Louisville vs. Cincinnati
January 15, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 15, 2008
Sophomore Guard Brandie Radde
On her three point shooting
"It felt great to finally knock down some shots. I think the big thing for me is knocking down the first couple - even the first one. Coach talks a lot about confidence, and that first one right off the bat really helps with that. After that, I just shot them."
What was different tonight?
"I made the first one. I have been struggling shooting, but I was just more relaxed. My teammates did a great job of finding me open on the wing, and I was able to get my feet set. It was a lot better shot selection than some of my other ones."
Did it feel different as far as the atmosphere and the defensive pressure from Saturday and how did you adjust?
"I thought we adjusted pretty well. The UConn game was very intense. Tonight it wasn't as much, but we knew we still had to keep up the intensity and pressure Cincinnati. So we knew how hard we had to play."
Having three ranked opponents to start the Big East, did coach talk to you about keeping your head up?
"Definitely. We realized that teams we started out with are great teams, and that's the biggest thing for us as team is to keep our heads up and stay together, stay focused as a team and just keep playing hard. We have to take every game one by one."
On the defensive effort
"No matter who we play, one thing we are focusing on as a team is defense, and just shutting down teams. We like to get out and run, and one way to do is get defensive stops."
On Cincinnati's poor 3-point shooting
"I think we did a pretty good job of guarding the three-point line but they probably had an off night also.
Junior Center Chauntise Wright
On the first BIG EAST win
"Finally, yes it was great. It was well needed."
On Brandie's shooting
"It was good to see her knock them down. It made our guards look good, and her hard work paid off. She works at it, it just wasn't falling like our free-throws."
On free-throw trouble
"It has to be mental. We practice them on our off days and in practice so I think it's mental. They tell us to look for our happy place, I just don't think we've found mine."
On the upcoming game at Rutgers
"It's going to be like our UConn game here but their crowd is going to be against us. We have to keep our composure and our heads and play as a team, and we can win. We beat them last year so they are going to be after us."
Louisville head coach Jeff Walz
On Cincinnati's poor three-point shooting
"We started the game extremely well, getting out on their shooters, knowing where their shooters were and frustrating them early. At the same time, they did get some open looks that they normally make. I don't know if you'll ever see them go 1 for 19 from the three-point line again. They actually are a good three-point shooting team - it was one of our concerns. We'll go up there in about two weeks and have to play at Cincinnati. I'd be hard pressed to think that they would go 1 for 19 at their place."
"We've been working extremely hard on trying to get the tempo in our favor. We're not always going to get teams to run up and down the floor the way we'd like. But with our pressure and the way we're trying to press - if we're not getting to play fast, then we're slowing them up so much that when they do cross half court, now they've got 10 or 12 seconds to get a shot up. They end up taking a shot they didn't want to take and they are not in good position, so we get the defensive rebound and we're able to run in transition. Normally you're hoping for a lot of steals off the press, but right now we're getting a little bit of both. We're getting some steals and we're forcing teams to take bad shots because there's not much time on the shot clock to shoot."
On the team's free throw shooting
"I talked with Jim (Kelch, the radio play by play announcer). After the game he asked what part of the game we needed to improve on. I know he was trying to hint at free throw shooting, but we shot 53 percent - which is an improvement from the past three games. It's just a mental thing. We'll make them in practice, we track our free throws and we shoot 75 and 80 percent. As soon as the lights turn on and it's game time - it's all mental."
On opening Big East Conference play with four of five ranked opponents
"They are all big games. Our goal is one game at a time. We are fortunate to get this win. Now we are going up to Rutgers to play. It would be great to go up there and play well - I know we'll play hard, it's just a matter of taking care of the basketball. They play great defense and if we will need to attack the offensive glass. If we could attack the offensive glass and take care of the basketball, I think we have a chance to compete."
