On Monday, Cal women’s basketball head coach Lindsay Gottlieb addressed the media via teleconference in advance of Cal’s opening round matchup against LSU on Saturday, which airs at 6:00 PM PST on ESPN 2. Below is a transcription of what she said.
“Exciting day all around but, I will say I don’t know that I’d choose being on the bubble ever again, it’s an interesting and kinda nerve wracking experience, but it’s a part of college basketball and seeing the players celebrate and have to kinda go through the experience and then see them so joyous was really worth it so we’re definitely excited, it’s a year that we’re very appreciative to be in, and now the focus will shift to winning games.”-Lindsay Gottlieb opening statement.
“Oh my gosh, I try to just keep it all together and enjoy the moments. Really, really, I wanted this afternoon to be about the team and the selection show. Obviously last night was really special you know, when Patrick proposed. I told the players during the day today in workouts, I’m wearing the ring, so there was a lot of excitement and fun, and the shift went to team for the afternoon. I had to do breathing exercises for the first half-hour of the show until our name was called.
Trying to manage everything, but to take a step back and look at it now from afar, I just feel so fortunate to have all of these kind of fun life things coinciding with really exciting basketball, which is why they’re family. You know, these kids are my family, like, I guess Patrick asked Kristine for her blessing before he proposed, so she knew that was coming before I did. You know the players were just as excited as I was so to merge the two things, I’m overwhelmed with happiness, I don’t know if that hormones or just excitement, but it’s a pretty neat feeling.”-Lindsay Gottlieb on the engagement and getting in the tournament all within the past couple of days.
“So, you guys might know that I’m a little bit of a nerd and the last ten days have been spent crunching numbers and talking to people who have insight on the process of the committee and MC, our communications person, was all over it and different people in the conference talk with each other. I actually thought when you go past the 30,000-foot view and really dig into the details; I thought we had a pretty good case amongst all the bubble teams. That being said, we were a legitimate bubble team and you just don’t know.
So, I really wanted to be in for the sake of these players. I was also prepping myself at them for if it doesn’t happen, what’s the message? That we need to learn lessons and not make it so close next time, so all of this to say I didn’t expect to be a 9 seed and I wouldn’t have said I was confident enough to be in. But I also thought given everything the committee looks at criteria wise, we had we had some really really strong things going for us in terms of our quality wins and strength of schedule and the conference and ability to elevate, all that kind of stuff. And at the same time I didn’t feel good until the name was called.”-Lindsay Gottlieb on how she felt going in to the selection show.
“It’s huge, I just got a call from Tara (VanDerveer) and I thanked her, I got a call from my neighbors earlier, lot of conference coaches reaching out to one another. This, getting seven teams in, speaks to the strength of the league and as we put our numbers together, to send to the committee and all that, there were some stunning statistics. We were the number one RPI conference by a lot. By a wide margin. Bigger margin between 1 and 2 then there was between teams say 2 and 3. Teams ranked 5th through 12th in our conference had more wins against the RPI Top 25 than the entire Big Ten.
I mean there was a lot of strength throughout this conference and what I’m happy with is that when you look at resumes across the board over 30 games, our resume stacked up well because the wins we got in conference counted for a lot, there were no bad losses because there’s no one bad in our conference, there was a great strength of schedule, and we took care of business non-conference as well.
It’s a pretty neat thing to be, my first year as head coach at Cal we finished second in this league and we got an 8 seed and only us and Stanford got in. It’s a long cry from that, right? Where a team that finishes tied for 7 gets in, but I think that’s how strong our league was top to bottom this year consistently and I think the committee did their homework and looked at each team on a case by case basis and said who deserves to be in? And when we were stacked up that way I did think we deserved to be in.”-Lindsay Gottlieb on the Pac-12 getting 7 teams in the NCAA Tournament.
“I see myself as an educator, really and so there were a lot of lessons over these last ten days and I was trying to prep the group of young women we have for either one and I talked about I think we have a resume that can get us in the tournament and I think that if we get in we can win games. No question about it and then I also said if we don’t get in this team could also learn something by winning, trying to win six games in a row. So we’re trying to balance all the messaging.
