Post-Game Quotes: Ohio State

Michigan State head coach Suzy Merchant

On the importance of close wins…
Yeah, well we're young, so you're probably going to have those situations a lot. You know I think we obviously have Taryn (McCutcheon) out there who is a senior and beyond that we don't really have a lot of veteran kids that have played a lot of minutes, without CoCo (Victoria Gaines) and Shay (Colley) and things like that. Drek (Mardrekia Cook) has been in and out. But I thought even having Taryn's presence out there, we were even wondering if she was going to play with her broken finger and her Achilles issue; she's just a warrior. As good as (Nia) Clouden played, the reason is because Taryn fought through some things and was able to find her and help put her in that role that she needed to be in. For Taryn to even score any points in that game, with her having to shot left handed except for one... Just amazing, she's got a lot of heart. And for us being in close games, those are good things, you know obviously those are better to get those at home, get the crowd involved a little bit. We just had a heck of a week. I had half of my team in and out of the hospital, urgent care, meds. Half of them couldn't even practice and half of them could. We barely could practice going into this game just because it's a ramped flu virus and it's like everywhere. It affected seven of my players, now you add in some of their injuries and a concussion. I wasn't even sure I was going to have four or five people for this game today.

On Mardrekia Cook being cleared to play…
Before the game. Yeah she practiced yesterday and she didn't have symptoms so I felt that she probably would but she had to do her impact test, all the protocols that go with that. She felt good about that, she was ready to play, wanted to play. But you know again it's the doctor's call.

On Clouden taking charge in this game…
Yeah she's definitely our go-to, there's no question about that. She can make plays, she can finish at the rim. She gets fouled and she does a good job understanding time, score, and possession situations. We ran that kind of pin-down screen and ran it a little too soon and didn't get that good screen on it so she was a little further from the rim on that last play, but Nia did a good job on pivoting and finding a way to kind of get that shot off and get fouled. She just finds a way. She's simple, the way she approaches the game. Even if her first half was not very good, which it wasn't, I don't think she scored. She was 0-for-6. There's some kids that do that and forget about them, you might as well not play them in the second half. Clouden's never been like that. I think that's the one thing as coaches you respect. If you're a really good player, and you don't think about games ago, last shot. It's like it's the next play mentality. I think that's Clouden's thing; she doesn't mind being in situations where if the team needs her to take the shot, she's going to take the shot and I think deep down, she knows she should.

On what being 8-0 at home means to the team…
Well, we are trying. I mean, I think the road is a tough place, as you know, so when you are at home, you really, you are definitely trying to take care of that. We have had a couple close ones at home against some really good teams; Ohio State is a really good team. I mean, I am glad right now that we only play them once, because they are dangerous; I have watched them on film. I mean, they beat Louisville, they played UConn, Louisville, beat them; they can beat some people. They were right in it, they should have beat Maryland on their home floor, they were right there. They beat Michigan, so they have beat some people that, and the league is kind of like that. It is a little bit like the men's league. There are a lot of people with a lot of losses right now and it's kind of muddled up in the middle, so I think it kind of speaks to the toughness of the league I guess, but you're right, we have to win at home. I mean, we are a young team. We have to win at home and now we have to get a little tougher when we go on the road, which will be one of the toughest places to play, at Rutgers on Monday. We have a three-game stretch, we are Monday, Thursday, Sunday and that is not going to be easy with two on the road in that week.

Players Mentioned

Mardrekia Cook

Victoria Gaines

Related Videos