Louisville vs. Seton Hall
February 26, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 26, 2011
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Louisville Head Coach Jeff Walz
(On Asia Taylor) "That is exactly what we see in practice. Asia played really aggressive. I was very excited for her. I think she is a summer away from being able to do that on a consistent basis for us. That's why we recruited the kid. I've told everybody she broke her ankle and tore every ligament her senior year in January and it set her back a year. Now she has finally started to feel comfortable and she played fantastic for us."
(On consistent effort early on) "No, we didn't. I wasn't thrilled. I thought we didn't take care of the ball very well and at one point in time we were 7-for-13 from the field and had eight turnovers. We shoot the ball well but the problem is it's hard to make shots when you throw the ball to the other team." (On what sparked the run in the 2nd half) "I was trying to encourage them. Trying to get them to understand that if they want to be a great basketball team you have to show up every night. You have to come out to play. I told them if we come out and play like this on Monday night we won't win. You're on the road and you don't have your home crowd behind you. I hope they take that to heart. I hope we come out tomorrow ready for practice. We won't go really hard, but we have to be mentally focused to prepare for a Providence team that is very good."
(On seeding for BIG EAST Tournament) "We need DePaul to beat Marquette. We need UConn to win, and then we need to win on Monday night. That would most likely get us a four seed and a double bye. That would give us a nice break. If we can get the win and the other things fall in place we can get Tuesday and Wednesday off and then we have Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to prepare for a Sunday game."
(On exceeding expectations) "I knew we had a chance to be good. We were picked to finish eighth and if everything works out we'll finish fourth. We could be tied for fourth with a few teams. I think we've played well at times. We've let some games go that I thought we had a chance to win but that has a lot to do with the youth of the team. I'm just trying to make sure our kids understand how hard you have to play every night. "
(On teams not wanting to face UofL in the tournament) "I think there a few of them who would like to see us because they beat us by 20 or so. But I think we're starting to play better. We're not as consistent as I would like, but we're getting there. I'm trying to get the mentality of our players to really get a little bit on the tougher side. We need to be able to handle adversity when things don't go well. We show a little bit too much frustration on our faces."
(On having six assists to 20 turnovers) "This is the first time in Shoni's career that she didn't score. The great thing about it is when we're up 22 with six minutes to go and she hadn't scored a point. You're going to have games like that. If you're going to pick a game to not play your best, this was a good one to pick because Keshia Hines played very well. Asia Taylor played well and Monique Reid played well. We had other players who stepped up and that is what we have to do. One thing I was impressed with Shoni about is that she didn't force many shots. She was trying to get the ball to her teammates. She understood `Hey, they are doing a good job defending me, now I've got to try to get my teammates involved."
(On today's crowd) "It's fantastic. It's really hard to put into words the appreciation that I have. I told our players in the locker room before the game that we are very fortunate to have the support that we have. We have these wonderful fans, administration, and marketing people. It's just wonderful to go out and have the opportunity to play in front of 10,000. We should finish second in the country in attendance, which is remarkable. I tell them they need to make sure they are appreciative and thankful. You go out on the road and play in front of 400. It's a great honor to come out here and have 10,000 a night."
Louisville Center Keshia Hines
(On playing her last home game) "It felt great. I'm healthy and I can play, so it felt great."
(On how fast Senior Day came and advice for younger players) "It came really fast. The whole four years flew past. It was gone in the blink of an eye. I would tell the young players that you must have determination to get the things you want. Getting to the Final Four was my greatest highlight. If you work hard and come to practice every day you can get that chance."
(On Coach Walz focus on consistency) "Coach Walz talks about consistency in every practice. Every day we need to come with the same energy and intensity. We have a lot of ups and downs. We can come out and beat the number seven team in the country one day and then come out and play the way we did today."
Louisville Forward Monique Reid
(On consistency) "I think it is just having that motivation within ourselves. We beat a lot of top teams and the motivation is beating a top team. We have to stop playing down to the level of the competition. Not saying Seton Hall is a bad team because everybody in the BIG EAST is a good team. It's just that we need to be more consistent no matter who we are playing. No matter who we're playing we have to play hard and focus for 40 minutes."
(On 2nd half adjustments) "We have to pick up the intensity. It doesn't matter who we are playing against we have to play tough defense like we played against DePaul. We just had to pick up our intensity and energy and play to our abilities. I feel like we did that in the first couple of minutes." (On sluggish first half) "It was all us. There was no energy. Once we picked it up we were fine."
(On her playing better at home) "I like to think so. It is a different atmosphere. We go to some places and there are only 100 or 200 people there. Then we come here and play in front of 15,000. It's an extra lift. We just need to carry that over to the road games because that is where we struggle."
