Louisville Postgame Quotes
December 15, 2015 | Women's Basketball
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Head Coach Jeff Walz
(On freshman playing considerable minutes tonight)
"I thought offensively we did a pretty good job. Defensively it is not very good. We've got some… We are really good at fouling. I mean, like, if there is such a thing as being good at something, we can foul with the best. We can just trip and run into somebody and it's a foul. I mean we foul them. It's not like it's a bad call. We've got to figure that out. They average 52 points a game, and that is exactly what we held them to. We scored 94. That's fantastic, but we didn't do anything but hold them to their average defensively. We've got to figure out a way to take a lot more pride in what we're doing."
(On the long-term benefit of this game)
"It's good and bad. Because what I'm concerned about is that now all the sudden a few of them did some good things offensively, and they're like, 'Oh, OK, now I don't need to keep working.' That's great that we went out there and scored, but it's a matter of fact, can you stop anybody? And that's where we're going to break the film down and show them. Listen, we need people who can make defensive stops, especially our freshmen. When you get the chance to get out there and play, you've got to be a presence on defense. Because as we progress and keep going further and further and we get into the ACC play, it's going to be tough for our freshmen to put up 14 or 16 a night when we're playing Florida State. So they've got to be able to go out there and defend for us. You know, they'll get their points. It's probably not going to be 14 or 16, but they can't allow the person they're guarding to score 10. And that's where we are right now. That's our biggest challenge."
(On whether you were more disappointed in the starters)
"I thought our effort was terrible. We tried to get too cute at the beginning of the game. Just shoot a lay-up… We're trying to throw passes behind us. I mean, it was a good swap. I thought they brought us some energy. I thought they did some good things. Then we went back and I thought our experienced kids went out there and started to play a little bit harder, and did some really good things."
(On the past week and a half)
"It's been about 11 days. That's a week and a half, right? Give or take a day there. I mean, you know, it's a learning experience. It's what it is. It's a grind. We're learning that it is a process, and you can't cheat the process. You can't come out and not work hard every day in practice, then expect to be able to come out here on the court and produce both offensively and defensively. That's what a lot of them are learning, and unfortunately it's come a little later than we would've liked, but I think they are finally starting to catch on to what you have to do."
(On point guard situation)
"I think Arica Carter is doing a fantastic job. You know, Arica just has to be able to knock down a mid-range jump shot when she's open. She shoots the 3 well in practice. Both of them that she took tonight I thought were going in when they left her hand. We've got to be able to knock down about one of every three. Go 2-for-5 one game from the 3-point line because they are going to leave her wide open. But it doesn't need to be off the first pass. It needs to be after ball reversal happens, and she's so open that it's not even a concern about someone flying out at you. You know what she does is she gets us in to what we need to be doing. She's steady with the ball, and she does a pretty decent job defensively. She's not the fastest out there, but she's able to keep someone off on the side and not allow them to be able to crossover the floor."
(On Arica Carter being in the point guard role for rest of the season)
"Oh yes. Of course. Yes. She is definitely going to do that. Asia Durr will probably come in and play more at the two for us. And Taja Cole, I just got to continue to teach her the game. You know, we just have to give her the knowledge of who is hot and who is making shots. If we run something and execute and score, come back and do the same thing again. You know, she wants to do it, and now it's just a matter of studying the game. For her tonight, she had four fouls, and she had some foul trouble. But she fought through it and found five assists. Fantastic. You know she came up with two steals tonight, and that's an area that she hasn't been very active in, so I was proud of her for that."
(On whether Mariya Moore is being pushed off the 3-point line)
"No, she is. She was 1-for-6 tonight and it just didn't go in. I just have to get her out of that mentality of when shots don't go in, she gets into a little bit of a funk. She can't do that. I thought she passed the ball well tonight. She made a few nice pull up jump shots and she took a couple nice ones. They just didn't go in. You know you're going to have nights like that, and I'm trying to get her to understand, I think on three of her misses, we got the offensive rebound and scored. And you know, again, they have to stop worrying about what their stat line is and be more concerned on what the team's stat line is in the game. You know, you score 10 points, and I evaluate your minutes, and we as a team get outscored by five, I don't care if you score 10 and we're losing. You need to be able to help us win the minutes you are in the game."
(On looking at the pluses/minuses on stat sheet)
"I do. I mean I actually grade it out myself. All I do is look at the minutes you were in the game, what the score was when you went in, what the score was when you came out. And if we aren't plus, we got problems."
(On which assistant had the best sweater)
"Coach Purcell. His was handmade. I'm pretty impressed with it."
(On Coach Purcell's sweater)
"He saved it until we all got prepared to go out. He was really proud of it."
(On being taken seriously with the sweater)
"What's wrong with that? I've seen you [Kent Spencer] wear worse. Well, I mean I got it out of your closet. You were wearing it and now I've got it on. Now, I think the kids enjoy it. You know we're going out here and we are trying to do everything we can to bring fans in here. And we keep telling our kids, it's up to them to keep them and want them to come back. So we're just having a little bit of a good time, and I hope as soon as we start up, they are out there playing. But I hate wearing them. Gosh, it's so hot, it's miserable.
"I sure appreciate it everybody. Thanks so much. Happy Holidays and we will see you after Christmas. Merry Christmas."
(You got to see a lot freshman play tonight for the first time, Myisha how are they looking?)
"I think they are getting a lot better. Defensively, we need to work as a team to get better, but offensively they are coming together and moving the ball a lot faster. It was great to just see them get the ball up the court quickly. They are getting a lot better as a team and coming together."
(Did you guys know that all five freshmen were going to be subbed in during the first quarter?)
"Oh, they needed to, the starting five – we started out horrible. We got off to a bad start, so it was great to see the freshmen go in and give us a spark."
(On whether the bench was excited when Dakota Weatherford scored her first points)
"Of course, it's crazy when anyone gets their first career points and she works extremely hard, so it's awesome to see it pay off."
(Myisha, was it hard to take your coaches seriously in those sweaters?)
"I was joking with coach Walz because he wore the same sweater last year if you guys could remember. So, I am like, 'Come on you need to switch it up,' then he said that we won last year when he wore that sweater. Coach Sam Purcell got the No. 1 sweater – that was homemade with him and his kids last night, so I will give him the award for best sweater."
(Takeaways from this win that you can take with you to Cookeville?)
"We need to work. We need to continue to work defensively. I think in over six games they have only scored over 50 points so we need to work on our defense. We gave them 52 points and they shot 38 percent. We have to work defensively and take pride in one on one defense. I just feel like defense is the thing we need to work on the most."
(On when she came out after suffering an ankle injury early in the game)
"I'm just trying to be tough and not think about it too much. It wasn't my groin it was my ankle. I rolled it a little bit but I got it taped and then I just tried to play through it."
(What has this past week and a half been like, growing pains and how has coach Walz motivated you?)
"There have definitely been some growing pains. We have been struggling, but we will use this as motivation because we are not just going to give up. We are going to keep fighting and stay strong."
(What do you think the strengths of the other guards are while you are not in the game?)
"They are very athletic and can get the ball and go. They don't just stand and watch, they work very hard, they just try to go out there and play."
