University of Tennessee Athletics
Postgame Quotes: #6 Tennessee 80, #16 Georgia 51
January 05, 2012 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 5, 2012
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TENNESSEE HEAD COACH Pat Summitt
(general comments)
"I can tell you I didn't see this coming. Georgia is a very good basketball team, but we just came out and executed for 40 minutes. Across the board, every one stepped up and contributed tonight. It was a good team win, and I am proud of how we played tonight."
(on rebounding)
"I'll take out-rebounding our opponent by 20 boards on any night. I was pleased to see so many people go hard to the glass. We are doing a much better job boxing out; it's been a point of emphasis in practice every day."
(on Glory Johnson)
"Glory was just flat-out terrific from the opening tip. She had such an efficient night and really finished around the glass on almost every shot."
(on Ariel Massengale)
"Ariel came out with a lot of confidence. When you have a point guard who is that mentally ready to play and executes the game plan, lots of good things can happen. She was all over the place on offense and defense and dictated tempo and the pace of the game. Isn't she fun to watch? If she wasn't scoring, she was setting up her teammates."
(better ball control)
"This team knew it couldn't have lazy passes against Georgia. Overall, we had much better ball control. I never like turnovers but was very pleased that we only had 11."
(on Vicki Baugh)
"I was pleased for Vicki. This was one of her better games. She really played on balance and was tough on the glass. I thought it was one of her best defensive efforts."
TENNESSEE ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH Holly Warlick
(opening statement)
"Obviously, I'm excited about the win. I thought it was kind of a tale of two halves. In the first half, we played pretty even. I was concerned that we gave up the rebound and the score right at the half. But we challenged our team to come out and take control of the first four minutes. I thought they did in the second half.
"I can't say enough about Glory Johnson. I think she was everywhere. She was rebounding on the offensive end. She was rebounding on the defensive end. I thought she kept her composure. She was just outstanding. I was very proud of her. Proud of Vicki Baugh. Any time you rebound the way we do, great things are going to happen. We pursued the basketball on the offensive end."
"And (Ariel) Massengale. You talk about a scoring point guard. She had 19, a career high today. So it was a great team effort. People came in and did the things we needed to do at the time. That's what I'm proud of. Everybody got a chance to play and everybody contributed. If we do that on a consistent basis, we're a very good basketball team."
(on whether Johnson is playing her best basketball of late)
"You look at Glory, and you see her points, but I've said earlier, she plays with a lot of heart. And how you determine that, to me, is how many rebounds she gets, how many hustle plays she got. I thought she was all over the floor tonight. She was just a dominant rebounder. She was an All-American tonight. I thought she gave an unbelievable effort. And like I said earlier, she kept her composure. Glory sometimes can get caught up in the moment, but she didn't. She was concerned about playing and playing within our system. I'm just extremely proud of her effort"
(on Baugh's level of play starting the SEC schedule)
"Vicki Baugh takes a lot of pressure off Glory Johnson as well. When Vicki Baugh plays as she does on the defensive end and rebounds, it's just a bonus for us. I think Vicki's got to get a little more comfortable on the offensive end. But I like where she is. I like her progression. I was excited with how she played and got some good minutes tonight."
(on how Massengale is incorporating scoring into her role as point guard)
"She's so good in the open court. I think she took the opportunity tonight to look for her shots. I thought Georgia's zone was very good. We had a little lull there. Then Ariel started penetrating and making plays. When she hits and scores, she's able to dish to other people, give Glory looks, Vicki looks. When she's shooting, she's a difficult point guard to defend. That's what she needs to be. She's not one-dimensional, and that's the point guard we've needed."
(on whether Taber Spani being out with injury has given Massengale more scoring opportunities)
"I think Taber being out has given Ariel some more opportunities to score. We obviously want Taber back, but we've got to produce points the best way we can, and I thought we distributed the ball very well, moved the ball. That was the key for us, not turning the ball over, and I think we did a good job tonight as well. Yes, Massengale has gotten more opportunities to score."
