Louisville vs. Notre Dame
January 19, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 19, 2010
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Notre Dame Head Coach Muffet McGraw
"I thought Louisville came out and played with tremendous intensity, passion and enthusiasm at the beginning of the game. They were taking it to us early on I thought they were playing on a lot of emotion and we weren't. We came out flat, we didn't have any energy. I though with about five minutes to go in the half, we started to make some shots and we started to feed off of the little bit of success we were having on the offensive end. In the second half, except for the first minute or so, I thought we played really well. I felt that Black really carried us in the first half. She did a fantastic job in the first half and continued to play well in the second, but we really needed her in the first half. Lindsay Schrader came alive in the second half to come up with another double-double and I thought we got good production off the bench from Natalie Novosel, I thought Ashley Barlow was steady throughout the game. I'm really pleased that we got the bounce back win, I thought it was a really important win for us to get. At the beginning of the game I wasn't so sure we were ready for it."
(On Monique Reid) "She was the focus at halftime. We talked about staying in front of her. We did a very poor job in the first half. We were on the side of her, or behind her. We didn't step in to take a charge and we felt that's what we needed to do, we needed to get a body in front of her and get her to run us over. We did a little better job of that in the second half. She played a great game, I thought she was outstanding."
After being down 12 points - what turned things around? "Our defense got a little better. I thought we missed some shots and we rebounded well and then we got out in transition and I thought we shot it pretty well during that stretch. I don't remember who got us going there, but I'm sure Becca (Bruszewski) was involved. For Skylar (Diggins) to come in, in the second half I thought she almost took over the game in stretches. And then we had the high low working effectively. We did a nice job finding Lindsey (Schrader), I though everybody did a great job, when Lindsey wasn't scoring, Skylar was. It was a great team effort.
On Schrader's play in the second half "I was disappointed with her first half play and she was disappointed with it as well. I thought she came out with something to prove... maybe a little bit of a chip on her shoulder in the second half. Maybe I put it there, I don't know. I was really happy when she came out in the second half.
On whether the start in the first half was due to any hangover from the UConn game "I thought we definitely looked hung over. We had no energy defensively. I thought our press was bad and we gave up easy shots. We looked confused sometimes, we just didn't have the passion to get out there and defend them. I think we found it in the second half.
Did it surprise her? "It did. I thought we had a great practice yesterday. I thought we were going to come out and really play our game early on. We talked about trying to force some turnovers and I was disappointed with only seven steals - that's way below our average.
On her 600th win "I'm just so blessed to be able to be at Notre Dame for so long and have so many great players, so many great coaches. I've been there a really long time."
Louisville Head Coach Jeff Walz
(Having a lead in the first 15 minutes) "It's the same old same old. Shelby Harper works her butt off. The kid plays as hard as she can. I ask her to go out there and play my point guard on a team that is playing the 3rd ranked team in the country. And for 15 minutes she was fantastic. But she got tired and she got worn down. They started making her go left, which she struggles with. Then, we just turn the ball over. We had four turnovers with six minutes left in the first half and end up with 10. Shelby is doing a nice job, but we're one player away of being a very, very good basketball team. Not taking away anything from Shelby, because she is really doing a nice job, but we're asking a lot from a walk-on to come in here and lead us in the BIG EAST. We are one player away. And then when I have to move Becky (Burke) to the point, it takes away her ability to get shots and score. So, it really affects us offensively, but we have a 12 point lead with 5:29 in the half and unfortunately we turn the ball over six times."
(On Notre Dame stopping Monique Reid in the second half) "They gave her wide open lay-ups and she missed them. She had three of them and they were wide open and just missed a lay-up. I'm not sure what they were trying to do to stop her. She still got some great looks and had great shots, but unfortunately she missed them. I challenged Monique (Reid) and her focus is not always there. I played her for 38 minutes and it's probably eight too many for her right now. But, with our situation we are in its one thing she is going to have to continue to fight through because we need her on the floor. We come out in the second half and score the first five and then we go down the floor and they throw the ball to the post. We fall asleep and they make a cut from the top. They make it and we foul them and then we don't box out on the free throw. They get the rebound, make it and get fouled again. You can't do that and expect to win against a top 10 team. That's a four point play. You're not going to win too many games doing that. Then we actually guarded them. I think it got to 51-44 or 46 and stuck around 51 or 53 for about four or five minutes, I think. And then we sat there and missed lay-up, lay-up, lay-up, where we had a chance to get it back to a four or two point game. And couldn't just follow through or finish."
(On the defense in the first 15 minutes) "We were actually executing. Our goal was to come out and try to switch up defenses as much as we could and I thought we did a great job of doing that. They are a very skilled basketball team with a lot of fundamentally strong players. If you sit there and try to run man-to-man against them the whole time, they will pick you apart because they are very skilled. So, our goal was to come out and try to mix it up as much as we could and give them different looks. And we did. We did a great job of it. Then, we did a good job of one shot and that's it. Then, we got tired and it all comes down to our turnovers again and then not being able to finish lay-ups."
