Louisville-Kentucky Women's Basketball Postgame Quotes
December 04, 2016 | Women's Basketball
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Louisville Head Coach Jeff Walz
(How does it feel to get one over UK?)
“It just feels good to get a win. It has been a pretty intense week. South Carolina on a neutral floor, Maryland here at home, and Kentucky here at home. It has been a very, very intense week. There are a few schools who have played a schedule three games in a row like that, but there aren't many. It shows just a little fortitude. I thought we showed a little will to win tonight. I thought Kentucky played hard too. I don't think anybody can question if both teams played hard. I think as a fan that is really all you want. We missed a bunch of shots. Some wide-open shot, but we figured out a way to keep competing and that's what it's all about.”
(Satisfying win for you. How did they respond?)
“Well, I thought that we fought, which I was proud of. I still stand 100 percent behind my postgame comments, which I never believed it would get to where it was. Let's not be so sensitive. I have a nine-year-old that when we play tick tack toe, I am trying to beat him. He's trying to beat me too. I tell people, I grew up with two brothers and a younger sister, who was a pretty good basketball player, and we used to go out in the backyard. Boy, it was war. I wasn't going to let them win, and my brothers weren't going to let me win. I got an email, just a shocking email, from a gentleman that told me that one percent of the youth that play sports care about winning or losing. Only one percent. When he surveyed, he said only one percent cared about it. In my opinion, we've got problems if that is true. And again, it isn't about whether you win or lose, but it's how you compete. I say it all the time. We have lost two national championship games here. After the game, I thought our kids, I was proud of them. I thought we competed, and we played hard and gave it everything we had, but we lost. We still lost. They didn't give us a second-place trophy. They don't do that in the NCAA; you don't get one and that's OK because we competed and we played hard. Some people get all caught up and all offended. That's the wonderful thing about our country, I can have my own opinion.”
(On Myisha Hines-Allen's response to him being right about his Maryland postgame comments)
"Yeah, she should. I showed her the film from the Maryland game and I took her out tonight one time because we took a jumper and she stood at the 3-point line. I said, 'Uh-uh babe. You're coming by me.' Now, did she play her tail off? Yes she did and that's what I've tried to tell all of our players is that if you're out there busting and you get tired, just tell me you need a sub and I'll get you out, but there's no resting. You can't rest. Just say I need a sub and I'll take you out, but if you're saying you're good, well then you better be good."
(On what was drawn up for Myisha Hines-Allen's game-tying layup)
"I thought we did a really nice job of executing. I thought we did a much better job of trying to pound the ball inside where our advantage was. Now, we missed a bunch of gimmes. We had some - even there in overtime, I think it's a five-point game and we get her a layup and we just missed it, but, you know what, she played hard. We're going to miss them, but I thought we, instead of settling for 3s, we looked to go inside-out. And then even when we went inside-out, we missed some open looks, and that's part of it. That's part of the game. I tell people all the time if everybody made every shot, it would be a tie game and I wouldn't have a job. The newspaper wouldn't have any jobs either because you wouldn't have any story to write: Tie."
(On Jazmine Jones' play coming off the bench)
"Jaz did a fantastic job. She played with the passion and energy. The offensive rebound she got there at the end, and I think it may have been with [Makayla] Epps boxing her out, who's a competitor. She fought for that. Instead of just settling to get boxed out, she said, 'Uh-uh. I'm going to have the will to get it.' And she did. Now, we've got to make free throws. Now Paul, I'm going to tell you this, I brought your name up out there. If Mariya Moore makes both of those free throws, it's two-points, correct? She missed the second and Jaz got the second and got fouled, she made 1-of-2. So, if Mariya had made both, there wouldn't have been a rebound to get, so that's my philosophy on free throw shooting."
(On 3s being better than 2s)
"I like that, too, but they fouled. It was a smart foul."
(On what he told Mikayla Epps in the handshake line)
"She's one of the top-5 guards, I think, in the country. Mikayla does an unbelievable job of being able to manage a basketball game. She makes everybody else on that team better. They're playing hard, too, but she's getting kids - if you're a 3-point shooter and you play with Mikayla Epps, all you've got to do is stand out there and make 3s because she's going to figure out a way, when she comes off a ball screen, to read where the help is coming from, who's helping and you just stand out there and she'll throw it to you. And I told her that. I just said I'm really impressed with how she leads her team, how she makes everyone else around her that much better."
