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#UNC wing Alyssa Ustby dressing room interview after win over West Virginia
Mar 25, 2025
#UNC wing Alyssa Ustby dressing room interview after win over West Virginia
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0:00
on the Florida State game that probably
0:01
were okay. Yeah, I I knew that we were
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going to be okay. It was just whether we
0:05
were going to get a three or a four and
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I expected to get a four because I was
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like the committee always just seems
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like they like to bump you down, but
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then when I saw we got a three, I was
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super excited because I love our path. I
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mean, I've like was looking forward to
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seeing Duke in Sweet 16 and I was like
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that'd be a great matchup and I just
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love our path to go as far as we can and
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win it. You remember until your last
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home game you were on the sideline and
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y'all lost? I mean, I don't imagine what
0:29
that day, how how difficult was that day
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and waiting to get back and watching it
0:33
end like that. Yeah, it was
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heartbreaking because I really couldn't
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do anything about it. And like I said
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before, it's like I could have like been
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upset and like really bummed out that
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that was happening, but I knew what was
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better for my team was focusing on my
0:45
own health and then just continuing to
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like encourage my teammates because that
0:50
was more of like a fluke game. like
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things just kind of fell off and like
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we've like without me like the team has
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won some big games and so that's just a
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testament again to our depth and senior
1:01
night it just it was just kind of like a
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little bit of a fluke and so I just try
1:05
to encourage my teammates like this does
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not define us at all. We still have a
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lot more basketball to play so let's
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take what we let's take what we can
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learn from it and we have to move on.
1:14
When you jumped on the table and you
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talked about thinking about that kind of
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moment we've seen like moments like
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Jordan and various people doing those
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types of things. Did you have somebody
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in mind that you had seen that you were
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like, I'm going to be like LeBron or
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somebody? I actually I don't know if
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this is correct because it was so long
1:28
ago, but it might have been like Taius
1:30
Jones. Okay. A long time. I don't know
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if that's right because I feel like I
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was so I was much younger when I was
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watching him. Um, but yeah, I've seen
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I've seen a college player do it before
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and ever since then I was like gosh, I
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want to do that and I want to do it like
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for a special reason like for the
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community and the fans and just like for
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a celebratory moment. What were your
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emotions all day knowing this was your
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final home game and it would be your
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last if it didn't work out. What was the
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beginning of that question? Emotions all
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day for the final home game. Well, I was
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trying to take a nap today and I
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literally could not sleep because I was
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so excited and I was just like I was
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literally imagining the moment of
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standing on the score table. I was
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imagining like making all my I literally
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it was like I was my brain was like so
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like obsessed with like everything that
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I knew was going to happen today. And so
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I literally I couldn't take my usual
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nap. And so I was just too wired and too
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excited. So that was far from
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spontaneous. You I had a plan. I had a
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plan, but I had to make sure it was
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cool. You know, Elissa, real quick, uh
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we saw that moment with you guys in the
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practice before. What does that mean to
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to what does that team mean to you, that
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group of players, and then also um how
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did they prepare you guys for the press
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that you guys take? Yeah, our practice
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players are the backbone of our program
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because they are so selfless. They like
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they basically have the same schedule as
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us, but they don't get a ton of the
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benefits and they don't get a
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scholarship. And so they give so much of
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their time and their effort, time away
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from their family and friends just to
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make sure they can help us out. And they
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did a great job of preparing us for the
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press because they were like super
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active. Most times we had six defenders
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on the court so we could practice with
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more defenders and then when we came to
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the game it would be a little easier.
3:07
Um, so yeah, they they mean a lot to us.
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