Louisville vs. IPFW
December 29, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 29, 2009
Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery
Louisville Head Coach Jeff Walz
(On the difference in Keshia Hines) "She played harder. She ran the floor for us and really gave effort tonight and that is something we have to have from her every night. She had talked about that to me after our New Hampshire game that she was going to go home and take a few days and get herself together and invest in this program and herself. She really looked good tonight."
"She just was not playing as hard as she can. She missed about two weeks with her being sick. You try to prepare these kids for the competition and sometimes they forget if you miss a week or two of practice because you have been sick you just cannot make up for that time by just coming to the gym and practicing during your scheduled practice time because you missed a week and a half of it. So Keshia is starting to spend some time in gym on her own and it is starting to pay off for her."
(On Monique Reid) "Mo is playing hard. She still has to make some better decisions with the ball for us. I would like to be able to play her on the wing some just because of our lack of depth, but she is not very comfortable out there yet. We have to continue to work on her wing skills and her ball handling. But in the post she does a really good job. She boards for us and she ran the floor hard for us tonight and got some easy baskets in transition."
(On success in the BIG EAST) "For us to be successful, we are going to have to defend a lot better. We are going to have to continue to work on defending; we are going to have to continue to place an emphasis on limiting teams to one shot."
"We are just trying to not give everyone a driving line to the basket. We are a very poor on ball defending team. A lot of it is just youth and trying to get them to understand footwork and fundamentals and how to defend at this level. So instead of getting out and denying all over the place, we are more so in the gaps and trying to make somebody take two dribbles and kick and we are going to go close out on them. Tonight I saw some good things. I saw us flying around at times and really causing them some problems because every time they thought they had an open look someone was flying at them."
(On Shelby Harper) "She is playing well. She is doing a great job for us. She will start Saturday. She just comes everyday and works. She knows she has to improve her ball handling also. She never really looks out of control to me. She knows when to slow down, she knows what to do. She will turn it over a few times but I have really been impressed with her play".
(On Becky Burke) "She did not play well. It was just a bad game. This is our 13th game and she has played twelve really good games. I was excited for her. She just came out tonight and did not play well. What I have to continue to get her to understand is even when she does not shoot the ball well, she still has to do the other things well. It was just a bad game all around for her but it is not a real concern of mine. I know she will bounce back. She will get in the gym tomorrow, we will watch film and she will be fine."
Forward Monique Reid
(On the key to the win)
"We picked up our defense tonight. We're trying a new defense called gap defense. We're playing the gaps so they won't drive on us. Our post got a lot of steals off the defense tonight. It's basically just good defense on our part, playing on the gaps."
(On being ready for the BIG EAST) "I think we're ready. We need to get in the gym and work on some stuff. I'm really happy about what we did. Like Keisha said, we did play hard and that's a huge step for us. That is why we're 8-5."
(On Shelby Harper) "Shelby goes hard. She really doesn't have a choice because she's small, so she has to outwork everybody. I think that's why she goes so hard."
(On Keshia Hines posting up) "There was a complete difference tonight. In the beginning she would post and if she didn't get the ball, she would walk away. Now she's posting and we do something else and she keeps posting up. Basically the key for us tonight was getting Keshia the ball. Everybody did their scoring but Keshia was a beast in the post. She demanded the ball and we got her the ball. She scored almost every time if she didn't get fouled. She just plays really hard and we really need that, especially in the BIG EAST with all the good post players."
Forward Keshia Hines
(On her steals) "I think I was just playing hard basically. As a team we all played hard. This is our last non-conference game and we had to come out big."
(On Shelby Harper) "Shelby has been a big key for us this year. I think when she came in, we didn't know what to expect. She came out and played hard and she plays hard everyday. She's really consistent. She's one of our most consistent players. Shelby just comes out and plays hard to the best of her ability."
(On 25 turnovers) "We can't play in the BIG EAST if we're going to turn it over 25 times a night. That is just unacceptable. We need to buckle down. It's a mental part of the game and we need to work on that."
(On the key to win tonight) "The key was just playing hard. This is a new year for us; basically for me. I know I have been coming out slow. I know that this half of the season is going to be my half of the season."