Louisville vs. Marquette
January 03, 2012 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 3, 2012
Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery 
Louisville Head Coach Jeff Walz
(On defending Katherine Plouffe) "Our strategy going in was to really focus on their post players. I was really impressed on film with Plouffe and Apiew Ojulu. I just really thought their post players were a big part of their game. We sent Ojulu to the free throw line eight times. For a freshman she does a great job of getting to the line. If you look at the stats on the season she is averaging about eight free throw attempts per game, which is more than any player on our team. So I was really impressed with that. But I thought we did a really good job on them. Simmons is a talented player. She's one of the best in the league. She does a great job of playing within their system but still gets opportunities to create one-on-one. She's just a handful. She's really hard to guard so it didn't surprise me that she came up with 17 points. I thought we did a really good job on the rest of the team."
(On Bria Smith) "Bria played well in the second half. She wasn't quite herself in the first half but I was really pleased with how she picked things up. She was 6-15 from the field and she probably missed three layups. One in the second half after getting a steal was uncontested but those are growing pains. That's one thing I've talked to her about. I was really pleased that she only turned the ball over one time tonight. In a perfect world Tia Gibbs is still playing and she gets the chance to watch someone and be groomed by a very talented player. Tia isn't going to score 20 a night, but she just understands the game so well. I had planned on having Bria go out and play at the same time as Tia and sometimes fill in for each other. I was really excited about that. Unfortunately with Tia being out there is just a lot more responsibility falling on Bria. I think she has responded well for a freshman and I'm just really excited to see her game grow."
(On pulling away in the final five minutes of the game) "They are playing hard. They are down to eight players right now. I think fatigue gradually set in on them. At the same time they got in some foul trouble so they weren't really able to get in a flow for the last eight minutes. Gabi Minix does a great job for them at the point. They had to sit her down for three or four minutes. It's just hard and I completely understand because we going through those pains ourselves with Monique and Tia out for the year. We're trying to get some players to step up on a consistent basis. That is really what I'm trying to find for us right now. When we go to St. Johns it wouldn't surprise me if Sara Hammond, Antonita Slaughter, or Shawnta' Dyer play 18 plus minutes. Right now I'm judging a lot of who I put in the game on what I see in practice until I can see some consistency. It's tough when you're not sure who is going to step up and be that go-to player for you, or who's going to go out there and rebound. It's a growing experience and we've got a lot of young players. Becky Burke is our only senior on the floor. Asia Taylor is our only junior. Shelby didn't get a chance to play tonight but it wouldn't surprise me if she gets in the game up there at St. John's. I know what Shelby is going to do for me. She's very steady with the ball. It's game-by-game and you've got to make sure your kids are ready to play. It's my job tomorrow to make sure the ones who did not play as much as they would've liked are prepared to start practicing again and ready to go. When their number is called I need them to step up. The thing about our team right now is everyone is getting the chance to play except for Shelby tonight. Then it's a matter of what you're going to do with your time. I'm just encouraged with tonight. It's a good win for our team. It's a good win for our program. I was pleased with the effort they gave and now we've just got to continue to move forward."
(On rebounding) "I thought we did a nice job of boxing out. To hold them to 11 offensive boards with their size, I thought that was very good. What I'm trying to preach to our kids right now is second chance points. We've got to get between 14 and 20 every night if we're going to be good. You've got to be able to score on offensive stick backs. We're just not finishing them. We've got to get our focus. When you have a look at the basket you've got to finish it. Then if there is somebody in front of you, kick the ball back out don't try to force it up."
(On the attendance for tonight's game) "Another thing I thought was great was our attendance. If you look at what was going on tonight, for us to get over 8,000 to come out with our men playing on TV and UK's men drawing 14,700, I think it shows a lot about women's basketball in this city. The number two team up the road only drew 6,000 more than us. I think that says a lot about our program and a lot about our fans. I'm just very appreciative of the great fans that we have here."
Marquette Head Coach Terri Mitchell
(Opening statement) "I thought our team had a lot of fight. I thought we played hard. Their press was slowing us up so a lot of our possessions weren't aggressive enough. When we got aggressive, we played much better. I can't count how many times we got them down in the shot clock and they scored. I felt like that is what a good team does. We played great defense, but we didn't finish it. You can get away with that for a little while. We did, and we kept it close. We kept it within that five point area, but those last second shots broke our spirits. It then became a 10 point game and you are playing catch up. We then start forcing up ill-advised shots and it balloons from there. We have to give credit to Louisville, and get ready for Seton Hall."
(On Louisville's offense coming mostly from the guards) "I think they have a lot of talent and we went into the game with that mentality about their guards. We obviously didn't do a good job, but we did talk about it. Their guards are doing the scoring until they figure out what they can do on the inside. All Louisville's guards are big threats in their own way. They are all confident scorers. If you look at their shooting percentage, it's great. Bria (Smith) is going to get better and better with experience. To answer your question yes, and we didn't do a good job. I give them a lot of credit for how they attacked."
(On what Louisville did to slow down Katherine Plouffe and cause a low team shooting percentage) "Fouls. She was out of the game because she fouled. What they did was pressed us and we hung out in the back court way too long. We are a set team and we were unable to get into our sets. I think our offense is really good when we set screens and get the ball inside, but we didn't do either of those tonight. So the credit goes to Louisville for making it where we couldn't get set up in our offense. On the other end I thought we played great defense for the first 25 seconds and then the last five seconds they took it to us. You have to play 30 seconds of defense so they were very patient. They waited for the right person and right situation. I can't count how many times Bria (Smith) hesitated on the elbow then blew right past us. I did talk about it, but obviously it didn't help. We're going to learn. We have a lot of young players out there trying to grow up. It's a tough place to play but a great environment. This game is one to grow on. You learn from mistakes and move on."
(On thoughts of KFC Yum Center) "It is a great environment and great place. It's a good basketball arena and it's loud. The Al Maguire Center we don't sell alcohol, there were a lot of alcohol signs here. You could just see the crowd was really into it and the support that is here. I think that it is a classy place. It's in the BIG EAST and I am glad it's a place we come to play, and I hope people say the same about our environment. I told our players to get used to it because it's going to be one tough game after another in the BIG EAST. This is life and that is the kind of support you get from this conference. We have to understand how to win on the road and we are going to do it at some point."
(On what Marquette can do to get better for next game against Seton Hall) "Penetration is one thing we can improve upon. We defended well early but didn't finish it. We also have to improve weak side rebounding. They had 14 offensive rebounds. You won't win many games giving up that many offensive rebounds. We have to take care of the ball. Our turnovers were careless. There were people that were hiding that need to be more aggressive. From an offensive side work on turnovers and from a defensive side the weak side rebounds. There is a lot to work on. I know one thing about this team though and we don't take losing lightly. We will be very ready to go on Saturday night."
