TCU beat UCF 66-60 on Tuesday. After the game, student-athletes Aaliyah Roberson, Agnes Emma-Nnopu, and Sarah Sylvester spoke with the media. Roberson scored a team-high 17 points while Agnes-Nnopu chipped in 10 points. Sylvester joined the team as a preferred walk-on a few days ago when the team held open tryouts. TCU lost several players to injuries over the past few weeks.
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00:00 We have Sarah Sylvester, Agnes Emanopou, and Aliyah Roberson following tonight's win over UCF.
00:06 Questions for these three.
00:07 Sarah, for you, whenever you checked in there at the end of the third quarter, what was that like for you?
00:12 Just hearing that ovation from the crowd.
00:14 It's just kind of an unreal feeling. You know, you never expect those types of things.
00:18 A whole arena erupts for something like for you and I just, I'm so grateful for that.
00:24 I wasn't expecting it at all. So it's just such a special moment for me to hold on to for the rest of my career and life.
00:29 Agnes, after all that's happened in these last couple weeks, what did tonight mean in the way that you came together?
00:35 I think for us it was just wanting to come out there and play hard for those who couldn't play.
00:39 So I think we just wanted to sit together like the word we had on the board before in pregame was fearless.
00:44 So we just wanted to be fearless.
00:46 Aliyah, what has the message been from your coaches who have been injured?
00:50 They were obviously all on the bench tonight cheering you guys on, coaching you during your timeouts.
00:54 What has their support been like?
00:56 They're just always going to be there for us no matter if we're on the court or not.
01:00 They're very supportive. They're telling us just go out there and have fun.
01:03 There's no pressure on our backs and we're just going to go out there and do what we know what to do or know what to do.
01:09 And then for you, 17 points tonight, 8th and shooting. How are you feeling about kind of your new expanded role at Belmont?
01:16 Just taking it one game at a time. You know, I get a lot of good passes and good looks from my teammates
01:22 and just them opening up the court for me.
01:27 Agnes, what's it been like for you guys kind of just adjusting to new people and new players on the court
01:34 knowing it's going to be different moving forward?
01:37 MC always says like the journey of the season, like there's going to be injuries, obviously probably not to this capacity usually.
01:44 So I think just for us, like we're playing small balls.
01:47 So just having five people on the court who are all shooting threats, scoring threats,
01:52 I think just being able to have that mindset like you got to go out there and make a play.
01:57 Sarah, for you, when was the last time you played an organized basketball game and how much have you played between all the volleyball lately?
02:04 The last time I played was two years ago in high school.
02:06 So it's definitely been a long time since I've been up and down on a court.
02:10 Just throughout this past couple of days since over the weekend, earlier or late last week,
02:17 I've had team game touches, kind of getting back acclimated to the flow of the game and passing cut and all that kind of stuff.
02:24 So it's been a little tricky getting back into the flow of things, but everyone's great and super supportive with it.
02:32 So they're making it easy for me.
02:34 Did you have any anticipation of playing basketball when you came to college or did you ever consider it?
02:38 No, I was recruited when I was younger to play basketball in college, but I kind of just had a change of heart.
02:45 Like during high school to play volleyball, I just thought that was something I wanted to pursue more.
02:50 And so I thought I was giving up for the rest of my life.
02:53 So it's just a really exciting opportunity for me.
02:57 Sarah, for you, what's it mean to you to have such a supportive head coach in Jason Williams,
03:04 who's been 100% behind you making this move over to basketball for the rest of the season?
03:10 I don't think that's something that everyone's head coach would be super supportive of.
03:14 He's just 100% full in for the team, for the community, for the school, whatever it is.
03:20 He's just been so encouraging, so supportive, and he's just been such a great right hand on this.
03:27 It made the decision super easy just to come in and help everyone out.
03:31 I could not be more thankful for his support.
03:34 Sarah, if you could walk us through the timeline of the last week or so, you're at volleyball,
03:39 workouts, and then you hear this opportunity. Walk us through that.
03:43 I got back to campus last week, just started training with the team again.
03:47 And then I think it was Wednesday or Thursday, I rolled around, and they announced open tryouts
03:54 during one of our practices. I came back to the locker room after practice and I saw it on my phone.
03:59 I was like, "Well, everyone was just kind of like, 'Sarah, you should try out.'
04:02 Everyone knew I played in high school, so everyone was like, 'You should try out.'
04:07 It was just kind of a joke at first, but I brought it up to my head coach.
04:11 He was kind of like, 'Yeah, sure. We can see about it.'
04:14 But then throughout the night, it kind of developed more seriously into actually thinking about it.
04:18 Then I reached out to Jesse, and we kind of got the ball rolling and came to tryouts
04:24 and was in communication with the staff.
04:27 Why did you want to do that? You just wanted to help out your fellow Horned Frogs?
