University of Tennessee Athletics
Postgame Quotes: UT 81, Winthrop 48
November 21, 2014 | Women's Basketball
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Tennessee Head Coach Holly Warlick
(Opening Statement)
"Well, it is a great win. I thought Winthrop was a very well-coached team. Probably the best team we have played thus far. Played with a lot of energy, a lot of effort. Our shots weren't falling tonight so I thought at first in the beginning and the first half if effected our defense. But we had a good talk at half and decided that defense was going to be a priority. We ended up with 34 turnovers, so that is a positive. I thought our shooting percentage is low but I thought we had good looks, they just didn't fall. When they don't do those things you have to make sure that you are doing the other things to help you win the game. Gave up too many offensive rebounds, we will go back and try to straighten that out in practice."
(On Basharra Graves)
"Well I think Bashaara has been solid. She is one of our players that gets out and denies on the perimeter, her man-to-man defense has gotten better. I love Bashaara's effort right now. She is back to what our expectations are of Bashaara. She is scoring, she is being physical, she is rebounding the basketball, she is diving for the loose balls. She was a great example tonight of how we need to play all the time."
(On Kevin Cook saying Tennessee was a Final Four team)
"Well I appreciate them saying that but, we have a chance. We gave up too many rebounds, I thought we needed more hustle plays, I thought we played at 80% of how hard we can play. I thought we could play harder. Obviously we have to be able to shoot the ball better. You take Cierra Burdick, 0-for-8 and usually our kids their offense effects their defense but Cierra had a solid game. 10 rebounds, four assists, two steals and she had two big charges. I was happy for Cierra about getting back on the floor but probably more encouraged that she didn't let her offense effect her defense. Back to your question, we do have a chance. We just have to cleaner up some things and make sure that we stay [in shape], I thought we got winded a little bit tonight and we haven't gotten winded. But we had some pretty tough practices this week, so hopefully that is the reason."
(On changing up the lineup going into the second half)
"I just thought we needed a little bit more punch on the defensive end and for us to get going a little bit. I thought we at times were a little flat. I thought they would come in and give us a little more juice. I thought they did. I thought they got us going fairly early."
(On starters)
"I haven't even really gotten to thinking about it. Ariel could start, with how Jordan [Reynolds] is playing it is hard to get Jordan out of the lineup when she is playing the way she is and it is hard to keep Ariel not in the lineup the way she is playing. So it is a really, really good problem to have."
(On defense)
"I just want us to play at a standard that we need to play at. That is playing hard. We take a lot of pride in talking about defensive rebounding. So trying to get us to really focus in on that. Nobody has been concerned thus far about who is starting and how isn't. I thought we had good balance of playing time. I think kids if they get the opportunity to play, that is what they should be focusing on, on what the result is and not who is starting the game. Obviously, I want us to start off as fast and as good as we can. So I just thought we needed a little kick in the second half to start off."
(On Schaquilla Nunn)
"She is a pretty aggressive, physical rebounder. Our goal was not to let her, obviously she had 15 rebounds. That is a concern of mine. When you have somebody who is leading the team in rebounding we give her 15. It is always a focus of ours. We want to out rebound everybody we play. To give them 44 rebounds, that is not acceptable. We will go back and focus on that a little bit more in the next couple days of practice."
(On scoring off turnovers)
"That is where you need to score your points. You get people into turnovers and majority of times you shoot layups and that is the highest percentage of shots you can get. That kind of separates you and helps you score a lot more points. You saw how we were shooting from the outside, not very good. But when you steal and score then you can go back and press and try to steal and score. That kind of separates you from the other team. That was what we were trying to do tonight. That is how we started getting back into the lead, along with [Ariel] Massengale's threes. But when you score like that and you score quick, you keep putting it on and putting it on, it is tough. That is where we have to get constantly, we have to get that point. We want to score on layups in our offense."
(On injuries)
"They are still day-to-day. Izzy [Isabelle Harrison] got a chance, both of them ran today, both of them were at shoot around today, so I think we are still kind of taking it one day at a time. Not trying to rush it."
(On missed layups)
"I don't know if it is what they were doing or if we weren't focused. But when you get those opportunities you don't need to miss layups. Don't need to miss free throws. We weren't very good from the free throw line as well. Those are too things that you have to take care of. When you steal the ball and you get a chance to score on easy baskets that is what you have to do."
Tennessee Players
Senior guard Ariel Massengale
(On 5 straight 3-pointers) "I was just in the zone. We had a great shoot around today. All the guards shot the ball extremely well today and I think that carried into the game. My team mates were finding me when I was open and I just knocked down shots."
