Peter Koutroumpis (@pksport)
#ACCWBB
GREENSBORO, N.C. – What the coaches had to say about Second Round play at the 2024 ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament at Greensboro Coliseum on Thursday.
It’s 5 O’clock somewhere
Louisville head coach Jeff Walz on looking forward to quarterfinal matchup against Notre Dame following a close second-round win over Boston College:
“Well, I haven’t even really thought about tomorrow’s game. I’m going to go to the bar first and have some Tito’s and tonic and a few other things. And then hopefully it will make this game look a lot better when I watch it on film, blurry possibly. Then I’ll start worrying about Notre Dame for tomorrow night.”
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Duke head coach Kara Lawson on competing against NC State in Friday’s quarterfinal matchup:
“They’re as complete a team as we have in our league, when you look at the balance they have of scoring, you look at the experience that they have. Any number of players can go off for 20 or 25 points on their team. You’ve seen it this year. They’re as hard as it gets in this league.
Our job is to get ourselves ready to compete and put our best foot forward. This is what the tournament is about. In this league, you’ve got to beat good teams to win the tournament. You’ve got to beat the good teams to advance. I know they’re focused on winning tomorrow, and we are, too, and I think it’ll be a great matchup.”
Going down fighting
North Carolina head coach Courtney Banghart on losing the battle against Miami:
“This game, it was much more of a fight. We had a bit of a lead, but these are — in March, they’re good teams. I’m sure you’ve watched the other games that have gone on. There’s no oh, we’re up 10, game over. That doesn’t exist in March. This felt more like a heavyweight fight. Their team made more plays than we did, so we’re the team going home.”
Showing up and out in March
Miami head coach Katie Meier on the drama of postseason play as it pertains to her team:
“Foul trouble, foul counts, how many fouls, who’s got the arrow? There was a lot of stoppage which allowed us to sort of filter through some of the blah blah blah and then what was really important. I think that helped us. I think that helped us.
The intentional foul, I haven’t seen it, but that was dramatic. Missing free throws was dramatic. Two travels was dramatic. But when you look at how the game went, they had 20 in the first quarter, 17, and then it went 10, 12. That’s Miami basketball, and that’s why we’re an NCAA team, because we always show up in March and we always slam the door on people.”
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