Louisville Postgame Quotes
January 02, 2015 | Women's Basketball
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Head Coach Jeff Walz
(On if he thought the team would be up by 31 on an ACC opponent)
“No, I can't say that's what we had planned, but it was a great game. I thought defensively, we did some really good things. I thought we made it as difficult for (Kaela) Davis to score as anybody has, and that was our goal. Our number one goal was to try to make her become a volume shooter, and I thought we did that, I just never anticipated us to be able to make her go 2-for-15.”
(On what they were you trying to do to guard Kaela Davis)
“We were trying to make sure we were there on the catch every time she caught it, every time she came off a ball screen we were trying to double her, trying to just get it out of her hands. We did a really good job of meeting her early in transition instead of backing up and letting her get into the paint. We tried to meet her at the three-point line, and then we'd send two at her. I just really believed going into this game we were going to make somebody else beat us. I thought Whiteside played a really nice game, but at the same time, we know Davis can go for 25, and we did not want that.”
(On spreading the points offensively)
“I think its speaks volumes for our team right now. Mariya shot the ball extremely well, really did some good things, I thought she passed the ball well, we've just got to cut down on a few turnovers. She really did a nice nice job of cutting without the ball, she got some layups. She'd actually been struggling shooting the ball in practice, and we talked about just don't become strictly a three point shooter, and I thought we did a nice job of getting her moving and getting her a few layups to see the ball go in. Sara Hammond plays 13 minutes because of foul trouble and we're still able to do what we did. I think that talks about the depth that we have on this team, players are willing to step up. Bria Smith defensively in the first half was a phenomenal force on Davis. She was 0-for-5 I think in the first half from the field, but I wasn't concerned about her offense, because what she was doing for us defensively was key.”
(On if he thinks Mariya Moore has been settling for 3s too much)
“Yeah, she was, and we had talked about that. So I thought, to get her moving, she started to attack more, she started to drive. And because she passes the ball so well, if we can get her moving, she sees the floor great, and I think you all saw that tonight, she made a few great passes, that's what we need from her, not just become a three-point shooter, but an all-around player.”
(On the team's passing)
“We passed the ball well to our team and to their team, considering we had 21 turnovers. They had 14 points off our turnovers, so that's seven more assists, so we had about 29 for the game. So I agree, we passed the ball really well. We're a very good passing team, and that's something that we take pride in. I'm disappointed in the 21 turnovers, especially when you get six from Mariya and five from Jude (Schimmel). That's not normal. We have to cut that number down. Because we'll make the extra pass, every once in a while, I think you saw tonight, we pass it too much, and instead of taking a five footer, we try to jam it to someone for a two-footer, well it turns into a turnover. It's a good problem to have in some ways because your team is unselfish, but we've got to make sure we show them on film, these are shots you have to take.”
(On Georgia Tech having no points on fast breaks and if that was a point of emphasis)
“That was, and they had a few run outs that we did a great job of sprinting and cutting in front of somebody to try to make it a more difficult layup. I say all the time, you come out here and everybody talks about in the women's game, they miss too many layups and shots close by the basket. In the men's game, how many of those missed layups are dunks? When you can just go up and dunk it, it eliminates everybody cutting in front of you, it eliminates finishing over somebody. So it's a little bit more of a challenge at times, and I think that's what our kids did, instead of just giving up on plays, we sprinted to get in front of people to make it a more difficult shot.”
(On if the rotation patterns are set)
“No. Game by game. That's how it's going to be the entire year. I thought Megan Deines did some good things tonight, I've just got to get her to do a better job of rebounding the basketball. Emmonnie (Henderson) did some good things. It's really whoever is playing well is going to continue to get more minutes as we go. So it's going to be a game by game thing.”
(On Cortnee Walton)
“She really did a very nice job, I was really pleased. Unfortunately, I talked to her after the game, she said her foot's really bothering her right now. She's going to see the doc now, get things iced up, and we'll see. We're going to try to play her on Sunday because that's her cutoff point, and the doctor then is going to be able to say, 'okay, you know what, yes she can keep playing, or she can't.' It's going to be up to the doctor, and if they say she can't play, then we'll apply for medical hardship, see if we can't get that year back. Because the bone just hasn't healed correctly yet, it's not completely healed, and we need to see if she can play on Sunday, because that's what's going to happen here the rest of the year, it's going to be Thursday and Sunday, and we don't want to just have a season where she plays one game and can't practice for five or six games and hopefully tries to play next, so we don't want to waste this year.”
(On having the lead at the half)
“I was really pleased with how we closed out the first half. It's 22-20 and I've got some subs in the game, Arica Carter was at the point, did a really good job of attacking and leading us, and we go on an 11-0 run. And not just offensively, but defensively, I thought we kept up our intensity, and that's exactly what we have to have. So I was really pleased with how everyone played tonight.”
