Louisville Postgame Quotes
January 31, 2016 | Women's Basketball
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Louisville Head Coach Jeff Walz
(On forcing 25 turnovers – was defense the difference in the game?)
“I thought we did a nice job of trying to disrupt them offensively, but really we finally started to make some shots. We had a bunch of open looks, easy looks around the basket, layups we missed. Finally once we started to just slow down a little bit… you start making some shots and then all of a sudden you can take it from a six-point lead to nine. You come up with a stop, it goes to 11. I thought we did a really nice job of that.”
(On the defense – Wake Forest only shot 11 free throws in the game)
“We did a good job of not fouling them, but at the same time, we allowed them to drive right to the basket at times and shoot layups. It's a good and a bad. You should foul some. If you're moving your feet – there's going to be 50/50 calls the officials are going to have to make, but I thought a few times we just turned completely sideways and gave them a layup. If a team gets to the line 10 to 12 times during the game, I don't think that's bad at all. We, I think the last four minutes, we put them to the line nine times. Whereas up to that point they were 2-for-2 so I was proud of them for not fouling, because we stressed that. They get to the line the third most of any team in the NCAA. They do a great job of attacking and then bait you into fouling, so we did a nice job of not doing that.”
(Early on Mariya Moore's shooting kind of carried the team, what was working for her today?)
“At the beginning, she was struggling and hangs her head. And it's not just her, it's all of them. We will get upset when we miss a shot, but boy, if we get beat on defense 'it doesn't bother me one bit, I'll get back and score. I miss a shot, I might give up a layup.' We're really working to get that mentality changed. If you want to be an elite team your passion has to be at the defensive end of the floor.”
(You were encouraging Asia Durr to shoot a little bit more and she ended up scoring 13 out of 15 points during a stretch. Is it a matter of confidence?)
“I have no idea what it is – I wish I could tell you. No coach ever had to tell me to shoot. She works harder than anybody on this team. She's in the gym more than anybody working on her shot. I told her at one stretch, I said, 'Right now, you're as good to this team as my two-and-a-half-year-old. She could do exactly what you're doing and that's just catch it and throw it over there. She's not strong enough to shoot it from the 3-point line and you won't even look to do it.' I think she got a little upset with that. And then, the next time down, she takes a 3 and hits it. I love how they kind of look at you like 'See, I got you back.' She's a kid that I've just got to get to shoot more. She's got to be more aggressive. I think she started off 0-for-3 from the 3-point line and then hits her last two. She's shooting 40 percent from the 3-point line in conference play. She needs to be looking to get her shot instead of just being a ball-reversal person.
(On keeping it down to 12 turnovers offensively, is that where you want to be?)
“That's exactly where we should be – I'd say between 8 to 12 because we are going to try to push it in transition. If we turn it over going north and south, I can live with that at times. It's the east/west turnovers that we have to try and eliminate. The last three games have been the worst Mariya (Moore) has played in terms of taking care of the basketball. It's very uncharacteristic of her, so we've got to get her back to where she's just making the easy pass. Once you do that four or five times, then she knows how to thread the needle and make that spectacular pass. So we just have to work on that. I've got to keep her being aggressive. I was pleased that she goes 3-of-5 inside the 3-point line, so she's starting to look at more shot fakes and pull-ups which is what she needs to do to expand her game.”
(On the 15-0 run in the fourth quarter)
Asia: “Well, I was trying to stay aggressive. Coach Walz got highly upset when I didn't shoot, so I was just trying to go out there and just shoot.”
(On strong first-half performance)
Mariya: “Well, we practiced a lot on the extended zones, so I was just trying to relay what we did in practice to the game. Just more spot up shots, and if they run out, and run me off the line, make a pull-up jumper or flash middle.”
(On the free throw disparity and holding their shooting percentage to 38.5 percent)
Mariya: “Well, basically, I think our defense has gone really well, and also in practice, we focused a lot on not having them at the free throw line because we have been fouling a lot, and they also shoot the fourth most free throws in the country. Our main focus was to get them off the line because they do drive a lot.”
(On open shots not going in and how to keep pushing forward)
Mariya: “Just encouraging everyone because when we're in the game, you can't really do anything about it, but try to focus on the next one. But, in practice, just hitting the gym extra and getting up extra shots.”
(On the tight game through three quarters)
Asia: “They were a great team. We just tried to come out and play hard. We knew we had to get stops, and we knew this team was full of drivers, so the most important thing we were trying to keep them in front and not foul.”
(On whether there was a shot that got her in rhythm)
Mariya: “I mean I didn't really have a choice. He kept saying shoot it if you're open or you are going to come out. I think there was one point in the game where the shot clock was running out, and he was just like shoot it. And I didn't, I mean I just threw it and it went in. So I was like ok, now I have a rhythm now.”
(On Notre Dame being two game
Mariya: Super excited. I've been looking forward to this game since last year. I mean you look forward to every game because you need to play hard in every single one of them, but there are specific games you want to play every year. One was Florida State for me. One was Duke. And this is the other one (Notre Dame). I think we're ready. We still have to take care of business at North Carolina. We don't want to, we can't look over them. So I think we are going to prepare for them, and then we will focus on Notre Dame. But in the back of our minds, I'm ready.