(On Briahanna Jackson's assignment to guard Mikayla Epps)
"She did very well. She [Epps] starts off 4-for-4, and then I said, 'BJ, she's yours, babe. This can't go on.' And she ends up 4 for her next 15, so I think she did an outstanding job."
(On how his team did against Kentucky's zone defense)
"I thought we did a decent job. We got some good looks, we just weren't making any of them and that's just part of the game. If you're getting good shots, I'm fine with it, and we were getting good shots, they just weren't going down there for a while and then Durr hits a big three in the corner that kind of got things going again. We have to find a second consistent three-point shooter. Mariya Moore's been that for the past two years, she's got to continue to be that for us."
(How do you know when to motivate someone and when to encourage someone?)
“I think with motivation you encourage. I think that's all the same thing. If I'm trying to motivate you, I'm encouraging you. It's what I laugh about because I really have a problem with all this that got out as big as it did. I kind of laugh. Why do they give grades in school? So why don't we just give everybody the same grade? Why not? You get youth that are playing in sporting event that I've gone to because my son and daughter have played where they don't keep score. They want everybody to, you know, to just have a great time. Well, unfortunately he goes to class, and they go to class, if you don't spell your spelling words right we all don't get the same grade. So, what's wrong with keeping score in sports? What's wrong with learning from a mistake? I was awful at spelling. Boy, I failed a bunch of them spelling tests, but I had to continue to study harder. What's wrong with that? I just can't figure out what's wrong with it, and that's okay. That's just my opinion. Everybody's got an opinion, so I think you can encourage through motivation. I mean, that' where I'm from. I don't know, and granted, like I said, not everybody does it my way. There's 100 ways to coach people. All I know is even the ones that I may have butted heads with and not seen eye-to-eye normally after about two or three years, when they graduate and they mature a little bit more and they get older, they normally call back and be like 'I see what you were trying to say coach.' I want them to be great. I want to be great. I do because I want to be great at it. I don't just want to be another coach. I don't want to just win basketball games. I want to help these young women be great in life because that's our job. We have a platform here as coaches to try to be role models. We lose to Maryland, and I've got four of my staff, we spent the night in the office. We finished watching film at 4 a.m. on Kentucky Thursday night, after we lost because I want to be great. So, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. That's just me. I love what I do. I love these kids. I'm grateful to all of them because not only, I've said it before, not only are they tremendous basketball players, but, I'm telling you, my three-year-old just loves all of them, and they are great with her. She asked me the other night 'do you have a picture of the team, Daddy?' I said 'No. Why?' She was like 'Because they're so nice to me.' 'Why are they nice to you?' 'They talk to me all the time.' But I will say this, the way things are at our house, after that game against Maryland we lost. My daughter's probably down here in the back auxiliary gym running around right now. Well, after the game, she asked my wife, she was like 'Daddy's team lost, right?' She was like 'Yes.' She was like 'We don't go in the gym and run around after a loss, do we?' You know, I'm like hey, you know what, at three years old she understands, and I don't think there's anything wrong with it. That's me.
(On Sam Fuehring not dressing?)
“Coach's decision.”
(Coach's decision?)
“Yep, coach's decision.”
(How's Briahanna Jackson such an affective rebounder?)
“It's effort. I don't think anybody here, if you're from Kentucky, from Louisville, or where ever, you can't ever argue about that kid's effort. It's phenomenal. It's absolutely phenomenal. I mean, the kid is on the floor more than anybody I've ever seen. She gets knocked down. She gets back up. She just has a will. You know, she didn't play basketball her senior of high school. She was on the flag football tea. She was the quarterback. In Florida, they have that. That's what she did.”
(What did you see in your team to spark that come back?)
“Possession by possession, that's all we talked about. 'Guys stop worrying about the scoreboard. Just play possession by possession.' There's two and a half left in the game, or whatever, you're down four. It's two possessions. We've just got to get stops and execute. I thought we did a great job of that.”
(How difficult was it for her to play with four fouls as long as she did?)
“Well, I thought she did a really good job. There was one time we got very fortunate that Epps missed a little pull-up jumper in the lane that she didn't switch on to that she was supposed to. She looked at me and was like 'I've got four fouls.' I go 'If she makes it, it doesn't matter how many fouls you have.' She was like 'I've got you.' You can't worry about how many fouls. You've got to stick with the game plan. After that she switched three or four times and she said 'I'm not going to foul.'”
