West Virginia Women’s Basketball head coach Dawn Plitzuweit spoke with the media on Monday to discuss making the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament in her first season on the job.
Plitzuweit was hired in the spring of 2022 after Mike Carey retired after 21 years with the team. In her first season, Plitzuweit became the first coach in program history to qualify for the NCAA Tournament in their first season.
“I believe our young ladies deserved to be in, from before the Big 12 Tournament,” Dawn Plitzuweit said. “I thought that they had put themselves in a spot where they had earned that right as a team that was tied for fourth in the Big 12.”
She also took the time to reflect back on the season and how the team has gotten to this point.
“When you start in a program, you don’t know what you don’t know,” Plitzuweit said. “You are trying to learn what their tendencies are. You can do things in practice all you want, but when the lights are on it’s always a little bit different. Players are going to play how they are comfortable and do what they do. How do you as coaches modify what you do to take advantage of it and fit in what they do naturally.”
The Mountaineers (19-11) have been given the No. 10 seed in the Greenville I region. They will face the No. 7 seed Arizona (21-9) on Friday in College Park, Maryland.
“They’re really good on both ends of the court,” Plitzuweit said. “They’re very efficient offensively, they attack you, they shoot it well, they got good size, they defend at an incredibly high level, they turn teams over, make life difficult at the rim.
Tip-off at the Xfinity Center in College Park is set for Friday at noon ET on ESPN.
