Postgame Quotes: Lady Vols 59, Stanford 40

Dec. 20, 2014

Tennessee Head Coach Holly Warlick

(Opening Statement)
"Awesome. It was just a great effort by our basketball team. I can't say enough about how hard they played, how much they stuck to the game plan, just really proud of them. They played with just a tremendous amount of energy and I love it. It is fun to watch. It was fun to watch, I enjoyed watching it today."

(On not having to play Ogwumike anymore)
"Of course, absolutely. It was fun to not have Ogwumike in the middle. It was probably fun for them for us to not have Candace Parker with us too."

(On the success of the switching man defense)
"I have come in here about every time and talked a lot about our defense and how much time we have spend on it. Our post players do exactly what our perimeter players do, they guard away from the basket. So I think that is key. We have been working on it. They get in a stance. When you get in a stance, I don't care if you are 6'5" or 5'5", you can defend people. I thought we were aggressive, we attacked the ball and we got in a stance. We kept them, for the most part, in front of us."

(On having good post players like Isabelle Harrison and Bashaara Graves)
"It is huge. You think of how they are going to take advantage of us switching. When you are aggressive, when [Bashaara] Graves and [Isabelle] Harrison are aggressive on the switch it is hard to see over them and it is hard to take advantage of someone smaller guarding the post player. It hides a lot of things that you may not do well. Just thought we were aggressive, we were the aggressor. Like I said, our post players are not doing anything they haven't been doing all year."

(On if this is the best defense the team has played since she has been the coach)
"I have a short memory so it is probably one of the best we have played. It just is you are not going to make stops every play but if you can make people shoot over you and struggle to score and not get easy baskets and be the aggressor and get hustle plays, you just can't ask for too much more. I loved it. I am sure everyone else loved to watch it, I enjoyed watching it."

(On Ariel Massengale)
"She hit shots she usually makes, all of them do. We worked a lot on our offense, with them sagging, I thought we got good looks, I thought Jasmine [Jones] got good looks. I watched tape with Andraya [Carter] today, you can get points off rebounding and layups so I just told Andraya, `get some shots off rebounds,' because she is a great rebounder. Just using her as an example. So I thought we were more aggressive, at times, we don't want them to quit shooting the basketball and I think you can send mixed signals, that may mean that you don't want them to shoot a shot that is open, but I thought we took good shots when we were open and didn't get late in the clock a lot of possessions."

(On rebounding)
"I guess I sound sort of like a broken record but what we lack in other areas we spend a lot of time on rebounding offensively and defensively. We spend a lot of time on the defensive end and getting in shape and getting up and down the floor. It was a huge emphasis for us today. Huge. We thought we could get second chance points. They stuck to our game plan."

(On the game plan)
"We were concerned with No. 33 [Amber] Orrange and [Lili] Thompson, I think they are the two best one, two guard combinations in the country, they are good. They are very good. They was our key, kind of try to limited them to touches and getting open looks. I watched a lot of tape on them, they are big time players that make big time plays. We thought it was important for us to kind of not let them get off and have a good night. It thought Andraya [Carter] and Jordan [Reynolds] for the most part, and Jas [Jasmine Jones] who was guarding them, I thought they did a great job. It turned out to be a team because we switched. I thought we were really focused on those two players."

(On the starting line up)
"I wanted Cierra [Burdick] because Cierra has been a steady force for us and then Jasmine [Jones] is our best defender. So I have to start somebody that is our best defender or I would be going against what I feel about the game. Andraya [Carter], I just wanted her to sit and watch and I thought she came in a did a great job."

(On Bashaara Graves)
"I think the first eight minutes, Bashaara [Graves] was huge. She hit that free throw line jumper, which is a great shot for her, and I think she caused a lot of steals, got her hands on a lot of balls, dove on the floor a couple of times, hustle plays. So I thought she was huge for us. I think she was solid."

(On whether Bashaara Graves fell out of the rotation as the game progressed)
"I think she comes out of the game because she's a little winded or because she's in foul trouble. I like her on the floor. I don't know how many minutes she ended up playing but she's a blue collar worker for us and she leads by example and I thought she did that tonight. It gets us energized when we dive on the floor, she dives on the floor and gets the ball and then turn around and go and score. And she gets her hands on the ball."

(On the energizing presence of the football and men's basketball teams in the stands)
"I loved it. We do a lot with each other and I just appreciate the support of them coming out, and the football team as well. The football team changed their practice to come out and watch us play and I just appreciate their support. The athletes, they get along and they go to each other's events and it was just fun to see. I appreciate it."

(On the status of Jasmine Jones and Isabelle Harrison after leaving the game with injuries)
"I think Jones just got off the bench a little too quick and got a little dizzy. And Harrison, she said she tweaked her ankle a little bit. They're going to be fine. They're going to be fine. I was just glad it wasn't Izzy's knee."

(On going into the holiday break with a win)
"I'm ready to go anywhere now. I'll enjoy going anywhere - out town, staying here. I will tell you this, it motivated our kids. Massengale said, "You know what, I'm tired of going home and not being in a good mood." So they took that slogan and ran with it. It's awesome."

(On Pat Summitt's postgame tweet commending Tennessee's defensive effort)
"This program was built on what Pat knew, and that was defense and rebounding. I think she demanded kids to play hard. I don't have a stare and I'm not Pat Summitt, but you form your philosophies and I was with her when she did that. If she didn't teach me anything, she taught me how to know the game and understand what's important. And that's going to continue with us through defense and rebounding and just playing hard and giving effort. When you have great effort, great things happen, whether it's offensively or defensively. Sometimes I tell our kids, "If you get your hands up, sometimes the ball just hits your hand. It could be by mistake, but it hits your hand." So when you have those things and do those things ... and that's what she's taught us. The game is not a perfect game. It's not going to be played perfect, you're not going to do everything right. But can you refocus and play as hard as you can? That's all I ask our players and tonight I'm so happy and proud that we had an unbelievable amount of effort and determination."

