Post-Game Quotes: Wisconsin
1/3/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
MSU Head Coach Suzy Merchant
Opening Statement
I thought we did what we had to do. We did not have as much energy and focus as we did against Ohio State, so certainly that was a bit disappointing. But I thought we dug a little bit deep and did the things that we had to do. I thought we did a good job on Nicole Bauman. Tori (Jankoska) did a great job on that kid. When she hit that 3-pointer down the stretch there, it was as challenged as you can get. She didn't get very many open looks, and I thought we did a good job on their big kid, No. 25 (Michala Johnson), inside. Probably the things we needed to do a better job of were making sure we stayed in front of the ball a little bit better. No. 1 (Dakota Whyte) got away from us down the stretch there in the second half. That was a little bit disappointing. Some real positive things were having four kids in double-figures, 18 assists, 15 turnovers, so we didn't turn it over very much, and we did a good job on a couple of their key kids.
On Aerial Powers stepping up in the second half and making key shots
They were doing some different things, I think, that created opportunities on the perimeter. We needed someone to step up and do a good job of taking those opportunities and shots. There were some things we did to clear things out for her to run some baseline stuff and hit her baseline jumper. Those are things she is probably best at. She has an ability to create a shot off the bounce. Some of that you have to give (Jasmine) Hines credit for though. They were double, triple-teaming Hines in there as a post-man, so give Jasmine a lot of credit for that. A lot of our guards' offense came from people digging in down there and trying to get the ball out from the paint.
On importance of winning today after falling at Ohio State
You don't want to focus too much on outcomes. You want to focus on the things you need to do technique wise. When you think about just winning or put pressure on yourself for the outcome, the kids forget what is important. There were a few things we needed to do well. Some of those we did, some of those we just did okay. So we really just tried to let the last one go; you can't change it. It was disappointing, and we had the opportunity and we didn't get a defensive rebound and missed free throws down the stretch. It was a coulda, woulda, shoulda game and those are the ones that you need to step up and make plays down the stretch, which we didn't do. But in this league you have to have a short-term memory and go to the next one and refocus. As I said, our energy wasn't as good as it needed to be, but I think our kids did what they needed to do down the stretch to get the victory. So that was a positive.
On not fouling and taking care of the ball being a winning formula
That is a good place to start for every team. You don't want to foul people, which we had 30 fouls against Ohio State. That was disappointing. This time we only had 16, so that was a little bit better for us. We turned it over in the first quarter at Ohio State. We had 10 turnovers that were not necessary, be it a traveling or a charge, we just threw it to them, so it was nice to see us doing a better job of taking care of the basketball. Everything starts with those two things and you build around it, so today was a good day and we will go work on a couple of those things.
On contribution from bench and Jenna Allen
It is important. I think Jenna (Allen) has been coming along, and we need to play two bigs together. She brings good energy and works hard. She is always communicating. You don't have to talk to her about her effort or energy; it is always there. She is very skilled. We need to get her a few more reps. We played her and (Jasmine) Hines together a little bit, especially when they went zone because I felt we could pound the ball inside. I just didn't want to get into a 3-point shooting contest at the time. I wanted to keep attacking, which was a good thing. They struggled with a couple of our zone offenses so that was a little bit challenging for them, and they had to get out of it, which was good. I thought she did a nice job of guarding a face-up four man. Those are things we need to be able to do and play different combinations. We can go big or go small. In this situation, we chose to go big, which we have not done a ton because in the non-conference most of the teams we have played have been four face-up shooting guards, and that is a hard recipe to handle defensively for a big kid.