Myisha Hines-Allen and Briahanna Jackson
(Myisha how does it feel to get a win over Kentucky?)
MHA: “Oh buddy! That's all I have to say is oh buddy!”
(What was that game like?)
MHA: “Intense. They are a great basketball team. We know we have to compete for 40 minutes, and from what coach Walz said last game, we knew we had to play with heart, and play with energy for the whole 40 minutes. It showed we played the whole 40 minutes. They are a great basketball team, so it wasn't going to be a dominant game from one side or the other.”
(How did teammates respond to coach's comments?)
MHA: “We took it to heart. We had to take it to heart. We knew we had Kentucky coming in next, so we had to chew it and just take it, and just come ready to play and practice too. It started in practice because we had energy that next day.”
(What was the reaction? Defensive?)
MHA: “No, he was completely right. You have two players mainly that play 40 minutes the whole … well play hard, whenever they are out on the court; You have BJ (Briahanna Jackson) and Cortnee (Cortnee Walton). And if we match their intensity and the way they play, we can beat anyone in the country.”
(Briahanna Jackson lined up against Epps. How hard was she to guard?)
BJ: “She is a great player, so I have to stay focused, stay on my toes. I was bouncing around the whole time. The best part about my game is my defense and I need to step up for my team, and today I did that.”
(How important was it to get five points early in overtime?)
MHA: “It's extremely important just to get a lead or a tie game. We just needed that, and the crowd was already in it. Just to wake them up and say we are actually going to play this overtime with heart, and energy. It was important for us.”
(On getting 10 rebounds)
BJ: “Yeah, coach tells me to get in there and rebound. That has been the emphasis because we have been getting outrebounded all season. No one was checking me the whole game, so I just kept going in there and grabbing them.”
MHA: “Stealing them from me. BJ is very athletic, and like she said, no one checks her, and no one looks for her. She is going to go in there and get the rebound just because she has heart.”
(Describe how the win went?)
BJ: “Definitely defense. Coach said in the huddle what matters at the end of the game is that we didn't panic. When they had their runs, we stayed composed, and played through and executed like we needed to.”
(How bad did you guys need this one?)
BJ: “Really bad. We had to do it for the city, and had to do it for the state.”
(Myisha Hines-Allen ended with 26 points. What was going through your mind when you came back in?)
MHA: “Keep being aggressive. The first half is over with and I can't take it back. I can't undo this foul. So just keep being aggressive and the points will come.”
(How bad did you want to represent this state and win this?)
MHA: “Really bad. Now I can brag to my brother. That's one big thing. We had Tom Jurich come in and talk to us after practice one day and he just told us how important this game is. We haven't beaten Kentucky in five years, so this is really important, not only for us, but the city as well.”
Kentucky Head Coach Matthew Mitchell
(Opening statement)
“Great ballgame. I want to compliment Louisville on an outstanding effort. I was proud of our team for playing hard. It was a hard fought game. They made one more shot than we did. We gave a tremendous effort. So, proud of our team. We'll get better from it.”
(Coach, you stuck with the zone during the last part of regulation. How did you feel like your team performed in the zone defense?)
CMM “I think it was 56 points we gave up in regulation. I can live with that.”
(Did you ponder putting Evelyn Akhator back in earlier than you did?)
CMM “I didn't.”
(Coach Walz kind of said the same thing, he couldn't deny that both teams were hustling and both teams gave great effort. Does that just kind of add to the sting, add to the excitement of the game? What does this kind of add to the story of this game?)
CMM “Well, that's just a bunch of kids out there hustling, working hard. It's good for women's college basketball. It's a good game.”
(Why is Makayla Epps such a good rebounder?)
CMM “Well, she's strong. She just really gave it all she had. She had a lot of opportunities today. She was on the floor the whole time. She had plenty of chances to get rebounds. She fought her tail off against bigger players and did a great job. She's got a lot of strength about her. Just a great basketball player.”
(Takeaways out of this one as you prepare for your next one?)
CMM “Yeah, just got to keep working. We didn't rebound out of the zone. The story of the game was we did a really good job on the first shot. I thought we forced some tough shots in regulation, in overtime, maybe just a little gassed, little fatigued, and we just couldn't stay organized. We gave up some layups. But throughout regulation, we really did a nice job of defending. We just couldn't defend the second shot. Seven second-chance points to our four. Eighteen (points) off of turnovers. Our eighth there, there's your ballgame.”
(A few of the turnovers seemed to come inbounding the ball.)
