Northwestern takes on Saint Joseph’s in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Lakeside Field on Friday, Nov. 13 at 12 p.m. CST. The ‘Cats are chasing a third-consecutive NCAA Tournament victory, following up its 3-0 victory over Maryland to secure a second-straight Big Ten Tournament title last week.
Ahead of the madness, Tracy Fuchs held media availability on Thursday, discussing the emotions, schematics and preparation that will fuel another NUFH NCAA Tournament run.
Note: Some of these quotes
have been edited for clarity.
Fuchs on NUFH’s defense: “They’ve just been really, really consistent. As we get to this point in the season more and more, often, other teams are going to get their share of shots, and especially Maryland, they’ve got a lot of firepower up front. So, they handled it, they did great and I thought Juls probably had one of her best weekends of her career as well.
Fuchs on defending corners in the tournament: “I think we just need to stay consistent. We know everybody’s throwing in a few wrinkles here and there but nobody’s gonna stray too far from what they do, maybe a trick corner or something like that, but pretty much at this point everybody knows their strengths and weaknesses so you just gotta come out and make sure that you play your very best if that’s possible. There’s gonna be mistakes, there’s gonna be ups and downs but in the end, hopefully, for us, we’ll prevail.”
Fuchs on tempo: “Obviously when we have the advantage we really want to pressure really hard and force turnovers so that we get numbers up advantages and then defensively if we’re on the other side of it just keeping ‘em in front, having everybody under the ball and just force them outside and try to keep tempo. You guys know that we love to play a fast tempo and go, go, go but when we’re down a man we’ll slow it down a little bit.”
Fuchs on Saint Joseph’s: “They’re solid, they have a couple of really solid players. They have a game under their belt and they won their conference. They have nothing to lose against the No. 1 team in the county. So, we just need to make sure that we’re ready for our counter attack and that we actually take advantage of our opportunities when we get into their circle.”
Fuchs on Saint Joseph’s head coach Sam Brown: “He’s a great coach. He’s gonna have them ready to go. I’m sure he’s scouted us pretty thoroughly, but we’ll be ready to go as well, for sure.”
Fuchs on tournament selection: “There’s definitely a few teams that are kicking themselves and wishing that they got that spot, but there’s teams like Old Dominion, who came out and won their tournament and Yale… they really needed a last good weekend and that’s what’s great about our sport: you gotta play through your conference tournament and do really, really well to get a spot.”
Fuchs on making sure her teams peak in November: “You hope a little bit and you try to make sure they’re ready to go, they’re getting their sleep, they’re eating well. We try to keep things pretty light and non-stressful, keep practice really short. You guys here are all at Northwestern… we have midterms every other week, so like the sharper we can be and keep it nice and tight then they have time to get everything else done and et ready.”
Fuchs on senior leadership: “We have a ton of seniors with a lot of leadership. We have 10 newcomers — a lot of them have given us valuable, valuable time and they’ll just follow the leader and they’ll be ready to go as well tomorrow.”
Fuchs on Ilse Tromp’s injury status: “Yeah, she’s day-to-day. That’s all I can say about her. She’s pushing a ball around but, honestly, we’re just gonna see how she feels and see if she can go this weekend.”
Fuchs on the midfield: “I think they’re all kind of starting to find their own. In fairness, they know this, they’ve been a little bit inconsistent, especially our outside middies, but I thought Jess and I think Raquel is really coming into her own. She’s been playing a little bit up front now and I think once they get that confidence you really see their skills shine.”
Fuchs on filling in for Tromp: “We have a lot of depth, which is great. So when someone like Ilse does go down, we’re still pretty strong. You never want to lose an Ilse, but we got two or three where they come into the game and we don’t miss a beat and that’s a sign of a good, strong, solid team from head to toe.”
