Louisville vs. Middle Tennessee State
December 09, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 9, 2009
Louisville Head Coach Jeff Walz
(On Middle Tennessee's shooters)"They shot the ball so well, and it's something where if we could shoot that well in practice with nobody guarding us, I'd be excited. Unfortunately the game started where we had three breakdowns right in a row where we gave them three wide open shots. Those kids are shooters. When you make your first two or three, that's not good and that's exactly what happened to us. We gave them the wide open shot, and they knocked them down, and the rest is history."
(On coming back in the game) "We had our chances. It was 52 all and we had a steal and an outlet, and we're going down for an open layup and turn the ball over. That turnover leads to a weak foul, and they make one or two free throws. We get the ball back again, and Becky Burke gets a really good shot in the lane and we miss it, and then all of the sudden, it turns into a 6-0 run for them. We have a breakdown on defense, and it turns into a three. We come back down the floor and turn the ball over and go in transition where they get another three. They shot the ball so well tonight. You can't sit there and give them three opportunities. When you look, our 19 turnovers turned into 34 points for them."
(On the injuries) "It's part of the game. We aren't going to use it as an excuse right now. We can't catch a break. We're working on trying to get Keshia Hines back in the flow. She was out for 13 days. Nikki Burton missed 11 days of practice before Keshia was hurt for her 13 days. We finally start to get it where everybody is back in practice and then Toya (Johnson) is out for 6-8 weeks. It's hard to get a rhythm going and it's hard to get into practice and really get something accomplished when you just don't have your kids out there to practice. It's part of the game though. We have been fortunate the past two years that we have not had a significant injury to one of our top three or four players and now all of the sudden, it's kind of our year. We are 5-3 and we have to get ourselves back together for our game on Sunday. Then we've got three road games in a row, which is going to be a tough stretch. We'll find out what we're made of."
Middle Tennessee State Head Coach Rick Insell
(Opening Statement) "We did a great job tonight. We're a pretty good shooting basketball team, and we had three losses, we lost to three great teams. We beat a good team tonight in Louisville. It's going to get better, they are young. Jeff does a good job. They play in a great conference and they are just going to get better. I'd like to keep this series going. It's too close for us not to and it's a great game for the fans. It was a great offensive game, not much defense from either side. They were able to go to the boards and get some put-backs. We were able to knock down some shots and that was the difference."
(On three-point shooting) "If they don't shoot it, I'm going to take them out. They know that,everyone of them. I don't care if they force a shot or two. They know I'm going to get very upset if they don't shoot the basketball. Anne Marie hasn't practiced in the last two or three days and didn't know if she was going to get to play tonight. And Emily (Queen) hadn't practiced either in the last two days because of her knee. We knew she'd get some limited time tonight, but she played tough for us. But what can you say about the other kids? The way they shot the ball, Anne Marie, Jackie, of course A.C. is All-American, and then Chelsea. This is one of her best games tonight. At half time I challenged her a little bit to step up. She's from Georgetown, Kentucky and I said you know you're back home let's step it up, and she did. She did a great job in the second half.
"Anne Marie and Jackie both, they like getting out on the run. Even if we don't have anybody inside, we're going to let her fly. That's what they did, and they went in tonight. I'm really proud of our team, very, very proud. We needed a road win, and we needed it bad. We're very happy to come in here and get a win. We'll cherish this, I'll tell you. We've got a tough one coming up Saturday. We go on the road against South Dakota State. Not many people go in there, so we're going in there Saturday. It doesn't get any easier for us. We come back and play Western, and then we come back and play Kentucky. So, it doesn't get any easier for the Blue Raiders."