(On coming off the bench to play) "I'm just happy to be back on the floor and being back able to play with my team mates. So, it doesn't matter if I start, come off the bench, or don't play at all. I'm just happy to be back and in the atmosphere and just know I always have to stay ready because you never know when your number might be called."
(On Andraya Carter) "It's unbelievable. She's probably one of the best athletes that I've ever played with as long as I've played the game of basketball. I had to challenge her at half time and I think she took that challenge and she picked it up. We just understand that we have a tough schedule this year and every game we are trying to get better and every game I want her to challenge herself to get better and better."
(On Bashaara Graves' performance) "Bashaara is a work horse. I don't really know how else to describe her. She does the little things, the ones that might not show up on the stat sheet, that's what she does for us. She's done a great job until now being consistent and we need her to keep doing that for the rest of the season."
Junior forward Bashaara Graves
(On Motivation) "I just want to stay consistent, just go out there and play hard. It just starts with rebounds. If I get the rebounds, everything else will come to me."
(On Schaquilla Nunn) "It was pretty hard to block her out. She was doing her thing and we knew that coming in, watching film. I think we handled her very well compared to our last two games. I think we did what we were supposed to."
(On sustaining same level) "I think it started with our defense. We weren't playing the defense that we can play. The second half we picked it up a little bit, but it can be a lot better."
Redshirt sophomore guard Andraya Carter
(On Defense getting better) "I definitely think we can pick it up, the whole time, we just didn't feel like that was Tennessee defense as a whole. Even if it was in spurts, it wasn't consistent. Against good teams, we have to play our Tennessee team defense to win and we know that. So, a couple good plays here and there aren't going to get it done. We have to be in the passing lanes, get up ball pressure, go to help side. Team defense is what we need and we didn't really see that tonight."
(On Cierra Burdick) "I think she did a great job and we talked about it after the game. She didn't score but she definitely impacted the game. Her rebounds, her charge plays, and those are big plays, and those are what we need. She didn't let her points affect her mind set at all. She was still aggressive and we know Cierra can hit those shots. She's probably in the gym more than anybody. She will get back in the flow of things and help us just like everybody else."
(On change of lineup at half) "I think maybe she just wanted a little more energy. We shot around a little bit and they told us we were going in and we had to be ready like Ariel said."
Winthrop Head Coach Kevin Cook
(On how Winthrop played) "I'm proud of Winthrop. I though we battled hard. But you know when you've got more McDonald's All Americans than there are McDonald's in Knoxville, it's pretty tough now. They played hard. Credit to Holly and her staff and those players they played hard but make no mistake, we played hard too."
(On the 34 turnovers) "That's uncharacteristic of us. We rushed things at times and they do a good job. They're long, they get into passing lines and their double teams are pretty hard but I didn't expect us to turn it over quite that many times. It's going to be something that we can fix and get better at."
(On Schaquilla Nunn sitting out a total of ten minutes after her second and third foul and how it affected the game) "It was the difference in the game. Those ten minutes that Quilla [Schaquilla Nunn] sits out it hurts because we've got a couple players hurt."
(On game coming about) "Matthew Huddleston, our assistant coach, is a native of Knoxville. They actually tried to get us a year before I think somebody might have backed out. But we said keep us in mind and they did and now that the all-time series is tied we hope to bring them back to Rock Hill."
(On this being a one game deal) "I'm open to keeping the series going. I appreciate the competition. It was nice for us to visit and represent the Big South."
Winthrop Center Shaquilla Nunn
(On putting up good numbers, handling her own) "It was more than one [Tennessee player] that was guarding me most of the time. I was just out there playing with them. I mean we are a smaller school but we came to represent Winthrop."
(On foul trouble frustration) "My teammates had my back the entire time. This game means something to all of us. So me getting into foul trouble was just hard for me. But I knew on the bench I could still help I cheered. Be the loudest cheerleader. We don't have ours so why not it be us. I'm proud of the freshman that came in, Ezinne [Mbamalu]. She did what she could do."
(On helping prepare for conference play and going forward with rest of year) "We are always going to look back on this as a learning experience. Every loss is a learning experience. We have a long ways to go. We are a young team. We're still learning to play with each other."
(On coming in to match Tennessee on the boards) "We actually wanted to beat them on the boards. We're trying to do this +15 type margin. At the end of the day athleticism is a big role but boxing out is a very fundamental and everyone is able and capable of doing it. You box someone out. They're not supposed to be able to get that rebound. I feel like that was one of the reasons why the rebound margin was so close."
