On Monday, Cal women’s basketball along with the rest of the country expected to find out their NCAA Tournament fates on ESPN’s Selection Show, which was supposed to air at 4:00 PM PST. Instead, the bracket got leaked out and so when they started practice, Cal already knew they would be facing North Carolina as an 8 seed in the Greensboro region in Waco, Texas. I guess the only thing that they may not have known is the exact tipoff time (Saturday at 3:30 PM EST on ESPN2), but regardless, the experience of finding out their destination at a watch party was ruined for Cal.
At least for Cal, they went into today with assurance that they would be in the field of 64. The teams that you really feel for are the bubble teams that were denied the element of surprise that Cal experienced a couple of years ago.
Despite the letdown that came from the leaked bracket, Cal still held their watch party, celebrating their season and also thanking their fans for their support throughout the year. Towards the end of the party, Cal head coach Lindsay Gottlieb along with seniors Asha Thomas and Kristine Anigwe were nice enough to catch up with GoldenBearReport.com, talking about their upcoming matchup with the Tarheels and what they hope to accomplish in the tournament. Below is a full transcription.
Q: Kind of an interesting way to deal with this today, but how did you guys get through everything?
LG: “It’s a really special day for women’s college basketball, so just unfortunate that that was a mistake that led to a bracket being leaked. But I found out as we were walking up to practice. So I decided the players were going to know before this moment, so I thought it was better to hear it from me than to seeing it on their phones, so I told them hey something’s going on, I think this is what it is and it actually allowed us to make practice maybe a little bit more focused and directed because we had some idea of who we were playing. Not that, I haven’t done the scout or anything, but allowed us to start talking about the opponents and probably raised the level of intensity in practice. And then this selection show party really is a party to celebrate what we’ve done already and the excitement that is to come. So, different that we knew who we were playing already and probably a little easier to deal with because we weren’t on the bubble, but at the end of the day we still find out who we’re playing, we’re still locked in, and we still get to celebrate with our fans.”
Q: Do you know much about North Carolina?
LG: “A little bit. I watch a lot of games. Even ones that don’t involve us and so I know that they’re incredibly dangerous. When you can beat the number one team in the country I think at the time Notre Dame and win against NC State, obviously we know how dangerous they are. I’ve also had a chance to see a couple of the kids at USA Basketball: Paris Kea, Janelle Bailey, Steph Watts, so we know they come from a great league and they really have the ability to score the ball, so we got our work cut out for us.”
Q: When you see that you’re in the same region as Baylor, is it hard to keep your players focused on the first round opponent or do your players do a good job at staying dialed in?
LG: “I think anyone when you’re going to play at someone else’s home court it’s oh, you’re going to Baylor or whoever is going to various other host teams. It’s inevitable that you’re thinking who the host is because that’s where you’re going. That said, I think is there a more storied name in college athletics than North Carolina? No. So I don’t think it’s going to be hard to get our players to focus on the jerseys that are right in front of us in the first game. But we were talking even before who we knew we were playing that the first game was going to be like a 50/50 game. I said it could be a team that has won their conference that has 26 wins or it could be a team similar to us that is sort of in the middle of a great conference. So, I don’t think it is a surprise that it’s a team like North Carolina and I don’t think our players will allow themselves to look ahead. They’re too veteran and they know that it doesn’t matter who the second game is if you don’t get out of the first round.”
Q: How does it change for you as a coach going from scouting a team for the second or third time in the Pac-12 to scouting a team for the first time?
LG: “It’s really different. We talked about that today. First, it took me eight days to put on the film from the Stanford game in the Pac-12 tournament. But I did it watch it and I showed them some clips from that just from a standpoint of our intensity level. But I talked about how it’s different when you play a team a third time than when you’re playing for the first time. That cuts both ways, right? I don’t think you feel less as well on film as live and similarly we’re going to have to get them to buy into a game plan, but what I talked about is the way that our players were bought into the Stanford game plan the third time around, we have to be that way the first time because we don’t get a do-over.”
Q: Do you guys approach this like it’s a new season? A clean slate?
LG: “Definitely. I think any new segment of the season you kinda wipe out what’s happened in the past and you get a chance to start fresh and accomplish some of your goals. So, our first goal is going to be to win the first game and then we’ll talk about what’s next after that.”
Q: Looking back on the UConn game, you played them tough. Anything you can glean from that as you head into the tournament?
LG: “Yeah, I think playing UConn, playing Stanford, playing Oregon, playing Oregon State, we’ve played so many tough teams that we’ve talked about. Even if you talk about North Carolina we played Arizona State and we played Arizona. All the tough teams in our league that we have to be battle tested and ready to play any type of style and any type of team. But certainly, I don’t think we’ll be overwhelmed by great competition. Because we’ve had to play it and that’s part of the reason we schedule non-conference games like that and part of the reason that we feed off of the Pac-12 play.”
