Postgame Quotes: Lady Vols 59, #10 Stanford 51

Dec. 18, 2016

Tennessee Head Coach Holly Warlick

(Opening Statement)
"Well, I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of our players and coaches. You know, the expectation here, I know, is high - those kids know it's high. To come out and play a top-10 team and play them the way we did, that's just awesome. Eric (Trainer) just told me that's the fewest amount of field goals that we've made [all season], but we won the game, so it's all about defense and rebounding. We tell our kids that - I'm not making this stuff up, it's just facts. I'm just really, really proud of how hard we played. We had hustle plays. I mean, Diamond dives for a ball; Lex (Alexa Middleton) has huge play down on the sideline that taps the ball back in. I tell you, I was pretty fired up. I thought I was playing a little bit, so it was awesome. Just awesome."

(On defensive alignments)
"We went man-to-man. We went 3-2 zone. We went 2-3 zone. We went man-to-man switching. We went man-to-man switching one through four. We pressed; we pressed up; we pressed back. We did a lot of stuff. Stanford is a very methodical team that is very well coached on the offensive end. You make one slip-up and they're going to take advantage of it. So I thought when we were playing man-to-man, they were adjusting. Then we went to a 3-2 zone, and they were adjusting. So, it kept me kind of on my toes about what we needed to do defensively. You know, today is - I've said this - defense is about what's in your heart and your gut, and they had those two things today. And you can drill defense, and drill it, and drill it, but they've got to buy into it, and today they bought into it. Those young ladies were very happy. They were very happy after the game for winning, and then the second thing they were happy about is I told them they had off tomorrow, so they may have been happier about that. But I'm happy for them because they have really worked hard to get this win."

(On today's game being a must-win)
"Well I will tell you since we won, it was a must-win. I thought it was important since we've played but we haven't beaten someone ranked in the top 10. I thought it was a must-win just for us to come out and compete and say that we're a really good basketball team."

(On DeShields' hand injury)
"Diamond is just sore, and we're being very protective of it. It's not anything that she has to have surgery on or anything, it's just that we're being extremely protective. I thought she did some good things offensively today. I thought she got some good looks around the basket. We're just going to watch it, but right now, I know it's not hurting her."

(On slow start and difference between this game and the Baylor game)
"Well with Baylor we didn't compete. We were somewhere else, and we got embarrassed. And I think not only did our coaches think we needed to go back to work, but our team thought that too. They were embarrassed. They've put in a ton of work over the last two weeks, I will promise you that. They've put in a ton of work, and it's been mostly on the defensive end. It's been a grind, and it's going to continue to be a grind. But credit to them - we've thrown a lot at them, and they've done what we've asked them to do. We're in a break; we're not in school, so there's no time limit and we've really, really been getting after it. And I know they're tired and exhausted, but they've hung tough and they haven't wavered from practicing the way we want them to."

(On limiting Stanford to two fast break points)
"You know what? I didn't even see that. That's awesome. That was our focus; it was fast break points, because they get the ball in and out. So that was a focal point for us - that and their second-chance points. We've just hammered that the last two weeks. And see, Stanford is different. When they run down the floor, they run to the 3-point line because they've got great shooters. So in the past, we've tended to run to the paint and not guard the 3-point line. But I thought we were outstanding today."

(On 1,000 wins)
"I know our kids were going nuts, and I was like, `What?' I liked the one [win], I'm not worried about 1,000. I just needed this one today. When you talk about wins it's about your players. I sat beside Pat Summitt for twenty-something years and all the other coaches with her and the players. All the losses, you know, they are on me, but the wins are everybody's. I love it. Our kids thought I had 1,000 wins. We were jumping up and celebrating, I just let them do it. I didn't want to tell them any differently. Because I was like "1,000 wins? I don't have 1,000 wins." But Eric [Trainer] politely told me it was since I've been coaching, so I'll take it."

(On hustle plays)
"You look at when we had hustle plays, look at what it did for us. When Lex [Alexa Middleton] hit the ball off the kid out of bounds. That's a possession that Stanford didn't get to shoot the basketball. So those were huge for us, and it's an energy. Hustle plays are just energy and our bench was so into it. Those were just energy plays that just give you confidence. They just give you confidence. I thought the rebounding we had, the rotation we had on defense, just all of that was huge."

(On bench depth)
"We are just going to continue to grind it. When they need to make points, they need to come in and make points. I'm not so much worried about that as I am that they aren't sitting over there moping and worried about not playing. I thought they were into it. We are going to get more out of our bench, and we are going to shoot the ball better. [We shot] thirty-eight percent for the game, but we won the game. We are going to focus on that. Our bench has been solid. I thought Qui [Schaquilla Nunn] came in, she didn't score a point - I'm sorry, she did from the free throw line - but just the presence she gave. She played four minutes and gave Mercedes four minutes of rest. I'm just really proud of her for that. We are going to get better. I think Meme didn't play as much as she has been but Lex [Middleton] came in and picked up the slack so I don't know so much if its who played. We had three kids playing 40 minutes. It's just how we handled ourselves, and it's a team effort. And those guys on the bench were so into it, just as much as those people playing on the court."

(On senior guard Jordan Reynolds)
"Jordan and I had a little meeting today and I pulled up [film]. Jordan is a senior and she wants everything to go - she wants to go through the whole year without a turnover, not a missed shot. I watched tape with her from her freshman, sophomore, and junior years. And I just told Jordan, `Do what you do.' I just showed her, she gets the rebound, she attacks. She attacked today. She just saw it. She didn't just have to listen to me or believe me. It was in living color on my computer screen. She attacked and got great looks, her freshmen year all the way up to this year. She has a great pull-up jumper, a great pull-up jumper. I said, `Jordan do what's good for you. Those are good things for you; attacking, pulling up.' And she did it. She's the one that has to go out and do it and figure out what's good and what's not. I just planted the seed for her. She's got to do the rest."

