Post Game Quotes: Maryland
2/12/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Maryland Head Coach Brenda Frese
Opening statement …
Well first of all, I want to say how great it is to have Suzy (Merchant) back in action. I thought her team played with a lot of fight and energy for their head coach tonight. For us, it starts and ends with Bri Jones and (Shatori) Walker, who in my opinion are two of the best players in the country. Every night they come to play and consistently put the team on their back. I thought there was a lot of adversity, when you talk about coming out in the first quarter - lot of fouls. We were able to get to the line a lot and go 10 for 10 in that stretch. But it was a game of kind of different runs. Jankoska was sensational; she's so difficult. We had to run a lot of different things, different people in terms of defensively for her. I thought us getting to the free throw line, playing through our two seniors, that was the difference.
On planning for Tori Jankoska …
Obviously, we wanted to defend Tori as soon as she got on the floor. We need to find her in transition D, and she can shoot it deep. We went man, zone, triangle and 2 in terms of trying to limit her touches. Just really making her have to take a lot of tough shots.
On if she thinks Tori Jankoska can make it in the WNBA …
Absolutely. I think she's a talent. I mean, she has, what, over 2000 points now. What she's been able to do in every statistical category. I believe she's a next level player.
On her relationship with Coach Merchant …
We're close friends. It goes back to when we were both head coaches in the MAC. Her at Eastern Michigan, and I was at Ball State. We've spent a lot of MAC meetings and Big Ten meetings together, discussed our families, obviously I've stayed in communication with her through this stretch in time. I'm just so relieved and happy for her, her family, and her team that she's back doing what she loves in terms of coaching and the passion that she has.
Senior guard Tori Jankoska
On reaching 2,000 points…
Obviously would rather have the win but it's a really cool accomplishment. It's all hard work and keep improving your game and great things can happen.
On having Suzy back…
It's definitely different. Coach Merchant and Coach Mox have the same mentality because Coach Mox has been here for four years. For me, I definitely would say it's more comfortable. Having Coach Merchant for four years, she's the only one I always look to on the bench, and I always listen for her voice. That's just that level of comfort. Looking over today and her being there it just made me smile.
On work that needs to be done to get into the tournament…
I think we played hard tonight. We played together, we played with energy. A couple of things didn't go our way but for the most part we played pretty well. We have to regroup and go hard the next couple days of practice and get ready for when we play Minnesota. Yeah, they're really important. These last four games are definitely winnable and we have to come in with high focus, high energy every practice and really hope everybody is on the same page.
On take aways from this game…
Like I said, we played with energy. We stuck together the whole game. We did some good things. We moved the ball on offense. In the second half our defense was much better. We limited their offensive rebounds from what they normally get. Obviously we would rather win. There were definitely some good things about the game. We have to improve in some areas too.
On her accomplishments and other goals…
Individually, not really. That's not really what was on my mind. My big thing is, since I've been here, is to keep getting better. Finding the things that you need the most improvement on and trying to get better at those things. Looking forward, I want to get to the NCAA tournament. We have four winnable games for sure and hopefully in the Big Ten Tournament we can make some rise in that and then the postseason.
