NCAA Press Conference Quotes

Michigan State head coach Suzy Merchant

On win over Central Michigan…
I listened to the press conference and heard the question you asked Sue Guevara, I mean they were a Sweet 16 team last year and they put up 95 points on Ohio State who had three or four WNBA kids on their roster so they're a good team, actually they're a great team, and we were the underdog in theory being the lower seed. I felt like our kids played extremely well in stretched, I thought Taryn (McCutcheon) was spectacular on Presley Hudson for most of the game. Obviously in the fourth quarter she (Hudson) kind of got away from us a little bit, but I thought she had to work for most of her shots. The disappointment was the (Reyna) Frost situation. She really kind of took us for most of the game and then (Micaela) Kelly kind of got away from us in the third. Thankfully it really didn't happen all at once, but it doesn't matter if you win by one or you win by 20, you've just gotta move on to the next situation and I think we're glad to be the team that's moving on. It was a tough matchup, but and I said this to coach Izzo 'You play in the NCAA Tournament and you've gotta play someone who it's their Super Bowl anyway.' A lot of those kids probably wanted to be Spartans so that in and of itself is more motivation against you so we knew those kids would really be fired up. The NCAA has a lot of interesting storylines, I've been in them before. A few years back we hosted and we played Duke the No. 1 seed and ended up beating them, and I took the place of that coach (Joanne P. McCallie), at the time so that was an interesting storyline, they just like their storylines I guess. You can't make too much of it. I thought our kids did a great job with the gameplan. We thought our advantage was inside and down the stretch I thought we did a great job executing getting the ball inside and then doing what we needed to down the stretch which was switching some screens and getting the ball out of Presley's hands.

On timeout before Central Michigan's final possession…
I knew we were going to win because Shay (Colley) hit that shot with 7.6 seconds left and she's coming to the huddle and all she's saying is 'We gotta play defense, we gotta play defense, we gotta get one stop,' nobody was celebrating. We knew what we were going to do defensively, we had kind of practiced that almost every single day what we do on the sideline in late game situations so we felt pretty good about it. We got it out of her (Presely Hudson) hands, we rotated, and they really didn't get a good look at it at all.

On regularly playing Notre Dame…
We scrimmaged them. I don't know if you know that; we had a closed scrimmage. So we've seen them up close and personal not only this year, but in the past. For us we've always done a home and home with them, take a year off, that's kind of what we've done at Michigan State. Every time you play them they're extremely talented. They're athletic, they share the ball well, they play well together, big, strong, they're very impressive. Obviously, we can never get away from Jessica Shepard, couldn't guard her in the Big Ten, and now we've gotta see her a couple year in a row in the ACC.

Michigan State senior Jenna Allen

On the excitement of beating Central Michigan and the shift in focus to Notre Dame…
I feel like we celebrated for a little while after the game, but then our focus immediately turned to Notre Dame. They're one of the best teams in the country and I think going into Central Michigan we weren't overlooking them, but we were really excited to play Notre Dame.

On Notre Dame's Jessica Shepard and Brianna Turner…
I think they're one of the best dynamic duos in the nation. They're really athletic and they play well together which is something we're going to have to take away tomorrow. I have a lot of faith in my team and it's March so anything can happen, but we're just going into the game confident.

Michigan State redshirt-junior Shay Colley

On playing against Notre Dame last season…
Their up-tempo and their physicality we remember from last year. This year they're still that same team and they play well together which is something that we're really going to have to be ready for tomorrow.

On sharing the ball effectively…
It just speaks to how versatile we are, we have bigs that can shoot the three and who can post up. Sharing the ball is just fun for us and helps us with Sid (Cooks) and other bench players playing good minutes.

Players Mentioned

Jenna Allen

Shay Colley

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