University of Tennessee Athletics
Postgame Quotes: UT 54, AU 42
January 16, 2015 | Women's Basketball
Recap | Box Score | Notes
Head Coach Holly Warlick
(On last game at Notre Dame)
""It was an ugly game. Didn't play well... place was packed. We just got ran out of the gym. We have a lot of respect obviously for Notre Dame and what they've done and we are going to have to bring our `A' game if we are going to compete."
(On players thoughts of game performance tonight)
""Well, I might have set the tone for them. Obviously we're excited about winning. You always want to win. I just think the last two games for us, we're under achieving and you can't continue to win games when you're not bringing your best. Our offense affected our defense. We missed easy shots. You know defensively you think we are solid, and we gave up 18 offensive rebounds. You know eventually it's going to come back and catch up to you. We would get up and quickly shoot the basketball and come down, and we've just got to be more solid. I just thought that at times we were going through the motions and you just can't. You're not going to continue to win games and you're not going to continue to win if you keep playing like that."
(On concern with matching up with Notre Dame's top player after facing Auburn)
"(Hasina) Muhammad is a great player and so is (Tra'Cee) Tanner. Those are the two kids that are... we zeroed in on them and they got good looks. At times we did a good job on them and then we gave them up some pretty solid looks. I understand Jewell Loyd is going to get her points but we just have to contain her a little bit more than how we contained Tanner tonight. Jewell Loyd is a special kid and a great athlete and she's a scorer. She shoots the basketball and it goes in majority of the time so we've got our work cut out for us. And with Turner inside and just the whole playing up there and how I know Notre Dame plays. We're going to have to play a flawless game to win the basketball game."
(On rebounding concern being priority number one)
"Absolutely, I thought on the first shot we were very good defensively. But you've got to finish the play with rebounds, so if you don't do that then it nullifies what you just did. We're doing a lot of switching, and when we switch I don't know if we don't feel like we need to box out or what it is, but we aren't putting a body on anybody and it's a concern. It's a major concern for me."
(On playing down to other team's level)
"We should have beaten Auburn. I thought Auburn played hard, gave us a good game. We don't have a killer instinct. And no matter who you play - and I think playing on the road is difficult regardless of what somebody's record is - but you can't just turn it on and off. And so we can't just think we are going to go to Notre Dame and just turn it on and play awesome. That's not how it works. We got to get back to practicing. We played a lot of games in seven days. I've given them some days off. I gave them off Monday and I've given them off tomorrow. Now I look back and think, you know what, we need to give them off. I don't know sometimes I think right now more for us is better. I thought we got winded today. We didn't get back. We didn't push the ball as much as we wanted to, but I thought we got winded today, and that's a concern too. I hope it's because we played so many games in seven in a row or within the week, but that's what everybody else is doing too."
RS-Sophomore Guard Andraya Carter
(On the game)
"I think if you would have walked into the locker room somebody might have thought that we lost. It is a win, but it does not feel like a win. It was not a Lady Vol win. It is always good to get a win, but sometimes how you win and the way you go about winning is more important, and I think the standards that we have, this was not a Lady Vol win that we wanted coming in."
(On not meeting Lady Vol standards)
"I think rebounding. They had 18 offensive rebounds. They also beat us on the boards by six. We really pride ourselves on defense and rebounding, so we never want to get beat by a team on the boards. Ever. We definitely do not want to give up 18 offensive rebounds. It is just little things. It is sometimes stuff that does not even come up on the stat sheet. We did not have a lot of hustle plays tonight. Our energy, our overall energy, I know it is not on the stat sheet, but we feel that and we notice that. That is a stat for us and it was low tonight."
Senior Forward Cierra Burdick
(On the game)
"We struggled to get the ball inside in the beginning. The really packed it in as teams have been doing all season. Our guards were able to hit some outside shots that helped us opening up the lanes for Isabelle Harrison and Bashaara Graves to go to work. That was not Tennessee basketball. We have got to do better as a whole on the defensive end and the offensive end."
