Louisville-Duke Postgame Quotes
January 10, 2016 | Women's Basketball
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Louisville Head Coach Jeff Walz
Louisville 65, No. 18/16 Duke 48
(On whether that was the best the team has played all year)
“Well, you know what? At times, yes. I thought we did a great job with the scouting report personnel. You take away the last two and a half minutes, and you know, we really did a great job, and that's my fault. I tried to take the air out of the ball. I was trying to, you know, pull it out. You're up by 22 and you're just trying to just pull it out, use the clock, and let the game expire, and they're pressing. I should've just kept attacking. That's my fault, putting the kids in a bad situation, because if you're getting pressed, it's not good to just pull it out. You should attack who is shooting layups and that's something that I learned. You know, if this ever presents itself again, I will be sure to keep attacking. I put the kids I had out there toward the end, and I was trying to get in some clock, and by asking them to pull it out, and you're getting pressed, it's not a good situation, so I feel bad for the five that were out there the last two and a half minutes because I didn't put them in any position to succeed.”
(On how Louisville is maturing during this run)
“Well, I mean, that is part of it, and we are figuring out how to play as a team. We are figuring out how to make the extra pass. Defensively, we're not good enough just one on one as defenders to say, Hey I got mine you get yours. We have to help each other, and I thought we did such a great job tonight when they dropped the ball on the ground, we went in and we recovered it. We forced them into 22 turnovers, and then the key part of that is then we get 27 points off of their turnovers. That's what we did so well we converted their turnovers into points.”
(On whether the freshman class is starting to understand how to play defense)
“They are. Now, we are going to have a hiccup along the way. I'm not foolish enough to think this is just going to keep going up and they are going to keep playing great. I mean, there's going to come a ballgame when we don't play really great. It's a matter of trying to figure out now how can we still squeak out a win even if we're not doing what we need to do. It was a great team effort. I mean, I was very, very happy for Erin DeGrate. I thought Taja Cole came in and gave us some great minutes. It was a good team win. It was a really good team win. It's fun when you can sit here – Briahanna Jackson just didn't have the game she normally has, and we are still able to win by 17. You know Taja Cole came in, Asia Durr came in, and that's what makes it so much fun right now - that we have other kids who are stepping up.”
(On Erin DeGrate playing quality minutes after Myisha Hines-Allen got in foul trouble)
“She did great. She's been working hard, and I think that's one thing all of our freshmen will admit if you ask them. They all thought this was going to be a little easier than what's transpired in the summer. They didn't work as hard as they needed to work this summer. We're only allowed our two hours a week. So we used our time, and they've got to get in the gym and do things on their own if you want to be a high level player. And we didn't maximize that, and all of a sudden we start playing. We did have a very competitive schedule, nonconference. So, we're not in games where I can sit there and say, 'Hey, go play 10 minutes and learn from your mistakes. We're in two or three point battles, where I don't have time to give them 15 minutes. I think the biggest asset that we had was Christmas break. You know, when exams finished up in December until we started back up last Wednesday, we were doing two a days. Our freshmen would practice for an hour in the morning, and then we would come back as a team, and our freshmen really benefitted from that.”
(On Asia Durr playing 28 minutes and noticeably improving)
“Well, you can just tell by how she's moving. She made a couple big time plays. She's really, really good with the basketball, and that's what we need. You have to guard her. You know, she can get the ball to her teammates as well. It gives us another scorer, and that's really what we were lacking at the beginning of the year.”
(On being able to outrebound Duke despite the height advantage)
“Oh, I'm thrilled. I mean, we ended up giving them 13 offensive boards, and we held them to one in the first half. You know, we just really did a great job of making our presence known. Cortnee Walton is about as good of a rebounder as I have ever coached. The kid's just got a motor and a knack for the ball, and I thought Erin DeGrate came in and did a great job also. So, you know, we still have to continue to work. We have to get better, and then hopefully, it will keep working for us, and hopefully our freshmen will continue to improve.”
(On if it was best defensive effort of season)
Cortnee: "I think that we played very good defense against Virginia Tech and Florida State. They are both really good ACC teams. I think this was a very well executed scouting report. We held shooters, until the very end, to not making shots. They didn't get as many shots as they usually get. I thought we did a very good job against Azura Stevens keeping her off the boards. Overall, I think we did a really good job executing."
(On Asia Durr's game and putting the injury behind her)
Asia: "I think it's a process. Most importantly I'm just trying to go out there and play and just have fun and not think about that stuff much. I know it's been a struggle and I know it's been tough for me personally, but I'm just trying to go out there and have fun because I love this game so much, so I'm just trying to put all of that in the past."
(On what is going right with the team right now)
Asia: "I think we are playing really hard and we've been putting in the work. We hate to lose, so I think that we think about that and we just go out there and play really hard and play really good defense now. Cortnee is out there getting those boards, too."
