Post-Game Quotes: Yale
11/8/2024 10:08:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Opening Statement
What a really great night for Michigan State athletics. I know volleyball won, hockey won, and we were able to too, so that's a great Friday night for the Spartans. With our team, I love that we've been able to keep teams under 50 points. A big emphasis for us this offseason has been guard better, and I think we've seen that. I thought our third quarter was frustrating. I thought we just got back to getting a little bit sloppy, but I thought we finished the fourth quarter really strong. So many good things to take. I love our overall team impact on the game, and yet there's so many nuances that I'm like 'we've got to clean up moving forward'. But that's what's fun about the game, you're always in pursuit to get better and we're going to find ways to continue to try to do that.
On implementing the trap defense...
Well, you have to play hard, and everybody has to do it. So, it starts there, and then we've got some principles around when to trap, how to trap, and how to scramble out of it. We have a lot of new kids, so we have come a long way with it and yet there's still times we're we'll miss things, or we'll peel out late. But it's something we work on. We work on a number of different presses, but I always tell our team, 'When in doubt, be aggressive,' and I thought we did that well tonight.
On junior forward Grace's VanSlooten's performance...
She's got a ton of experience and she's working really hard, so it's been fun to watch her just continue to improve, continue to develop, and then see it translate to the game. But she's such a physical, athletic presence inside for us. She puts so much pressure on the rim, and she does a great job of drawing fouls. So yeah, she did a really good job of that again tonight.
On the emphasis of forcing the ball inside offensively…
It has been, but it's also a little bit of how we're constructed. I just think this team does a good job of putting pressure on the other team on both sides of the ball and finding ways to get to the free throw line, finding ways to finish. I still watch us, and I think of so many things we can do better and so many better decisions that we can make, especially offensively. But we'll watch film, we'll work on that, but to be able to shoot 39 free throws means were doing a good job of being aggressive.
On graduate guard Jaddan Simmons'Â impact...
Well, Jaddan is an elite defender. I think she does an outstanding job of not only getting steals, but guarding her matchup, and she's been very reliable. So, I thought tonight she did as great job of doing that again.
On redshirt freshman guard Kennedy Blair's performance...
Yeah, she missed all of last year, the season ending injury, so she's a freshman this year. This is her first year of college basketball. I'm so proud of her, she came back in the best level of fitness she's ever been in, which when that's at high level, you can get better at basketball. She's been able to really work on basketball. I think my favorite thing about Kennedy is that she's a 'hooper'. She's fearless, she has the ability to make plays for herself, and she has an ability to make plays for others. She did that at a very high level tonight, came in the game and rebounded. I mean she had seven rebounds in 13 minutes, so she just has a really good feel for how to play.
On defending Yale's guards...
Well, we knew how important they were. They played great in their opening win against Monmouth and they're good players. They both have an ability to play in ISO and attack matchups and get fouled. So, our team knew that. I thought our team was pretty dialed in on guarding them.
On freshman forward Juliann Woodard's impact and the 'Breslin Boom'…..
Well, the Breslin Boom is awesome. That's our student section and I can feel them, I love them. Juliann came in and she can score, she did a good job. She can make shots; she did a good job at the end getting an 'and one', so I am proud of her. I always say when you're called on you gotta be ready to go, whether you sat 20 minutes, five minutes, 30 minutes. When you're called on you got to go in and play. That fourth quarter group, they were called on and came in and played at a high level.
On the team's energy through two games...
Our energy and effort have been really good. That has been a core of how we play and who we are, so that's got to stay really good. We have had really good team spirit, team connection, people getting excited for each other, people feeling like 'hey when you go in, I'm just as excited for you'. So that I've loved, that's foundational, the other stuff is basketball. So, that's our job over the course of the season, clean up basketball stuff, but I loved our core of who we are and how we are acting, and competing.