(On what Stanford was able to do in its win over UConn that it couldn't do against Tennessee)
"They hit big shots [against UConn]. They scored in transition, they got second-chance points, they hit big shots, they hit big threes. We watched the Connecticut game as well. They had high energy. So we wanted to make sure that they could not match our intensity and energy. And we wanted to contain their two guards. Their two guards were awesome in the UConn game. And their three-point shooters hit great shots, they hit big threes. We just didn't want them to get off and get in a rhythm. So you watch a lot of tape and we watched a lot of film and you learn on their wins and on their losses. You just hope that you can come up with a game plan to give your kids and they buy into it. I thought tonight our kids bought into our system and did some great things."

Tennessee guard Ariel Massengale

(On preparation for the game)
"My preparation for this game was no different than any other. In the first half, I struggled a bit, but my teammates and the coaching staff did a good job of keeping my mind off that. They kept telling me that the next one would go in. They set great screens for me and made great passes. I knew eventually that one would fall for me."

(On getting the win)
"We needed it. It is such a great confidence booster for this team. It just shows the endless capabilities of this team. We just have to continue to build on it."

Tennessee guard Cierra Burdick

(On first half defense)
"I definitely think this is the best game we have had all season in terms of both ends of the floor. Against Rutgers, we were playing extremely well on the defensive end, but our offense wasn't exactly flowing the way would have liked. I would definitely think this is the best game we have had so far, but we still have a lot of things to improve on. I am looking forward to see what we can do in conference play."

(On Ariel's scoring)
"She can drain shots, and when she gets going, there is no stopping her. With her hitting those outside shots, it opens up the paint for Izzy and Bash. It helps us. We have to have an inside and outside game. We need an outside threat so we can open up our All-Americans on the inside. When we are hitting jump shots, we are a hard team to defend because we have so many threats, and we are so versatile and athletic. We can do so much on the offensive end."

(On Stanford beating Connecticut)
"This season is crazy. All of the streaks have been ended. In any game on any night, somebody different can win. I think that is a props to women's basketball and the evolution that we have made. It isn't just three or four teams now, it is 15 solid teams. On any given night, anyone can win. it just depends on who brings it. Yeah, Stanford beat UConn, but anybody can win."

Tennessee forward Bashaara Graves

(On mindset for the ballgame)
"I just wanted to come out and have energy. I wanted to get rebounds. That is where it all started. I kept going from there. I kept playing with a lot of energy."

(On support from football and men's basketball)
"It was big to just have them here. They were loud when they cheered for us. I think that is where part of the energy came from. It also came from the big crowd we had today."

Tara Vanderveer - Stanford Head Coach

(Opening statement)
"Well, we've played a lot better than that. To compliment Tennessee, they came out with a lot of energy and worked really hard. They were extremely physical. I don't think we adjusted. We have a lot of really young players and it was good for them to see -- you know, we've played Connecticut, we've played Texas -- it's really good for them to see what the top teams look like. It was a much more physical game than our team was ready for and their size really bothered us on their switching. Obviously, we turned the ball over a lot and we missed a lot of, I think, very makeable shots. So it's disappointing."

(On today's performance versus her team's performance in a win over No. 1 UConn on Nov. 17)
"On that day we were good. We played very well. So I think that we have a lot of really young players that we have a lot of time to improve and we're going to need them to learn from this type of game and get better."

(On her team's two assists versus 20 turnovers on offense)
"We're obviously struggling with our offense -- just passing the ball, moving the ball. We've got a lot of work to do. I think some of the turnovers were called as illegal screens and I'll have to watch those to see if I agree with that. But offensively we really struggled on this trip, both at Chattanooga and here, just getting good shots. Lili [Thompson], of her 14 shots, at least five were layups. I think that we're capable of making more shots than we did."

(On the difficulty of scouting Tennessee)
"I think Holly [Warlick] is in a little bit different situation [than us]. Look at all her returners. Basically, they have a lot of experience. All these names [on the Tennessee stat sheet] are familiar. We're playing some really, really young kids that have no experience. We've changed what we're doing to accommodate some young people and it's taking a while to really sink in."

(On the absence of a low-post presence for Stanford)
"We don't have anyone that is an established low-block player, whereas Tennessee with [Bashaara] Graves or with [Isabelle] Harrison - they have people that they put in there. Graves was 5-for-8 and Harrison was 5-for-9. We'd love that. They have some really good, big bodies inside and they look for them really well. And today they also got perimeter shooting from [Ariel] Massengale. These are people who have played together and I think Holly has done a really good job."

(On Tennessee's guard play)
"[Jasmine] Jones is disruptive with her size, although she didn't shoot that well. Jordan Reynolds is big. They've got [Andraya] Carter, who is really athletic and long, but their ability and quickness to switch on their screens was very disruptive. We worked on it and we did things to get ready for it, but maybe not enough. Today was definitely a real struggle, a real battle for us."

(On the play of Tennessee's Ariel Massengale)
"I think she's just a terrific player, and she has been every time we've played against them. She played really well for them. She's their best three-point shooter and she really hurt us coming off screens. We couldn't go under on her or she'd knock down her shot. I thought Tennessee played well and she's a bit part of their offense and their success."

University of Tennessee Athletics

Players Mentioned

Jasmine Jones

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