Post-Game Quotes: Detroit Mercy

Michigan State Head Coach Robyn Fralick

Opening statement...
Good overall team impact tonight. I was proud. I thought we did a great job, especially at the start of the game, of setting the tone with our pressure defense. And something we've been really challenging our team on is doing it right and doing it right for over and over and over again and dominating the details of some of the nuances of what we want to be able to do defensively and offensively. And I thought we took some steps forward in that tonight. You know, credit to Detroit preparing for them and watching them. They've had two good wins. Their guards have been tough to keep out of the paint. You know, Kate Achter, their head coach, I think has done a really good job there.

On Grace setting the tone...
So Grace, you know, we knew coming in the game we felt like we really had a good advantage in the paint. And I thought Grace did a great job setting the tone early with getting to the free throw line, getting some baskets in the paint, really setting the tone of putting pressure on the rim. And then Juliann (Woodard), she's consistently shown her ability to come into the game and play fearless, play loose, play confident and put the ball in the basket. So, you know, that's been fun to watch her do that and as a freshman, to have that fearlessness.

On what Juliann brings to this team as a freshman...
She's a great shooter, great scorer. She has a real knack for putting the ball in the basket, which is important. She's also a really good rebounder, but it's been fun. She's really come along. It's fun when you watch freshmen and practice and learn to figure things out and learn. Okay, how does this work and where do I fit and how can I help? And we've challenged her in that and in practice. We've really seen her take steps and it's translating to the games.

On considering the rotation with the strength of the freshmen...
I think these games have really given some kids some opportunities for us to see more of what they can do in real games. And I know as a staff, that's something we're always evaluating is all right, how do we put our best team. How do we put our best combinations out here? And I think these early games have given us a really good look.

On the aggressive defense...
We play alignment basketball. We play aggressive on both sides of the basketball. We play aggressive offensively, we play aggressive defensively. It's a mentality. It's the way we practice, it's the way we train, it's the way we teach. I always say some days it's better than others, but it's our way and our kids know that to do it right and to do it well, you've got to do it over and over and over and over again. , I think sometimes it looks just like chaos, is actually a plan. Right. And there's details to doing it right. There's effort, there's communication and we've been challenging our team. And how do we keep getting better while we're playing? We've played six games, which is a lot of games early in the year. So how do we keep getting better while we're playing? And our press is one of the areas where, if you look at where we were at Eastern Kentucky game tonight, it's better. We've made a big focus on it. We've worked on it, and we feel like our personnel also aligns with it. We've got a lot of kids who are fast, can guard multiple spots, and so, you know, it's our job as a staff. How do we what strengths do we have and how do we maximize them? And we feel like speed and length and versatility are strengths across our team. So we've got to find ways to keep using that to our advantage.

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