Louisville Postgame Quotes
January 25, 2015 | Women's Basketball
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Head Coach Jeff Walz
(On the play of Myisha Hines-Allen)
“I was really proud of her. I challenged her. I told her she had to show some emotion; she had to be physical. It was a very physical game. Both teams, I thought, played hard. I thought she really did a great job of asserting herself at the beginning and not backing down. Really, really proud of her. Really proud of the whole team. Again, throughout the first six minutes, and I was proud of them. It's a problem we have, you know, I tried to tell our kids the past two days that it's going to be a battle. They're very well-coached. Katie (Meier) does a great job with that ball club. It was going to be a knock-down, drag-out, and I don't think we were prepared for it, unfortunately. Hopefully now they actually will believe me.”
(On the 20-3 run that ended the first and went into the second half)
“I just tried to explain to them that the tougher team was going to win tonight. We had to go inside-out. We set up a play right out of the half and we do a great job. I think Shawnta' (Dyer) got fouled, steps up, and makes two free throws that were crucial. And then we continue to play inside-out. That's how we have to play. I thought we did a good job of attacking them when they try to go back and double Myisha in the first half, bringing the ball up the floor. Jump-stopping made some great passes. I thought Emmonnie (Henderson) did some good things. She's a kid that I need her to play more. But you can't shoot the ball every time you touch it. It's something we keep showing her on film. The good power moves are fine, but the fade-aways, and you've got Mariya (Moore) wide open - just pass it to her. And those are the things we're still trying to work with her on. Hopefully she'll start to figure it out, because I played her seven minutes in the first half and she comes up with six boards, does a great job from that standpoint. I told her I was proud of her. But when you're getting into the second half when things get down to the nitty-gritty, you've got to have people that, you know if they're being double-teamed, they're not looking to pass it back out to get the open shot. We did a great job. We ended up with 19 assists on 24 made field goals. That's a spectacular job of passing the basketball.”
(On what Myisha Hines-Allen gains by coming off the bench as opposed to starting the game)
“I think she got pissed off, if you want the truth. I think she was really mad that she wasn't starting, which was part of why I did it. I wanted to see what kind of fight she had. I wanted her to show me, 'Hey, you're wrong.' Unfortunately she showed me too well, so she won't start again on Thursday. I was just proud of her. I am. I've challenged her. She had, I think, 17 (points) against Virginia. We go down to play at Florida State, she doesn't do anything. She comes back today and has 23. Now, we've got Syracuse coming in here on Thursday, and she can't lay an egg. You can't just, good game, no show, good game, no show. It's consistency. That's one thing I'll get from Mariya. She did not shoot the ball great today, but she comes up with seven assists, figures out a way to go 6-of-7 from the free throw line. You pretty much know what you're going to get from her. She's pretty consistent every night.”
(On if the decision not to start Bria Smith was also on the basis of needing consistency)
“I was just trying to help Bria calm down some. She was starting to occupy the ball too much - starting to dribble, dribble, dribble. You've got to become a passer and a screener. People back off you a lot. Become a passer and a screener and hurt them from that angle. Then when you get your chance, and the ball gets reversed to you, and everybody is running, you can drive, shoot a pull-up, or layup, then take that. And I thought tonight, she ended up 4-of-10 (from the field), but then she goes 5-of-8 from the free throw line and makes some big free throws for us. The whole key to her is she comes up with seven rebounds. I don't think she's had seven rebounds in the last three games combined. So, that's what she can do for us and that's what she can bring to the table. Hopefully she'll continue to do that.”
(On if it was his plan to get offense from the fast break)
“We were trying. I thought we did a good job of taking the break when we had it, and that's one thing that we have to continue to work on. We had it to a five or six point lead, and then we turn it over twice in transition. You can't do that. Those are the things you can't do. You can turn it over the first time, you can't turn it over a second. You've got to make sure you get something. So those are the things we're going to work on, it's just understanding time and score and where you are in the game when you can try and make a few of those passes.”
(On if it was the most physical game they had played all season)
“Yeah. There's no doubt about it. Megan Deines got drilled, and again, I can't comment on any of that, but I think the teams in this league are really, really good. I just think there's others that have to improve to help make our game better in the ACC.”
(On if the team is getting better at playing physically)
“Yeah, oh yeah. I thought Shawnta' did a great job of being in there, I thought Mariya did a really good job, Myisha. And it is what it is. If it's going to be like that, you can't back down. You have to play the same way. There are a few calls, it's either block-charge on a few of them. When somebody's going full speed and you run into each other, it's one or the other. So it's one thing, everybody's trying to get better. The coaches try to improve, the players try to improve, and hopefully everybody else will follow suit.”