Tennessee Guard Jordan Reynolds

(On the guards' play today)
"We knew we had to come into this game being very aggressive. I think that we started the game off doing that and we kept it throughout the entire game. I think we worked on it a lot in practice. The coaches kept telling us to attack the rim, attack the basket and get paint points. We did that early and continued throughout the game."

(On if this game was a must win)
"Absolutely. A top-10 team came into our house and we were very vulnerable. We had a couple bad losses early. As you said, this was a must-needed win for us, for our confidence, for our program, for the tradition, for everything. Going into SEC play, I think it kind of upped the tempo pushing forward to all of our opponents that we're about to play.

Tennessee Guard Diamond DeShields

(On the team's hustle)
"We've seen glimpses of it, but that should be normal. We're talking about it like it is some anomaly within our defense so far. It's really sad that we're sitting here talking about, but that should be normal. Moving forward, we're trying to take that and implement it in our defense and into our hearts and in our guts so that's something that we can come out and do on a day-to-day and night-to-night basis and be the team and the players that we know we can be. Our defense and our hustle were essential tonight. It's going to be essential throughout the rest of the season."

(On the importance of the game heading into conference play)
"Coach Lockwood put it into perspective for us before the game. He drew an analogy and compared this game to hunting season. If you're a family, using his language, he said this Stanford team is a big buck and we need to eat for the winter. If we don't kill this buck, we might starve. Our family might starve and it's going to be a long winter. He said let's get us a big buck. That was kind of our mentality going into the game. I think it was really good for us. It really put things in perspective. That's what we did tonight. Moving forward, hopefully we hang a couple more up on the wall heading into SEC play."

Tennessee forward Jaime Nared

(On the aggressiveness of the defense)
"We were a lot more aggressive on defense in the second quarter. We were able to get stops and played really together on defense. If somebody got beat, somebody was there to help. We really just played together and it showed."

(On the changing defense)
"We switched it up a little bit. We went from a two-three to a three-two and then we played some man-to-man. Basically, just whatever Holly called and everybody was willing to change out defense and be aggressive in it. I think being able to be in tune to what Holly says and being on the same page on our defense was a big deal this game."

(On the team's toughness)
"We like to think we're in good shape. I think being in good shape is all mental and I think we're all three very mentally tough people. I don't think we ever got too tired to where we couldn't run up and down the court or play aggressive on defense or offense. I think we're all in good shape. We think we are. The atmosphere helped and getting stops helped You don't get tired in these games because it's just so fun."

Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer

(Opening Statement)
"I thought Tennessee made some big shots. We got them down, and we didn't keep them down. I think the number one thing for me, looking at the game, was that we didn't pass the ball. We held the ball. We didn't move the ball. We only had six assists. I think we had some people that need to play better team basketball. We need to move the ball. We need to get better shots. I don't think you're going to win games when you turn it over 18 times, you shoot 35 percent, you shoot six free throws and shoot 50 percent. We just didn't give ourselves a chance. I thought Tennessee played very inspired. They're a very talented team. I think their record is very deceptive, but they're very talented. Mercedes Russell is an anchor in the middle for them. They have good numbers from Diamond DeShields. She played a good game. For the most part, I think they were very focused."

(On Erica McCall hot shooting early, and how her shooting went throughout the game)
"We were able to attack the basket. Brittany McPhee did a nice job. Karlie Samuelson did a nice job. Briana Roberson did a nice job. We ran on them a little bit. We had a nice run in the first five minutes of the game. I think that maybe our team intellectually knew that it's a game of spurts, and that they could come back. We just made too many mistakes. To go seven for eight, yeah, that's really good, but we started turning the ball over. We didn't get good shots. We weren't getting to the rim. You're allowed to miss some shots, but I think we let them back in in the second quarter and the third quarter. We didn't finish shots and turned the ball over."

(On Tennessee changing their defense during the game)
"I think that they might have pressed a little bit more in some other games, but I think we had some self-inflicted wounds. We have to really communicate well with our team about what has worked for us. It's hard on this stage with the crowd, but we have really hard workers. We have great leadership with Briana Roberson to look at things. I think Tennessee has played some really good teams. They played Baylor, and you learn from that. We learned from this. I think we'll be better because of it. Is it disappointing? Yes, but I think we did some really good things. I don't think we were surprised with anything they did, honestly. Maybe a couple people made some shots, and their numbers didn't back up, but for them, I think only 5-12 from the three was good for them. I thought we did a good job at keeping them off the glass. For them to only have 11 offensive rebounds, was good. We did not get to the free throw line. We did not take care of the ball. So, we can learn from those things and play better."

(On this being one of the best series in women's basketball)
"We started this series because Jennifer Azzi went to Oak Ridge HS. I'm not sure sometimes if this is a good series for us, but we have had some great games. The Tennessee fans were out, and I think this was a really good game. I appreciate great basketball. We like to keep playing."

Stanford Center Erica McCall

(On getting into foul trouble during the game.)
"I think it did affect me. I didn't want to foul out. I wanted to continue to help my team. Especially when they have their guards, and their bigs started to attack, and that really started to change their game plan. I think I was really static overall, and the foul trouble didn't help that."