Photo by: Rey Del Rio/MSU Athletic Communications
Post-Game Quotes: Rutgers
2/24/2021 6:55:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Michigan State head coach Suzy Merchant
On offensive struggles in the second half…
I mean our starting three guards and I think between (Nia) Clouden and Janai (Crooms) and Alyza (Winston) were 2-for-29 for the game, so we won't win a lot of games with those kinds of numbers. We shot 18% in both the third and the fourth. We were able to do a good job defensively when we were leading going into the fourth quarter. You knew their pressure was coming. We practiced it for days, we watched it, we had different press breakers. It was kind of disappointing that we didn't handle as well as I thought we were capable of especially with three-point guards out there. At the same time, we still have to be able to score the ball. I thought we had really good opportunities in the fourth quarter, we had really open layups, opportunities to finish in there, we got to go to the free throw line a little bit. We just didn't convert and (Arella) Guirantes and Diamond Johnson got away, thought (Tekia) Mack was pretty effective. They just created some offense from our inability to score the ball for sure.
On trying to secure a spot in the NCAA tournament…
That's a good team. I feel like our NET is really high and people keep talking about it. I feel good about our team. I feel good about it. Obviously, you want to win every single one of your games going down the stretch here certainly, but we will see. It's really just one game at a time, we have to evaluate this one and get better and get ready for the next one. I mean Nebraska at Nebraska is not an easy game, that's for sure, and then I'm not sure what's going to happen the following week, what's on the table there, besides our Wisconsin game so we will have to take a look at that. We just didn't perform offensively really the way we can. We had a lot of kids that got to the basket and we really talked about I know you think you open when you get to the rim but you just have to jump stop and throw a shot fake because they go for every block and I felt that if we would have done that, post-wise a little bit more, when we were in traffic and definitely guards in transition. People are coming at you so that's great then you just have to be able to jump stop, throw the shot fake because they are a shot blocking team, and I felt that we could have gotten ourselves to the line in those situations because those are harder shots to make when you are a little guard over some length or people coming after you. We didn't convert down the stretch there in those situations and I was hoping we would do a better job of that because that was something we really emphasized in the scouting report.
On potentially doing something different before heading to Nebraska for third game in a week…
 It's been a lot. It's been a long year, I don't know. We are just going to take a look at this one and figure out where we can get better, and we have to get Nia Clouden back on track. In back-to-back games, she hasn't really played very well offensively for us. Certainly, Alyza was coming to life and then didn't really score today at all and then Janai has to finish better too. We just have to get better; we didn't have a starter in Julia (Ayrault). Julia is out, Mardekia (Cook) is out. Drekia started some games and she's a fifth-year senior; she's out. So literally after right to start the Purdue game we were down Drekia and then as that game went on Julia got hurt. And she's out. We have different combinations that we are trying to play right now. We have big lineups, small lineups. This is the first time I ever played Moira Joyner at the four. I got to play somebody. We had to go smaller so Tory could get a rest and then we always have Kendall and one of our fives. We are just really working combinations right now based on who we ae going to play. Rutgers was very guard oriented around the perimeter, so we were able to do that. When you go to Nebraska, they are kind of big power guys, everywhere, so I'm not sure if we are going to be able to do that guard lineup against that kind of size and the way they play. We will have to take a look at it.
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On offensive struggles in the second half…
I mean our starting three guards and I think between (Nia) Clouden and Janai (Crooms) and Alyza (Winston) were 2-for-29 for the game, so we won't win a lot of games with those kinds of numbers. We shot 18% in both the third and the fourth. We were able to do a good job defensively when we were leading going into the fourth quarter. You knew their pressure was coming. We practiced it for days, we watched it, we had different press breakers. It was kind of disappointing that we didn't handle as well as I thought we were capable of especially with three-point guards out there. At the same time, we still have to be able to score the ball. I thought we had really good opportunities in the fourth quarter, we had really open layups, opportunities to finish in there, we got to go to the free throw line a little bit. We just didn't convert and (Arella) Guirantes and Diamond Johnson got away, thought (Tekia) Mack was pretty effective. They just created some offense from our inability to score the ball for sure.
On trying to secure a spot in the NCAA tournament…
That's a good team. I feel like our NET is really high and people keep talking about it. I feel good about our team. I feel good about it. Obviously, you want to win every single one of your games going down the stretch here certainly, but we will see. It's really just one game at a time, we have to evaluate this one and get better and get ready for the next one. I mean Nebraska at Nebraska is not an easy game, that's for sure, and then I'm not sure what's going to happen the following week, what's on the table there, besides our Wisconsin game so we will have to take a look at that. We just didn't perform offensively really the way we can. We had a lot of kids that got to the basket and we really talked about I know you think you open when you get to the rim but you just have to jump stop and throw a shot fake because they go for every block and I felt that if we would have done that, post-wise a little bit more, when we were in traffic and definitely guards in transition. People are coming at you so that's great then you just have to be able to jump stop, throw the shot fake because they are a shot blocking team, and I felt that we could have gotten ourselves to the line in those situations because those are harder shots to make when you are a little guard over some length or people coming after you. We didn't convert down the stretch there in those situations and I was hoping we would do a better job of that because that was something we really emphasized in the scouting report.
On potentially doing something different before heading to Nebraska for third game in a week…
 It's been a lot. It's been a long year, I don't know. We are just going to take a look at this one and figure out where we can get better, and we have to get Nia Clouden back on track. In back-to-back games, she hasn't really played very well offensively for us. Certainly, Alyza was coming to life and then didn't really score today at all and then Janai has to finish better too. We just have to get better; we didn't have a starter in Julia (Ayrault). Julia is out, Mardekia (Cook) is out. Drekia started some games and she's a fifth-year senior; she's out. So literally after right to start the Purdue game we were down Drekia and then as that game went on Julia got hurt. And she's out. We have different combinations that we are trying to play right now. We have big lineups, small lineups. This is the first time I ever played Moira Joyner at the four. I got to play somebody. We had to go smaller so Tory could get a rest and then we always have Kendall and one of our fives. We are just really working combinations right now based on who we ae going to play. Rutgers was very guard oriented around the perimeter, so we were able to do that. When you go to Nebraska, they are kind of big power guys, everywhere, so I'm not sure if we are going to be able to do that guard lineup against that kind of size and the way they play. We will have to take a look at it.
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Players Mentioned
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