Post-Game Quotes: Maryland
1/7/2021 8:13:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Michigan State head coach Suzy Merchant
Opening statement...
First and foremost, I think it's been tough day-and-a-half here for our country. I think it was good to be able to play a game like this, to be honest, just to take our minds off of what's going on, but it's been a tough start to the last couple of days for our kids, I know there's been some struggles for obvious reasons and I'm just going to continue to pray that we can keep moving forward as a country and get things right. There was a little bit of that going on, but it certainly didn't affect the game in terms of how we played at all.
We gotta continue to play four quarters. We outscored them in the second half, but we had one bad quarter (second), and against a team like this, you gotta have four really good quarters. You can't really have a lull like that.
The free-throw line was a major factor, and some of our inability to score in one of those quarters was due to the fact that we were in foul trouble. Some of the key kids that were scoring the ball well were sitting down next to us with a couple of fouls, and we just have to do a better job of not doing that so we can play within a flow.
On keeping the game close against No. 12 Maryland, and showing that the team can come back, or being frustrated of not being able to close it out…
I'm of the second part of that; I've been coaching a long time, and I've never been happy with a moral victory, the 'ol we kept it close game – we want to win. We wanted to beat Maryland. We knew we had to play better.
I thought they did a better job in the first half, especially in that second quarter, of getting offensive rebound put backs, and then we had some really good open opportunities, and they nailed them, and we didn't. If you really want to be a great team consistently, people got to hit open shots, or finish a free throw, or whatnot, so I thought that was the difference there.
But at the end of the day, all you can do is look at the tape and get better. They got some kids that kind of bullied us down low, especially on rebounds, and the huge difference on the free-throw line; before we started fouling (at the end), they had 29 free-throw attempts to our 14, so it was a huge disparity at the free-throw line, so we got to do better at that and make sure we're not putting ourselves in a position to be disadvantaged, but we'll watch the tape and just take a look at where we're at. I don't feel good about it because a loss is a loss.
On Nia Clouden's career-high 32 points…
I mean, she was spectacular. I had a feeling she was going to get her 1,000-point today; I think she was only 14 points away. But to do it the way she did, certainly 32 points, five assists, I think she only had one turnover, a couple steals. I mean, she was very, very consistent for us.
We're like one more guard away from being…when her and Alyza (Winston), for example, as good as Nia was, and she was spectacular, we just need one more guard to be a little more consistent as a scorer, just to help her, so if Nia has her 32, and we can get somebody who's a little more consistent and get a set 15, 16, 17 kind of range consistently, I think that's what we really need out of those other guard positions. So that's what big-time players do. Nia has never shied away from a moment. I think she was excited to play Maryland. 1,000th point was great for her, but I know she would rather win the game, just knowing Nia.
On Julia Ayrault, and getting in foul trouble…
Yeah, that's the thing, Julia can't get in foul trouble, she has to do a better job of understanding where she's at a little bit, because we need her on the floor. She's really playing well. She stretches the defenses that face-up four man for us, she's got confidence, she can put it on the floor, she's a good passer, great rebounder and a shot blocker too, the kid does a really good job with that. I think she's a little underestimated sometimes in that situation, but she was a reason I think that we struggled a little bit (when she was out), and I thought Taiyier (Parks) being in trouble hurts us too. She consistently tends to do that, and she's gotta learn and kind of mature a little bit in that department, to be honest, she cannot continue to get two fouls and be on the bench for us, because she was really doing a great job in there, pinning and sealing and ducking in. She was a problem for them in there. Even if she doesn't score, we can cut off of that and play out of that, so it was important for her to get some touches. It really affects our flow, I think, when those two kids are not in a position where they can stay on the floor. But yeah, Julia has been really, really good so far, and I love how she's playing. We need her on the court.
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Opening statement...
First and foremost, I think it's been tough day-and-a-half here for our country. I think it was good to be able to play a game like this, to be honest, just to take our minds off of what's going on, but it's been a tough start to the last couple of days for our kids, I know there's been some struggles for obvious reasons and I'm just going to continue to pray that we can keep moving forward as a country and get things right. There was a little bit of that going on, but it certainly didn't affect the game in terms of how we played at all.
We gotta continue to play four quarters. We outscored them in the second half, but we had one bad quarter (second), and against a team like this, you gotta have four really good quarters. You can't really have a lull like that.
The free-throw line was a major factor, and some of our inability to score in one of those quarters was due to the fact that we were in foul trouble. Some of the key kids that were scoring the ball well were sitting down next to us with a couple of fouls, and we just have to do a better job of not doing that so we can play within a flow.
On keeping the game close against No. 12 Maryland, and showing that the team can come back, or being frustrated of not being able to close it out…
I'm of the second part of that; I've been coaching a long time, and I've never been happy with a moral victory, the 'ol we kept it close game – we want to win. We wanted to beat Maryland. We knew we had to play better.
I thought they did a better job in the first half, especially in that second quarter, of getting offensive rebound put backs, and then we had some really good open opportunities, and they nailed them, and we didn't. If you really want to be a great team consistently, people got to hit open shots, or finish a free throw, or whatnot, so I thought that was the difference there.
But at the end of the day, all you can do is look at the tape and get better. They got some kids that kind of bullied us down low, especially on rebounds, and the huge difference on the free-throw line; before we started fouling (at the end), they had 29 free-throw attempts to our 14, so it was a huge disparity at the free-throw line, so we got to do better at that and make sure we're not putting ourselves in a position to be disadvantaged, but we'll watch the tape and just take a look at where we're at. I don't feel good about it because a loss is a loss.
On Nia Clouden's career-high 32 points…
I mean, she was spectacular. I had a feeling she was going to get her 1,000-point today; I think she was only 14 points away. But to do it the way she did, certainly 32 points, five assists, I think she only had one turnover, a couple steals. I mean, she was very, very consistent for us.
We're like one more guard away from being…when her and Alyza (Winston), for example, as good as Nia was, and she was spectacular, we just need one more guard to be a little more consistent as a scorer, just to help her, so if Nia has her 32, and we can get somebody who's a little more consistent and get a set 15, 16, 17 kind of range consistently, I think that's what we really need out of those other guard positions. So that's what big-time players do. Nia has never shied away from a moment. I think she was excited to play Maryland. 1,000th point was great for her, but I know she would rather win the game, just knowing Nia.
On Julia Ayrault, and getting in foul trouble…
Yeah, that's the thing, Julia can't get in foul trouble, she has to do a better job of understanding where she's at a little bit, because we need her on the floor. She's really playing well. She stretches the defenses that face-up four man for us, she's got confidence, she can put it on the floor, she's a good passer, great rebounder and a shot blocker too, the kid does a really good job with that. I think she's a little underestimated sometimes in that situation, but she was a reason I think that we struggled a little bit (when she was out), and I thought Taiyier (Parks) being in trouble hurts us too. She consistently tends to do that, and she's gotta learn and kind of mature a little bit in that department, to be honest, she cannot continue to get two fouls and be on the bench for us, because she was really doing a great job in there, pinning and sealing and ducking in. She was a problem for them in there. Even if she doesn't score, we can cut off of that and play out of that, so it was important for her to get some touches. It really affects our flow, I think, when those two kids are not in a position where they can stay on the floor. But yeah, Julia has been really, really good so far, and I love how she's playing. We need her on the court.
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