(on getting 35-consecutive conference wins)
"I'm going to tell you: Georgia is an outstanding basketball team. They're very athletic. They hit shots. I thought (Meredith) Mitchell was outstanding tonight. She was shooting over us, and at times, we didn't have an answer for her. A win like this tonight is huge for us. It's a huge confidence builder. You know, we don't really look at it that we've won 35 in a row or whatever we've done. As I've said, we play for the next game. And this was a huge game for us, huge conference game, and then we get on the road. I like our focus. I like us taking one game at a time, and it's been to our benefit."
(on holding a 52-32 advantage in rebounding)
"I think they had five offensive boards at the half. It's so physical and athletic inside on both teams; we were concerned about that. We talked a lot in practice about putting bodies on people and boxing out. We're not great at boxing out. We're great at going up and getting the rebound and pursuing the ball. We talked about being physical when rebounding and then pursuing the basketball. I think they've taken what we've practiced and put it to use tonight."
(on team defense)
"I was very pleased with our defense. I thought we played hard. We were smart. We mixed up our defense, and I think that was key for them. We ran some man and then went to zone. Zone wasn't good. We went back to man. We switched. We were just throwing things at them. Our press wasn't very effective tonight, so we just went to other things. I was pleased with our defense. Pleased with our effort. Probably fouled a little too much in spurts. That can be corrected.
Overall, to hold them to the points they scored, I'm pleased because they're so explosive. I don't know how many transition points they got, but it wasn't as many as they had been getting. That was key for us, not to let them have open looks in the corner."
(on playing zone defense against Georgia)
"We tried the zone the first half, and it wasn't very effective. They were screening us on the baseline and getting open looks. We got out of it in the first half quickly and went back to man. We made some adjustments at the halftime and came out, and we were a different team. We had more energy. We were guarding the screen. I thought it was effective. I thought we got them to quick-shoot the basketball. And we were rebounding. If we're not rebounding out of the zone, we've gotten out of it. We were pretty strong rebounding out of the zone, so it was working. We'll stick with it as long as it keeps working."
(on senior class not reaching a Final Four but having lots of success in SEC play)
"They've been totally remarkable in SEC play. It's amazed me when I hear it. I didn't realize we'd won 35 games in a row. And this team, we put a lot of value on going to the Final Four and competing for a national championship. Sometimes what we do in the SEC gets kind of put aside, but it's amazing to me that this group has done what they've done and been very competitive with it. I'm proud of what they've done. It's really incredible to go that long and go two years and win both the regular season and conference tournament. Because this is a tough conference, and you can see that it's getting better. Everybody's getting better. We just put a lot of emphasis in going to the Final Four and winning it, and maybe we've created a monster. I don't know, but every year, that's our ultimate goal. But it is our goal to win the SEC regular season and tournament as well."
TENNESSEE FRESHMAN GUARD Ariel Massengale
(On the looks she's getting at the basket)
"I don't think it's different. It's just people know that Shekinna and Meighan can score, and so I just have to be a threat for our team on offense. I know sometimes everything's not going to go their way, but all of us out there can put the ball in the basket."
(On finding a balance between scoring and assisting)
"Just playing the game. It's all about (taking) what the defense gives you, and the times they leave you open, you have to knock down the open shots, and the other times when they're on you and your teammates are open, you've got to give them the ball."
(On her finger)
"It's getting better every day."
TENNESSEE SENIOR FORWARD Glory Johnson
(On her mentality tonight overall)
"I just knew it was going to be a quick game, and we all know that Georgia loves to run in transition every time we play them. We just wanted to let them know that we're a team that can run in transition, too, and so it's going to be a game."
(On reminding herself to stay composed)
"I do. Most of the time I used to get really frustrated when I was getting beat up in the paint or calls weren't going my way, and I would kind of react by fouling, and now that I'm a senior, you can't do that, of course. I try to hold my composure and let the refs handle it."