CMM “That's coaching. That's about 100 percent my fault. We were not ready for the switching defense and Louisville just out-toughed us there. I needed to have us better prepared and I didn't adjust to the game. That's a credit to Louisville. That's 100 percent on me. That's got to get corrected. That's correctable, thank goodness. Sorry to the team on that one. That was not good.”
(Taylor Murray seemed to give you guys good minutes in the second half.)
CMM “Taylor is a good player. Taylor's a really good player and I just want her to understand how good she is. She should have a lot of confidence in her game. She's playing great basketball. She is a tough, tough player and I am really proud of her. She's coming on and playing outstanding. She's coming on on her defense. She gets her defense started. She's really working to be a leader during the game and coming over and she and I are connected throughout the game. I am just really proud of her. I'm real excited to see where we go from here. Terrific performance from Taylor and Makayla and really our whole team. Listen, 56-56, and we had the ball and got the last shot and had to play the entire game and, so a real quick turnaround for our team. Louisville's a quality, quality team. Proud of our effort and everything that led to us getting beat today is correctable so you can't question our kids' heart. And you can't question their tenacity. Can't question their togetherness. All of those things, so if you can keep those going over the course of a basketball season, we can have some success and I know we will.”
(How difficult was it when you got down in overtime on their home floor? You get down five, kind of talk about that.)
CMM “Well, I thought we responded to that pretty well. Sometimes, when you strike first in overtime, it is a big momentum lift, but I thought our team really came back and really battled there. We just made a mistake on Durr. She was so far out and you've been on the court for 42 minutes and you're out there playing and you think you're out there and she just made what's got to be a 25, 26-footer and we know she can make that, but that's just a tough shot, so you credit that kid for making that shot. That gave them some momentum and got the crowd going, but I thought we battled back. It looked like our goose was cooked a couple times there and we just kept coming back, so credit Louisville for playing hard, but I'm happy to be driving back to Lexington with this team that I am fortunate enough to coach and we'll just get better from here.”
(You had expressed some concerns about communication issues on the court before. How would you assess the team communicating with each other today?)
CMM “I thought we did well. I think we've got to grow in that area, but we're all on a journey that we really never been embarked on. We are on this zone defensive journey together and Louisville is a very well coached team and they have some nice sets in the zone. I thought 56 points in regulation will win you a bunch of ballgames. So I thought we communicated better. We need to get better, I would've like to communicate better and possibly have won the game but I think we're really improved there. The kids are giving it everything they have now and when that happens we will be successful.”
Makayla Epps and Taylor Murray
(Talk about the loss and what happened)
ME “Like coach said, it was a battle of the boards. Credit to Louisville, they out-toughed us 21 offensive rebounds to our eight, so that's a big part. Seventeen second chance points, and it's kind of hard to win a ballgame when you give up 17 second-chance points, but we were in it the whole time. It came to if Taylor had one more second on the shot clock, who knows? The shot might have went in and we would've went to double overtime. Overall it was a great game on both ends, it was very exciting. Kentucky, Louisville rivalry you have to love it and like coach said we are going to learn from this one. All of our mistakes are correctable and now we look forward to facing MTSU on Friday.”
(Makayla, the last shot there with the last shot in regulation, kind of describe that.)
ME “My coaches and my teammates trust me with the ball in my hands and I was excited to have a moment like that. They've really been working with me with going up off two feet, so I went up off two feet, but then in the air, I kind of got mixed up with shooting a jumper or shooting a floater, so stuff like that happens. Just a learning moment for me. I mean it hurt but it was just something I can keep getting in the gym and nine times out of 10, I'll be able to make that shot.”
(Makayla what's it like for you and what does this rivalry mean to you? Your dad played for Kentucky, you wear his jersey, so looking back on the last four years, what has this rivalry meant to you?)
ME “It's just big you know. I grew up watching Kentucky-Louisville rivalries in football, basketball – men's and women's. You got to love it. We're lucky to have two really talented teams in one state, so not a lot of states are fortunate enough to have that. To leave as a senior 3-1 against them, I can take that. I would like to get this one but things happen. Maybe we'll see them again in the tournament. Who knows, but it's all fun, blue versus red, Kentucky versus Louisville. Over the four years, it's been really fun.”
(Taylor, on that last play did you possibly think about pulling up for a three at that time?)
TM “I was thinking about it, but just really wasn't looking at the clock. I was just worried about getting to the basket.”
