Post Game Quotes: Indiana
1/20/2018 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
MSU Head Coach Suzy Merchant
On what Nia Hollie was able to do running the point during the second half…
Yeah, I mean, I guess that I've been around a long time, it just seemed like that was one of the guttier performances I've seen. We had practiced going into Maryland, just her, like eight, 10 minute segments. Another 10-minute segment before this game yesterday, just in case. I didn't anticipate it being for an entire half, but I don't know, she showed us some things. We had a package that she could go to. A couple of them included some post-up opportunities for her at the 1, which you can see kind of helped us a little bit and they ended up having to go zone a little bit. So we weren't doing everything we could to sort of manufacture points and then they started trapping ball screens with her and so we had to go away from all ball screen stuff. So I thought she handled that well. I didn't have any players left. I had all post players left. I'm just super proud of our fight in the second half and certainly proud of what Nia did today.
On being able to come back from being down 26 points…
Yeah, I told the team, that Indiana was close on like every one of their games, you know, four-point game at Maryland, they should've won that one, they were at Michigan it was like five points, six points, whatever. They've been close on so many games and they just hadn't gotten over it. I thought their seniors, Tyra (Buss) came in here and just went off in the first half. We had no answer for her, we were trying, we started doing some different things in the second half that I thought helped, but you're right, we didn't quit and that's a good thing, but I'm not in this for moral victories. I don't think any of my team is either. They're feeling pretty bad. They're just in a really tough spot. I've never seen anything like it where you have more kids in street clothes than you do to put in the game. I feel like it's like three years ago or whatever when I had, you know, a handful of kids, but there's just not much we can do. I just felt like our fight was really good. I mean, Branndais (Agee) has never played that many minutes before this season. Coco (Gaines) had played 37 minutes. More than I wanted her to because Nia was in foul trouble in the first half. I just felt like we were putting a Band-Aid on a broken leg a little bit today but I just liked our fight and how hard we competed. We did leave free throws there, too. There's plenty of opportunities in the second half, we left eight points at the free throw line. Eight points makes a difference in that game. We needed some people to shoot the ball better that are capable of shooting the ball, as well. If a couple of the shots go down. We saw some good things. It's just frustrating to come up short and to have to put Nia in that position, really, but she did a great job.
On the status of Shay (Colley)…
I don't know either. I don't know. I mean we'll just have to wait and see and that's probably a couple week deal. We're in a tough spot for sure without that kid. She just does a lot for us. That's the thing, I think we needed people to have better nights. Some more of our upperclassmen and some of our capable underclassmen, too, to make some shots, really, because Shay's dynamic enough to give you about 20 (points), really. She might have about 11 but she's worth about 20 plus because of her assists, getting to the free throw line, steals, guarding. She's our best defender, that kind of thing. She just does a lot for us on both sides of the ball. If I could say you could pick anybody, like don't lose anybody on this team, I don't want to lose anybody but that's the one kid I would tell you that I think we have to have because she just is so good on both sides of the ball and she can play multiple positions and she could change the game. So, I mean, you don't want to lose anybody, but I think that kid was definitely a tough loss for us.
On the decision by the Board of Trustees this week with MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon…
Well, I mean, certainly I think it always starts with the victims. I've seen a lot of courage, and I watch these women have to speak in front of somebody that violated them. You know, to me, those people, in my opinion, are 'act alone monsters.' You know, they're going to find a way to do the things they do and it's really unfortunate, but this is a great university. It's a horrible situation and I think when I look at it from the outside in, I guess, I'm not privileged to everything, I think Lou Anna is one of the best presidents in the country, you know. I fully have faith in her and the Board of Trustees of Michigan State. You know, I get frustrated when I hear some things because I just feel like we didn't cover anything up, you know. If you didn't know, you didn't know. But who did know and then let's make some decisions from there. But if you didn't know, it's hard to make a decision on what to do if you don't know what's going on. But I think, number one, you want to always put the victims first. I think this is a great institution and Lou Anna is an incredible president and has been a great role model for so many of us.
I'll tell you this one little story about Lou Anna, about women. When I got hired, I had a 3-month old child. Ty was just born; he was 3-months old. I remember her saying to me, about my contract, she said, 'you know, we're going to put some clauses in your contract to make sure that you're capable of being a mom and being in a leadership position.' Because, she said, so many times we put women in leadership positions and then never give them the resources they need to do their jobs. That's not going to happen here at Michigan State, and I'm still coaching. I have two little boys. Do you know how hard this job is to do and be a mom in this business? It's not easy. There's not many of us out there. I believe wholeheartedly, like I owe everything to her and Mark Hollis for supporting me in that role and understanding what that's like to have to have this job and also do that. That's a little sidebar. I just want everyone to know that I think we need to focus on the victims and their healing process and what Michigan State has done, put money, the 10 million dollars, in terms of counseling and things like that. We're doing all the right things. It's a horrible situation, and you can't fix it. It'll never be fixed. But the man that is responsible for this is going to go to jail for a very long time and that's a positive thing. It's not the answer because those women are going to be frustrated and certainly go through some things for the rest of their lives. But I'm proud of this institution and certainly proud of Lou Anna Simon and Mark Hollis and everybody that's involved here.
