Louisville vs. St. John's
January 04, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 4, 2011
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Louisville Head Coach Jeff Walz
(On Tia Gibbs) "She played really, really well. Tia shoots the ball well, she always has. What I was most impressed with was how she took the ball off the dribble. She made a couple pull-up jump shots, which we work on every day in practice. We start our practice every day with the same thing--three jump shots and a layup. We finally are starting to carry over what we work on in practice every day in the games. I was really pleased with, offensively, how well she played. She did a great job rebounding the basketball for us."
(On the BIG EAST schedule and the win tonight) "The first half, I thought we played extremely well. We defended well. I thought we boxed out, I thought we took care of the basketball. The only thing we didn't do very well was convert turnovers into points. We turned them over 17 times in the first half and got eight points off their 17 turnovers. That's not a very good number. You really want a one to one ratio. If you're turning them over 17 times, you want to get at least 17 points. That's something we have to work on and try to improve. St. John's is a very talented team. We got in foul trouble, but they got in their own foul trouble too. We didn't have some of our good ones out there when they didn't have theirs. We had players on the bench, they had players on the bench. It's exciting to watch a group of kids play as hard as they did tonight. If we can continue to do that we will have a chance to compete in a lot of games. We have got to get better. We've got to figure out a way to make a stop in the last four minutes of the game. All we needed was one or two stops and the game's over with two minutes left and we're up 16 or 18. We hit a three and they drive the ball right down our throats. We have to figure out a way to get that accomplished. Then I'll feel better about our defensive effort."
(On juggling line-ups with foul trouble) "It wasn't hard. We've got some players that have to get a little tougher. We've got to get them to understand the game plan. They've got to understand our offense. It's just different. It's a challenge for some of the, especially for our freshmen. They're used to playing in high school where it is basically throw me the ball and I'll beat the person guarding me. Now, you've got some players as talented as they are, and you've got to make sure you understand where we get the ball, how we get the ball. Once we get more reps and more game time experience, we're going to improve."
(On Monique Reid starting) "Sheronne [Vails] had been doing a nice job, she just wanted the opportunity to come off the bench. She just wanted the opportunity to see the game. She's one who is going to continue to improve. Right now she's beating herself up. You just can't do that at this level. You're not going to have a great game every night. But you can play hard every night. Like Shoni [Schimmel], she was 1 for 8 at the half, she had five assists and two turnovers. At one point in that second half she took a shot and missed it. There was a dead ball and she came over hanging her head over the bench and I just told her, if you pass up the next open shot I will take you out and not put you back in. If you want to test me, go ahead and test me. You will not win. Everybody on this team believes you can shoot the basketball. If you're open, shoot it. Then she takes that three in front of our bench, she was open because she was 40 feet away, but that's what she can do in practice. She does it in practice. It's not like that's the first time she's made one from there. I guarantee that. She continued to fight through it and that's where we are. I told our kids in the circle at the end of the game there, we've got to commit to becoming a better family. Our team has got to commit to becoming a better family. They've got to trust each other, they've got to really get to know each other. If Shoni Schimmel is out there, she knows not one single player on that team wants her to pass up an open shot. They'll all tell you that. She throws up some stuff I don't know how it goes in. But, she's done it over 16 games, so they believe in her. She's got to know that. I think she does now. Sheronne has to know her team has faith in her, they're going to throw her the ball, to keep attacking. But you've got to have that relationship with each other, you've got to have that bond and that trust. That's something with so many of our young players are still working on, but we're getting better at it. We have a chance to be a special basketball team."
(On the upcoming schedule) "Pitt's a good basketball team. There are really not any bad basketball teams in our league. You've got to be prepared to play. It's one game at a time. I told our kids to enjoy the win. You've got to enjoy every win you get, especially after coming off last year when we didn't really get to enjoy too many."
Junior Guard Becky Burke
(On the close game) "We never really felt like we had them put away the entire game. At the end, we all looked up and realized we were only up by five - but I think it's going to be like this every game in the BIG EAST. The BIG EAST is just that good this year. It was a great game to get us prepared and it was a great win against a Top 25 team here at home. Coach always talks about protecting our home court, so that's what we have to do - win every game here and try to get a couple of steals on the road."
(On Burke, Schimmel and Gibbs feeding off of each other) "Like Tia said, you have to pick your poison with who is going to hurt you behind the arc with us, because one of us is bound to hit. Usually it's all three of us hitting at one point during the game. It's a great thing to have these two playing with us."
(On doing the little things in the game - taking charges) "At halftime coach was calling me soft, because in the first half, he said I moved out of the way and I could have taken at least two charges. So he was calling me soft the entire halftime speech. I went in there and once I took one, I let him know."
Sophomore Guard Tia Gibbs
(On whether she thought she'd have a big game tonight) "Some day I knew it would come. I've been practicing hard and I've the gym extra hours just putting up shots. Between the three of us, (Becky Burke, Shoni Schimmel) somebody is going to hit.
(On whether she took any flack when she took her 26 footer) "No, the shot clock was running down, so I was okay."
(On playing without key players on the floor) "We pretty much make it up. We switch it up in and out of practice, but the thing with us is that we are really close off the court. We know what each other can do and we feed off of each other's energy."
Freshman Shoni Schimmel
(On doing the little things to win games) "We do the right things most of the time, but it's the little things that always get us in big games. So the offensive rebounding helped a lot tonight. Just because we didn't do that against Tennessee or the other teams we lost to. The little things helped us a lot. We have definitely brought the turnovers down. We're working on the little things one step at a time."
(On a frustrating first half) "It was frustrating, but I had my team to back me up, they got me going."
(On building confidence by getting a win over a ranked team and being 2-0 in the league) "It helps us a lot. Going into these next few games that is what we are going to need. It gets us rolling."
(On her long three-pointer) "Coach had just gotten finished talking to me. He told me I was 1 for 8 and I just needed to go out there and shoot the ball. He said `everybody has confidence in you, so just go out there and shoot it.' I was wide open, so I said why not?"
