Postgame Notes
Chattanooga 45, NC State 64
NCAA Tournament
Raleigh, N.C. | Reynolds Coliseum
Saturday, March 23, 2024
 
Shawn Poppie, Head Coach
Opening Statement
"Yeah, hats off to NC State, Wes and their group. Not only obviously playing and getting the better of us today, but really this whole last couple days. It's been first class. We've enjoyed our time, obviously, besides the loss today. But I have a group in that locker room that I'm super, super proud of. I thought we competed. We defended. Offensively we struggled a little bit. That's a little bit of us and a lot of them. Their length really bothered us. I couldn't be more proud of the group. These two obviously. But the rest of the ones that are in that locker room, I think they've represented our program, our university to the best of their abilities that we should really walk out of here with our heads up high. And it's unfortunate it's come to an end. 28 and 5 is pretty darn good, though, and it's something we'll remember, not just the success, the relationships, the times we've had. Again, I couldn't be more proud to be their coach, and just hard to have it end this way."
 
On his defensive strategy for the game.
"Yeah, obviously they're big, big everywhere. Not only to double but we really stayed in our gaps much longer than we normally do. They're so athletic. And so for us was in a sense we talked about blocks and elbows so much, dig that thing out as much as we could, and rely on and hopefully contested jump shots for 40 minutes. And then we had the rebound. I don't think we did a great, great job. I thought we competed, but we didn't do a great job on the glass. But if you would have told me that we'd come in here and hold them to 33 percent from the floor, 27 from the three and only 10 paint points, I think we had a pretty good chance to win. So I thought we executed really well. They hit some shots. But we knew they were going to. They're good. You have to give up something. We're not roll the ball out as talented as they are. They're here for a reason. So we kind of picked, that was what we were going to try to give up. I thought it, for the most part, worked. We just had to be a little bit better offensively to get some runs ourselves going. We could never put a handful of possessions together to push ourself forward."

On what explanation he was given to one of the officials being swapped out at halftime.
"That there was a change, and that was it. Yeah, so they literally just -- Laura Herron came and got me in the locker room and said they were making a change. I don't know what happened. I didn't see anything specific. So I don't know what that was. I think it's maybe the second time in my career that's happened. But the other one there was an injury, so you knew. But this one, I'm not really sure."

Follow-up: On the standby official not being the one that was used to replace that official.
"Yeah, yeah. I wish I could talk more about it. I don't really know. I thought that's what standby was for. But I'm new to this thing too. We're all learning. So I'm not exactly sure what happened."

On what wasn't clicking for the offense.
"Yeah, I think some of it was we didn't score a ton. We didn't shoot the ball well, but we also were trying to slow the pace down. So back to our defensive strategy. Our offense was to try to run stuff. And then try to get looks. And we were going to have to space them out. Hindsight is 20/20. Maybe we should have tried to play a little bit faster. I thought we played faster in the fourth, and we scored 19. But I just wasn't sold if you were able to do that long term you'd get enough stops. We got some decent looks early on. We didn't make enough of them. And I think a lot of that is their length. I think that whether they were there to affect us and/or you see just the bodies of how big they are coming at you, even if it's not contested, it just feels different. And then inside. I mean, Jada, I don't know the last time she's went 5 for 15 from the floor. I think when she got in there, it was just a little different. She was sped up a rushed a little bit. Again, that's credit to NC State and their game plan and who they are. So to beat somebody like this on the road, you're going to have to shoot the ball better. I think 37, 38 percent from the three on the year, then we go 3 for 15, that's not going to win games especially at this level."

