Transcript:

Brooke Hale: Hi and welcome back to the Home Stretch, The Daily Utah Chronicle’s sports podcast. My name is Brooke Hale and I’ll be your host. Today Inês [Vieira] will be joining us to give her thoughts about the women’s basketball season so far and moving forward into the [NCAA] tournament. Hi, Inês. Welcome to the podcast.

Inês Vieira: Hi, thank you for having me. 

Brooke Hale: Of course. So being from Portugal, how has it been playing in the United States so far?

Inês Vieira: It’s really different. I mean, like, I used to play on the professional team back home. Like, I would be playing with, like, 30-year-olds, and like, it’d be crazy in here. Like, one of the main reasons why I came to the U.S. was because I could, like, study and play basketball at the same time. So I think like, that’s the biggest, like, reason because back home, like, you can’t really play and like study at the same time. They don’t, like, value that.

Brooke Hale: You mentioned playing for the Portugal team. How many years did you play for them?

Inês Vieira: Six years. So, this will be like, my summer, my first summer without like, well, not like any basketball being with the team because the senior team, which I am, like, on now, like, they practice in play when like our season starting, so there’s no way I could like be doing both. So, I’m just going to come back for the summer and be on the summer sessions and all that and keep playing basketball but not like with the national team.

Brooke Hale: That’s so awesome. So what made you choose [the] University of Utah?

Inês Vieira: It was like the biggest, like, team, especially like on the Pac-12, and like the Pac-12 conference is one of the best conferences in, like, the U.S., and that was the biggest opportunity that I’ve had all from all of my opportunities I feel like, and I don’t know, I think I did – I made the, like, the right choice.

Brooke Hale: How have you felt about the season so far? Coming off a great freshman and sophomore year, how do you think your junior year is going so far?

Inês Vieira: I think it’s going pretty good. I’m a lot more confident, playing with more confidence, my team, my teammates, like, have a lot of confidence in myself and in me too, and that kind of helps me to get going and all that. And we’re doing pretty good for this season. We get, like, we got the 20th like win of the season, which is, like – awesome for like a D1 NCAA playing in the Pac-12 conference, one of the, like, the best conferences in the United States at this point, and I don’t know, it’s just going great.

Brooke Hale: What has been your favorite game so far?

Inês Vieira: I’d say the Colorado game a couple of weeks ago. We were up by 10. On the third quarter, they came back and Dasia [Young], I just passed the ball to Dasia in the last seconds and she just, like, drives to the basket and makes that last bucket at the buzzer. I think that was pretty cool.

Brooke Hale: With two Pac-12 games left to play, what do you expect out of the team?

Inês Vieira: I think we’re doing pretty well. If we stick to the game plan and, like, play together, that’s when we play at our best and I don’t know, then the game just flows and you’re not stressed about anything when you’re playing together and you have your teammates back too. So I just think like, sticking to the game plan and playing together and having fun just is going to get us going.

Brooke Hale: Coming off that huge USC road game, how’s the team feeling right now?

Inês Vieira: Pretty confident. I think we’re showing people now how, like, much we’re worth. Even though, like, we’re still 18th in the nation after beating the number seven team in the whole nation. I think we just have to keep showing people how good we are and just keep playing basketball.

Brooke Hale: How are you feeling about the team moving into the tournament? [Any] expectations?

Inês Vieira: We want to, of course, go into the championship. That was one of our goals, and [there are] a lot of good teams. There’s at least like five teams ranked in the whole nation, top 10 teams. I don’t know. It’s going to be tough, and every team is really good and every game is going to be really hard. But, if we just, like, focus on each game, we’re just going to keep going.

Brooke Hale: Personally, what do you think the team needs to work on moving into the tournament?

Inês Vieira: Just being more consistent. I think we’ve had a couple of games where, like, we had the lead, and then we let the teams [come] back. And against USC, we didn’t have that. We were more consistent. We took the stretch, and I think it was really good. But mainly like being more consistent and playing together again, having fun. That’s when we played our best, and if we stick to the game plan, it’s going to work.

Brooke Hale: Can you see the team making the same run this year?

Inês Vieira: Yeah, I think so. I think the team is the same, but different. I think we each, like, develop personally and I think it’s helping the team a lot more. But, if we just get in our heads and don’t do what we need to do, I don’t think it’s going to work and it showed, like, in some games when we lost. If we stick together again, and if we just play basketball, I think we’re going to be good and we’re going to go far. 

Brooke Hale: 100 percent. Is there a team you want to face in March Madness? 

Inês Vieira: LSU. 

Brooke Hale: That would be awesome. 

Inês Vieira: Yeah.

Brooke Hale: Well, great. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts Inês, and I wish you the best of luck for the rest of the season and your junior year and thank you for listening to the Home Stretch, The Daily Utah Chronicle’s sports podcast. Stay tuned for new episodes every week, coming up

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Producer: Stevie Shaughnessey —  [email protected]   | @steviechrony

Host: Brooke Hale — [email protected]  | @brookehale_

Guest: Inês Viera – junior studying business management | @inesvieira15