Everything Oregon State coach Scott Rueck said after losing to South Carolina
South Carolina beat Oregon State, 70-58, on Sunday in the Elite Eight round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. Following the game, Beavers coach Scott Rueck spoke with the media.
Opening Statement
SCOTT RUECK: I thought South Carolina, they’re a great team. They played great today. Really did a nice job on the boards. Hurt us in transition. Adapted well when we went zone. Eventually got comfortable, hit some big shots. Defended us well. They’re a very good team, so congrats to Dawn and to her team and their fans and everybody.
This means that our season ends, and so I was just telling the team in there, I’ve gotten to talk a lot about great teams for a lot of years, and more importantly, great people, a lot of years. This team, it rivals any team I’ve ever been a part of. What they did this year is not common. It’s not normal. We’re not supposed to be here.
But we are, and the people in the room get it. Not surprised by it.
Y’all got to see it today, a fearless, gritty, tough display of competitive fire and passion and togetherness that is as inspiring as anything. What’s more inspiring than what you all just watched? Those of you who have been paying attention, which is not most of you, all year long, you would know that from day one. If you were with us in Italy, you would have seen what you saw today: Passion, unbelievable energy, togetherness, and a competitive fire that’s just not normal.
Down 12, going into the fourth quarter. So? That’s all I had to say. We’re down 12 to the No. 1 team starting the fourth quarter. Let’s go. Can we do it?
Just fearless, courageous, together, everything that’s right is this team. In our sport where it seems like controversy is the flavor all the time for some reason, and we all have to have something to whine about, this team just keeps it simple and does everything right, and y’all are probably bored with it. Shame on you. That’s what I’d say.
Everybody needs to get to know this team, everybody needs to watch this team, and everybody needs to be like this team. The world would be better if everyone focused on this instead of a lot of the other things.
I couldn’t be more proud of a group, more happy to be a part of them, and more grateful.
Q. I know there’s no units in women’s basketball to put a fiscal number on it, but can you quantify the value of what this run means to your program, to the university, to the future?
SCOTT RUECK: Well, it’s my university, so I care. It’s my mom’s university. She’s sitting back there.
I mean, one thing I’ll say, it’s hard hearing your school talked about the way it’s been talked about and in a way devalued. Clearly I don’t see it that way, coming back to my school and creating a program that has the ability to fill a stadium or an arena, coliseum, to turn a community and a region on its ear kinda has been a dream of mine, and we’ve done that. We’ve done it at the highest level, and we’ve gotten to this point a couple times now.
What the value is, I don’t know, but I know the timing of it is really great. We’ve been drug through the mud, just like today listening to you guys talk. I don’t see what y’all see. We’re closer to Portland than Oregon is, are we not? So media — I don’t know. All I know is Beaver Nation is awesome, and Oregon State is an incredible university, and it’s an unbelievable home away from home for our students. We can compete with anyone from there.
I don’t know what the value is, but I know that happened, and it’s probably perfect timing for Beaver Nation, and it’s been a joy of mine to put smiles on people’s faces, especially this year.
Q. Just to jump off what I was talking to Raegan about a little bit, and you spoke about it yesterday, that part of what you’ve done here is to make pros. So when you see somebody do this as a sophomore — I go back to Ruth Hamblin and you look at what she put up numbers-wise which was incredible and you sent her on to the WNBA, Raegan is ahead of where she was as a senior as a sophomore in every number you can come up with. How good can she be, and what’s the distance left to travel from here to when you finally send her on her way?
SCOTT RUECK: Sky’s the limit. I would equate Rae a little bit more to Marie Gülich than Ruth.
It’s ironic, Ruth and Rae have very similar personalities. If you got to know them, you’d see a lot of similarities in their qualities as a human. But the versatility Rae has, she’s very guard-ish. You saw her run the point a little bit tonight, and she can do that.
She can shoot the three. We haven’t used that a lot. It hasn’t been a go-to thing for her yet, but it’s evolving, and it’s something that is there. She hit a couple last year, and I don’t know if she made one this year or not, but she’s capable.
At that level, you’ve got to be able to be consistent from the perimeter, and that’s why I would say more like Marie. Marie is dominating the world right now as a center and can slide to the power forward spot, which Rae can. She’s so versatile. Her passing abilities allows her to be a perimeter player. So as that perimeter shot develops to go along with an unguardable inside game, sky’s the limit.
You put all the character with it, so it’s just this trajectory that’s not going to quit until she decides to hang it up.
Q. You guys were within two, I believe it was about midway through the third quarter, and then they went on that big run, what they’ve been doing to people all year. How difficult is it when they start rolling downhill like that?
SCOTT RUECK: Difficult. I think during that stretch — I mentioned it yesterday as we were getting ready for this game, the difference in this team is their ability to consistently knock down threes. That’s what makes them what they are in my opinion. South Carolina will always be a great rebounding team. They’ll always have an inside presence. They always have. They’ll always have people that can really defend and disrupt.
