Louisville vs. Seton Hall
January 06, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 6, 2009
Louisville Head Coach Jeff Walz
(On the halftime message)
"There wasn't much we needed to do basketball wise by making adjustments or anything like that. It was the most embarrassing first half of basketball we have played since I've been coaching here. I know we aren't going to win every game and I understand that, but we are going to play hard. I just explained that to them very nicely. I think they got the message and I was very pleased at how hard they came out and played in the second half."
"We just played harder. There was at least five times that the ball was just batted down and we batted it instead of diving on the floor. Our margin of error is not big. We cannot just step on the floor and win games, that is not how it works. I thought tonight in the first half we thought we would just show up and build a six to eight point lead. Then we did two stupid things in a row that turned into four straight points for them (Seton Hall). I have seen turnovers before but we were just throwing it to them in the backcourt. It was embarrassing. I have to give our kids a lot of credit because they came out in the second half and looked like a whole different team. Our goal is to sustain ourselves for forty minutes every night. I know we are not going to play 40 minutes of great basketball and there are going to be stretches when we fall asleep. But we cannot play 20 minutes as bad as we played tonight."
(On Mary Jackson)
"I told Mary (Jackson) I thought this was one of the best games she has played all year and she didn't score a point. That is the hardest thing for a player of Mary's caliber and reputation coming of high school, scoring 35 points a game and to come in here and to put up one shot tonight. I put her on Ebonie Williams, their best player and she was 1-10 from the field, 1-5 from the 3-point line and she turned the ball over four times. Mary was a big part of that. I told her (Mary) I thought that was the best game she played all year. She had three assists and one turnover. This makes back-to-back games where she is starting to value the basketball."
(On first half effort)
"Tiera (Stephen) and Angel (McCoughtry) were the only two that showed up in the first half. This is by far the best game Tiera has played all year. She really caused a lot of chaos and she came up with two steals in the first half. I am very proud of the way she played. Especially with Deseree' (Byrd), she was not there energy wise. I am hoping this is her one game to get that out of her system."
(On Gwen Rucker)
"She is not a big powerful post player. We are not looking to just ram the ball into her on the low block and tell her to go to work. That's not Gwen's game right now. She missed out on all of the preseason workouts. She is not going to score 20 points, but she does a nice job on the defensive end of the floor. She alters shots and she really is a compliment to Keshia (Hines). If she can continue to play like that, and we can get 14 to 16 points a game from Gwen and Keshia combined then we will have one solid post player."
Louisville Point Guard, Deseree' Byrd
(On Coach's halftime message)
"He just told us we need to pick it up in the second half. We got outhustled and there wasn't really a lot of energy out there. Tiera Stephen was able to come off the bench with a lot of energy and a lot of execution. We just weren't focused or into the game."
(On Defense)
"Defense is a spark for us. Defense is where we get excited and we take a lot pride in our defense. So when Angel comes up with a big steal or finishes with a 3-point play, that is what gets us excited. Then we come back down on the next possession. Our goal on defense is to try to get as many as three stops in a row. In the second half I thought we did a lot better with that."
Louisville Center, Keshia Hines
(On Sunday's game against Rutgers)
"Well now we can say that tonight is the past and we are looking forward to the future with Rutgers on Sunday. Now all we have to do is prepare for them, we have an off day tomorrow and a couple more days of practice. All we have to do is work hard in practice to get us where we need to be on Sunday."
Louisville Forward, Angel McCoughtry
(On the First Half)
"I think we just have to stop playing the name on the jersey and start playing hard every game. In the past when we played Seton Hall we had an easier time, but they are much improved this year. I know we can play up to the competition of UConn, but we just settle sometimes. That's just something that we have to get out of the habit of doing."
(On second half play)
"I think we all just picked it up on defense, and played harder."
(On Coach's motivation)
"It's something we love. We want to get better. He loves perfection and we love perfection. We can't just be content with just winning by 30-points. We have to get better."
