Louisville-IUPUI Postgame Quotes
December 13, 2015 | Women's Basketball
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Head Coach Jeff Walz
(On how the game started)
"I wish I could tell you. I mean, it's going to be a grind all year. There is no question about it. It is going to be a flat out grind. We're going to have to figure out a way to score points. We are going to have to figure out a way to get stops. That's really our biggest problem right now. We held them to 27 percent shooting in the first quarter: 3 of 11, and they put up that three at the end and made that. That brings them down to 47 percent for the game. I mean that's how bad we defend. It was unbelievable. At one point they were shooting 56 percent. I'm not sure, besides just shooting layups, if you could just tell a team to go out there and run your offense, but it's got to be jump shots. If you can shoot 56 percent without anybody guarding you. We allow people to get confidence early, and then, all of a sudden, shots that you think are tough become easy. You are finally contesting one, but they've made 33 in a row, and now it doesn't matter if you contest it - it's going to go in. That's been what we've done all season. Finally, in the fourth quarter, I thought we did a really nice job of trying to mix some things and tried to get them out of rhythm. Now, they missed some open shots, but we finally rebounded the ball and then we converted at our end, which is something that we have to continue to work on because we have to figure out ways to score."
(On Mariya Moore's lack of scoring lately)
"Mariya ended up 3-of-6 from 3, 3-of-4 from the line, 12 points, five assists. We are just going to keep working with Mariya on a pull up jump shot. Right now, everyone is running her off the line, which I would do the same thing. They are crowding her on every catch, and now, when they do that, you have to be able to explode and shoot a pull up. As soon as she can get that, then it is going to open some things up for her. That's what we've been working on with BJ. She has to be able shoot the pull up jump shot. You can't always go to the rim. She did that tonight, she made a few pull ups, and then we run that play at the elbow for her, she comes off the ball screen, hesitates like she's going to shoot, the girl steps up to her, she goes by, and makes a huge layup. Once you can get a pull up, then it is going to open up the rest of the floor for you."
(On not using depth in the second half as much)
"We have a really talented group of kids, but we have to buy in to guarding. It is what I have been trying to tell all of the freshmen. We haven't been in games where I can just throw them out there except for one this year and say, 'Hey, you can play six minutes and we will learn from the mistakes.' Now, you put them out there and you foul or turn it over and you're down 12. That's part of the learning curve, the learning process. Look, IUPUI is good, and I've known that. I've been watching them all year. They beat VCU by one, and VCU beats Arizona State. They are up 20 points at North Texas and ended up getting beat by (one), and North Texas goes to Oklahoma and wins. I mean, they are a good basketball team. We haven't had an easy schedule to get the freshmen a lot of minutes and that is unfortunately where we are right now because I need to get them some more minutes because we need them on the floor."
(On no flashy introductions to start the games)
"No, we aren't doing that. I mean, we need people to want to come to the game to watch us play and that's what I told the kids. We are done with all of that pomp and circumstance and make everything look all nice because I don't want that to be the only thing our fans want to come and watch."
(On whether the team will go without a flashy introduction the rest of the season)
"We will see. We will see how we start to play and how we progress. That can't be the only thing that excites our crowd. I tell them, you've got to inspire people to want to come out and watch you play. The first two-and-a-half minutes I was like, 'All right, here we go. We are going to get things going.' And boy, that stopped in a hurry."
(On trying to change the attitude of players for the games)
"Well, we're trying to do that. Part of it too is I think we may have gone up 9-4 and then we let them score five-straight times. Our mindset is we have to keep scoring and I'm trying to get them to understand that we have to start defending. That's why we won the basketball game. Sure we had to score, but we had to get stops. You can't trade when you're down 16 or 18. I was really proud of them there in the last 15 minutes of the game."
(On what was said during timeout when down 18 points)
"There wasn't much to say. I didn't know what to say. What do you say? I just said it's personal pride now people. Now you have to look yourself in the mirror you've got to have a gut check and figure out, I can either keep blaming everybody or I can say I'm not going to let my man score. I'm going to also play good team defense, I'm going to be in help. Those are the things you have to be able to do. I thought we did a much better job. I thought Myisha Hines-Allen took a huge charge there and then unfortunately it's blocking on the one. Those are things we're starting to do a little better."