As today unfolded, obviously I really wanted to be in the tournament because I think this group, like you said, can beat anybody, I think our conference has prepared us for anything, and I think we have so many young players that are just going to benefit from the entire experience. So I would say that right now this is a year to celebrate being in. There’s nothing wrong with that. There will be another year where we’re not worried about being we’re worried about where they’re sending us, whose in our bracket, so the first thing is I want them to enjoy the feeling of being selected.
The next piece is that they’re gonna say it’s time to win a game and we’re gonna prep and we’re gonna prep for LSU only and we’re gonna make it our focus to be at our best to play them and then if we get the chance to move on, obviously there’s no stage like playing a number one seed and we’ll deal with that, but no question I want the players to enjoy it and then I want them to think about we’re in here to win games.”-Lindsay Gottlieb on her mindset coming in and what she thinks about her team’s chances.
“I don’t know if the divide is as rigid as it seems based on record. I think there were times when we were 13-0 where we need to do things better even though we were getting wins and there were times in the Pac-12 where we did some great things but we’re playing against some of the best teams in the country.
What I thought all along, again, is that this team when we are really good and when we are competing like our back is against the wall we are at our best and I like that the second half of the season we came back from Washington State and I put stuff on the board. This is what we’re gonna need to do to make the tournament. This is what we’re gonna need to do to achieve our goals and we didn’t necessarily knock off every check mark along the way, otherwise we may not have been on the bubble, but the players understood and I thought they were trying to get where we needed to go as quickly as we could and we stumbled at times.
What I feel now is that they feel really excited about what our capabilities are, I think they understand the urgency of what it means there were a couple times this week when we were practicing, we’re playing against our practice guys, and I thought we had two or three bad possessions in a row and I would blow the whistle and say ‘we’re a team right now on the bubble that should know more than anyone that every possession matters because one or two possessions could keep us out of this thing and if we get in we want to understand how urgent every possession is. I think that’s where we are now. The positive of being on the bubble and getting in is that there should be this great sense of urgency and that I think could propel us to a little bit of a run here.”-Lindsay Gottlieb on the first 13 games of the season versus the rest of the season.
“You know what, I think there’s nothing like it. There’s nothing like college sports and it is more fun when everything goes right, it’s easier when there’s less adversity and it’s a smooth ride sailing, but this group I think has stuck with me and stuck with each other and stuck to the process when it hasn’t been easy and I’ve had it other years where I’ve had teams or we’ve had teams here that maybe could not play our best but still win games, but the league is unforgiving in that way and what I’ve told them and sometimes I’ve been emotional and sometimes I get pissed at them and sometimes I’ve been encouraging, but the message has always been we aren’t where we want to be immediately right now and I wish the success could come all at once, but this is better for us.
To have to go along a path and trust that process and I think they have. And so I’m really gonna get them to understand this is the next step and we have a great opportunity whether we want to deal with it. So the emotional roller coaster, I think they’ve embraced it and I think it’s helping us get to the point where we are the team that we know that we can be and no better time than now and I think this will also help us going forward.”-Lindsay Gottlieb on the emotional roller coaster of the season.
“So, I thought we’d watch more basketball for fun than a lot of coaches, like I’ll sit down and watch SEC Network and just see ooh LSU’s playing Vanderbilt today, so I’ve caught them kind of randomly. Now when I’m doing that I’m watching them as a fan. I watching to say let me watch that Nikki Fargas game because she’s back in the day UCLA or what have you, so I’ve casually watched them a couple times, I know they’ve got a terrific wing, Moncrief, just from watching them and another guard that had transferred, I think she’s from California maybe, that transferred from NC State that’s good and then an undersized post that’s really a top fighter and from a Nikki Fargas coached team you’re going to get defense. You’re gonna get a lot of matchup zone and toughness, but I’ll watch a lot of film tonight and get a better sense, but I’ve just watched them as a casual fan and you know you’re going to get a toughness battle for sure.”-Lindsay Gottlieb on LSU.
