Louisville-USF Postgame Quotes
February 16, 2016 | Women's Basketball
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Head Coach Jeff Walz
(On the effectiveness of the defense versus South Florida)
"Well, you know, we had a few days to really break down some film and walk through a lot of their sets and our No. 1 goal was to try and limit Courtney Williams as much as we can. She is a special player. You know, she got 25 and she was actually pretty efficient with her shooting, but I thought we were able to turn her over at times, and that is something that they normally don't do a great deal of. Then, we were able to turn the turnovers into points, which is where we have had our problems at times. You know, we got them to turn the ball over 20 times and we turned that into 23 points and that is something that we have to be able to continue to do to make sure we can capitalize."
(On Briahanna Jackson's defensive effort during her slump)
"That's really something that we've been talking to her about. You know, she's struggling - it's not a secret. She has not been making shots. She started off the year shooting the ball so well and getting to the line and knocking down free throws. You know, she went 1-for-4 from the free throw line tonight - that's not what she does, but she is getting to the point now and maturing as a player where she is not allowing missed shots to affect how she plays on the defensive end of the floor. We needed everything she gave us. It's not like she held her scoreless, but there were a lot of times, especially in that fourth quarter, where they are trying to make a run at us and we made them use 20-22 seconds of the shot clock before they even got a shot because BJ was doing such a great job of keeping her in front of her, not allowing her to get to the rim, and then she was contesting shots and that is what you have to do. So, I was really, really proud of her effort on the defensive end of the floor coming up with four steals and then she had two assists and only one turnover, so you know, it's going to start to fall for her. What I have to do is get her to relax some, not worry about trying to find a shot, let the shot come to her, and then she'll knock them down. She is too good of a player to stay in this slump, if you say, very much longer."
(On Arica Carter's aggressive play and how it helps the team)
"There is no question, when she is aggressive and plays strong with the ball, it gives us another scoring option. I've always said, if you've got three scorers, you're a really good team; if you can get four, you're very good; and, if you can get five, then you have a chance to compete for a championship. Right now, we've got three - we've got two every night I feel confident in Mariya (Moore) and Myisha (Hines-Allen) are going to show up every night. Now, our third one can be a different person each game. What we have to figure out is how we can get Asia Durr back to just being more aggressive with the ball to score. You know, I was actually happy she took that shot in the corner, out of transition, up 13 or 14 - you know, it's probably not the best shot, just because of time and score, but I want her to be more aggressive, and then, the next time down she takes the same shot and knocks it down. So, hopefully, we can get a third scorer who is consistent every single night and then our fourth one will come from the rotation of whoever has got the hot hand that night."
(On effort to attack the paint in the second half)
"We had talked about it. You know, our goal is to try and attack off the bounce and then look for skip passes because they do a great job. You know, we had 3-4 charges in the first half because we weren't disciplined enough to just jump stop and kick the ball out. When we did make a skip pass, we scored. So we had talked about that at half about we can't have any more charges. Let's jump stop, then help, and let's find the open shooter, and I thought we did a very good job of that."
(On Coach Walz's name being mixed around with big time programs and how to deal with it)
"We don't even worry about it. It's something I don't even take a second to worry about, you know. Now, if a NBA team wanted to come at me, well then we would talk about that. No. I don't worry about that. I love being here. I mean, we played a 9 o'clock game and got close to 8,000 to come out. I mean it is remarkable what we have built here. Our kids are playing their tails off for us. We start 1-4 and everybody I'm sure was doubting what was going on and we just stuck with what we do and our kids followed through it. We are really excited about where we are right now and where we are building this program, excited about our incoming recruits that we have for next year. So we just focus on what we do, you know, there is not much you can control on the outside, so we just take care of what we are doing on the inside."
(On how big of a game this was)
"It's a big win for us. It's a big RPI win. We have to take care of business from here on out. I know quite well, and our kids know, every night we are going to have to show up and play. We just can't show up and expect to win. We proved that in the first month of the season and that didn't work to well for us. So, I always remind them of that and they are quite aware of what took place. South Florida is a NCAA Tournament team; there is no question about it. You know, Ferreira, No. 20, she hadn't played the past few games because of a foot injury; I'm not exactly sure what it is, but you know, when she gets back, she brings a new dimension to their team. She was healthy last year when we played them in the NCAA Tournament. She starts off the game with back-to-back 3s. The kid can score, but what she really does is defend for them, so once she gets back, it is just going to change a lot of the pressure that is on Courtney Williams right now, so there is no doubt that they are going to make a good run in the NCAA tournament and finish out their league play. Jose is too good of a coach."
(On her career-high 15 points)
Arica Carter: Well, when I was open, I just took the shots. My teammates always have confidence in me, and when they tell me to knock it down, I knock it down.
(On whether she did anything differently to have a better offensive performance)
Arica: No, just patience. Every day in practice, we go through situations like this, so when I came into the game, it wasn't hard. It just flowed.
(On how much the game opens up when Arica Carter is able to make shots)
Myisha Hines-Allen: It makes it lot easier when Arica is doing what point guards are supposed to do. So it just opens up the floor. It gives Mariya shots. It gives paint touches to me and Cortnee. It just spaces everything out.
