Louisville Postgame Quotes
December 04, 2014 | Women's Basketball
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Head Coach Jeff Walz
(On if this was Louisville's best performance of the season)
“I thought we played extremely well. I thought we followed the scouting report, I thought we played pretty darn hard for 40 minutes. I thought we competed. We did exactly what we needed to do. When you play that hard and share the basketball as well as we did, good things are going to happen.”
(On stopping Iowa's Samantha Logic)
“Our goal was trying to pick her up early, trying to make it as difficult as we could for them to get in their offense. We weren't going to help off ball-side shooters. When they drove, our goal was to put your hands straight up, stay in between them and the basket, and when they shoot, make them finish over you. Don't sit there and try to help in so they kick to a 3-point shooter. I know they shot poorly from the three-point line. That's not normally how they shoot it. But I think a lot of them were contested. There weren't a lot of wide-open looks. I was really proud of how we defended.”
(On the personality of the team)
We just have to continue to fight. We're at a point where it'd kind of what we talked about for the eight years that I've been here now, is we just have to continue to learn to compete. Compete for 40 minutes, go out there, you give it your all. Normally the score takes care of itself. There might be a game or two you don't win, but at least when you walk off the court you get in the locker room you can look at each other and say 'Hey, I gave it everything I had.' I thought tonight we did that for the most part. I was really, really pleased. The great thing is you look at our minutes played, Bria Smith played 24, Sara (Hammond) played 24, Megan Deines plays 24. You've got Mariya Moore at 22, Myisha Hines-Allen played 16. It's not like we played 35 minutes with kids. I thought we played hard with the kids we had out there and that's what we have to do.”
(On the play of the freshmen)
“When we recruited, Myisha (Hines-Allen) and Mariya (Moore) especially, we knew they were going to have to come in here and play. Obviously, we don't gurantee starting positions to anyone when we recruit them, but when you're sitting there recruiting, you're looking at who you're losing and who you've got coming in, those are two that I penciled in anticipating them to start. I'm not shocked at what they're doing. We need them to do what they're doing. I'm very confident that they can play this way consistently throughout the entire season. Now, are they going to get 16 and 12 with six assists? No, not every night. But, I don't expect to see just a terrible night where they go one for 15, one for 13, they don't rebound the ball. They continue to improve, they continue to understand the college game. That's what's exciting for us. And our seniors are doing a great job. I thought Sara (Hammond) came out, she missed two one-footers to start the game. Normally she puts her head down and she's done for about seven, eight minutes. But she just kept fighting. Then she makes a couple. She makes a couple key stops on defense, gets a rebound or two, makes two or three. Now all of the sudden, things are going well for her. That's one thing I've really been proud about since our Western Kentucky game. I told her, I'm tired of her and Jude (Schimmel) pouting. Everything's not going to go right all the time. I thought Jude played really hard. I thought Jude really did some great things and she goes zero for three from the field, has two assists, three turnovers. The one turnover is right after a steal and she's trying to advance it up and she bounces the ball of her foot. I thought she played really well for us.”
(On the play of the post players)
“I thought our bigs did a really good job. I thought Emmonnie (Henderson) did a really nice job. She's just got to continue to play through some tiredness and fatigue. I thought Sheronne (Vails) came in and did a nice job in seven minutes of play. Shawnta' Dyer, she's just efficient. She works her tail off. You get seven rebounds in 17 minutes, you're doing something right. We have to continue to get that kind of production from our team. We go 14 of 22 from the line, it's not great, but I think what everyone needs to start understanding about basketball is, don't just evaluate the 14 of 22. Look how many of the misses we got back at the free throw line. So if I go, like Bria Smith, she's shooting an and-one, she makes that layup in the first half. She misses it, Myisha gets the rebound, goes up, gets fouled. Myisha goes up, goes one for two. So we're really one for three on the stat sheet right there. Bria makes hers, Myisha goes one for two. But if Bria makes it, Myisha can't get the rebound to go back to the line. So to me, it's a wash. I tell our kids, if you're not shooting the damn ball well from the free throw line, you better go and get it. Emmonnie had at least two or three that she got a stuck back in. Normally you go, if you make both free throws, you get two. Well there was twice we made the first one, missed the second, Emmonnie gets it and puts it back in so we're getting three. Now my math, three's better than two.”