04:32 Just kind of walk us through your emotions when you were trying to do that.
04:35 Absolutely. Horned Frog family is so, so special and so important.
04:39 Any opportunity I could have to help any other team, I would take in a heartbeat.
04:44 Basketball was just super special to me and a love for me growing up.
04:49 Just being able to reopen that opportunity, I thought I couldn't miss out on it.
04:55 Agnes and Aaliyah, what does that mean to you two to hear that from Sarah,
04:59 that she's willing to step up and help you guys continue your season?
05:02 I guess as someone coming new into the Frog family, it just shows how much of a community it is
05:07 that everyone wants to support and help each other.
05:09 And seeing that other sports want to step up and be part of what we're building here is awesome.
05:15 I would say one of the main reasons why I came here is because the community is so tight-knit.
05:20 And just hearing that is very heartwarming and it just shows how much of a great school TCU is.
05:26 Agnes, can you talk about the atmosphere here tonight? You talk about the community.
05:31 It's a great crowd. Can you just talk about that?
05:33 The fans are always awesome. I love playing in front of the Frog fans.
05:37 They rallied around us, even though obviously they probably wanted to see the last two games that we had canceled.
05:43 But for them to show up and be supportive, have the standing ovation for Sarah, it's awesome.
05:49 Agnes, now that you guys have gotten through this game and got a win, a big 12 win,
05:53 I know you've got to go on the road, but talk about trying to move forward now.
05:56 Now that you've gotten back on track and you've got games to play, you might get some people back.
06:01 I think it's just an opportunity for everybody to grow.
06:04 We have freshmen who probably didn't play as much early in the season.
06:08 They have a huge opportunity to step up and develop their game.
06:11 And I think introducing pieces that we know are coming back later in the season,
06:16 I think it would just be very beneficial for us.
06:20 I wanted to ask Agnes about Victoria specifically.
06:25 She had a layup opportunity for the lead, didn't go.
06:28 She had a three for the lead, didn't go, but then came up with a steal on the score.
06:31 What do you think that meant to her and what did it mean to the team this year?
06:35 I think that Victoria is such a young player, not putting her head down in opportunities like that.
06:40 Like you mentioned at halftime, I think she was sort of worried about how she was playing.
06:44 We told her, "You've got to be fearless. We don't care about the mistakes.
06:47 This is the opportunity to grow."
06:49 And I think for her to continue to attack the basket after she missed that layup and then missed a three,
06:56 it was really good.
06:58 Coach Campbell mentioned when he was in here just now that y'all completely changed offensive systems in the last few days.
07:04 What has that been like on top of everything else,
07:07 learning essentially a completely new system on that side of the court?
07:10 I feel like we've just been taking it day by day, trusting our coaches
07:16 and trusting in our abilities to just work with this offense that we have.
07:20 And I feel like it's working pretty good.
07:22 We've got to work on a few kinks, but other than that, I feel like it'll be good for us.
07:26 I guess in fact, everything Lili said, like we drive around the offense a lot in practice.
07:33 I guess being able to see what it looked like, obviously the outkicks that we got,
07:37 but Chagui, all the other coaches put a lot of effort into finding something that we can carry with this group.
07:44 The first quarter you guys scored 27 points.
07:46 It just felt like you guys had a lot of energy.
07:48 Were you just excited to be back on the court?
07:50 What was it like for you guys going into the game?
07:53 I would say, yeah, it's kind of reminded me of whenever you can't sleep at night
07:56 because the first day of school is coming up.
07:59 Just those past two games, I felt like it kicked in for everybody that we can't take playing a game for granted.
08:05 I feel like everybody just had the energy to just be like,
08:08 "All right, we can go out there and show everybody what we've got."
08:12 Everything Lili said.
08:14 And Ms. Ferlia, with this adversity that this squad is facing,
08:19 does it kind of get you those competitive juices flowing even more to be out there?
08:23 Yeah, I think we come into every game now as the underdogs,
08:27 so I think it puts a--there's not really much pressure on us to go out there,
08:30 but we know what we can do, so I think coming in there with that underdog mentality,
08:35 that's what this is called.
08:38 Anything else for these three?
08:40 Lili, let me ask you this.
08:41 You guys got off to a 14-0 start.
08:43 You were ranked, and I know there's been some adversity,
08:45 but what does it tell you about what this program is capable of doing?
08:49 MC always says we have a bunch of soldiers, and I feel like that's what he recruits
08:54 and that's what he instills in us.
08:56 And we're just going to go out there and battle.
08:58 It doesn't matter who the opponent is, what we're going through,
09:00 we're just going to show our abilities and come together as a team and just work hard.
09:07 Hopefully they don't put a volleyball knee in you next year.
09:09 Are you going to step up?
09:11 [laughter]
09:13 All right, thanks, everyone.
09:15 Thank you.