(On how much the crowd helped the team after he was called for a technical foul)
“Did she make either one? She missed them both. So as I explained to the gentleman standing next to me, the ball doesn't lie. That's all I have to say. The crowd was fantastic. The crowd, when things were going bad, instead of just being quiet, got louder. And that's what you need. I thanked them after the game on the mic, I just want to tell them how much I appreciate it, because, I've said it here at every game I think, we're the exception, we're not the norm. I know that. We're putting nine thousand, close to 10 thousand here every night, it doesn't happen. And our players appreciate it and I tell them every time before we go out, 'go out on the floor, these fans are coming, they're bringing friends, they're trying to help us get this thing to 10 to 12,000 every night, we have to do our job. We have to go out there and compete and play hard.' And I think we've done that. I think our fans enjoy and appreciate how hard these young women play.”
(On being 6-1 in the ACC)
“It's a great league, there's no question about it. And it's not just the top of the league, the entire league. Boston College the other night hadn't won a conference game and beats Duke. You can't take a day off. We've got a very good Syracuse team coming in here on Thursday that I'm really concerned about. So we know it is game after game after game, and a lot of it is going to start to come down to how mentally tough are you. Because everybody's tired, everybody's starting to get sore, and are you going to use that as an excuse, or are you just going to put that behind you and keep plowing forward. So we're going to find out in a hurry.”
(On how big this win is after losing to Florida State)
“This was a big one, and I know I've said it and some of you don't believe me, going into that Virginia game, I was concerned we could lose five straight, because everybody we're playing, it's flipping the coin either way. The Virginia game could go either way and we pulled that out; we go down to Florida State, it could have gone either way - we lose. Here, we were down four at half, figure out a way to get things done. Syracuse is going to be the same way on Thursday. So any win we can get. I'll take it. I'm extremely pleased.”
(On Sara Hammond)
“She just didn't have her game. And I think part of the physicality affected her a little bit. I'm trying to get her out of always wanting to shoot 3s because she can shoot them, but it's not what you want to start off the game doing. If you make it, great, but if you don't, now you're playing into the opponent's hands. Sara is very difficult to guard in the low post. Being left handed, she can turn over that right shoulder and does a great job of shooting that little flip shot where you can't block it. Very, very efficient in there. But unfortunately now she's starting to just get away from the basket too much, and I've got to get her back down in the low post, start there, then work her way out.”
Bria Smith, Sr., G.
(On what head coach Jeff Walz said to motivate Louisville on its 20-3 run going into halftime)
“I think that we just had to pick up our defensive intensity. We really were letting them do whatever they wanted to do. We kind of hold our hat on our defense and it gets our offense going, so once we really buckle down on our defense, things start going our way.”
(On Louisville's slow start)
“That's just our mind state we have to change. We have to just picture it as we have to go out there hard from the beginning. It's just something we have to change for ourselves.”
(On why she wasn't in the starting lineup tonight)
“Just slowing down. Even though I've been a starter, it just seems like the past few games I was speeding myself up more than usual. Instead of just going out there and seeing what they're doing while I'm playing, just being able to sit out and watch the game [so] when I get out there, I know what they're doing.”
(On motivating each other to come back from a 13-point deficit)
“We just had to pick up our defense. We were letting them do whatever they wanted. We let them get as many rebounds as they wanted. We just had to buckle down on our defense, basically.”
Shawnta' Dyer, R.Sr., F.
(On thoughts of how Coach Walz responded upon receiving a technical, and the crowd's subsequent loudness and involvement in the game)
“It actually did [fire us up]. That's one thing that we have to our advantage- whenever we play in the Yum! [Center], we have the crowd on our side and Coach Walz is always on our side. We had to change our mindset. We were getting whooped by Miami and he had our back, so it was our job to control the momentum too, so we had his back.”
(On Miami's physicality)
“They're definitely more physical [than many of the teams we've seen this year]. I think teams like Miami depend on their athleticism as well to control the pace of the game, so we wanted to take it out of them and do what we do well fundamentally. I think that's where we hurt them.”
Myisha Hines-Allen, Fr., F.
(On not getting the start tonight)
“It just made me push harder, but I have to play like that every single game [whether] I'm in the starting lineup or if I am not in the starting lineup.”
(On shooting 10 of 11 from the floor)
“I felt good. I just had to run. They were mainly transition shots, like running the floor, sprinting the floor, and Bria hitting me with some layups down the court. It was just running the floor that got me those shots.”
(On why she wasn't in the starting lineup tonight)
“[Walz] said for me [that] I had to sit and watch the game because when I start off, I'm just playing at one speed and I have to go harder. Putting Shawta' in the starting lineup, it's pushing me because I'm seeing what she's doing good. I'm seeing what she's doing right, what moves can help me in the post as well.”
