Post-Game Quotes: Penn State

MSU head coach Suzy Merchant

On a fitting ending for Taryn McCutcheon and setting the assists record…
Yeah, I mean we were hoping that was going to happen to transpire. I mean she needed seven, I think which is doable but you never know. Sometimes if we don't shoot the ball well it kind of affects your ability to get assists, so we were hoping that we wouldn't have to get into the Big Ten tournament for her to be able to do it. We actually played her a little longer trying to get her a double-double, but at some point… We were glad that she was able to; to me that's a big achievement when you look at what Kristin Haynie did here and taking a team to a National Championship and then going on to be a WNBA champion too. You know Taryn, I think early in her career she had a pretty good shooter named Tori Jankoska that got her going and then over the last few years Taryn has done a really good job of finding people and knowing who's hot and when to get the ball to them and when not too.

On hitting a high note before the Big Ten tournament…
I felt good about it. It's just disappointing in the one loss there, because I thought if we played like how we played today… I think our young kids were very intimidated. It seems crazy that you'd be intimidated by your own crowd but that's kind of what I thought. It was the first time where a lot of my freshman and sophomores that are first year kids playing, really walked out on the floor and saw 11,000-plus people. I know that's crazy and I mean it as a compliment I love our fans and just keep doing it, it's what we need but you could tell a lot of them were like woah, this is a big deal. Today was a bit easier for them to manage because they have seen it. I think early we had about 6,000 in the snowstorm against Wisconsin, which is still good but it's not our typical, normal 10, 11, 12 thousand we get on Sundays. It was great I'm proud of the way we finished. You don't want to kind of lose your focus at the end especially with a young team. When you have a young team like this all these high school kids that have played and even first year sophomores, if you aren't in the mix it's a long season. You know three months, three and a half months of high school is a lot different than basically a year of college BCS basketball

On why this senior class was so special…
In some ways, like I mentioned out there, they all had different responsibilities. Unfortunately, this senior class at the beginning, Coco (Victoria Gaines) was starting and was really playing well. Shay (Colley) was a first team All-Conference player, and I put Drekia (Cook) there too even though she is a redshirt junior she is technically a senior; those are the players that had been starting at those spots. You have Taryn and (Nia) Clouden, and Clouden is your only little baby out there. So we went from that, to basically the bottom dropping out, and having to figure out what roles different kids would play and what they could do. The freshmen class is a really good class, and I think they really picked things up well. I think a lot of that credit goes to that senior class, investing in them and showing them the ropes, even if they couldn't physically be out on the court.

On getting Coco and Shay in the starting lineup…
You know even if it is just to kiss the Spartan head, it's special. That to me is one of the coolest things. It brings tears to my eyes, no matter who does it, starter or walk-on, it just is special. Michigan State is a special place and that kiss means something. You spent four years here but you've got forty to fifty as a Spartan from here on out and we are always going to be a family. Just kissing that Spartan head and having the appreciation of the fan base for the craft that came here to do and love is a very special moment.

Players Mentioned

Victoria Gaines

Tori Jankoska

Taryn McCutcheon

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