(On gaining something from the Stanford game)
"I think one thing that I've always thought is, "if someone scores on you once, you change up how you're playing defense. If they score on you twice, then it's your fault." I try to not let people score on me too many times, and I think that's a mentality that our entire team gained. We try to focus on our defense, and we don't want to get scored on, no matter how many points you have. It doesn't mean anything if you're having someone score on you. Just the mentality of, `okay, we're going to lock people down on defense one-on-one.' When we do that, our whole team is better."
(On what fed the second-half run)
"The coaches were reminding us that the score was too close. The score was too close. We're a team that, we need to take off, and from halftime we're looking at (the fact that) we're playing with this team, and we should be playing just as hard and energy should be a lot higher than what we're showing. That's when we just had to take over."
TENNESSEE RS-SENIOR CENTER Vicki Baugh
(On her focus being rebounding)
"Oh, most definitely just trying to establish my role and then just trying to stay consistent, and that's been my focus. I learned a lot since that Stanford game, so consistency and confidence are my focus right now."
(On out-rebounding Georgia by 20, rebounding in general)
"Oh, it's part of our philosophy. That's how we plan to get where we want to go, and we know that's what it's going to take if we want to have a national championship in the end. Defensive rebounding is Tennessee, and we're going to live by that no matter what."
(On Massengale picking up the guard slack)
"She's a great player. She makes a huge difference on the floor. She's a true point guard and very smart. I forget she's a freshman. She's just really mature. I think she's handling it well. She doesn't feel pressure, and she talks to us; she knows she can talk to us. So, not only doing great things on the court, but she's getting her team involved in handling the post and what not."
GEORGIA HEAD COACH ANDY LANDERS
(Opening Statement)
"You guys watch them all the time. They did what they do, and we didn't affect it very well. I'm not real pleased with that. Not pleased at all. They did what they do. That sums it up. They played the way they played. Georgia didn't do one thing to change it."
(On the play of Ariel Massengale)
"I've only watched her play in person one time. She did a lot of good things tonight, no misunderstanding, but if you think we did anything to disrupt her, it didn't happen. You would have looked good against us tonight, and I've never seen you play."
(On the rebounding difference between the two teams)
"I don't know. We got some players in here, and you can ask them in a minute."
(On Tennessee's streak of 35-straight conference wins)
"Any kind of streak in this league is impressive."
(On what disappointed him the most)
"Lack of fight, lack of motivation, lack of intuitiveness. Nothing pleased me. We didn't do one thing that I thought we did well. Nothing. That leaves everything else out there as bad. We didn't hustle. We didn't rebound. Look, Tennessee gets a rebound, if they get to the offensive boards they are going to get fouled. If they get fouled, they average 20 points a game at the free throw line. That is coming from offensive rebounds and coming from transition and running the ball to the basket. We gave up those two things tonight. We didn't even fight. We gave up those two things tonight, gave up 40 points right there. Defensively, we were horrible. We have a pretty good defense and we had no help concept, no rotation to where the breakdowns were. We weren't very good and then we started watching them."
(On the play of Glory Johnson)
"She does what she does. You saw it. You've watched it. If you're a Tennessee fan, you probably enjoy it, and every game gets greater and greater because she goes to the offensive boards. She manhandles whoever is there. If you try and guard her, she comes right at you and makes you foul her. Put that in a can, because the next time we play that's what she's going to do again. She didn't one thing tonight that you haven't seen 30 times. Did she? No. That is what she does and we didn't resist her."
GEORGIA JUNIOR FORWARD JASMINE HASSELL
(On her thoughts of the game)
"We didn't do our game plan that the coaches gave us. We didn't play Georgia basketball. We pretty much gave up, and we shouldn't have, and that is not Georgia basketball. We didn't play Georgia basketball tonight."
GEORGIA SENIOR GUARD MEREDITH MITCHELL
(On Tennessee's second half push)
"We just didn't do what we were supposed to do. We didn't get back. We didn't rebound. We didn't fight, and that's where the game turned for us for the worse."
