Postgame Quotes: Lady Vols 75, LSU 58

Jan. 22, 2015

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Tennessee Head Coach Holly Warlick

(Opening Statement)
"It was a great win for us. It's good to see Izzy get back on track. I told a friend of mine today, I said, "Izzy's going to have a great game." It just was a fill. It's how she carried herself. It's how she was focused. I'm really proud for her. It was a solid team effort. It had some lapses but you know what, we played hard and shot the ball well. We got stops when we needed to. It was a good win for us tonight."

(On knocking down shots against LSU's defense)
"At the beginning of the year I thought our offense was behind because our defense was there and we work so hard on our defense. Now we've kind of balanced it out. I think we took shots that each of our players can make. We didn't force a lot of shots. We took shots that each of these young ladies can make. We got on track and we moved the ball. I think we had one shot that we quick shot the basketball, it was in the corner. Outside of that I thought we moved the ball and ended up getting really good looks. I mean, when you get good looks you're going to shoot 55 percent because you're taking shots that are makeable shots."

(On players being aggressive offensively)
"I don't think this team really cares who gets the points. I think they just enjoy the outcome. I would think that if Izzy is shooting the ball well that things would open up from the outside a little bit more."

(On Andraya Carter)
"I thought she took great shots. She was five-for-six and I thought she had a solid game. She was three-for-three from the three-point line. I've not told any of these guys not to shoot. I thought she just took great looks. She may say she didn't shoot the ball every time she could but I thought she took some great shots."

(On Isabelle Harrison )
"I think she got her mind right before the game. I think she understands that she was going to get that win tonight for the team, and she pushed. I just think she was focused. When she did get maybe bumped, I don't think it affected her. I think she went into that game knowing that it's going to happen and she's going to handle it. I thought today she went towards the basket. I thought Notre Dame and some other games she faded away from contacts and faded away from the basket. Tonight I thought she took it right at them. She used some shot fades, we've been trying to get her to do that. I think she attacked the basket and so she ended up getting good looks."

(On what the game means to the team)
"Our pregame we talked a lot about Pat [Summitt] and why we play this game and what it stood for. We talked a lot about Pat being able to have the courage to come out and say she has Dementia. It was always about a never give up for Pat and her fight so we talked about when things weren't going our way you reach down and find a way to figure it out. Pat has touched so many of us, especially Nikki [Caldwell] as well, it's just a will to continue on and not feel sorry for yourself. If you don't hit a shot, we talked about that, don't feel sorry for yourself, things don't go your way don't feel sorry for yourself. We talked about you play as hard as you can every day, every hour, every minute because it is not guaranteed that you continue to have that. Pat was not guaranteed she would have continued health. These kids are not guaranteed another day, every day you stay in the moment and you battle and you play as hard as you can so that's what we talked about and wanted to make sure we honored Pat with a win tonight."

(On former Lady Vols coaching/directing players during game)
"Well that hasn't changed because they coached when they played as well so that has not changed. You know it's a sign we talk about once a Lady Vol always a Lady Vol and they're such a great example, coming out and supporting Pat and this team. I think there was somebody from every, if I'm not mistaken, from every national championship that was represented and they have a lot of pride and they're prideful too. They want to see this team succeed and carry on the great tradition so it was awesome to see them. Some of them I hadn't seen in a while, but it was a lot of fun and to have them back and our young women see them be successful and how they carry themselves is a positive for us."

(On the Kodak moment between her and Sterling "The Pearl" Henton)
"Well Sterling has been a good friend of mine and our staff and our program. You talk about one program and that's what it's about. It's not about logos. It's about supporting Tennessee Athletics and I think regardless of who's playing Sterling comes out and visits. When I go out to the football game I go see him. We have football players coming, so it's about supporting. It's about Tennessee and it's about being mindful of whatever sport you're in, if you're male or female, Tennessee carries a lot of weight and we want to make sure we continue to support each other and what better way to do it than just to come out. You know Sterling is going to make a scene and so he made a scene and I had to make a scene back. But I love that guy because he's got such a high energy and he loves this program and that's what it's all about."

Tennessee Forward Isabelle Harrison

(On difference in game type)
"I felt like it was the same kind of game. I just had to slow down and focus on my shot"

(On tonight's performance)
"yes [slowing down] and working with Dean after practice, watching film, and just really slowing down."

(About the team's Pat Summitt shirts)
"It just means a lot to us. Before we went into the locker room, she gathered every body and was just like, "give your all to the woman who basically made Lady Vols." Pat just gave so much to this program and her courage and fight and for her to come to the game tonight just showed so much courage and it was a blessing towards us. We really appreciated it."

(On Pat Summitt Being there)
"Just playing in her honor. Honestly, just trying to do whatever I can for my team mates as well and be there for them. I'm glad she was there tonight to witness it."

(On Former Lady Vols Coaching)
"I heard them all night. I feel like at one point I had to recognize that they were all there. So I was like, "yeah I got you," and they listened back. It was great to see them too. They came in the locker room after and were just encouraging us and letting us know they were going to have our back."

