Louisville Postgame Quotes
December 15, 2014 | Women's Basketball
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Head Coach Jeff Walz
(On the team's effort)
“Much better effort. We're still trying to fight to play a 40-minute game. We're really good for 20. I think we showed that again tonight, that we come out starting the second half and we score. Set play and we score, and then we trade baskets. That's our struggle right now. We're trying to get them to understand that you can't play for 20 minutes and just trade. You've got to understand you've got to try to put someone way. You've got to try to come out with the same intensity in the first half, and then come out with that same intensity in the second half. That's what we have to get better at and that's what we as a coaching staff have to keep working towards. Hopefully you'll start to see more consistency for 40 minutes.”
(On the team's outside shooting)
“Outside shooting, it was very, very good. Part of it was because we passed the ball so well. We really didn't have too many contested 3s. We made the extra pass. We made quick passes. Part of our struggle has been we occupy the ball too long. We will have someone open, and we'll hold it for an extra second. Then when we pass it, it's a contested shot instead of a wide-open shot. So for us, we're really trying to work on getting the ball out of your hands, get it up the floor, and then let's see if we can get something out of transition, or hit someone trailing.”
(On whether he was surprised by the margin of victory)
“I was. I think we did a very good job of frustrating them early. I thought we did a good job of contesting shots, and getting hands in the passing lanes. They're a pretty good basketball team, we just came out and we played the best, I think, we played all year. Especially going 9-of-14 from the 3-point line. They're going to win a lot of games. There's no question about it. I thought intensity-wise for probably 30 minutes of the game we were pretty good.”
(On whether shooting more 3-pointers was part of the game plan)
“That's nothing about the game plan. Old Dominion packed it in more. They gave us the outside shot more. Kentucky, obviously, was out guarding on the perimeter and pressing, so you had more opportunities to get the ball in the paint. It's encouraging because I'm concerned as the year goes on that more and more teams are just going to pack it in, and we're going to have to prove that we can make shots from the outside. On average, I think we're scoring close to 48 or 50 points a game in the paint. I'm sure we're going to see a lot of zones in the future, but if we can shoot the ball like this, then it's probably going to make some coaches a little weary of playing zone.”
(On if having more options in the paint makes the team more dangerous)
“There's no question. Our challenge right now for us, it's like Myisha Hines-Allen, she has a chance to be a special basketball player if I can get her to run. You all see it, she'll jog. And she doesn't know she's jogging, so we'll show her on film, and she's like, 'Aw man, I am.' So as soon as we can get that switch turned on, we could have five or six post players who could go out there and I can rotate them in. And if our posts, if our 4s and 5s would just sprint the floor every single time, like I try and tell them, you might not score layups the first four minutes of the game, but come minute 16, 17, 18, 22, if I can substitute in and out five or six post players, if you keep sprinting, eventually you're going to shoot layups. And that's what we're trying to get them to right now.”
(On how big of a confidence builder this was for Jude Schimmel)
“It's like I said on the radio there, even before Jude made the three shots there at the end, she had played a really good floor game. Jude played a great game against Iowa and didn't score a point, and that's part of the problem that you deal with in today's society of fans and social media. It's like, 'Man, Jude, what happened? You didn't score.' And it puts pressure on them as players like, 'Yeah, oh man, I didn't play well.' The play tonight that I think just solidifies everything I'm trying to tell Jude is, in transition, Jude does a great job of getting the ball up the floor. She gets by two, she hits Mariya (Moore) cutting, and then Mariya hits Sara (Hammond) for a layup. Nothing that Jude did on that play is on the stat sheet, not one thing. And for people to just look at the stat sheet and go, 'Man, you didn't score, you didn't do this.' They don't understand, she's the one that led to the assist to the score. And that's what a good point guard does. It's not always a matter of what you score. It was exciting for her to see the ball go into the basket, there's no question about it, but I thought she had played a very good floor game for us. She came up with six boards, and that's the way we need for her to play for us to be successful.”
(On the upcoming trip out west)
“We're going back to Phoenix first. Cortnee Walton will hopefully play on Thursday. It'll be our first game. She's still got some soreness in that foot, but this is why we're going back to Grand Canyon was for her to have a homecoming. So we are going to try and play her, we'll try and play her on Thursday and then see if she can't play some against Cal on Sunday, and then evaluate how she's doing. If she's in a tremendous amount of pain and we've got to send her back to the doctor, then we'll just have to see if we have to do a medical redshirt with her. Because we don't want to waste her year - there's no question about that. I'm not going to put her out there to play in five or six games for the year and count that as her junior year. And if she feels great, then that's fine. Then she can come back, we've one more game after Christmas break before we star conference, then she'll be able to play in 20-plus games for us, which would be a big plus.”
