BYU women's basketball meets with the media, practices

Friday BYU Press Conference Quotes

Friday Missouri Press Conference Quotes

Video Highlights

AUSTIN— The day before BYU women's basketball plays Missouri in the first round of the NCAA tournament, the team met with the media and had their first practice at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas

BYU HEAD COACH JEFF JUDKINS
Opening Statement
First of all, we're very excited to be in the NCAA tournament. It's a great honor to be able to work hard and be able to get there, and also to be able to play a great opponent, Missouri. They had a great season, probably played one of the hardest conferences.

We're excited to play them, and I think also, to be here in Austin, Texas, this is a great basketball city and played great games here. I know my team is ready. We've had a long wait after that loss in the Tournament to get going, and I think we're excited to play in this tournament.

And I'm really happy for these two seniors, especially, because this is their senior year, and to be able to go to the NCAA Tournament and be able to have this opportunity is really great for them. Well deserved, they both worked very hard in their career to be able to get there.

LEXI EATON RYDALCH
Q. Lexi, what do you remember from last year's tournament? You guys weren't equipped to play that style.

Last year was very physical, very intense, and I think we learned from that and have learned that we need to be more prepared in the NCAA Tournament. It's more intense, more physical, and so we need to learn from that experience and be ready for this game.

Q. You've been able to be in the tournament for several years. How much fun is it to be here, to be able to top it off with a 7-seed? Just talk about the experience and how much you're looking forward.

It's awesome. It's really exciting, especially for Kylie and I, our senior year, it's something that we set out to do since the start of summer workouts, weight lifting, running springs, everything, all the hard work. It's really exciting to see it all pay off and to get this awesome opportunity.

Q. You were able to make a deep run into the tournament a few years ago. How is this team similar to that and maybe different? How have you improved over last year?

I think we are similar to the Sweet 16 team in that we have experience, and we have senior leadership. I think we had that the Sweet 16 year.

KYLIE MAEDA
Q. The game against San Francisco, how much of a motivating factor is that for you guys and how ready are you to get back out on the court?

I think we're really ready. Just waiting to get back -- it's been almost two weeks maybe, but we've just been focused in practice, just working on our principles. I think we kind of went away defensive principles in the tournament, and that's something that's gotten us to this point. So we wanted to refocus on that and get ready for this tournament. 

Q. Kylie, how big will, basically, cutting down on turnovers and just taking care of the ball be against Missouri tomorrow?

Once you get to the NCAA Tournament, every possession matters. We learned that in the West Coast Conference tournament, that we just need to take care of the ball and get shots to the basket. That's really important to our team.