Louisville vs. West Virginia
February 07, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 7, 2009
Recap | Final Stats | AP Photo Gallery 
Louisville Head Coach Jeff Walz
(On West Virginia's second half run)
"We did not guard a soul. They scored 54 points in the second half. There is not much else to be said about that. It is my fault. We had practice on Wednesday and my style of coaching is not for everyone, I am very tough. That is just the way I am. If you do not do things right then there are repercussions. Something has to happen. I tried the nice approach on Thursday and it was an awful practice. Friday's practice was bad because of Thursday. The way that we played today was exactly how we practiced on Friday. If we are going to have the chance to compete for a championship then we have to have tough kids. We have got to be able to fight. As soon as West Virginia punched us in the face in the second half, we crumbled. It was very embarrassing. We made no effort to get any offensive rebounds."
(On Angel McCoughtry)
"She struggled terribly. They could really read her frustration. We have played 24 games; this is the first one that I really thought she let her frustrations showed. She missed some shots that she normally makes. Her frustration started to get to her and she cannot let that happen. As great as she is, she has to be a calming influence when things start to get bad. She almost started to throw gas on the existing fire."
(On West Virginia's speed on offense)
"We tried to go zone and we leave Grandberry wide open. She was 6 for 9 from the three-point line. We told our kids that if they let her make her first two or three she might make eight. If you will defend and pressure her she might go 0 for 8. We lost her two or three times in the first half and the kid got some confidence. She was excited and I will give her credit, she hit some really big shots."
West Virginia Head Coach Mike Carey
"Needless to say that was a big game for us, Louisville is a great team. That is why they are fifth in the country. We came out and played. We hit some shots and I am very proud of the young ladies that came out and defended. We came out and did some things on the boards as well."
"They did not out rebound us by a lot, I thought we came and did some good things. We handled their pressure and were able to get some easy ones down at the other end. We were coming off a disappointing loss to Seton Hall and then coming down here beating Louisville on their home court. That is the frustrating thing right now. I told the girls we could have been playing like this all year. Hopefully this is something we can build on and this will give them a lot of confidence going down the stretch."
(On beating Louisville off the dribble)
"We thought we could get them to switch out with their center. Yes, we could take their center off the dribble at times. Sarah (Miles) did a great job when they switched out their center, taking her off the dribble. Ashley Powell did a great job taking them off the dribble at times. Keisha Granberry, she did a great job also. She hit some big shots and it was a team effort. I am very proud of them."
(On second half comeback)
"Besides the three minutes span we were right there. We lost focus and you cannot do that against a team like Louisville because they are pressing and have great players. Even though we were down 13, I think we hit a three, Liz Repella hit a three. We cut the lead down to 10 and from that point on it gave us some confidence. We started running some quick hitters. Bringing their five up and setting off ball picks. We hit our shots and that has been the problem. We go on scoring droughts and do not score for five or six minutes and that did not happen in the second half."