(On if he's been able to watch other ACC teams)
“I've watched (Georgia) Tech, I've watched Pitt tonight, and get prepared fir them. It's one game at a time. I think everybody kind of blows some things out of proportion of you're in a new league. It's still basketball, we still shoot on the same hoops. It's more so of learning personnel, trying to get tendencies down of players. We played in the BIG EAST and we had some great teams in that league, so we're prepared for this. Now it's a matter of just every single night, you've got to get yourself ready to play. And especially this weekend, Pitt was off, they did not play tonight, so they have had four or five days to prepare for us, and we've got one day. So this will test our kids really quick to see how mentally strong we are, especially our freshmen.”
(On how tough it is to scout and prepare when switching conferences)
“It's not tough, it's the same thing. Because even when you're staying in the same league, it's new players. Our game, in my opinion, is all about personnel, it's all about players. You have to be able to scout and know who likes to go left, who likes to go right, who's a 3-point shooter, who's not, and then make somebody do what they don't like to do. And that, to me, is what this game all comes down to, and I thought we did a really good job of that in the game tonight.”
(On what his expectation was going into this game)
“I thought it was a game that we could win, but at the same time, I was expecting it to come down to the last five, six minutes of the game, especially with a player of Kaela Davis' talent. Because that's a kid that's like Shoni (Schimmel) and Angel (McCoughtry) that can drop 25. That three she hit on the wing was contested. It wasn't like she just caught it and lined up, she crossed it back over and put it up. Then those are the kind of shots that she's made four or five in a row, and that's what we didn't want to allow to have happen. We didn't want her to get into a groove. So I expected it to come down to the last five, six minutes. But if this is how this can work out all year, I'll take that too.”
(On how it felt to get the first win in the ACC)
“It's great, it sure is. It's always nice. Our goal is to stay ahead of the curve in the ACC. We're 1-0 right now, our goal is to go up to Pitt and get to 2-0. But we know it's going to be a battle. They're playing extremely well, they've won some big games, they won at Ohio State a few weeks ago, Ohio State just beat Rutgers at home. So Pitt's a very good basketball team, so we know what we have to do. Every night is going to be a challenge, and hopefully we'll go up there tomorrow, get a good night's sleep, and come out on Sunday and play hard.”
Mariya Moore, Fr., F
(On her start with nine points in the first four minutes)
“I was just trying to get on a roll for my team. I mean, I wouldn't have been able to get those points if I didn't get the passes.”
(On if closing the first half on an 11-0 run was due to Georgia Tech's fatigue or the Louisville defense)
“Maybe both. I just know that we weren't going to give up on defense until the buzzer, so I think our defense ... I don't know if it picked up, but I feel like it stayed pretty much the same that whole half.”
(On what coach Walz said when he called timeout with the score at 22-20)
“Just play hard. This isn't us. Pick it up. There's no need to slow down now and get out of character and push harder and to come out and jump on them ... not literally”
(On her performance)
”Well, I've learned a lot over the last couple of days that - they've been preaching to me the whole season that I can't just come out and perform. I have to push harder in practice. So my main focus, especially after the Evansville game, was to come out harder in practice and see if I can just do better and see if it changes in the game. When I came out and scored nine, it's not that I was surprised, but I tried to push as hard as I could in shoot around to see if I could help my team more in the way I play.”
Jude Schimmel, Sr., G
(On how the team was able to slow down Kaela Davis)
“She was obviously our biggest focus. She takes 30 plus shots a game and we obviously wanted to limit that. And fortunate for us, she wasn't hitting her shots early and we just found a way to keep the ball out of her hands and make other people take shots.”
(On how it feels to get the first ACC win)
“It's great. I feel like our team is pretty solid and it's kind of crazy because a lot of us are almost averaging double doubles and we haven't had a team like that in a very long time. So we're really fortunate to have great players, but I mean to get a 27-point win in our first ACC game, I think that says a lot about us and a lot about our coach that we all are ready to take on this really tough conference.”
(On the 22 assists and the effort to make extra passes in this game)
“I think that's always our goal. Just hit the open person and obviously hit the person who's making the shots. But she (Mariya) is the one making the shots, I'm the one making the passes, so just give credit to her and my other teammates who are able to not be selfish and find the open man and that's who we get the ball to.”
(On what coach said at halftime)
“The biggest thing that the coaches told us was we have to stop letting them get offensive rebounds. He's not worried about us missing shots; he knows that eventually the ball will go in the basket. I think as a team, our biggest focus is rebounding and defending, and the offense will come easy. But he didn't say very much about offense at half time.”
(On not allowing fast break points)
”Like I said, our biggest emphasis was to keep the ball out of (Kaela) Davis' hands. Honestly, she broke the press a couple times, but other than her and the point guards, we felt like if we made someone else dribble the ball, if that's how we were going to slow them down, then that's what we did. So it worked out well.”
