Post-Game Quotes: Indiana

Michigan State head coach Suzy Merchant

On how she feels about poor play and lack of intensity early on…
I don't know it was almost a 20-point victory, but I agree I felt like it was a little bit of a struggle bus in the first quarter especially. That's what Indiana does, they're a dribble-drive team. They're very powerful off the dribble and we just didn't handle that very well with kids that normally do that. And you're right we need to get Jenna (Allen) going again. I don't know what was going on there, but she's gotta come back to life a little bit for us on the offensive end. We we're sharing the ball, and we do share the ball, but it was a little bit of struggle, like choppy. I thought that first quarter some of that was my fault. I was trying to go inside right away, I was calling a lot of quick hits and normally we're better when we play in a flow. And like you saw Shay score off a lot of some cuts from that high post kind of looking down and that kind of thing. So I take some responsibility for sure in that first quarter. I felt like we were too, just broken up and not really in a flow and that was on me, but I was trying to get the ball inside cause a lot of times we get jump shot happy early in the game. Yeah I think finally we did in that second, and start of the third and fourth quarter and that was a good second half for us from a defensive stand point.

On why she started the press…
Yeah we did a little of that because, I don't know sometimes, without their point guard, (Ali) Patberg was hurt. She's a big part of what they do, so we thought we should extend a little bit into some zone. Zone makes me nervous cause I do have some shooters, but it's just as bad as setting up shooters. We just tried to sprinkle it in when we could to try, to me, to make sure we could keep them out of a flow without their true point guard in there with their kid being hurt.

On Shay's performance…
She was a beast. I mean an absolute beast. She was, you know as good as I've seen her on both sides of the ball. You know she played almost 38 minutes and didn't have a foul tonight and was guarding either (Jaelynn) Penn, Grace Berger the big guard, and then when one started to get away from us, the Bendu (Yeaney) kid, we put her on her, so she had to guard whoever was hot, whoever their best player was I felt like. Both sides of the ball. Like I said it was her best performance I think top to bottom since she's been here at Michigan State. And we needed it. We had some kids tweak things. Taryn (McCutcheon), I don't know what was going on with Taryn, she was sore today. Mardrekia (Cook) was complaining about her knee and did something, so I felt like every time we turned around it was something. And we needed some consistency out there and I thought she was really good.

On shutting down Grace Berger the rest of the game…
Well I switched the matchup. I mean that was clearly part of it. They did that to us last time, it was like pick on (Nia) Clouden, Sidney (Cooks) and Taryn (McCutcheon). Anytime they would have her on the floor she would dribble right to left, two-dribble pull up jumper and I mean they can't even get to her shot. So that's when I thought Mardrekia (Cook) really helped us from a defensive stand point and then Shay (Colley) too so we were able to use those two as bigger guards. I wanted to use Coco (Victoria Gaines) at the three spot some with Nia (Clouden) and (Nia) Hollie and some of those guys up, but Coco got in foul trouble so it made it difficult to put a bigger kid on here. We've played Coco at some three this year so it wouldn't have been unusual, but we had to go with a bigger line-up. I mean with Taryn, Nia (Clouden) and Shay we only had one big guard out there in Shay that could handle it, so we had to make some adjustments. So that was it. That was a big one to take that kid's dribble-pull up away and we had to put a bigger guard on her.

On Shay Colley being all the way back from her MCL injury…
Yeah I think she's all the way back. I just think the challenge for Shay is always just staying consistent. I felt like against Iowa on both sides of the ball she was just kinda out there. And then I thought tonight on both sides she was as good as she's been. To me I'll just challenge our team from a defensive standpoint. We were fouling too much, and not guarding the dribble-drive very well and I thought with Indiana with the way they play we were going to be challenged. And for them to shoot 14 free-throws in that game… To me to answer your question about Shay is to stay consistent, right? Good players, great players there are just always the same night in and night out. Now she doesn't have to score 32, but we kinda gotta have that same kinda effort on both sides of the ball. And then everybody else needs to pick up their game a little bit too certainly, because we don't need one person to score 30. It's great. She had a great night, but I don't even think Shay would tell you she wants to do that night in and night out. She certainly can, but I thought she was a kid that just now… I mean we didn't really have a great performance at Iowa. I thought she was great today, now how are we going to be on Thursday? Are we going to have the same intensity, are we going to have that same focus, that same aggressiveness? And that's the challenge I think with her is too stay consistent. She knows it, and I think she wants to be the best she can be, so we'll keep challenging her and keep working with her on that, but she's a heck of a kid and a good player, so it'll come together.

On why it's important to recognize National Girls and Women in Sports Day…
Well I think to me it's always about the leadership piece and the confidence, it kind of goes hand in hand with the empowHER thing we do. I think sports allows kids, there's so many life lessons in there, the work ethic, the challenging yourself, taking risks, failing, fighting through adversity, coming together as a team, so when we can celebrate young women, girls and women doing that, whether it be from a professional level or all the way down to elementary, I think for us what we're all about, is embracing that. I mean every single one of my kids were probably a kid in the stands someday, watching some team that wanted to be there, whether it be high school, a kid that they put up on a pedestal, and then a college kid. So just to be part of that to me is always important. We were disappointed that the game got postponed that night and I know there probably would've been a better showing that night cause it was promoted that, that was the big game, but I still looked up there and saw a lot of young faces and a lot of our women's teams. So I just want to thank all of them too for coming out and celebrating women in sports and certainly teaching young girls what it's like to learn some life lessons through a game they love.

Players Mentioned

Shay Colley

Victoria Gaines

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