(On how important the runs at the end of the halves were)
Myisha: It was key. I mean, that's how we kind of put them away. Honestly, I will give a lot of credit to this team. They were not deflated at all. Every time we went on a run, you would just hear them saying, 'Let's get a stop. We got this.' They made comments like, 'Let's run them off their own court,' because I think last year, we played them on their court. But I'll just give a lot of credit to this team. They never put their heads down. But, we just had to keep pushing and fighting, and we got the win.
(On what started the runs)
Myisha: Defense. It all starts on the defensive end, and then we were able to get out in transition and score easy layups.
(On the significance of the win over No. 11 USF)
Myisha: I mean this is the highest ranked team we will play until the end of the season, so it was a test to see where we are because we know this team is going to get to the NCAA Tournament, so we wanted to see how we fit with this and we showed up and did what we had to do.
Arica: I agree with her. Like she said, it was a good test. This team is a great team and they are going to be in the NCAA Tournament. So, for us to come out and play how we did, it kind of uplifts us because we know we can play with big teams and it shows other teams who watch this game that we are good.
(On when Myisha Hines-Allen is able to make an 18-foot shot and how much better it makes her) Myisha: It gives me a lot of confidence to do a lot more, like one time I crossed over and then pulled up at the free throw line, but, I mean, it just gives me a lot of confidence when I'm knocking down. It first starts with layups because I start with the layups and then I start to move my way out. But it just builds confidence, and then once the double team comes, kick out, and then Mariya, BJ, Arica, or um Asia, will knock down threes. And it just spaces the whole floor out, so it's a lot easier when I'm doing something in the paint because then I will just kick it back out to them.
(On what Arica saw when she hit the 3 in the corner with the shot clock expiring)
Arica: I knew the shot clock was running out and I saw Mariya driving to the basket and I had to find an open area for the ball. I knew I was going to shoot it so I said 'let me do my follow through, let me shoot it as best I can' and it went in. That comes from the team having confidence in me that I can knock shots down, just makes me feel like, 'OK, take that shot you can hit it.'
USF Head Coach Jose Fernandez
(Opening Statement)
“Louisville's got a very good basketball team. It's great to see how they've grown from the beginning of the year to where they are at now. The biggest thing about this I thought they closed the second quarter on that 9-0 run and that was huge for them. We had those two turnovers in the 1:20 of the second quarter and they banged that three at half. That hurt, we were up 6-7 and they closed the half. We had no answer, I thought Hines-Allen did a great job and Louisville hit some big shots at the end of the shot clock, but that's what good teams do. As far as the toughness plays in the 3rd and 4th quarters, they came up with critical offensive rebounds and they got stops, I thought they really did a good job defending us so credit to them.”
(On Arica Carter making a difference for Louisville)
“I thought she made plays. She got into the lane and when she didn't make a play or make a shot I thought she read the defense and found the right people. She was very steady. I thought we did a very good job on Briahanna Jackson, we got what we wanted there. Mariya is Mariya, the last three that she hit there, she caught it and balanced herself and knocked it down. Hines-Allen I thought was a key.”
(On good timing of this game in the schedule)
“It's good. Jeff and I are good friends and we got the opportunity to do this thing and play it in February with the game being on national TV. It was disappointing I thought after the first half; you think it's a good game, and then third quarter it just got away from us. They did a very good job defending [Kitija Laksa] who had been averaging 17-18 a game in league play. We had 20 turnovers, and so many were live ball turnovers. We lost by 17 and look at the difference points off of turnovers was a 17 point difference. You can't do that against good teams, especially good perimeter teams like Louisville has that make plays after a turnover because they have guys that can shoot the three or get to the rim. That was the difference, I think the second chance points we did a good job on the offensive glass, we defensive rebounded but it came down to us taking care of the basketball. We have to move on, I'm sure he's excited to finish off the ACC schedule and we have four conference games left as well.”
(On if conditioning was a factor because of Louisville's subbing)
“No, we're in pretty good shape. I don't think they got stuff out in transition, that wasn't the case. I thought the turnovers, the live ball turnovers, were such a big – they scored a lot at the end of that shot clock, whether our closeouts, or where we brought help from, and our defensive rotations had some issues. It's who we are right now, we did play three guys over 38 minutes. I wish we had Laura Ferreira healthy because she's a kid that could play multiple positions, whether having her on the floor would have made a difference or not you never know. We rely on her so much because of her versatility and what she can do defensively, but that wasn't the case and we have to do a better job taking care of the ball.”
(On comparison of current UofL team to last year's)
“They're different, I think they can create off the bounce more. Jeff is running that dribble drive where they can get to the rim more. We committed 17 fouls today, and that's uncharacteristic for us. We're top 25 in the country in the least fouls committed per game. In the 3rd and 4th quarter we committed 14 fouls. That was them, they put it down and drove it at us. I think they can create off the dribble more. Jeff is going to have a very good – with his recruiting class coming in and these guys he doesn't lose anybody, he's got all these guys back. They have a good team this year, they're tough because they can score, and Jeff does a great job. One of the things that his staff and he does great is preparing for opponents. He did a great job defensively tonight so credit them.”
