Photo by: Rey Del Rio
Post-Game Quotes: Eastern Michigan
11/5/2019 11:14:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Michigan State head coach Suzy Merchant
On their dominant third quarter…
We did not play well at all out of the gates. That's a couple times and I'm kind of concerned I mean it's our starting line-up, but we need our veteran kids to just put it on people from the beginning. What Taryn (McCutcheon) did in the second half there, coming out of the gates and knocking shots down and offense from her defense, even getting some offensive rebounds and things like that. Just hustle plays and I thought she really ignited us. I was just telling her when she came off 'if you want to be an elite team usually your seniors need to be elite all the time.' That mentality that she just came out with has to be there for forty minutes. It doesn't mean she has to be perfect, it isn't saying that if she doesn't play perfectly were not going to win, but that mentality she had was completely different than when she started the game and really everybody I mean all of our upper-classman and veterans and kids that play in that rotation.
On what she said at half to change her team around…
I actually didn't even yell at them. I didn't have to say a whole lot. It was just we're better than that. I was disappointed in how we started, I was disappointed in to me you're a veteran's team. That's a veteran team I put out there and you need to be the people that lead everybody and a couple times we just la-dee-da, we missed lay-ups, we don't make the extra pass, we forget what plays we're in and I don't know what's going on out there, which is surprising because those four starters played together. It's just one new person so we have to figure that out. Maybe that's not the best group. I don't know; we'll have to look at that because that's always a possibility. I really did say a whole lot to be honest. I think they knew, it's just if you're going to be an elite team, your elite players need to be elite from the warm-up to the tip to the first quarter, it doesn't matter. It was nice to see that happen, but when you're playing against someone else that's maybe a little bit better and now you're in a worse hole that's going to make it difficult to come back. We have to get that fixed a little bit. I thought first half they had 20 points in the paint which was insane and that was all we preached. The second half they had six. Clearly, they could do it, it just wasn't the manner of intent.
On what the biggest change between quarters…
Well we turned them over. Offense lead to defense and we made shots. As easy as that sounds we had so many open looks. What were we in the first quarter, I think we shot 17% and zero for from the 3-point line and 17% from the field. That's not acceptable and we did a much better job the next three quarters obviously shooting 44%, 61% and then 41%. Some of that was we couldn't get it going because nobody was making their lay-ups or even their free-throws. Sometimes we'd get fouled and we wouldn't do a good job of finishing a free-throw in that situation. Just kind of a little bit of air out of the balloon, missing a lay-up here or missing a rebound put back. It should be a lay-up, ends up a turnover. We've got to toughen up a little bit I think especially inside I think we've got to get just a little bit nastier, stronger. We've got to have somebody really start to elevate their game. That's kind of what I said to them. It's like you look at our stat sheet and Claire (Hendrickson) didn't play because of her knee so there's 14 kids that aren't on scholarship on my team and Cyd (Dodd), I played four minutes which she's someone we've been working with a little bit more obviously, but every other kid was getting minutes, you know 10, 12, 15, 20. It's not going to be like that. Eventually I'm going to have to settle into a rotation and if people want to be in that rotation then their player efficiency ratings have to outweigh the person they're competing against. It's kind of no different than football. I mean Cassius (Winston) has won his position out to the next point guard. It's like who's going to separate themselves at the 4-spot, who's Izzo's best 5. You don't just play people to play them and let everybody play no matter what. You can if it's in a game like this, but ideally you want kids that are going to say when I get my opportunity I'm doing something with it and I'm going to show coach that I need to be in this rotation. For me, if someone just elevated to be a defensive rebounder, an offensive rebounder, someone we could rely on to take care of the basketball, set good screens, that person would probably be out most valuable player. I think there's some roles to be had here, I really do. I just think kids have to start stepping up and recognizing this isn't high school, I can't just play 14 people any given night. That's just so unrealistic for this level and so we've got to start paring this down especially when we start rolling into the Big Ten and playing good teams. You've all seen that, we've been around a long enough to know. Maybe UConn could be like this all the time, I don't know, but I know usually you've got to start getting rotation, so people can play through some things. Whatever that's going to look like, it's going to look like, but I try. I try in the scrimmage; I tried in our exhibition, I've tried here when we started to pull away. I wanted people to get minutes, but they're being evaluated.
On the consistency of Nia Clouden…
Last year and this year, I mean kid was a freshman last year and this year she is even keel as they come, she's as consistent as they come, she's the same night in and night out, she's the same every day. I mean she's hardly ever on little issues of the players issues. She practices every rep; she loves to be in the gym. She gets extra shots up I mean in the 3-point thing was something she's really spent a lot of time on. I think when she went to the USA Basketball Invite, she could see that was maybe the next thing. You can't just always dribble drive it, you've got to be able to have a complete triple-threat game and she spent a lot of time doing it. I think you can really see the confidence she has in it now. She's shooting it behind the ball screen, that's something she would have never done or considered doing last year. She's been our most consistent player by far and that's a good place to start, but we need other people to be consistent like that. She has been that way half-to-half, quarter-to-quarter, practice-to-practice. It's been pretty consistent top to bottom and I think when you practice show you play it's usually a pretty good thing. Sometimes we have payers that practice a different kind of way and then they get into a game and it's different. It could be injury base, it could be fatigue, it could be conditioning, it could be whatever. At the end of the day her transition to being an elite player is her consistence. I think it starts there I mean she's as good as any point guard I've coached or has played here I think.
