Post Game Quotes: Wright State

Michigan State Head Coach Suzy Merchant

On the fourth quarter…
That is where our leadership and maturity in some of those kids really got to step up. Sometimes we get that lead then we get a little bored then a couple possessions where we let them score and then we might have turned it over. Now instead of it being 25 or 30, it's now 13, 11, 10 or something like that. To have Taryn (McCutcheon) step up there with confidence because she really didn't shoot the ball in the first half, so I told her it was really good to see her take that ball and say enough is enough. She can really, really shoot it and step up there, and I think in years past as a freshman and sophomore she might not have seen that as her role so it was nice to see her step up and take those shots for us.

On Taryn McCutcheon's role...
I think she has done a great job. Her scoring is up obviously. We still go back and forth with her. I think Nia Clouden does a great job playing downhill so that affects the defense a different kind of way. Taryn (McCutcheon) is kind of the guy that can really extend, and she is a system kid but she plays so hard so you need her out there. I have been very impressed with her ability to play the two spot. Shay (Colley) is our third point guard and like I said on the radio she plays nothing but point guard for the Canadian National Team. She can do that for us so to have three of them out there is kind of a fun concept. These guys pressed us and in the past I would be very worried about when teams pressed us. Clouden can get right through it, you have got Taryn and Shay. All three of those guys can really affect a press and as soon as they put it on us I felt like we scored almost every time. That was a pretty good offense for us. Taryn's role has changed but it is still very significant and it includes playing the point and the two and I think she has done a great job.

On the team's performance overall…
I was really really worried about Wright State. I don't know if you know much about them but they got a lot of transfers. They have got some kids on their roster that should be elsewhere, BCS kids. That dribble drive is really really hard to guard especially today with the way that they call games now with hand checks and what not so I was concerned. I thought they had three players that were kids that could just literally get you 40. You could play the best defense ever and that kid could hit a falling down fade away. They have kids that I think could have done that. To our credit, I thought our kids did a really good job on a couple of those key kids. They did allow number 12 to get a little bit more offense than she normally does but we really focused on a couple kids. Three of them in particular and try to slow them down as much as possible. We just have to learn to play consistent for forty minutes. I think our team plays hard but I just think sometimes we don't always understand that if we make a mistake on the offense end or have a couple empty possessions, we better get some defensive stops. That is where the maturity goes. We just started playing, just started learning each other a little bit and who is going to step up and say let's get a great possession here or we have to get a stop. That is the thing that I thought kind of happens to us in the last couple of games. I think over time we have some really good leaders on this team and some really good competitive kids so I just think it is a matter of time of being in those situations a couple different times where we just say this is where we have to get better and are not going to let this happen.

On the team's progress…
I like our defensive progress for sure. I think we are trying to do some things that we didn't do very well at times last year. I think that is a hard thing to have to defend and not foul but that is one of our keys. We want to really be able to play defense and not put people to the line and last year we really struggled with that. Then our offense I think has been okay, I think transition has been very good for us but now I think we still have to get better at executing in the quarter court. Especially entry passes into the post. I think that is something I need to do a better job of making sure we get more reps at.

Players Mentioned

Nia Clouden

Taryn McCutcheon

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