Louisville vs. St. John's
March 08, 2008 | Women's Basketball
March 8, 2008
Head Coach Jeff Walz
"I think tonight was a tale of two halves. I thought in the first half, both teams did an excellent job of making the game ugly. There's not much more to be said. I believe we turned it over eleven times in the first half and they did 10 times. There was absolutely no flow to the game. We've got three of our starters on the bench with two fouls. I really thought that our bench did an excellent job tonight of stepping up for us. In the second half we got a little more of a flow going. I thought we did a better job at the offensive end of being patient with the basketball, and making the extra pass. We played probably the best two halves of defense we've played all year so I was pleased with our effort on the defensive end. At the same time if we come out and play like we did in the first half tomorrow night it could be ugly early."
(What did you learn about the team if anything by having Angel, Chauntise, and Candyce out for that long stretch?)
"It's something that we've talked about all season long, and I really think if you compare this team a year ago to this team today, they've all grown as players. They've learned instead of watching Angel on the court, they've learned to play along with Angel. That's something that they struggled with a year ago. They used to watch her in amazement at what she was able to do on the floor. Now, we've instilled in our players, that everyone's on scholarship for a reason. I mean you aren't here playing basketball if you aren't a good player. I thought they all stepped up tonight, and they stepped up the last ten minutes of the first half. Then for a stretch in the second half, I actually think we extended our lead while Angel was on the bench. It should be very encouraging for our players that we can go out and win a basketball game if Angel has an off night or can't play as many minutes as she's used to. I was really pleased with the play tonight."
Junior Forward Angel McCoughtry
(Angel obviously exiting the game early was not something you planned on nor that you wanted to do, but what did you learn about the rest of your team being able to watch them for the last ten minutes of the first half?)
"Well it was kind of tough, I always want to be out there to help the team win. I just had to be encouraging and motivate everybody. I know everybody had to step up their game to another level and they did a great job and I'm really proud of them today."
(Was there any motivation in you after last night in not winning the Player of the Year award?)
"Well that's not something I really focus on. I'm always motivated with this team from the beginning of the season to the end. I don't worry about any awards, I'm worried about winning this Big East Championship."
St. John's Head Coach Kim Barns Arico
"I thought we hung tough for a period of time there but Louisville just over-matched us and Angel McCoughtry pretty much single-handedly took over the game. I was proud of our effort and I wish we could have done it for 40 minutes."
Were you so surprised that Angel would be able to sit out so much during the game and come back in and perform?
"You don't become an All-American if you're not able to do that. She's just a phenomenal player. She's unbelievable. I've watched her play for a long time and she's always been able to do that. She's a special kid. She has shown once again why she is an All-American."
(With Angel only playing 11 minutes in the first half, we you at all concerned that you didn't take advantage of an opportunity?)
"The worst thing I want to do is go into the half and say we missed our opportunity because they were on the bench. In the back of my mind I knew that they had three, possibly four starters on the bench because we had got them in early foul trouble. What we had talked about was instead of saying, `well we're in trouble now,' we said, `hey let's do the same thing at the beginning of the game to start the second half and try to get them in that same kind of foul trouble that we were able to do.' We did that initially with Angel. Our first play out of the gate we ran that backdoor and we caught her on that. The second play Monique (McLean) tried to draw the foul and later we were able to get her a third foul. The problem was when she came back in she took advantage and we didn't score. That was the biggest problem. When we had 20 points at halftime and they had pretty much their whole second team out there, I knew that we were going to have some trouble. The first five minutes we were able to sustain and then they wore us down."
Senior Guard Kia Wright
(Since it is your final game at St. John's was it emotional in the locker room?)
"It wasn't as emotional as having to come out due to my leg, but maybe it's not the last game. We still have the opportunity to keep playing. Hopefully this is not the way I end my career at St. John's"
(With Angel only playing 11 minutes in the first half, we you at all concerned that you didn't take advantage of an opportunity?)
"We talked about it at half time. We knew that their starting five would come out fired up and basically she is just a good player. In the second half, if we had just stopped the other players Angel wouldn't have been able to beat us by herself. The other players around her also helped her. If would have just stopped the rest of their players then the game was ours. One person can't take a whole team out there."
Junior Guard Monique McLean
(Angel kind of took over the game late, did you see something in her eyes when she came back in; was she at another level late in the game?)
"I wasn't really looking at her eyes but the scoreboard shows that she did take it to another level."
Senior Forward Tiina Sten
(How difficult was it guarding those big girls inside?)
"It was tough they have a lot of good post players. I think they are stronger than us and bigger than us so that's why we tried to take charges or do something else. They are a great team and they have a lot of good players so it was hard."
