Post-Game Reaction: Bluder, Clark, Warnock, Czinano Talk Final Four Win
Video from the post-game press conference after Iowa's stunning Final Four win over South Carolina. First up: Caitlin Clark, Monika Czinano, and McKenna Warnock.
Some notable quotes from the Iowa players:
Q. Caitlin and Monika, what was it like to be part of this game and know how much attention it was? And did it live up to your own expectations? Monika, Dawn said she thought you were actually the difference maker, by Caitlin being able to get you down inside. How much did you come into the game knowing that was going to be a factor?
CAITLIN CLARK: I thought it was a tremendous game for women's basketball. The crowd was incredible. Shout out to all the Hawks fans that have traveled down to Dallas.They were so amazing and so loud and so fun. I don't think we'd be at this point in the season if it wasn't for them. I truly mean that. I know so many tuned in.
I think just tonight showed how fun women's basketball is.Two really great teams that went at it. I'm sure so many people wish this was a series of seven games. That would be really, really fun.I think, if we continued the series, it might go one way or the other every single time. But obviously we'd get outrebounded by quite a bit, but we didn't hang our heads.That's all you could do. We gave up some O boards. We fouled when we didn't need to. We just came together and said next-play mentality, and that's all you can do really.
MONIKA CZINANO: I think that's a tremendous compliment coming from Coach [Dawn] Staley. All the credit goes to my teammates. They find me in positions that I am the most effective, and they do it game in and game out all the time. The confidence they have in me is quite unreal truly.I'm just so proud to be on this team, yeah.
Q. So Caitlin, you've talked a lot about trust in the past. How did that come into play tonight?
CAITLIN CLARK: I think the biggest thing is knowing how much my teammates trust me. I was given the ball in kind of the biggest moments of the game on the biggest stage,but also at the same time, my teammates really came through and played huge minutes.I thought Addy [O'Grady] and Hannah Stuelke were tremendous off the bench. That's a hard position to come in when Mon gets fouls, Hannah leaks out for an easy two, Addy comes in and gets two buckets for us.
And McKenna gets knocked in the head pretty well and gets the biggest O board of the game. I understand South Carolina got 25 O boards, but there was one that mattered the most, and that was McKenna Warnock's, and that sealed the deal for us, and we were able to make free throws.I might score the most points, but at the end of the day,we're aren't anywhere without my teammates.
Gabbie Marshall doesn't score tonight, but she was outstanding. Zia Cooke is a tremendous, tremendous player. She was all over her and never got discouraged. She comes away with three steals. Everybody did their role. That's what our team is about. Knowing your role, doing your role, and showing up in that every single day.
Q. McKenna, what was going through your head when you got that offensive rebound with less than 30 seconds left?
McKENNA WARNOCK: Just get it to Caitlin honestly. But obviously we always want to get those O boards, and I'm glad I could come up with that one. It kind of fell in my lap.That's what we wanted in those moments, we wanted some of those to bounce our way.I'm glad it did in that moment, and I'm glad Caitlin knocked those free throws down.
Q. Caitlin, you've faced just about every kind of defense possible and teams trying to stop you. What was special about this South Carolina defense, and how were you able to get the better of it?
CAITLIN CLARK: I think, like you said, I've seen a lot of really good defenses. The thing was we saw some weaknesses early in the game, and that's what we kept going to. That gives a lot of credit to Coach Bluder because she kept putting us in the same action that was working.
They were guarding Mon pretty high up, and that allowed me to get to the rim. I thought we were dragging their rim protectors away from the rim, where they're used to being.But honestly a lot of screen action. A lot of down screens, a lot of ball screens. That was something we saw in film that we thought could work, and we executed it well. They still made it tough on me. They were all over my shorts. They created eight turnovers, a few were probably forced by myself. They're really, really tremendous.
But at the same time, I find confidence in the fact that I feel like this team has seen just about every defense you can face. I'm never intimidated going into a game. I don't feel like these girls are ever intimidated. We know we need to be crisp. We need to be clean.
I still don't think we shot the ball to the best of our ability. I'm 5-for-17. That's not too hot. I probably could have made a few more. And I thought they did a good job on Gabbie Marshall. I could have gotten her another shot. I thought they were all over her. Yeah, I think it's just the confidence we find in each other.
