Louisville vs. DePaul
January 03, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 3, 2009
Recap | Final Stats | Photo Gallery 
Louisville Head Coach Jeff Walz
"I thought that we came out and defended well. We especially defended well the last 15 minutes of the game and made it really hard for them to get open shots. We did a really good job of following the game plan and not fronting Natasha Williams. The first half we fronted her and all they did was go high and low and shot the layup. We finally stopped doing that. She is a really great post player and I prefer to make her score over us. We did a really good job of converting the steals that we got into points."
(On DePaul not having any bench points)
"I did not even realize that. We have Angel McCoughtry playing 40 and Candyce Bingham playing 36 and Deseree' Byrd playing 39 minutes. If you look at the stats I think we all kind of have the same thing. We did get 28 really good minutes from Keshia Hines. Becky Burke came in and made some open shots which was very encouraging. It is nice to have some players that can come in off the bench. I thought that even though she only played three minutes, Janae Howard played well. I saw some growth from her. Hopefully the players, who did not play as much today, will understand that they need to take full advantage of their playing time when they get in the game. Mary Jackson did a very good job for us even though she only got to play 10 minutes. She came up with two offensive rebounds and she went 2-for-2 from the field without committing a turnover."
(On Becky Burke's performance)
"It was big. We were making H-O-R-S-E shots. They were wide open shots. It is nice that they are finally stepping up and making them. We need that. When you have Angel McCoughtry and Candyce Bingham, the other players are going to get some open shots. Now we just have to step up and knock them down. I was really excited for Becky because she did that today."
(On Angel McCoughtry's performance)
"I thought that she struggled in the first half. She was 3-for-11 from the field in the first half. She then came out in the second half and went 5-for-6 from the field. She was trying to force some things early, not necessarily to score every time, but penetrated too much and that ended up being a jump ball or a travel call. Once she slows herself down, good things happen for her. She got to the free throw line which was very important for us. She came up with nine steals and you cannot place a value on that. That is not easily done."
DePaul Head Coach Doug Bruno
"Louisville is ranked No. 10 in the nation for a reason and that reason is they have very talented players. Coach Walz and his staff do a great job for this team and I think they are underrated as a defensive basketball team. We came out here and really made a strong game of it but we really had trouble finding the offensive answers we needed against a very intelligent and strong defensive basketball team."
"I have to talk about their All-American Angel McCoughtry. She's a special player. Our Natasha Williams really worked on her, the team worked on her. I haven't looked at the numbers yet, but she's really a very special and talented basketball player that you're blessed to have at Louisville. We are blessed to have in the BIG EAST as long as you don't have to be the opposing coach."
(On Becky Burke)
"Becky Burke is very good shooter, her and Brandie Radde. You have to scheme against this team, you can't just stay home. It would be nice not have to scheme but you have to, they're just too good. The unsung hero on their team is Deseree' Byrd. She's a special guard, I coached a woman like her named Tammy Williams who was one of the most unique point guards there is. And she is a special player. You've got to take some gambles and chances. Some of our schemes worked early, but it's tough. Plus when you get down, Louisville's a very difficult team. You can stay status quo, but you have to roll the dice to try to make something happen and she (Burke) stepped up and knocked some down some big time threes."
(On Louisville's frenetic pace)
"We have a frenetic pace. We don't mind a frenetic pace. I think they have a very strong inside game. I thought we had some opportunities to score inside. Tasha Williams was scoring inside. We've got to get Felicia Chester to score inside - she had some at the start of the game. We've got to knock those inside opportunities down and that didn't happen."
"And also, we made some pretty so-so decisions in the open court that were just lacking a little bit. When you've got somebody open ahead of you that has a line on the basket, that's what we play for - you've got to get that person the ball right now, not two dribbles later. You might get a jump shot two dribbles later, but you've got to get the ball up the court. I thought we had four or five of those opportunities, we hung out too long. We just didn't get the ball where it needed to go. I thought we were going to be a deeper team than we were. We've got three or four kids down. That's where Jeff's done a great job - the program's done a great job - they are deep with their injuries. Our injuries are depleting us a little bit from a depth point of view. Where they're doing a great job is developing younger kids who are doing a really nice job of coming on as freshmen."