They haven’t always had consistent perimeter scoring, and this team does. That’s what ended up hurting us. We gave up some rebounds during that stretch. The foul situation probably was an impact because we were out there walking on eggshells playing in a china closet trying to avoid that fourth or fifth foul, and so because of that, you play a little tentative and it seemed like our rebounding effort was a little tentative during that stretch, and that’s what makes them who they are. They can turn you over and get a bucket, get O-boards, miss, get another one, miss, get another one, and finish, knock the three down. We just were unable to answer offensively during that stretch, and that was probably the biggest thing, and give them credit for a great defensive effort all day.
Q. You talked about the team being like this, having this potential all year. Going back to probably your first big game of the year, tied with Villanova sort of late in the game, did you know back then by how they responded that this was not just possible but likely?
SCOTT RUECK: That was day one. That was the day that it was evident that this group had, in my opinion, just all the characteristics of what it took.
To be able to close out a team that’s used to winning like Villanova, especially at that time, I mean, they’re coming off a 30-win season, we’re Game 2 for both of us. I know when you come off that, you’re confident you’re winning. A close game, you win.
We had to overcome that belief in them that day, and our execution on both ends of the floor — a year ago we couldn’t get the stop we needed. This year we got the stops we needed, we scored, and that was maintained throughout the year. That was day one for us, the first big win, and it felt like a conference game that day.
Q. You made that run at the end to cut it to four with about 3:50 or so left and then couldn’t hit one. Shots weren’t falling or their defense turned up? What was the difference in that last stretch?
SCOTT RUECK: I thought we got lots of great shots. Looking back on it, we had one empty possession that I didn’t like during that stretch. But we came out of a time-out, I believe, and we had a pretty good look that we missed, and I thought we got about every shot we wanted down the stretch of this game. They just didn’t fall.
Then give them credit for not giving us two. They did a great job on the defensive boards which put a lot of pressure on our shooters, and then it got to seven, and then we were pressing and I thought we took maybe one rushed shot during that stretch. But I really liked our execution, and I thought we got the looks.
But in this game today, we had to be near flawless, and we just weren’t able. We just weren’t quite flawless enough.
Q. The final scoreboard I don’t think is going to reflect how great you guys played, but the one stat line that caught my eye was you guys holding them to 33 percent shooting from the field. What do you think this performance by you guys, especially defensively, showed the nation when the talk has been just give us one game to show what we can bring to you?
SCOTT RUECK: Just who we are. Who we are. You’ve got a team that’s supposed to beat us. They were supposed to beat us by 15 or 16, somebody told me that, and everybody knows it was a closer game than that it felt, and we had to overcome a lot of adversity today.
I don’t know, just all the stuff I said at the beginning, I guess. I just think that this team, we’re a tough out. We were a tough out all year long. We’re tested. We’re battle tested and we’re fearless.
I think it seemed fearless to me. It really did. I thought we looked fearless today, and I thought we gave ourselves a chance to win, which I had hoped. That’s all anybody can hope. We were there with three minutes to go. Give them credit for making the plays down the stretch.
Q. Could you speak on from a coach’s perspective the way Dawn Staley has built up South Carolina’s program?
SCOTT RUECK: Yeah. She’s been there — we talked before the game, 16 years, and I’ve been here 14. I don’t remember exactly what it was like when she took over, but I’m pretty confident it wasn’t like it is now.
Dawn obviously, she’s a legend. She’s a Hall of Famer. If she’s not in the Hall of Fame for coaching, she obviously will be. She’s an Olympian. She’s got every — she checks every box. She’s a great competitor.
When you’ve got a coach like that, you’re going to get talent, and she’s going to rally their fans, and they’re supported extremely well. I think they’re 104-3 over the last three years now, something like that. I read that. That’s not an accident. They’re very well-coached, and they’re very disciplined, and they’ve got two starting lineups on their team.
She’s doing a great job, obviously. But I think — yeah, I just don’t see a lot of weakness really in anything they do from any angle.
Q. You mentioned how you felt the foul trouble may have affected perhaps the way that you played. How do you feel about the officiating in this game, particularly Raegan’s third foul?
SCOTT RUECK: I was blocked out on it, so I couldn’t see it with my own eyes. I’ve been told it probably wasn’t an accurate call. That’s what I’ve heard. I’m not here to get in trouble or anything. But clearly there were a couple calls right there that were — that massively influenced this game, and you just hope they were accurate.
Q. Specifically the Raegan-Kamilla matchup, how tough is it to officiate a battle down low like that, and how do you think that went?
SCOTT RUECK: Well, I would have liked Rae to be able to play a little more free in this game. Three fouls in the first half, nobody wants to see that. The way the game was going, I felt like my hand was kind of forced to have her out there in that second quarter to finish up, to stay close.
I mean, when you’re back is to the wall like that, you kind of — you’ve got to roll the dice a little bit.
I loved the battle. I mean, that’s what everybody wants to see, right? Nobody wants to see foul trouble. You just want to see them go at each other, and as long as it’s logical, let it happen. Just let them play. I don’t want fouls, but I want it to be what everybody would want it to be, common sense. I don’t know if that left the building or not today, but that’s what I wanted to see.
When it was like that, it was fantastic. Those are two great players that are so skilled and so talented and have systems that are built to feature them both, so this time of the year you pray to see the best go at it, and that’s great sport.
So when it was like that, it was great sport.