(On outrebounding a much taller team)
Cortnee: "That was a huge emphasis that we were putting on in shoot around and practices leading up to the game. They were telling us to box them out, because, even our scout guys aren't as tall as Duke is, so to have four girls in their starting lineup that are all over six feet, we really had to push back and I thought we did a great job."
(On what has changed in their defensive game to make them so effective)
Cortnee: "Coach has been putting a big emphasis on defense because defense wins games and wins championships. I think what really helped was that our freshmen were doing extra practices just on defense to try and focus on fundamentals. We don't really have the time in practice, and we have so many freshmen, to explain everything that the returners know, but they took the time to work on the fundamentals and knowing their positioning. It's not effort. It's more of knowing where the right spot is to be."
(On maturity and the freshmen growing up)
Cortnee: "They have had to grow up really fast, a lot faster than most freshmen do, because we have so many of them and it is pretty much a majority of our team. We depend on them to play major minutes like Asia did today. They don't have the luxury of being able to play behind people and not play as many minutes, so they have to grow up really fast."
(On the nine-game winning streak)
Asia: "It's really impressive. I think we started off not too good, but I feel like we started to put that behind us and not think about it and start to think that we could turn it around and do a lot better, so we went hard and practice and I think it is paying off."
Cortnee: "We have been taking one game at a time and we have really been focusing and trying to understand what it means to play for Louisville and trying to take more pride in it. I've been here the longest, so I know how it was before we got here and trying to build that name up, I think that people coming in thought it was easy, and it's not. It's just a growing experience and now I feel like we understand that a bit better and it feels really good to win 9 games in a row and to be 4-0 in the ACC. It's huge."
(On confidence moving forward after beating another top-25 team)
Cortnee: "I think it just keeps building our confidence. We are going to be playing three games on the road, so this is going to be a huge boost for us to steal a few on the road and continue our winning streak, so I think this is a huge win."
(On how Coach Walz has been during win streak)
Cortnee: "I think that he is always yelling. He's now yelling with a smile more I would say. He is just intense and passionate. I think he is in a good mood; he just wants to win and I want to win too. He's just talking loudly. He's not really yelling; he's just talking loudly."
Joanne McCallie – Duke, Head Coach (Opening Statement)
“I'd just like to compliment Louisville. I think they played a great game, particularly in the first half. We turned the ball over too much, and the second half was even, but it wasn't significant after that first half. So, there were some good lessons for us, and I thought No. 25 (Asia Durr) did a great job for them. Durr, she's a terrific player, and she showed great poise as a freshman to do what she did. And again, their offensive rebounding by Walton, in particular, the eight offensive rebounds I thought was outstanding. They played very aggressively, and you can't just spot a team. Not in this league. You got to come out ready to play for 40 minutes, and we did not, and so again, compliment Louisville. I thought they played very well.”
(On coming home and playing in front of family)
Greenwell: “It's good to know that I have good support, but it obviously wasn't the way we wanted to play, and I'm disappointed about that.”
(On playing with Mariya Moore with USA Basketball and having a chance to talk to her)
Stevens: “No I didn't, but I got to talk to Jeff (Walz), and it was good, but you know. Bad result.”
(On scoring 50, 95, 48, respectively, and trying to get offense consistently flowing)
Coach McCallie: “Turnovers. Very simple. You can't give the ball to the other team. It's a two-point opportunity you take away from yourself. It's a two-point opportunity you give them. It's a four-point turnaround. If we want to score points, we can't turn the ball over.”
(On struggling on the road this year and if she sees anything different from the freshmen)
Greenwell: “We just need to play more poised. It's obvious that we get a little frazzled on the road, and we just need to take care of that, and that comes with leadership, and we just need to work on that and cut our turnovers for sure.”
(On whether Louisville deserves a top-25 ranking)
Coach McCallie: “Oh, absolutely. Yeah they lost. I know they lost early. I don't believe they had Durr, did they? Durr's a big difference, a big difference in that game. She might be the best player on the team, meaning, you hadn't found that out yet, per se. She's a terrific basketball player, and has the right kind of poise. She does not get rattled, so I would say, 'Of course, yeah.' What's ironic, actually, is they're better than last year's team. I remember last year's team came to Durham (ranked) eight, I think, and we were something lower than that. They're better than last year's team.
(On first impression of the KFC Yum! Center)
Coach McCallie: “Well, of course, I don't like it at all after that game. No, but it was great, I'm joking. It was great to see that fan support. I love to see fan support women's basketball. I think that's fantastic. They had a good crowd, and I think that's really, really important. Really important.”
(On whether Crystal Primm is OK after being knocked out of the game)
Coach McCallie: “She got hit hard. She's fine. She was just a little shook up there, but she's a first year learning her way, but she'll be ok.”
(On what the team does moving forward after a loss and how to improve)
Greenwell: “It just comes down to the fundamentals. We talk about it every game. Defense and rebounding, and especially turnovers. Those three things are going to get you in any game you have to come to each game with that in your mind and whenever you don't do those things, then it's obviously not going to turn out the way you want, so we've just got to focus on the fundamentals.”