On what Jada Guinn has meant to him and this program.
"I couldn't be more proud of Jada Guinn. She took a chance on us to leave Tennessee Tech, had over opportunities. With what we sold to her in the process of helping develop her game, hopefully reaching her goals of what she mentioned up here, to be a professional. I think that is going to be reached here in a few months. But I tell you what, what you don't know in recruiting, especially someone out of the portal, is how special of a person they are. Coach Jon Goldberg had a relationship with her out of high school. So he knew a little bit about it, but I didn't realize how special she'd be. She's a 23-year-old grad student who gets along with the 18-year-old freshmen just as much as she gets along with the other seniors. It took forever for me to convince her to be more aggressive and believe in herself more than we did. But when that happened, we saw a really special run through the tournament, the Southern Conference Tournament. And then ultimately all she wanted to do was win. And I'll forever be indebted to her, as we were last year with Yazz. What everyone sees from the outside looking in is the stats and how special they were on the court, but they represent our university and our program in such a classy way. And I'm hopeful and I believe if you were to ask her, she'll forever call Chattanooga home, which means a lot to me."

On playing against former UTC head coach Wes Moore.
"Yeah, it was -- as the selection was going on, you kind of felt here it comes. They like storylines, I guess, with Chattanooga. It's two years in a row we've had an interesting storyline. I think the neat thing is to be able to -- we talk about our history quite a bit. If you look, we've won 20 tournament championships. You look up in the banners, and it's numbers after numbers after numbers. You talk about a lot of the players, but sometimes you forget to talk about the coaches. We were able to spend a little time this week on how special Wes was for our program; that we are able to sell a lot of what's up in the rafters when we call and recruit. And obviously you saw our fan base. It means something in Chattanooga for women's basketball. And he was a big part of that, not only a really good basketball coach, but why there's so many donors and fans that, however many years removed, he still means a lot to them because it's who he is. He's a good person. He's continued to be successful up here. So it was neat for me to be able to share that with them. I'm not sold there was a ton of emotion from their side, because it doesn't mean as much, but it was neat for the story for them to hear that. And I think it was neat for a lot of our fan base, donors, alums, that are proud of what we're doing again, for us to come play their former coach. I got a lot of text messages and messages just in general through the week of how proud they are of where we're back to not only winning but how we're doing it. And hopefully it's a reflection of what he did when he was here in Chattanooga. He's obviously done it here at NC State. You don't have 800-and-something wins if you aren't pretty good. So it was fun to come back up here and have a chance to play here in his place, what they've built back here. I love my kids to death, but sometimes they can't explain themselves too much. But that place is amazing. You can't hear yourself think when that place gets rocking, when they go on a run. So I think that's a really cool experience. And I think when they have a chance to sit back and reflect on what this day was and this week was, they'll remember how loud it was in there. It was a lot of fun."

Jada Guinn, Gr., G
On why UTC couldn't get it going offensively.
"Like Sigrun said, we got a lot of good open looks. Usually we shoot the ball better than that. I think their length did affect us a little bit, but it was just we weren't hitting shots."

On handling the opposing crowd today.
"I think we did a pretty good job. It is a lot harder. We're trying to hear Coach Poppie. He's losing his voice, so we're having to talk to each other and call the plays out. But I think we did a pretty good job of listening to him and getting in our sets."

On what's next for her now that she's finished her collegiate career.
"Yeah, I don't think it's really sunk in that I won't be able to be a college athlete anymore, I won't have those workouts, I won't get up for practices and stuff. But I don't think basketball is done for me yet. I do have dreams of playing professionally. So that's the next thing I'll be looking forward to after we get back."

On if there's a specific moment she'll remember the most from this season.
"Specific moment. I would say probably like the happiest moment was us winning the SoCon Championship because that's something that we talked about since the summer, and we've all worked so hard, the players, coaches, like all the time and effort that everybody has put into. So that was probably the biggest moment for that, just being able to happen after everything that we've gone through this year."

Sigrun Olafsdottir, Jr., G/F
On why UTC couldn't get it going offensively.
"I think we're getting good looks at first, we just weren't making shots. And I think their length bothered us a bit. I think that was the main thing for us."

On handling the opposing crowd today.
"Yeah, I think we did pretty good with that overall. But it was a struggle sometimes with the noise, and when they went on a run you could hear it. But I think for the most part we did pretty good with it."

On the season as a whole.
"I think we had a great season. I think the team got together as we went on and we got better throughout the season. And I think the staff did a great job preparing us for each game. So I think that's what made us so successful."