Postgame Quotes: UT 57, CUSE 55

Nov. 20, 2015

Postgame Notes

Head Coach Holly Warlick

(Opening Statement)

"They just keep getting easier, I don't know. Just another tough game for us. We played well down the stretch and got the win. I'm really proud of our kids. There are a lot of things we can get better at and learn. We haven't had a chance to practice since we have so many games back-to-back. At the end, basketball players make plays, and I thought we got some big stops. We got some big steals at the end and won the basketball game. I'm really proud of our kids. I thought Syracuse did a great job of its game plan and what they needed to do. We just kind of outlasted them."

(On seeing the zone considering three-point struggles)

"I would. I don't know who is the three-point shooting coach. I thought we got open looks, and we just aren't knocking them down. I think in practice, we probably haven't shot enough. I know we haven't because we have had to focus on other things. We just need to get in the gym and get our confidence back. We are great outside shooters, but the last two games haven't helped our cause. We have to get better."

(On success in the paint)

"I don't know how we kept getting them the ball. I think they work hard to get the basketball. Bashaara gets 10 rebounds, Mercedes has eight, and they have people on them. I just think they battled. We wanted to get them the ball. Everyone knew we wanted to get them the ball, and we continued to do it. They got great looks. Mercedes missed a couple over the top of the basket. We may not be hitting from the outside, but we are still getting the ball inside and getting good looks. Both of those two battled. They willed us to a win."

(On difference in defense down the stretch)

"We put Jasmine Jones on the ball. If I had to say right now, she is our best perimeter defender and best on-ball defender. She is big. I thought she affected (Alexis) Peterson. I would really love us to start the game off and play the defense we played the last five minutes. In crunch time, I thought we did a great job. That steal Cooper had at the end was huge. It was really big. It came into play that we could advance the ball, and that was to our advantage. We knew they had fouls to give. We just wanted to make sure we secure the basketball. We had to make it interesting at the end. Jasmine dribbled it, but we'll correct that, too."

(On Te'a Cooper playing through mistakes)

"I think Te'a does some good things, then I think she does some freshman things. That is what we have to work out. I thought our perimeter [players] quick shot the basketball a couple times. We have to understand--and I think Te'a does, too--time and possession. That is going to come with experience. We get the ball, rebound, get a new 30, we don't want to quick-shoot the basketball. I think it's learning for her. I think she is a heck of a competitor. She is going to be a great point guard for us. It is just a learning process for her."

(On ball movement)

"In the first five minutes of the game, I thought we really moved the ball. We were passing. We were cutting. We got great looks, just didn't make them. Then, I thought we started standing. I tried a bunch of offenses. When we put Jasmine in the middle, she was very good for us. We just had Mercedes screen and take the middle out, then just went inside to her. I thought we stood a lot. We started out really well. Offensive players for one reason or another, their game is determined by how they are playing offensively. That isn't good, but sometimes it is a reality. When we didn't make shots, we started standing. When we start standing, we can't get good looks."

(On if that is a product of playing a deep bench)

"It's early, and we have to get used to what we are doing. People are going to zone us, so we have to make sure we pass and move and cut. When we do that, we will get better looks. I thought we got great looks the first quarter. As time went on, we didn't make them so we started standing."

(On the bench's lack of scoring)

"Meme got in for the first time. I thought Kortney had five minutes. I thought the game was a bit fast for her. Alexa did some good things and got some big rebounds. They didn't shoot a whole lot. Middleton shot once, Dunbar shot one. Diamond, her timing is off and her shot is off. With Nia, she shot one. I thought Diamond took good looks. They just didn't go down. Jasmine played well and hit some big buckets for us. Our bench has to get better. There is no question. We can't go 1-for-12. If you go 1-for-12 for the three-point line, you need to stop shooting."

