some of these players, they’re still the same age as the first time I went to one of these, so they bring out the same bad side of you as they did 40 years ago. You know, 35 years ago.
Even if you don’t have it, you can’t help but express it the way things go sometimes, you know.
You know, when it’s a game of miss, miss, miss, and there’s a lot of angst about shots not going in and trying to get — you have to get stops because it’s so hard to get a bucket. Then you get a layup, and you miss it.
But no, I know how much they want to win this game. You know, they want to win this game badly, and I want that for them. So it’s a great relationship that we have. They drive me crazy, and I give it back to them (laughing).
Q. Geno, two things. Did you say anything during the first timeout to kind of snap them out of their little shooting funk that they were in, but you were getting good shots? Then, second, can you just talk about the approach that Blanca had coming in and attacking inside and getting something going there rather than throwing up threes or anything like that?
GENO AURIEMMA: Well, actually the first time she touched it, she missed a three really bad. We had just talked about you have to give yourself a chance to touch the ball, get a feel for things before you start doing that. She’s at her best when she’s putting the ball on the floor and getting to the rim.
You know, she just is so strong and so quick. She’s tough to keep away from the basket, and I would rather her do that when she gets in the game than, you know, take a shot that’s not the easiest shot to make.
Especially when you consider we were 4 for 20 from the three-point line. North Carolina helped out. They were 4 for 22. So you’ve got two pretty good teams that are pretty decent three-point shooters shooting 8 for 42. You wonder, how does that happen? Do you ever notice when you come to the regionals they use brand new baskets? These rims have never touched a basketball until now, so it’s hard. You can’t get a ball to go boop, boop, in.
Once that ball hits the rim, it’s going out of bounds. It’s the weirdest thing. I’m sure TCU would have lent them some baskets. They make a lot of shots, those guys. I’m sure if you asked Campbell and you asked Jamie, they would have volunteered some baskets.
It’s hard. It’s hard to make shots in the postseason. They just break out these new baskets, new rims, and then it gets in the kids’ heads. You look at how many shots were missed today, and you just shake your head.
Yeah, I tell them make them. First timeout I said, make some, and they did. They made 4 out of 20.
Q. You talked about your offense caught up with your defense, but what about Sarah in the second quarter? She kind of took over there and had the four straight in two minutes I think it was.
GENO AURIEMMA: The hardest job that we as coaches have is getting her to do that for not seven minutes but 27 minutes. To act like that, to think like that, you know, to impose herself on the game like that. It’s a real challenge.
When I coach guys’ basketball, that’s one word that never came out of my mouth: you need to shoot more. You know? So it’s kind of one of those things that she just plays the way she plays, and you have to really, really work hard at it to get her to do that. Then when she does it, she makes it look so easy. It’s effortless, you know?
The second half one time North Carolina went into a zone and we ran this little cut, and she caught it right around the foul line. Turned around, knocked it in. She had a big smile on her face, like this is easy, and it’s not. If you have any suggestions, I’m open. I’m open to them.
Q. What was it that North Carolina’s defense — what was it that they did in the first half that made it so hard for you guys?
GENO AURIEMMA: Well, we went into the game feeling like we have to be more aggressive with the ball. We have to try to score earlier in the possession because once they get their defense set, they’re really, really good. They’re a really good defensive team. They’re physical. It’s hard to cut. It’s hard to get to the rim against them because of the way they play off the ball.
So, you know, our whole thing was we need to score earlier and we need to play a little quicker, and that’s exactly what we did in the third quarter. We came out, and we played much quicker and got more shots up earlier in our possession rather than later.
Q. Geno, you guys a set national record for steals today in a season. Can you just talk about the ability you guys have to get after people, disrupt teams? That’s a pretty impressive mark for you guys to break.
GENO AURIEMMA: Sometimes you just have the kind of team that enjoys playing like that, and you have players that have that kind of mindset. It’s really just a mindset and a constant pressure leads to the other team making mistakes. Even sometimes when you don’t, you know — aren’t even trying your hardest to get a steal or turnover, because of the constant pressure, the effect that it has. Players get a little bit tired. They get a little bit, you know, lackadaisical.
You know, it’s something that this team likes to do. We have players that do it. I didn’t know there was any record available to steal, but we do have a lot of them over the season, and we do force a lot of turnovers. Again, I think that’s a big part of why we win. It’s hard to play against a team unless you can force turnovers.
Fort Worth 1 Regional
FIRST ROUND
Last Friday’s results
Chapel Hill
No. 5 Maryland 99, No. 12 Murray State 67
No. 4 North Carolina 82, No. 13 Western Illinois 51
Last Saturday’s results
Storrs, Conn.
No. 1 UConn 90, No. 16 UTSA 52
No. 9 Syracuse 72, No. 8 Iowa State 63
Columbus, Ohio
No. 3 Ohio State 74, No. 14 Howard 54
No. 6 Notre Dame 79, Fairfield 60
Nashville, Tenn.
No. 2 Vanderbilt 102, No. 15 High Point 61
No. 7 Illinois 66, No. 10 Colorado 57
SECOND ROUND
Last Sunday’s result
Chapel Hill
North Carolina 74, Maryland 66
Monday’s results
Columbus, Ohio
Notre Dame 83, Ohio State 73
Storrs, Conn.
UConn 98, Syracuse 45
Nashville, Tenn.
Vanderbilt 75, Illinois 57
REGIONAL SEMIFINALS
Fort Worth, Texas
Friday’s results
Notre Dame 67, Vanderbilt 64
UConn 63, North Carolina 42
REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Sunday’s result
UConn 70, Notre Dame 52
Transcript courtesy of ASAP Sports
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