(On perfectly timed passes)
"We work on it in practice. Even in the past couple of games those passes were there but I wasn't holding up my end of the deal. So, I'm glad they kept on putting it in there and trusting me to finish."

(On LSU)
"There entire staff and team is great. I just think they are a great team. Having Caldwell and their whole coaching staff back just brings so much energy to us because we know them. We just have a good game, everybody does."

Tennessee Guard Andraya Carter

(On Shot Decision)
"It's something that I'm working on. I caught the ball right then and I hesitated just a little. Everybody on the bench was encouraging me to shoot it from the coaches to my team mates. I have so much encouragement to shoot the ball and be more offensively aggressive. It's just something I have to work on, catching the ball and looking to score, and looking to be more aggressive, not forcing anything. It's something that's coming along but my team mates have been so encouraging the whole time, and they told me to shoot it and I did."

(On Hesitating to shoot)
"Offense has always been put on the back burner for me, even in high school. I think the game when Pat offered me, I think I had seven points. I've always been a defensive player. Now, I'm starting to work on my offense, and my team mates trust me and are encouraging me. It's just something that I have to work on."

(On what playing for Pat Summitt means to you)
"It's everything. Coach Summitt has done so much for us, for the whole world of basketball honestly. You can go to other countries and they know who Pat Summitt is. Specifically for us, just the fight she had, the faith she had to continue to recruit us when we were in high school, the faith she had in Coach Holly to continue on the legacy of the Lady Vols. She's just a fighter. She loves us. She trusts us. She just sets a great example of what it means to be a Lady Vol. I think the fight, the encouraging to keep going, she does that for us. She's what we need to be on and off the course. We need to exemplify what she's shown us as a woman.

Tennessee Guard Cierra Burdick

(On assist numbers)
"I just try to keep the game simple. If you're open I want to get you the ball. My teammates did a great job of getting open, using cuts well, reading the defense. I just tried to find them when they were open and they did a great job of knocking down the shots."

(On not scoring when the offense is playing well)
"I think I need to stay aggressive whether Izzy (Isabelle Harrison) is hot or not. Obviously if she's hot we want to go to the hot hand. We know she is capable of playing, and we want to feed her the basketball. We've got all the faith that she's gonna knock down those shots in the paint. So, we obviously want to keep going to her, but I think I need to be a threat offensively as well. I do admit, I was looking to pass more this game. Just coming into the game, I felt I needed to get my teammates involved and just read the defensive and work on reading and the mental aspect of the game more because physically I'm just feeling little down. ('Are you sick?') I'm fighting off a little something, but you gotta fight through that. That's no excuse. You just gotta keep playing, play hard and really just take what the defense gives you and thats what I did tonight."

(On moving forward with a big win after a loss)
"You want to learn from it. I think we all watched film from it. We went back and watched the game, and we have a lot of things we have to improve on and we'll do that as we continue to go though SEC play. We want to take the mistakes we made at Notre Dame and not let those happen again. Right now, we can't continue to worry about Notre Dame. We have tough SEC schedule coming. We have to take it one game at a time preparing for them. We've beaten LSU, and now it's on to Georgia. So we'll come in tomorrow and we need to really focus on our one-on-one dribble penetration and get better at that."

LSU Head Coach Nikki Caldwell

(Opening Statement)
"Tonight, we played a very good basketball team in Tennessee. I felt as though our lack of intensity to defend them was evident. I didn't feel as though our team came with the same type of aggressive play as we have played. Tennessee has a very balanced attack when you look at not only their ability to stretch you to the perimeter, but also their ability to attack you inside. Harrison was a true, go-to player inside, and that gave us some fits. We have to take this game, have to look at, obviously move forward because the SEC is a very tough conference. We have to continue to grow as a basketball team."

(On Isabelle Harrison)
"I'm all in the ref's ear because I want to do whatever I can to not allow her to get that and get those touches. When you get early position in there, it's going to be hard to really get around. We were undersized. I thought Sheila Boykin really tried to play tough in there. I think she did a nice job at times. I think there were a couple calls that could have went either way with Boykin. But, Harrison does a nice job of really keeping her feet moving. She's active. She can step out. She obviously has the length to go get some of those lob plays that were thrown to her. She was just very disciplined in her game plan tonight."

(On Pat Summitt and `We Back Pat' night)
"It meant the world to be able to see her. Obviously, she is someone who has--I wouldn't be sitting here today without her. It's always great to be able to come back home, obviously, and see a lot of familiar faces. But, any time I come back to Knoxville, she is the one face that I definitely have to see. I'm glad I had that opportunity."

LSU Guard Raigyne Moncrief

(On playing in front of Pat Summitt)
"For me, it is an honor just to play in front of her. Her history, her background--just to play in front of her, that's just an honor."

LSU Guard Rina Hill

(On playing in front of Pat Summitt)
"It is an honor. She is just a legend, so I was glad to play here tonight."

University of Tennessee Athletics

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