(On Arica Carter)
“This is what I expected from Arica. The one who showed up the first seven games I hope does not come back. This is the one that we had recruited. She needs to be aggressive, she needs to show some strength, make hard passes. She made a beautiful cut on the one Sara Hammond hits her for a layup. The one she does miss it was a beautiful pass from Mariya laying down. She misses a left-handed layup or she goes five for five for the game. Really, really pleased with the way she played.”
(On Bria Smith's defense)
“Bria's pretty darn athletic. She got out there really quick, then went down the floor and finished the layup. Bria's really been doing a nice job. She's been playing within herself. Tonight is the first night that she's had more turnovers than assists. There was just a few times she over-dribbled. When you see Bria start to dribble too much, that's normally when she'll turn the ball over. When she attacks quick or makes a quick pass, a lot of good things happen for us.”
(On what he'd like to improve on)
“We've just got to get prepared. We've got to start prepping for a very talented Kentucky team. They love to drive the ball, they make a living right now getting to the free throw line. We've got to work extremely hard on staying between them and the basket and making some progress.”
(On if Louisville can be a good one-on-one defensive team)
“I'll tell you on Sunday about 4:30. I don't know. By far (Kentucky) is the best team we're going to play that's going to drive the ball. So, you're going to get an idea. Like tonight I thought this was the best three-point shooting team possibly that we had played all year, plus with a big. I was really pleased with how we defended that. At least we know we can defend them this way. Now, on Sunday, we're going to have a good test to find out how well do we guard the drive. It's similar to Carolina. When we play North Carolina, they like to drive the ball similar to what UK does.”
(On the Louisville-Kentucky rivalry)
“It's the next game on our schedule. It's a big game. Every one is a big game. It's a top-10 program, top-10 team. They might be 12 or 13 right now but they're a top-10 team. It's an exciting game. I hope we have a large crowd in here. It's our pack the house night. Hopefully the weather cooperates. It's a great day to come out and cheer. It's going to be fun. They're all fun.”
(On the pre-game skirmish in the Louisville-Kentucky football game)
“Yeah, we watched that. That's football. I don't think you're going to have that at halfcourt here. Just my guess. I don't think that's going to happen. It was entertaining to watch, but no, I don't expect that during the basketball game.”
(On getting off to a fast start)
“Yeah, we we're just ready to bring the energy and ready to throw the first punch because we knew what we did to them last year and we knew that they had a special thing coming in here, wanting to embarrass us on our home court. We just knew we can't let them throw that first punch because they're a good 3-point shooting team, and if you let them get one, they get hot. I think we did a good job following the scouting report, not letting their shooters get open early on, and we led into transition which is our best basketball.”
(On this being the best Louisville has played this year)
“I think so. I think mentally just being in it from start to finish and following the scouting report. I know for these freshmen, this is the first thing for them [following a scouting report]. In high school, I'm pretty sure they probably didn't have to scout the other team and watch as much film, but with a team like Iowa, who's balanced and scoring from all over, either double digits coming in and knowing how good of 3-point shooters you are, you have to know who you're guarding and what they're strengths and weaknesses are. I think they did a really good job of that, and of course we knew they weren't the best rebounding team, and I think that was another thing we wanted to get on the boards early too.”
(On the main thing Louisville focused on)
“I think it was a combination of a couple things. I think first off, it was just not letting them get their 3s off because that's what they rely on, on their offense, and if you shut down their go-to option, then you got to make them scramble and they kind of went away from that. Then it was kind of like, 'What do we do?' and we could read it all over their face. The coaches just kept saying keep pressuring them, deny them, don't let them get open looks, don't pinch in on strong sides because their point guard. She's one of the top five point guards in the country. I think she's averaging like seven assists a game, so if we just played one on one defense and not let them get open 3s - that was probably the game plan. Then rebounding, we knew they lost to Arkansas a couple weeks ago and Arkansas killed them on the boards, so the coaches said go at them offensively and defensively. If we outrebound them, we have a really good chance on winning.”