(On the need to make more shots)

"They (our kids) don't carry it home like I do. They're going to go have dinner, and get up the next morning. They're glad we're going to watch tape and they're going to rehab. Then, we're going to be ready to roll. I think they'll refocus. They're pretty offensive minded kids, and as you all know, offensive players think they are going to make the next shot. I'm glad they think that. I just want them to make it."

(On being 1-for-12, why we backed off the 3-ball)

"It got to where I said, 'if you shoot another 3, I'll cut your arm off'. But, Te'a hit a big shot. She hit a big shot. That's the only one we made. We've got to get a feel for when it's not going in, to get an and-one. Get the ball inside and penetrate, we'll learn. We're going to get better. We have great three point shooters. Just the last two games we haven't done a very good job."

(On why Dunbar was not in for defense)

"They played four guards and we played two big posts. That was their strategy, and it was a little bit of a chess match for us. I thought it was working in their favor and then we would turn around and have two big posts in and then we were scoring inside. They had super quick guards. It wasn't just Kortney. Everyone was difficult to guard. Our best defenders had a hard time defending their fast play."

"If you have to rotate your defense, it's hard. They did an excellent job of finding the open player when we had to rotate, and most of the time they're open player was the three-point shooter. Our job defensively is to keep somebody in front of us. When you keep somebody in front you don't have to rotate your defense, and you can guard the ball with five people. When they get by you and you have to scramble, that's when the breakdown in our defense starts. At the end I thought we contained them, and we didn't have to rotate so much. We've just got to continue to understand the importance of our defense. We can do it. It's a challenge. We'll get up by seven and turn it over, and then we get a foul called or a charge. We've just got to be really mindful of what we are doing, and take care of the basketball."

(On expecting this performance out of Graves and Russell) "That is exactly what I expect of them. Bashaara because of her experience and how hard she plays, and Mercedes because of her talent, and she's healthy. Anybody that knows Tennessee knows that we play inside-out, and that our posts are going to touch the basketball. They did tonight. We got the guards opportunities to shoot and we just didn't knock down shots, and we're going to get better at that."

(On expecting the win with our 3 pt. shooting, and confidence in the post)

"I would be seeing the results of what our post players have done. With our guards, whether I like it or not, they believe the next one is going in. You've got to love that about them. Sometimes you've got to look at the clock, and time-of-possession, and who has scored that last couple of plays: Now it's 'basketball sense', and you've got to get the ball inside. That's stuff we've got to learn."

(On what to expect from Chattanooga)

"Chattanooga makes you play about 28 seconds on the defensive end. They are going to move that ball around. They're not going to quick shoot the basketball. You're going to have to play. You're going to have to communicate. They're going to get great shots, and it's going to be really deep in the shot clock. They are going to make us beat them from the outside. We're going to have to make shots. I would anticipate that if they don't play the zone that they will pack in the defense, and we're going to have to make shots. We can press them and affect them. We've got to try and speed up the game because they are going to try to control the tempo, and that's what they have always done. One positive thing about UTC is that the game is here. I'm 0-2 down there, so I feel a lot better. I don't like going down there because my record is bad. We've got to speed up the game and they are going to try and slow down the game. It's going to be on the will of who's more determined, and it will be a great challenge for us."

"We play this schedule, Syracuse came in and ran a great 2-3 match up, which not a lot of people run that so it's big for us. Penn State was big inside, physical, and did some things that challenged us. UTC has a different style that we don't see in the SEC. The SEC is more of a physical, up-and-down press. This schedule is teams that we don't get to see a whole lot. I hope it pays off down the stretch because we've got to get more comfortable going against a matchup, going against people who want to take us out of our rhythm and control the tempo. We like to get up and down. I thought we would press more, but at times I thought we just weren't very interested in pressing. This is what we wanted. Maybe not such a close game, but this is the style we wanted to play against and learn. Hopefully we're going to learn from it."