Q: You guys finished the season strong, winning five of your last six games. How much momentum do you feel you can carry from that?
LG: “I think we’ve talked a lot about that we’re a better basketball team at the end of the year than we were at any point during the year and that’s something that we have fed off of. In theory that doesn’t help you when you have 40 minutes against North Carolina on Saturday, but in general I do think our team is confident and we have gotten some levels of production late in the year that we didn’t have all year. I think we feel really even more confident about our inside-outside game. We have shot the ball really well consistently for the latter half of conference. We didn’t have a good shooting day against Stanford, but for the most part we improved over the course of the year, so I think that’s something we can take some confidence from.”
Q: Obviously the Pac-12 is quite a platform, but what do you expect from Kristine on this stage?
LG: “Nothing prepares you better than the Pac-12. She could not have been more consistent this year when performing in every situation against every type of competition. So, I don’t expect anything different.”
Q: Talk about going back to the tournament, what you’re excited about, etc.
AT: “It’s definitely a blessing to go to the tournament again. Not many people get to do it more than once, twice. So, it’s three years right now for me personally, but I’m excited, man. It’s another chance personally to show people what I can do and then as a team show the whole world what we can do. But we’re definitely excited to be in the tournament again.”
Q: How is this year’s tournament team different from teams of the past?
AT: “I would just say this year for sure we have more veterans who play the game well, but they have a passion for it. It shows throughout the whole team and it goes through everybody. It’s basically like a domino effect from myself, Receé, Kristine, Mo, you can definitely tell that everybody else around us is supportive of that and is very attracted to that and so I think it’s very exciting for all of us just to have another chance to play with this team again and just get things going.”
Q: I asked Lindsay this question, but how does it change things to go back to seeing a team for the first time after conference play where you’re seeing teams for a second or third time?
AT: “Just like how we were the last couple of years. We have to prepare for another team. Just another chance to showcase who we are as a team compared to another team in another conference. But I think the way that we played and who we’ve been playing in the Pac-12 really prepares us for great competition because the Pac-12 is a great conference. I think it just really prepares us just to play bigger teams.”
Q: Provided you do end up facing Baylor, how much does it help to know you’ve beaten Stanford, played UConn tough, etc.
AT: “It definitely prepares us for these big teams. It makes us show you need to play at your best to compete with the best. You have to show it from tipoff. Especially now in tournament time. It’s very important. With those teams it’s definitely exposure. Getting your team out there showcasing what you can do, who you can compete with, but like you said we gotta compete with North Carolina first before we get to a Baylor type team. But again, we’re excited for this and we’re ready to get going.”
Q: Talk about how excited you are to be going back to the tournament and what’s different about this year from past years.
KA: “Honestly, I’m really excited, nervous a little bit, just because you know, tournament, March Madness nerves. I’m really excited just for our potential, our future. We’ve prepped really hard last week and today we had a really good practice. So, I’m really excited. North Carolina’s a really really good team. Well coached. Well respected throughout the nation. And if we get the opportunity to play Baylor, everyone respects them and I’m really excited to have the opportunity.”
Q: You guys have had a tough schedule this year. How much do you feel that prepares you for the tournament?
KA: “I have a lot of confidence in my ability but at the same time measuring against the best in the nation is always something different. A lot of these girls I’ve known for a while, so it’s playing most of my last time heading into March Madness is playing against them. It’s really special and I just have to stay in the moment and stay present.”
Q: How do you deal with all the accolades and numbers that you are putting up? How does that not distract you?
KA: “These accolades don’t translate to the WNBA. At the end of the day, my college career is coming to an end and I have to understand that at the next level everyone has these accolades in their back pocket. Everyone has been there. Almost everyone has been very very successful in their college career, so you can’t take these accolades to the head because the next level is right around the corner. You have to be prepared. You have to be ready.”
Q: What do you do to get yourself in the state of mind to grab 30 rebounds and put up these monster numbers?
KA: “Honestly, we prep that. We rep that every single game. Charmin does a good job of just honing in and saying we need to get every rebound. We need to get every stop. We need to score on every possession. When you’re striving for perfection you can only fall short to something that’s still great. So, I think that’s what she’s been really implementing in my mind and implementing in my skillset and just really believing in me and just being there for me throughout the season.”
Q: Is there any player that you try to model your game after and say I want to be like them?
KA: “Probably Giannis [Antetokounmpo], honestly. Men’s basketball, NBA. Giannis. He is very influential on me. The way he has molded the Bucks and how he’s been successful. He could have a 40 point game with 15 or 20 rebounds; 52 points and 15 rebounds and it’s like wow. Just excelling at the highest level. He was under the radar for a couple of years, too. He kinda transcended and really really had a break out year. Just like what I’m going to do. With him I model my game after him.”
