Courtesy of Gonzaga Athletics:
NO. 3 SEED UCLA BRUINS SUNDAY PRACTICE PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES
Head Coach Nikki Caldwell
Opening Statement:
“Obviously we are glad we are still here. I thought Montana did an exceptional job yesterday of really pushing this team down to the wire. Tomorrow is going to be a great atmosphere. It’s going to be an atmosphere that is going to be in Gonzaga’s favor but it’s one that really shows the passion for women’s basketball. You look at crowds across the country and where people are getting 7,000-8,000 people in the stands to watch women’s basketball and that can only be a plus. But we’re excited about playing a very, very good basketball team but most importantly I’m excited for this team to have another opportunity to advance.”
On the UCLA fans in Spokane:
“We got some blue scattered. We don’t have a lot. We understand the crowd is in their favor but I told this team that is what March Madness is about. In the Pac-10 tournament, Arizona State drew well against us, Cal drew well against us, Stanford has drawn well against us. We have come into environments where they have more fans but I told the team fans don’t sweat, don’t rebound the basketball nor do the fans make plays. It’s going to come down to who is going to execute their game plan to the best of their ability. If we commit to that and your in that competitive zone, you don’t hear fans out there on the floor. Half of the time you don’t hear me. For us it’s about playing this game for 40 minutes and 10,000 fans should not alter how we play throughout this season and that has helped us win on the road.”
On UCLA’s press and how it could slow down Gonzaga and Courtney Vandersloot:
“They are one of the best running teams we have seen in a long time. When we look at what (Courtney) Vandersloot is able to do with the basketball and what I mean run. There are a lot of people who run the ball but (Gonzaga) are very efficient running the basketball so we got to make sure defensively we are able to set our pressure so we can make baskets. But when you play a team that has a point guard that not only can score the basketball but get other people great looks. It’s going to be able to wear down her play and not allow her to go to distance. We want to continue to keep fresh bodies on her because she is so potent with the basketball and it may come down to the last two minutes of the game but I don’t want to give any team any freedom to have a full 30 or give them the freedom to run the ball at us without pickup because that is not our philosophy so we got to true to that and try to make her work. We do rely so heavily on our defensive pressure. That’s who we are.”
“If you cancel out your mistakes when it comes to Vandersloot I think you’ll be more successful in that regard. She will make you pay if you don’t.”
On the defensive style:
“Typically it’s whatever they feel at that time. Sometimes our team takes on this very aggressive personality where they want to get after you and trap you on the first pass. Sometimes they don’t but I like what I call ‘organize chaos.’ As long as we are not confused, I don’t care.”
“When they are in the mood to trap, they’re good. There are times when they are not in the mood and we move to our delay defense.”
On Gonzaga’s Kayla Standish:
“We got to know where she is at all times. When she catches the ball in her range and its going up, it’s pretty much going in. She’s dead on and skilled. You always talk about having a ‘Batman, Robin and Batgirl,’ they got all three. We got to make sure we don’t forget the other supporting cast of (Courtney) Vandersloot because they are on the receiving end of her passing. They are also great playmakers. But this team understands having played Stanford, they got Jeanette Pohlen, Kayla Pedersen and Nnemkadi Ogwumike. You can’t focus on one player. You got to know where everybody is on the court.”
On UCLA’s offense:
“We got to make shots. We can’t have Darxia Morris not make shots for us. We can’t have Jasmine Dixon pick the second half to try and score the basketball. (Markel) Walker can’t take two shots and go 2-for-2. They realize our defense is our bread and butter as to what we go to and rely on but at the end of the day we got to reward ourselves and score the basketball.”
On Darxia Morris and Jasmine Dixon leading the offense:
“I hope (Morris) responds, being a senior, and I hope Dixon responds because those two have been our ‘Batman and Robin.’ If any two ‘Batman and Robins’ struggle, any team in the country, you are going to have an ugly basketball game. That is what we had the other day. Hopefully they will have the mindset and maturity to come back and really show they can play both ends of the floor.”
On any similarity between Notre Dame and Gonzaga:
“We talk about players and certain players they have played throughout the season to let them know you are prepared for this game. This game isn’t going to be what we do today. That’s not our preparation. Our preparation today is to get more shots up and make some tomorrow.”
“Their preparation came in the off-season for this game and their preparation came through their non-conference schedule and their conference play. They played some really great players in the women’s game and (Courtney) Vandersloot is one of those type of players you can put in that category. For them it’s a matter of what was our defensive scheme and make sure we understand this player can score and distribute.”
On the point difference:
“I don’t think there is a tilt. Obviously we have defensive goals. We want to shut down certain action. We have three defensive goals, our transition game, our half court game and our board play. Each team is different. What we are looking at is where are we breaking down, who is breaking us down.”
“There is not a magic number that I look at to score. You can tell when this team is committed and made great plays on us.”