Q. Caitlin, I know you're a hoops junkie. What did you make of the game plan you guys had? Did you have some input in it as the week went on, how to stop them, and also as it pertained to your offense?
CAITLIN CLARK: Yeah, I didn't have any input. Sometimes I give input, and they still don't want it.
But our coaches, they've been in this game a really long time. I thought they had a tremendous game plan, and obviously they've been working on this scout for quite some time. It's probably very obvious that South Carolina was going to get to this point. I loved our game plan, pack the paint. At times I wasn't even really two feet out of the paint.
We were going to live with them making threes. I thought Johnson came throughand made some tough threes in situations where they really needed it, but we never got discouraged or anything like that. I loved our game plan. We really packed the paint, made them earn it around the rim. Obviously they got some O boards, but at the same time, nobody said we were going to outrebound them. That would have been a lie.
I thought all we did was just come back down every single time and buy into our defense. And Coach [Lisa] Bluder switched it up quite a bit too. I thought that gave them problems. She's always a coach, we're never going to stay in one defense too long. You've got to keep switching it up.
Q. Monika, for you, it was a decision to come back,and I'm just wondering if you reflected on that decision tonight. Caitlin, just I'm wondering, it seems you ran into the crowd to go hug someone. Can you talk about that moment and who you hugged and what that was like.
MONIKA CZINANO: I mean, the decision to come back was the easiest decision I've ever had to make quite honestly. I would have been a fool to leave this program and leave this family. I would have done it -- I knew we had something to prove, but I would have done it no matter what. I would have come back with no expectations at all.
We are truly are such a family. You hear it a lot, and it gets kind of old. This is something I'll never forget, being with this group of people and getting to do what we love to do every single day and working through adversity every single day. So no regret on my end.
CAITLIN CLARK: Just my family in the stands, that's who I was hugging. Obviously they've been my biggest supporters all throughout my career. That's one of the reasons I came to Iowa is because they wanted to be at all of my games, travel around and support. My dad comes to a lot of my stuff. Just to share the moment with them, it's pretty special to all of us to have our families here and be on this ride with them, people that have sacrificed a lot for us.
Q. The question is for Caitlin: With the game tonight widely being talked about as maybe one of the most watched women's basketball games in history, how does it feel to be a part of something like that?
CAITLIN CLARK: It's incredible. But I think people tune in because they love watching the Iowa Hawkeyes. I truly believe that. I understand I'm an exciting player and people love to watch my game, but we play the right style of basketball.We're a skilled team. We shoot the ball well. But I think it's the joy and the love we have for one another. We smile.We support each other. We high five. It's incredible, and it's special.
I think, if you want to really see a team, you look at CoachBluder and what she's built here at the University of Iowa.They're teams. And that carries you a really long way.
Q. Caitlin, you get the national stage again Sunday when the odds said maybe that might not happen, and you also are chasing the ultimate prize. How do you look at that right now?
CAITLIN CLARK: I think we have to be able to enjoy this for a moment but also reset our minds. We didn't come this far just to play in the National Championship Game. We're here to win it. We're here to hoist the trophy. We're here to cut down another championship net.
We need to take care of our bodies. We need to take care of our minds. But I think we have one of the best coaching staffs that are going to have us really, really prepared for that game. LSU is a very, very talented team. But I think we're going to have a lot of different things that we can throw at them. We're going to change things up. We just have to have the belief that we can win. We don't have to change anything that we've done. Dial in on player personnel and be who we are and be who we've been all year long.
Q. Caitlin, Magic Johnson has been name checking you on Twitter throughout the tournament, and there were people who going into this game were comparing it to Bird and Magic in '79 because of you and Aliyah. I wonder what those comparisons are like, and do you think about the fact that this could really elevate the game to a completely different level just like their title game in '79 did?
CAITLIN CLARK: I think it's really good for our game. Like Coach Staley said, last year during the Player of the Year discussions, we need to have these discussions. That's what gets people engaged in women's basketball. It shouldn't be one person end all be all.
People wanted this matchup for probably for a couple years, and obviously it's the Iowa Hawkeyes versus South Carolina. That's what it was. We won because we were a team. South Carolina is probably one of the deepest teams in America. So I think it's really, really good for the game. That's what's going to have it going forward. I think, even when we played Louisville, people were talking about matchups, and that's what got people excited.
