Richmond 74, Georgia Tech 49
THE MODERATOR: We're joined by coach Aaron Roussell, Addie Budnik and Maddie Doogan.
Coach?
AARON ROUSSELL: Wow. Just could not be more proud, could not be more impressed, led by these two, but the entire program, entire university, entire department. This sounds cheesy and corny, but man, it took a long time for us to get over the A10 Tournament. Like I said, it was nothing entitled, but this team wanted it so bad. For me not giving them that moment was crushing the last couple weeks.
Could not be more proud of our staff for the work that went into it. It was a lot. I just begged and worked, and just to give them this moment, they deserved it and they balled out today.
I could feel it coming this week. I think the three of us will admit we didn't feel it coming the first practice after the A10. It took us a while to get over it, but adversity makes you do special things. These guys bounced back. They learned their lesson, used the lesson and they got after it, man. Today was awesome, but I'm probably equally and more impressed the process these guys have put into get us here today.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes?
Q. Maggie, was there something you guys saw on film when scouting Georgia Tech that you knew you could expose them?
MAGGIE DOOGAN: Not really. I think our offense is just really hard to guard. So we knew anybody we were going to go against was going to have trouble guarding us. We watched a lot of film, we studied their tendencies, knew what would be open and what would not be open. I think we were balling on a different level today.
Q. Addie, Maggie, could you tell us what it means to be part of this program's first NCAA Tournament victory after five years for you, three years for you?
ADDIE BUDNIK: I think both of us have been apart of a ton of firsts with this team. Just writing our own history with this team. Maggie had a hell of a game guiding us through that. Getting this win on this stage representing Richmond, we're a small school in Virginia. Being on a national level and able to represent our school is incredible.
MAGGIE DOOGAN: Yeah, Courtney Swider said this in the locker room: Just imagine how proud your five-year-old selves would be. That's what you play for. You play for everything you worked for and you play for the person next to you. I'm honored to be playing with my best friends. We had a really good time today. It's an incredible feeling to be able to do this for not just us but the university as a whole.
Q. You missed four of your first five shots, then didn't miss again. I know you'll talk about the team and the offense and everything, what does it feel like to drop a 3 and 15 in the NCAA Tournament?
MAGGIE DOOGAN: I mean, it's what you just dream of. My family is here, so to be able to do that in front of them is really cool. They have seen my progress from when I was really little. You know, a lot of them have been to almost every single one of my games. It's a special feeling. I'm not going to forget it definitely, but obviously I wouldn't have done it without my teammates, my coaches, everybody just having my back and telling me to keep shooting after missing four.
THE MODERATOR: Any more questions for the players?
AARON ROUSSELL: Maggie, what are we two hours away from your birthday?
MAGGIE DOOGAN: Great birthday present.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach.
Q. You talked about it before, but what does it mean to you to get this NCAA Tournament victory, to get this next milestone, the big picture of things you want to work towards with the program?
AARON ROUSSELL: Personally, you enjoy being with this team. That was the crushing thing is at some point, we know things have to end. Didn't want to go out the way we did in the A10 Tournament. I think that was a huge part of it. I think we talked a lot to this group, there was going to be a legacy component to this team and we want that really bad. We're going to celebrate this today, but that group in that locker room is going to remember this for the rest of their life. Every time they come back for a school reunion they're going to talk about this and everyone who was in the stands is going to talk about this. We talked about having that for the rest of our lives last year. The new people on this team didn't get to have that. That was crushing. So we wanted to have a legacy moment with this group for this university for somebody to talk about for the rest of their lives together.
And so we'll celebrate it today, but I think a huge thing for us is, whenever this ends, what it's going to mean then and what it's going to mean five, ten, 15, forever.
Q. Along those same lines, how much did the experience of last year help the kids who came back for this year in this tournament?
AARON ROUSSELL: It helped. I've said this for a long time, having successful teams, you get something that next season and I thought we did have it all year. It didn't go well. It wasn't because -- sometimes it's basketball still. You're going against good teams. Last time we were out here, we won 17 in a row and then dropped one. Those things happen.
Again, the bounce back from the group. It did give us confidence. I think being out there, I could not believe how calm we all were. Honest to God, for me, not that it's about that, but I just weirdly was like, why are we so calm? The preparation our staff put into this was incredible. It was enjoyable this week working with our staff putting this together, really enjoyable with our kids, engaged, asking questions, really wanted to be a part of this. Sometimes they gave me a look, are we sure we're doing this right? You know you kind of rolling with it until you need to adjust, but they were really locked in. They all really wanted this.
I think especially for that core group last year that had been here before, that was a boost. It didn't mean we were going to win, but that was going -- I don't know how much advantage we had against those guys, how many columns we had, but we knew that was going to be an advantage for us.
THE MODERATOR: Any more questions for Coach?
Q. She talked about it a little bit, but what can you say about Maggie's performance and what makes her so good at what she's able to do?
AARON ROUSSELL: I think when you have moments like this, there needs to be preparation, scouting, playing together well as a team, all of those, but you kind of have to have somebody who's going to have a day. I think we said 30 and 15, which is incredible. She had six assists, I think she had a couple early that she didn't finish that she could have had more, but there was just a hunger and a drive from her. We've seen that from her before. You know, talking with Maggie since the last game, I think she shouldered a lot of this. We talked about being wired similarly and felt like this was on us and shouldering a lot of that, which was completely unfair for her, but she was going to bounce back and she has every single time we've been out there.
She's just an incredible competitor. Sometimes that hurts her with the second fall or charge or whatever else, but I know you're always going to get the extreme fierce competitor from Maggie Doogan, and you saw that today. It wasn't just because she made shots. She went up and got rebounds. You don't get 15 rebounds by just the other team missing shots. You gotta go get some and she went and got some today. That was impressive, I think her all around game. That's why we recruited her here. She'll tell you her best quality is her versatility. She used that today on both ends. I'm proud of the growth we've seen from her?
THE MODERATOR: Any closing remarks?
AARON ROUSSELL: No. Again, just super proud of our players. Excited they got this.
I will say, even as a league, I think we've talked about this for a long time, building this as a league and being respected to the level, George Mason plays tomorrow, I think. I think whoever has got them is going to have a tough one. We talked about St. Joe's. This is a league that we've been building this for a while. The coaches have taken a lot of pride in building this, we've had support from our administration at the university. This feels good for us today.
I don't want to say the word pressure, but I felt from the other A10 coaches for us to spread our wings a little bit, and this league is going to be here for a while and there's more to come from this league.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports