Merchant NCAA Tournament Quotes

Michigan State head coach Suzy Merchant

On the bracket being released early…
No, but I've never seen anything like it certainly it's a different twist on the women's basketball selection show. I think the disappointing thing is, usually you don't know who you're playing or where you're going and we had a big celebration planned as usual, but it is what it is, it's fine. We know where we're going and we know who we're going to play, it's the NCAA Tournament. It's an interesting situation for sure and I'm not sure how it happened or what happened.

On coaching against former Michigan State associate head coach Sue Guevara…
That's my alma mater too so I played there, that's even kind of stranger a little bit. When you're in a profession long enough people move around and recycle, especially in coaching ranks. She's done a great job there no question, they're a very very good team and they upset Ohio State last year on Ohio State's home floor and they're a very talented team so they've certainly done a great job there. She's done a great job.

On what she knows about Central Michigan…
I think Presley Hudson's a great player for them and they really space the floor well. They've got a good inside game, they attack the boards, they do what they do. They know who they are and certainly from what I've seen of them, I think we might've had Virginia as a common opponent if I remember right so I remember watching them on film a little bit early in the season. Obviously I keep up a little being an alum from there.

On facing her alma mater in the first round…
I'm competitive against everybody we play, every time we step on the floor I want to win, so I'm not sure it's going to be an all-time high. I think the biggest thing is preparing your team and making sure we're doing what we need to and I'm sure they're going to do the same. Then interestingly enough we scrimmaged Notre Dame, the first time we ran around on a court was in a closed scrimmage against Notre Dame back on October 26, so it's kind of ironic that we started the season with them and our first round of the NCAA Tournament is going to be on their floor. I'm not overlooking anybody, trust me, I've been there before. You don't do that in this business especially this time of year and as I said, Central is a very good team and they have great players and have proven themselves last year too and a lot of those kids are back so they know the drill and in a lot of ways they're more experienced than we are.

On advantages of a potential matchup against Notre Dame due to the scrimmage…
It's unique that's for sure, you have the opportunity to do two exhibition games or two closed scrimmages or one and one, we did the one and one and it happened to be the one year we were off. Now next year we'll probably start back with the series where we go down there and they come back because we usually take a year off. It was a really good opportunity to connect our kids just to get out there for the first time and obviously the were a very talented team. We learned a lot about ourselves early which was important, but just like anybody we're both very different teams since October, some good ways and some bad ways I'm sure on both sides.

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