I think the viewership showed that as well.I wouldn't be surprised when these numbers come out, I think it will probably be the most watched women's basketball game in the tournament of all time. So yeah, I think it's good for the game. It moves it forward and gets people excited about what's on TV.
Q. Caitlin, this game tonight marked the matchup of the last two Players of the Year. Do you feel like you gained new fans in this game tonight? And secondly,how does it feel to take down undefeated South Carolina to get to the National Championship Game?
CAITLIN CLARK: I don't feel like I gained an advantage other than my team winning and advancing to the National Championship. That's awesome.Aliyah is a tremendous player. They got some tough calls on her tonight. Maybe in a different game they're not fouls.But she was my teammate, and I know how great of a player she is but even a better person. That's why she's going to be the No. 1 draft pick, as she should. It's been fun to watch her success at South Carolina and what she's been able to build there, and I truly mean that. But yeah, I mean, obviously it feels really good to take down a team that's won 42 straight basketball games.
Next up: Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder's post-game comments.
Skip to 18:30 for the start of Bluder's comments.
Some highlights from Bluder's remarks:
Q. Lisa, could you talk about your offensive gameplan. As Caitlin said, you obviously spotted some weaknesses as far as pick-and-roll and dragging their big players out away from the basket.
LISA BLUDER: We really mostly ran our offense that we run every single game. But when we saw that we were able to score on some ball screens, we tried to emphasize that a little bit more.With McKenna being a three-point shooter, we knew that Aliyah would have to come out and guard her out there.
McKenna ended up making one of them, but I thought all of her shots were pretty good, and I would let McKenna shoot-- she's a 40 percent three-point shooter over her four-year career. So my money's on her making those. It was really just a lot of screening action and floor balance.I think we do a really good job of balancing the floor. So really -- somebody really can't help as much on you.
Q. Do you think there's been a pivotal moment this season that helped you get to this championship game, maybe going back to February 21st against Maryland?
LISA BLUDER: Somebody else asked me about that, and I think that was a huge point for us. We got embarrassed there. We came back and went to work.I mean, Brenda did a great job of having a defense we hadn't seen. Louisville tried it, and now we're ready for it. So I thank her. If it wasn't for that, we might not have been ready for that down the line.
You always learn more from losses, unfortunately. You really do. Wins feel better, but you learn a lot more from losses, and we learned a lot from that one. We came together even more after that loss, I think.
Q. Addison O'Grady approach tonight, just take me through what you were expecting from her. Obviously you know you need to go big, and if you gave her any kind of specific instructions heading in to what turned out to be ten pivotal minutes for her?
LISA BLUDER: She played really well. We needed her height, just like we did against Colorado, same thing. Addy hasn't played as much this year, as maybe we anticipated that she would, but boy, she's put in some valuable minutes in this tournament for us. We kind of told her,bring out your inner volleyball girl right now. She was a good high school volleyball player, and that's what you've got to do out there to try to get those deflections off those rebounds.
Q. I just want to ask you, just you're coaching against Coach Staley, a two-time national champion. What is it like coaching against her, especially game planning against Coach Staley?
LISA BLUDER: It wasn't any different than any other gameas far as I really tried not to look down there a whole lot. I don't try to look at interactions of coaches with officials and that sort of thing. So to me, it was Iowa versus South Carolina.
It was -- you know, she's a great coach obviously. She's got unbelievable talent. She's our Olympic coach. I have so much respect for her and her staff, which includes a former Iowa Hawkeye on her staff in Jolette Law. And I guess that's what makes this win even more special is because it was against somebody who's had such a storied career.
Q. You've had such a legendary career, over 30 years of coaching. How does this game rank up there with some of the other ones you've experienced?
LISA BLUDER: This has got to be number one, I don't know. I'm hoping for another good one on Sunday. But any time you are beating the No. 1 team in the country who hasn't lost all year long and they're being coached by the Olympic coach, yeah, it's a pretty good day. It's a pretty good day.
Q. Your shot chart tonight was pretty amazing with all the threes, layups, and free throws. How much of that would you say is really driven by the talent you have? Do you think as the program continues forward and the talent changes, you'll be able to replicate that? How much of that is sort of your philosophy is going to endure going forward?
LISA BLUDER: It's absolutely our philosophy. We love shooting threes. It's fun. Everybody gets excited about it.So, yeah, we shoot open threes even in transition. Yeah, otherwise we know the best next shot is right around the rim. So that is definitely philosophy.