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For the first time in more than 20 years, the Gophers women’s basketball team is hosting an NCAA tournament game at the University of Minnesota. 

Friday’s matchup at Williams Arena is also the Golden Gophers’ first appearance in the tournament since 2018. 

Gopher Coach Dawn Plitzuweit — who’s in her third season of helming the U of M women’s basketball program — is no stranger to high-stakes college games, 

having led other teams to five NCAA tournament appearances

. Plitzuweit joined Morning Edition Thursday to share how she’s readied the women for the tourney and what sort of competition UW-Green Bay will bring. 

“We talk a lot about every moment matters, all the little details. And so we need to continue to do little things just a little bit better than we did before, whether that's our ball screen coverage, whether that's boxing out, whether that's running around a box out to get another offensive possession, so taking care of the ball is really big for us,” she said. “We haven’t played in front of our home crowd to be this loud, and so it's something that our players are so excited about, but you also have to be calm and relaxed in the moment.” 

Tip-off for the first-round NCAA game is at 5 p.m. Friday. Fans can watch it on ESPN or at 

Listen to the conversation by clicking the player button above.

Editor’s note: During the audio interview, the host misreferenced the team’s tournament history. The University of Minnesota women’s basketball team last played in the NCAA tournament in 2018. The written copy reflects the correct timing.

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Gopher Coach Dawn Plitzuweit joined Morning Edition Thursday to share how she’s readied the women’s team for the tourney and what sort of competition UW-Green Bay will bring. 

'Every moment matters,' says Gopher women's basketball coach before NCAA game

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