(On playing physical)
“Yeah, I think missing my first three shots is becoming routine because I do that like every game. The coaches have done a little research and all they have been talking about, leading up to this week, is how physical it was going to be. They were just joking about putting on football pads and getting ready for how physical we are, and we took it as a challenge. You think we're physical? We'll show you how physical we are. Of course, getting their main post player in foul trouble, that made her more timid and not be able to block as many shots, and I think Myisha did a tremendous job of finishing strong, going up, drawing the contact. And that's one of our strengths I think inside is how strong and how physical we can be, and outmuscle everyone inside the paint.”
(On what she tells freshmen about UK game)
“I haven't said anything about it yet. We've just been taking one game at a time. Coming into this week, we knew it was going to be a big week with two top 25 teams and the first one was Iowa and that's what I was focused on. Now after a win under our belt with them, now I'm going to talk to them a little bit about what this game means. Personally for me, this is a big game, being from Kentucky. We all know what this rivalry is about. It's kind of bragging rights for the rest of the year, and since I've been here, we haven't beaten them. We kind of gave it away the last couple years. I'm going to let them know how important this game is, not just for me, but for our team. To have one top 25 team win under our belt, that's great, but to get two in one week, that's going to prove to the nation that we are a top 10 team and I think if we get the win this weekend, we will prove that.”
(On watching the football game against UK)
“We were proud of our football team for getting the win and handling the kind of first punch that they threw at us, just kind of holding their ground and keeping their emotions together, and of course getting the win.”
(On being better than last year as a team)
“I don't know if you can compare us because we still have the same style of play. We're a transition team. I think defensively, we're a lot more athletic. I think our perimeter, even in the post, we're a lot more athletic. We can kind of play a little bit more like Kentucky does, kind of pressure you, get you to turn the ball over because our defense gets into our offense in transition. I don't know if you can compare at this point and time, what last year's team was compared to this year's because we started out in the preseason NIT. Of course, we were playing Oklahoma and LSU who were top 15 teams, so I think the competition maybe early on was a little stronger, but I think we're progressing the way the coaches want us to and hopefully we continue to peak at the right time.”
(On having a chip on her shoulder from last year's game against Iowa)
“I did. Just for me personally, probably because that was one of the worst games I played all season and especially for it to be the tournament, that's not what I wanted to do because I wanted to be my best and I wanted to be at that peak point where I was contributing for my team. The coaches did a tremendous job just getting us prepared and making us following the scouting report if we wanted to get this win. So for me, I kind of had a chip on my shoulder because I wanted to contribute to my team tonight compared to last year, but overall I just wanted to get the win as a team.”
(On how important it is for seniors to beat Kentucky)
“I just want a win for our team, but yeah, for these seniors, Shawnta' (Dyer) and Sheronne (Vails), their freshmen year, I think they beat Kentucky here in the Yum! Center. Being a Kentucky girl, I bleed red and so being at home all the time, I get a lot of negative talk about that. For me, Bria (Smith) and Jude (Schimmel) especially, we want to go out with just one win over UK.”
(On dominating inside early)
“That was both the guards finding us and us playing strong, going up strong. Knowing that 51 [Bethany Doolittle] was a shot blocker, we got into her and drew the contact because we went to the free throw line as well.”
(On learning about the UK rivalry)
“Yeah, I can't wait for the game honestly because I know it's going to be a sold out crowd and playing in front of a crowd like this, I kind of have a feel of how the game is going to be. I was talking to Shawnta' (Dyer) actually after the game about how Kentucky plays and what to expect. She was like, 'They play just like us, they're in transition, they're a transition team, their guards are all up on you.' I'm just ready for the challenge.”
(On watching the football game against UK)
“Yeah, we were watching it on our way (to Valparaiso).”