(On the Christmas sweater he wore during the game)
"Well, it was our ugly sweater night, I was told. So our marketing department did a great job and they had one of these for coach Sam (Purcell) and I."
(On Schimmel and Hammond joking that Coach Purcell looked better in the sweater)
"I would have to agree with them. There's no question at all. There's a possibility that Sam (Purcell) could wear it out. I think he thought he looked really good. So, if you see him out one night around Christmas and he's wearing it, compliment him on it."
(On this being her best game of the season)
“Yeah, without a doubt. I feel like I put a lot of work in this summer to play a bigger role on the team, but honestly, without and my teammates and coaches, none of that would have been possible.”
(On her performance against Old Dominion)
“My shots haven't really been falling and sometimes I get frustrated with that, but my coach and my teammates keep telling me that that's not all it's about. I understand that, but coach Walz keeps telling me that if my shots aren't falling then to look at my teammates and the scoring will come easy.”
(On whether she liked playing the 2 guard)
“Coach Walz tells me to play the one when Arica and I are in together, but honestly, I feel like we can both handle the ball and both know the plays and sets, so we're interchangeable. But yeah, it was fun playing the two.”
(On going out west and playing against Grand Canyon)
“Well, I'm from Oregon and I was traveling this past summer to talk to different reservations and tribes. I actually go to see the Grand Canyon. But I'm really excited because my teammates get to go out there and we hardly ever go out west, so it should be fun.”
(On whether she or Sara Hammond owns an ugly sweater and which coach looked better in the sweater)
“We don't, and I think it is a toss up to be honest. We liked it. I like our coaches - they all have a sense of humor and they bring a lot of things to the table. That makes us happy and excited to go to practice. We actually don't own ugly sweaters, but I think we are planning an ugly sweater party for our team soon, so yeah, that will be fun.”
(On seven players finishing in double figures)
“That just shows how good of a team we can be. Offensively, any given night, we wonder who is going to step up and score big for us.”
(On Mariya Moore)
“I think she is a special player and has proven that by playing on the USA U-17 team, being a McDonald's All-American coming out of high school. I think us as a team - when she came in, she had high expectations for herself and she has lived up for that. She has gone beyond what coaches have expected of her as a freshman, having to count on her to be the best 3-point shooter or come out and score 12 to 14 points a night. She's becoming mentally and physically tougher. At the beginning, she didn't really like all of the running that we have to do, but now she doesn't really think about it. She sprints up and down the floor so I'm really proud of her and how far she has come.”
(On practice being hard after a loss)
”No. Coach gave us a couple days off just to kind of rest from the big week we had last week playing two top 25 teams, but there was a lot we needed to work on this week. We needed to work on a lot of defensive things, how to guard screens, how to just take pride in 1-on-1 defense. Kentucky kind of exposed us to that last week. So we just kind of broke down some things this week. Coach didn't make it too hard, but he's trying to prove a point. When we made turnovers this week in practice, we ran for them because we have to value the basketball. So we're just continuing to grow and, especially with such a young team and counting on these freshmen, each day we're teaching them how important it is - the little things. How important it is when it comes down to executing, making layups. Coach focused on making layups for us, the post players this week. We just worked on a lot this week.”
(On what coach Jeff Walz said about how the team competed against Old Dominion)
We did a pretty good job for the most part, but it showed that some of us aren't in shape and not in the shape that we need to be, especially not right now, right before conference play. So, I think while we have some of this time off and while we go out west, a couple people are going to have to do some extra conditioning, get with our strength and conditioning coach, and just continue to get better and continue to push ourselves. He (coach Walz) left a couple people out there to kind of see if they could kind of mentally go through it, be tougher, and they kind of folded. And we need them to step up and fight through that fatigue and continue to play on and try to get that second wind.”
(On taking more 3s and having more success from long range)
“I think coach challenged a lot of people this week since it was off, and whenever we were done with finals, if you could get in the gym for an hour, hour and a half and get up extra shots - and I think that paid off tonight. I know we've all been getting in there and shooting 100 free throws a day. The guards and whoever is a 3-point shooter, get in there and shoot 100 3s a day, so I think that just showed today that we've been in the gym getting up extra shots.”