On what she has learned from her past:
“Playing for (Tennessee head coach) Pat Summitt she had a heavy hand. I think you learn your team. My first year here we had more hands on. We had to take on more of the leadership role from the bench and as they grew together you now relinquish that. When I first got here we had to literally walk hand-in-hand with our team and then the second year we walked side-by-side with our team and then now we are able to stand a few steps back and just watch them grow as a unit and take their own identity. I wanted them to be their style, not my feel, because they were building something and they are building something. It’s very good to see right now we are not having to hold hands with our team.”
Senior Guard Doreena Campbell
On UCLA’s defense-oriented style versus Gonzaga’s offense-oriented and the match-up tomorrow:
“It should be interesting. I think with the offense and defense, maybe the two will cancel each other out. We’ll see, though.”
On matching up with Courtney Vandersloot:
“She’s a very good guard. She’s able to score well and we’re going to be focusing on that. We’re mostly doing more of a zone, so it will be more of a defense-by-committee. Hopefully that will help, too. Like Jas (Jasmine Dixon) said earlier, limiting their touches is the main key.”
On UCLA’s position as the higher seed:
“I think going into the tournament, seed is not necessarily important. I think it’s who wants it more and who’s going to fight for it more. I think even with their fans as a big focus of a lot of people. But in the end, I think we need to just focus on what’s going on [on] the court and what’s going on with our team.”
On Courtney Vandersloot’s skill set compared with other point guards the team has faced:
“We played some teams like Notre Dame with [Guard Skylar] Diggins and Arizona State, which are more guard-oriented teams, so we’ll have to adjust more toward the guards. But she’s a good player and I think it will come down to who wins the game.”
Junior Forward Jasmine Dixon
On UCLA’s defense-oriented style versus Gonzaga’s offense-oriented and the match-up tomorrow:
“Doreena (Campbell) pretty much said it all, defensive team, offensive team. Hopefully we’re able to limit their touches and scoring opportunities, suffocate defense, and ride that out.”
On the crowd:
“I wouldn’t say that’s going to smear our play. We’ve been in a lot of hostile environments, such as Notre Dame and Stanford where we’ve had 11 UCLA fans versus their thousands of fans. We’re going to take our time and do what we know we’re capable of doing, playing UCLA basketball, and go from there.”
“I would say it’s not the fans they’re playing, so they’re not going to make a difference. It’s the 5-on-5 match-up that’s going to win or lose the game. Not necessarily the 5-on-5, but UCLA versus Gonzaga. We’re not going to let them distract us.”
NO. 3 SEED UCLA BRUINS LOCKER ROOM QUOTES
Sophomore Forward Markel Walker
On the contrasting style of play between UCLA and Gonzaga:
“I think that it’s going to come down to defense. The game is going to be a good challenge for us. They’re a good offensive team and balanced all over. I think it’s going to be a huge challenge, and playing in their house, we have to come out focused and ready to accept their challenge, basically.”
On Gonzaga’s home court advantage and the energetic crowd:
“I think that our pre-season schedule helped us. We played at Notre Dame. Notre Dame is pretty much a high quality basketball program. I think that playing on the road, Stanford, teams like that, helped us prepare for this moment. I think it’s just us staying focused and sticking to our game plan.”
On the match up against Gonzaga’s leading scorers, Courtney Vandersloot and Kayla Standish:
“They’re very good offensive players, so hopefully, we can just try to make someone else score. Don’t let them be the main, dominant players on the team. Make the rest of the team beat us.”
On the team’s post-season goals:
“I think it’s every day, putting in everything we have. If we win or lose, just knowing that we gave it our all when we stepped out on the court, that’s all that our coaching staff asks for us. We want to go as far as we can [in the Tournament], just knowing that we gave it 100%.”
On being one game away from the Sweet 16:
“We’re very excited. Of course my team will plan on going further. We want to go further, just to get to that moment is a big accomplishment. I think that playing a top competitor such as Gonzaga will help us get confidence and help us gain sureness that we can do something in the Tournament.”
On being seeded in the Spokane Region:
“We have to take it how we can get it. I think that [being seeded in Spokane] Washington is good enough for the most part. We are just trying to be prepared and take anything that comes.”
Senior Guard Darxia Morris
On what they’re focusing on for Monday’s game:
“We’re focusing on executing our defense and making less mistakes than we did last game (vs. Montana). We’re working at trapping and knowing the shooters and knowing who the best player is on the floor and just being aware.”
On the contrasting style of play and how they are preparing for that:
“We did a good job pressing it and trapping it and giving the other team turnovers yesterday. But basically running back in transition on defense and rebounding. That’s a key thing Coach Caldwell says, defensive rebounding. If we execute our defense we will win the game.
On anticipating the performance of Kayla Standish:
“Basically they got a ‘Batman,’ they got a ‘Robin’ and they got a ‘Batgirl’ on the team. They’re good players but we need to focus on executing our defense. We’re not changing anything in our system because of what they can do. We’ll just stay in our system and execute our defense right.”