(On how freshmen responded in practice this week)
"The freshmen competed, I was really pleased. I thought it was two really good days of practice. The real test is going to be is – it's today's generation. Everybody wants instant gratification. If I work hard for a day then I should get a reward at the end. It's kind of like everyone gets a trophy now. If you participate and you finish last, you still get a trophy. I think that's part of what's wrong with our society. I thought when you competed, if you lost, you lost. I didn't know I still get a trophy to go home and put on my dresser. They had two pretty good days of practice. We went hard. They didn't get the reward that they probably wanted today, and that's to play a bunch. Now, we practice tomorrow, so how we come out tomorrow is the big question. Are they going to compete and try to keep getting better or is it poor pitiful me? I didn't get to play and that's the big question. I talked to them. I think their response is going to be they're coming out to play because we can't win and win consistently playing these types of minutes with these kids. We've got to get our freshmen going. We've got to get them to understand the importance of guarding."
(On integrating freshmen during a tough stretch of four games in eight days)
"We're playing and that's part of it that's the upperclassmen too. I'm like, 'Guys, you need to do what you're supposed to do, so when I put a freshman in there or two you're helping them; you're helping them get going.' Unfortunately, we didn't have that tonight. I tried to give a few of them some minutes and we weren't making any progress; we were actually going backwards. It's not their fault per se, but I've got to go with the ones that I know what they're doing."
Briahanna Jackson and Myisha Hines-Allen
(On being down 18 in third quarter and what happened after timeout)
Hines-Allen: "We just wanted to make it interesting for the crowd and our fans. No, I'm joking. We just had to buy in on defense; they scored whenever they wanted. We didn't take pride in 1-on-1 defense and stopping someone. Our principles that we went over in our practices, we weren't translating to the game. So, when a girl would drive and were supposed to be helping, we stared at the girl instead of jabbing and getting back. That's when they got open 3s, so just not buying in on defense and trying to go 1-on-1 on offense to bring back the lead."
(On Coach Walz's comments about mindset of team and wanting to see more effort)
Hines-Allen: "We were thinking it the whole game. Like we can't get down on ourselves if were down. I know (Briahanna Jackson) at halftime, she told everyone pick it up. She was really mad at halftime, so we just have to feed off each other's energy and take the same mindset as BJ. BJ is one of the toughest players on this team so we have to approach every game and every practice like she approaches it. Then we'll be 10-times a better team."
(On the challenge of being a young team coming off a loss and getting behind by 18)
Hines-Allen: "It's kind of hard, but at the same time, we know what we have to do as a team. We know that we have to execute defensively, we know we have to do scouting report defense, we have to execute our offensive plays to win a game. So, it was hard being down and being a young team, but at the same time, we know what we have to do to win a game. The coaches put us in a great spot to win a game and we just have to buy in to what they're telling us to do."
(On Jackson's two step back 3s)
Jackson: "I don't really know what was going through my mind. I just know I needed to get up a good look. So I got the ball, played with it a little bit, and I got a good look at the basket and I hit it. My teammates had my back; they hyped me up, and I was able to hit another one."
(On if losing the game was ever a thought)
Jackson: "Not at all. You know we didn't play our best, but we fought back, just like I expected. I believe in my team and we believe in our coaches and what we were doing and we turned it around and we got the win."
(On this being a potential turning point)
Hines-Allen: "I don't know if I would say turning point because every game we have to come in with the same mindset of kicking butt. I thought our turning point was the Michigan State game, but it's just focusing in every practice and every game and coming to play."
(On Jackson having eight of the team's final 10 points and not letting her team lose)
Jackson: "Coach kept calling the plays for me. I kept getting the looks. When I didn't have the looks, I dropped it to Myisha and she found Mariya (Moore). We just played together and you know if one of us is scoring, coach talks about looking back to them and keep moving and that's what we did."
(On 16 turnovers in first half and only 2 in the second; what cleaned it up)
Hines-Allen: "Focusing in and playing our principles, I mean a lot of our turnovers were…"
Jackson: "Unforced, like charges and stuff like that. We just needed to focus on what we were doing and play smarter and that's what we did in the second half."
