Post Game Quotes: Western Michigan
12/3/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
MSU head coach Suzy Merchant
On the team's effort today…
It's disappointing. That falls on me as a coach. There's no excuses. (Western Michigan) had played eight games to our six. I think we looked real tired and exhausted and just couldn't move. It's like trying to find, right now our biggest problem is trying to fight through some of that fatigue, and then also get some consistency out of players right now. I felt like we went from making everything to now I think everyone shot an air ball today. It was weird, so I don't know what's going on with that. We had one day we got for Western, because you have to give them the day off, too. We went from Oregon, turnaround to we had to take a three-hour flight one-way to Miami, play there, so we were a little bit worn out but everybody in the country has to do things like that, so we have to be a little bit more focused I think, and the other thing I would really just say is that we need a consistent leader and go-to guy to emerge that can do both ends on the floor. Like right now, I put this kid in for offense but she can't guard her own shadow at the other end. I put this kid in for defense but she can't make a shot; that's not her thing. So, it's trying to find a balance.
On the team pulling each other through to win at the end…
It's good to see. It's good to have close games. We're not going to blow everybody out, certainly. We've got to learn to buck up a little bit better, find ways to win games, or get a loose ball, or make a free throw or have to score like Taryn (McCutcheon) hit that little floater. Somebody's got to step up and take it and make a play.
On playing a close game…
We had that in Miami. The last two games have kind of been back-and-forth, really. Some of the other victories have been very lopsided, so it's easy. Everybody gets to play. It's easy to make a shot when it doesn't matter, a little harder when there's pressure on you. That's what I'm saying, like who is going to emerge as that person consistently, night-in and night-out? And then on the defensive end, too, just trying to get better at guarding the ball and doing the things we need to do to get better. But, those are good games. Like I said when we played UConn, you're going to win or you're going to learn, and we have to learn some lessons from every game we play, and I thought at Miami we played super hard. We had open looks, we just could not hit a shot. So it's a different game when you finally get something to fall, you got to step up and make them, so you're going to win or you're going to learn, and we can learn a lot about our team and people need to learn about themselves, too.
WMU head coach Shane Clipfell
On playing Michigan State three years in a row…
The difference between this year and two years ago when I stood here, it's night and day. Our team didn't compete very well that year, two years ago. Clearly we did at our place last year and again this year. It's not a turn the corner moment for our team because I think we have so much stuff that we have to continue to get better at. What we've been pleading our team to come up with is a way to play the bigger schools, the power five schools, the BCS schools that technically on paper are better than us. That's kind of a fearless mentality.