Junior Jordan Reynolds

(On skills used during the last stretch of the game) "I think we did a great job communicating on defense and just getting stops when we needed to in the end."
(On intensity of defense in the last five minutes)
"Defense was most intense in that last minute just because we knew that we had to dig down. Time was winding down, we really didn't want it to get that close, but since it was we put an emphasis on defense because we didn't want to lose. We had to pull together."
(On intensity of defense in the last five minutes)
"I would say defense was most intense in that last minute just because we knew that we had to dig down. Time was winding down, we really didn't want it to get that close but since it was we put an emphasis on defense because we didn't want to lose. We had to pull together, I would say."
(On growing pains of the team)
"I would say we are still growing as a team collectively. We're still looking for that niche for all of us to get used to one another. We have a lot of young players and a lot of players coming back so right now we're trying to get a feel for each other and really try to come together especially during these early games. We have a lot of competition coming up so have to get it together these next couple of games."

Senior Bashaara Graves

(On Mercedes Russell's blocks)
"Very big, I mean we know Mercedes can do that she just needs to bring it every game. We know she's going to block anything that comes into the paint."
( (On the challenge of defending Syracuse)
"They're zone is great, that's what they do. It was hard to get open shots in the zone and we kept turning the ball over but I think we got comfortable in the middle of the game just by taking our time and moving the ball. Overall I think we did a great job handling their zone."
(On double doubles)
"I don't come inro the game thinking I can get a double-double but I definitely come in the game thinking rebound first. The shots are going to come but rebounding is just what I do so that's definitely my mentality first."
( On intensity of close games)
"These close games have been great just because we have fought through to the end."

Redshirt Sophomore Mercedes Russell

(On the pressure of a close game) "I think we were pretty calm, we just knew that we needed to get big stops on defense. I think we really communicated well and did what we needed to do to get the win."
(On her performance against Syracuse offense)
"I love blocking people so I just think I bring a tall presence inside. When I'm on defense I just try to go as straight up as I can and block as much as I can without fouling."

Syracuse Head Coach Quentin Hillsman

Opening Statement
"This is what you come here for, to play a great game at a great venue. I give Tennessee a lot of credit, the fans and environment were incredible. I just have to give the fans credit. I thought it was a good experience for our players. Although, we come to win these games and not lose, so we are disappointed. Give Tennessee credit, they shot for 46% in the second half, and that's tough. Tennessee had 48 points in the paint, and that is hard to fight against. We had a really solid game, and we tried to stay inside of them in the paint. Down the stretch we made some tough plays, but they just made more plays. That is the game, and we are very proud of our kids. Our kids had 21 offensive rebounds on the board, and that's big for us. We shoot it, we miss it, and we go get it; that's what we do. We are proud of our kids."
(On the late missed free throws by Sykes)
"We never put it all on one possession or a play here or there. It is about us shooting 25% in the second half, not about that play."
(On whether he liked the shots in the last few minutes)
"We were wide open. I don't know if we could have gotten better looks. We had a couples missed opportunities, and we missed the last four 3-point shots."
(On whether or not there will be a return game Lady Vols at Syracuse)
"No, this is it. We come here and play the game. We need this game. We need this. We love to compete. Are there any other places better to go to than this? We wanted to come here. We like tough games, we are not ducking anybody.
(On getting inside the zone)
"They play opposite blocks and high posts. They (Tennessee) did a really good job, obviously, of occupying the box. We got inside, and stayed there. Tennessee had a great game plan. If you told me we would come on the road and hold Tennessee to 57 points, and still lose. I wouldn't believe that."

Syracuse Guard Brittney Sykes

(On lack of fouls at the end of fourth quarter)
"We can foul or get a steal, and coach always tells us to do something and never do nothing. My free throw felt fine leaving my hands; you just have to go with it and move on to the next play."

Syracuse Guard Alexis Peterson

(On whether it gives the plays momentum)

"This was a good road game for us, a good early test. To have a challenge like this, it sets us up for success in the future."