On their dominant third quarter…
We did not play well at all out of the gates. That's a couple times and I'm kind of concerned I mean it's our starting line-up, but we need our veteran kids to just put it on people from the beginning. What Taryn (McCutcheon) did in the second half there, coming out of the gates and knocking shots down and offense from her defense, even getting some offensive rebounds and things like that. Just hustle plays and I thought she really ignited us. I was just telling her when she came off 'if you want to be an elite team usually your seniors need to be elite all the time.' That mentality that she just came out with has to be there for forty minutes. It doesn't mean she has to be perfect, it isn't saying that if she doesn't play perfectly were not going to win, but that mentality she had was completely different than when she started the game and really everybody I mean all of our upper-classman and veterans and kids that play in that rotation.
On what she said at half to change her team around…
I actually didn't even yell at them. I didn't have to say a whole lot. It was just we're better than that. I was disappointed in how we started, I was disappointed in to me you're a veteran's team. That's a veteran team I put out there and you need to be the people that lead everybody and a couple times we just la-dee-da, we missed lay-ups, we don't make the extra pass, we forget what plays we're in and I don't know what's going on out there, which is surprising because those four starters played together. It's just one new person so we have to figure that out. Maybe that's not the best group. I don't know; we'll have to look at that because that's always a possibility. I really did say a whole lot to be honest. I think they knew, it's just if you're going to be an elite team, your elite players need to be elite from the warm-up to the tip to the first quarter, it doesn't matter. It was nice to see that happen, but when you're playing against someone else that's maybe a little bit better and now you're in a worse hole that's going to make it difficult to come back. We have to get that fixed a little bit. I thought first half they had 20 points in the paint which was insane and that was all we preached. The second half they had six. Clearly, they could do it, it just wasn't the manner of intent.
On what the biggest change between quarters…
Well we turned them over. Offense lead to defense and we made shots. As easy as that sounds we had so many open looks. What were we in the first quarter, I think we shot 17% and zero for from the 3-point line and 17% from the field. That's not acceptable and we did a much better job the next three quarters obviously shooting 44%, 61% and then 41%. Some of that was we couldn't get it going because nobody was making their lay-ups or even their free-throws. Sometimes we'd get fouled and we wouldn't do a good job of finishing a free-throw in that situation. Just kind of a little bit of air out of the balloon, missing a lay-up here or missing a rebound put back. It should be a lay-up, ends up a turnover. We've got to toughen up a little bit I think especially inside I think we've got to get just a little bit nastier, stronger. We've got to have somebody really start to elevate their game. That's kind of what I said to them. It's like you look at our stat sheet and Claire (Hendrickson) didn't play because of her knee so there's 14 kids that aren't on scholarship on my team and Cyd (Dodd), I played four minutes which she's someone we've been working with a little bit more obviously, but every other kid was getting minutes, you know 10, 12, 15, 20. It's not going to be like that. Eventually I'm going to have to settle into a rotation and if people want to be in that rotation then their player efficiency ratings have to outweigh the person they're competing against. It's kind of no different than football. I mean Cassius (Winston) has won his position out to the next point guard. It's like who's going to separate themselves at the 4-spot, who's Izzo's best 5. You don't just play people to play them and let everybody play no matter what. You can if it's in a game like this, but ideally you want kids that are going to say when I get my opportunity I'm doing something with it and I'm going to show coach that I need to be in this rotation. For me, if someone just elevated to be a defensive rebounder, an offensive rebounder, someone we could rely on to take care of the basketball, set good screens, that person would probably be out most valuable player. I think there's some roles to be had here, I really do. I just think kids have to start stepping up and recognizing this isn't high school, I can't just play 14 people any given night. That's just so unrealistic for this level and so we've got to start paring this down especially when we start rolling into the Big Ten and playing good teams. You've all seen that, we've been around a long enough to know. Maybe UConn could be like this all the time, I don't know, but I know usually you've got to start getting rotation, so people can play through some things. Whatever that's going to look like, it's going to look like, but I try. I try in the scrimmage; I tried in our exhibition, I've tried here when we started to pull away. I wanted people to get minutes, but they're being evaluated.
On the consistency of Nia Clouden…
Last year and this year, I mean kid was a freshman last year and this year she is even keel as they come, she's as consistent as they come, she's the same night in and night out, she's the same every day. I mean she's hardly ever on little issues of the players issues. She practices every rep; she loves to be in the gym. She gets extra shots up I mean in the 3-point thing was something she's really spent a lot of time on. I think when she went to the USA Basketball Invite, she could see that was maybe the next thing. You can't just always dribble drive it, you've got to be able to have a complete triple-threat game and she spent a lot of time doing it. I think you can really see the confidence she has in it now. She's shooting it behind the ball screen, that's something she would have never done or considered doing last year. She's been our most consistent player by far and that's a good place to start, but we need other people to be consistent like that. She has been that way half-to-half, quarter-to-quarter, practice-to-practice. It's been pretty consistent top to bottom and I think when you practice show you play it's usually a pretty good thing. Sometimes we have payers that practice a different kind of way and then they get into a game and it's different. It could be injury base, it could be fatigue, it could be conditioning, it could be whatever. At the end of the day her transition to being an elite player is her consistence. I think it starts there I mean she's as good as any point guard I've coached or has played here I think.
Players Mentioned
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