Post-Game Quotes: Grand Valley State
11/9/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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Michigan State head coach Suzy Merchant
On general impressions on the first game of the season...
There were a few things, like the fact that we didn't do a very good job of getting ourselves to the free throw line bothered me in terms of the driving from our guard play. Then I thought our bigs didn't do a very good job against a team that didn't have a lot of size, in terms of finishing or getting fouled in there. We did a lot of fading. That's one of them. I didn't like that we didn't react to number 4 [Kat LaPrairie] heating up. I didn't understand what they didn't understand about that when you come out of time outs and talk about that. That's a little bit of maturity, growth, and urgency. That's something that I think we have to do a better job of. I thought we took too many threes. Especially early in the first half of the game we were just settling for jumpers with not a lot of rebounding coverage. To our defense, we haven't really played against people who play a lot of zone, we've been really working on our man stuff, so good for Grand Valley that they played zone. We have stuff [plays against zone] in, but it's not something that we spent a lot of time doing. I know we'll get better at that. Obviously we're looking forward to making sure that we do get better at that.
On Jasmine Lumpkin...
I knew Jas was going to play. Athletically, she's certainly extremely gifted. She did a really nice job for us and played within herself - didn't try to force too much. I'd still like to see her rebound better, but I did think she did a nice job in the scrimmage that we played against Toledo a week ago and then tonight. She does a nice job and has a feel for the game. She's going to be impactful for us. I'd like to see her pick it up defensively a little more, but that's the whole team right now, so it's not just her.
On all five starters finishing in double digits...
Yeah, we talked a little bit about that. We don't have a lot of depth right now. I talked about our bench. Our bench did not do a very nice job of coming in and giving us a lot of positive things. I think they had two points and fouled seven times with only one assist to five turnovers. I kind of felt like they were just out there, and we need more out of them. To me, it's good to see five people in double figures, but the other side of that is that those guys have to kind of come along and do a better job of attacking a little bit more.
On Tori Jankoska and Aerial Powers...
Certainly, they're two very good players. Tori is really moving to the true point guard position, and she's really embracing that and doing a nice job. She had five assists today and had a double-double. The nice thing about her is that she's a good defensive rebounding guard, which helps our transition game a little bit. Both her and Aerial are talented players and they do a nice job together. Probably my biggest disappointment in terms of our bigs was that I didn't think we did a good job of scoring the ball as much as we could have down there, or rebounding it. Those two [Tori and Aerial] set the tone and I thought they had a nice overall game. They're going to log a lot of minutes. It's no different than what Annalise [Pickrel] did a year ago and Klarissa [Bell] did a year ago. When you're a talented group of kids, in terms of Tori and Aerial, we need them on the floor.
On Cara Miller and Anna Morrissey...
Anna is our backup point guard. I would've liked to see her perform better tonight because she does in practice. She played extremely well against Toledo, I thought, in stretches. She's got to get a little more of an aggressive mentality. I need to rest Tori [Jankoska] some and or move her to the two. Anna is a very good point guard - very headsy, very smart. Where she has to get better is having a commanding presence. To me, there are three things I think a point guard has to have: a commanding presence, ball security, and one-on-one defensive accountability. If you can do those three things, you can help our team. To me, she didn't have all three of them tonight. I saw them in spurts. Cara [Miller] is going into her third year here. She's a very good defensive player. She's kind of a hustle kid, a utility kid. To me, she really invests in our game. I'd like to see her be more confident out there, but I think that's just going to come with playing time. She ended up playing 23 minutes tonight, so that was good for her in a more significant role. And then we played Lexi [Gussert]. She's just coming around a little bit. I think the defensive side of the ball is probably her biggest nemesis right now. Those three, I think, will be good.
