Post-Game Quotes: Iowa

Michigan State Women's Basketball Head Coach Suzy Merchant

On holding Iowa to 10 points in the 3rd quarter…
Some of it was just a little let's get a little more motivated conversation. You know I don't think we did that great of a job, she (Megan Gustafson) was getting too deep which we worked on all week and she was going to her right shoulder and we worked on that all week. So, we decided you know we talked about doubling, it's just tough to double in that triangle because they will just run the high-post guy down to the block, she will have a wide-open layup and you watch a million hours of film. So, she's tough because when you throw it in there one-on-one she's hard to stop, so if you start sending people, those guys can shoot threes, they can get dump downs. So, what we decided to do was give it one more shot, play a little bit stronger on that side, every now and then maybe send someone if we were close, if she was off the block and close we would kind of mess around with her a little bit. Truthfully, I thought we were getting stops and pushing in transition and had them reeling a little bit, so I think it was maybe less our defense and a little bit more scoreboard defense, because we were scoring the ball at the time. In that quarter, we came out with a pretty aggressive mentality, but she's tough, I mean that kid is always I mean she averages 27 (points) and 13 (rebounds) for two straight years, she shoots 70 percent, I mean she does it against double-teams, zones, man, it doesn't matter. Our thing was we can't let anyone else get off and when you look at their stats, they only had one kid in double figures and it was barely double figures and they are like a four to five double figure team. So, I don't know, we needed to keep her somewhere under 30 I thought, she got 30 there, but we did a good job on everybody else.

On Nia Clouden's performance and emerging as a leader…
You know the kid just plays, to me I don't think anything really bothers her she just is a competitor number one, she doesn't get too high or too low. I think she can run a team, she has a very high IQ and she can play downhill, you know her speed downhill affects our offense in so many ways. She can just create shots for other people and when she goes, there is always room for rotations, which gives you more offensive rebound put-backs, she gets to the free-throw line more obviously, so she's a good free-throw shooter. So, I don't know, just her dynamic out there is pretty unique and something we haven't really had in a while, we've had good point guards, we just haven't had too many that can break you down and get that quick to the rim whether it be in transition or in the quarter court.

On the statement Nia Clouden has made with her play…
Yeah, I mean it's been a little bit of everybody all year I mean today it certainly was her. I think everybody has confidence in the play that whatever it is that we are running, like I have told you before but, we've kind of adjusted some things that we do offensively and it has a little more freedom in it. So, I think it allows us to put people in roles that they are excited about and that they're good at. I think her contribution is definitely something that we try to put her in a ball screen a lot as much as we can, even against a zone we have a couple different offenses we run where we just need her in a ball screen to see if she can get in there and penetrate. But, I don't know our thing too today was Iowa is a really, really good team and they're obviously ranked higher than we are ranked and you know we beat Oregon, we were four points away from beating a top ten team in the country and you still, like to us we just need to focus on ourselves and just grind out and kind of continue game after game showing people that we have a complete team and that we are a team that I think is pretty talented and if we just stay consistent in our approach and we work and we never lose the energy that were going to play regardless of who we are playing, I think this team has a chance to be pretty special. You know, that's two ranked teams that we've played here, we scrimmaged Notre Dame here I told you that, we played NC State, so four of our games this year have been basically against top 15 teams in the country. Obviously, we'll have a Maryland and it sounds like Minnesota is up there too, so the league doesn't get any easier from that perspective but, we just want to continue to keep getting better I think we have some pieces and some parts, we've been hurt, we've been injured, you know we've had kids come back, we've had kids in and out, so we've just been really trying to manage as best we can, our team and who we have on game night, and I think they've done a good job playing within their roles.

Players Mentioned

Nia Clouden

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