Lady Vols vs. FAMU Postgame Quotes

Tennessee Head Coach Holly Warlick

Opening Statement:
"(The) three things we wanted to work on was focusing on us - thought we did a really good job of doing that. We wanted to get great shots, not just good shots. In the second half, I thought we got great shots. And thirdly, we wanted to work on our zone. We had literally just put it in. For the most part, I thought we did well with it."

On if the zone could be a good defensive alignment and how important it was to work against the zone today:
"Any time you get game experience, it's great. I'll have to watch the film, but I think we did a great job boxing out of it, rebounding out of our zone and attacking. We got good looks. We've been working against a zone in practice for a long time because I feel like more people will zone us instead of man-to-man."

On if they work on the zone every day:
"We do it every day."

On if spreading the minutes out has kept the freshmen engaged and what they can learn from the first road game:
"Well, take a picture of that because that may not happen again. I want the freshmen to gain experience, so I think they're doing just that. What we talk a lot about with them and the whole team is just is working on your game, working on the team. I think they've really stepped up to the challenge and done just that. They did some great things, and there are some things we have to work on - the turnover aspect of it, understanding when to pass the ball, what is a great shot. But they're learning. They're learning, and our upperclassmen and players that are here have really helped them along."

On Meme Jackson's hot start:
"It's great for her. It is great for her. When you can start off the game making threes, it's going to spread the floor out so much. I think that's just what she did, and then we started attacking inside. I told Meme I was shocked the third time she came down she was wide open, and she pulled it back out. There was a part of me that was glad she did, but I told her you're 2-for-2. I don't know if I'd have pulled out, but I think she played one of her better games. She was inspired on defense. She rebounded the basketball. She ran the floor. She attacked the basket and shot threes. We asked her to do a lot of stuff and she produced tonight."

On the number of threes she wants the team to take:
"My thinking is if you're open, shoot it. If you've missed a couple, don't shoot it. I don't have a set number, but you have to be wide open, because we're great penetrators, and I don't want to be shot happy. I don't have a number, but when we're not hitting, you've got to get to the basket or you've got to get your mid-range jumper and those are things we talk to them about. Don't live and die by the three-point shot."

On if she liked the way the team played with the big lead:
"I did. I loved it. You can get caught up in the score and try to be real cute with everything you do. I don't think we did that. We turned it over too much, but I didn't think it was to show off or be seen. I thought it was trying to get a teammate the basketball. Sometimes we over-pass a little bit, but we worked on us. We worked on us and some things we did really well and some things we need to correct, but you can't play the score. You have to focus on what we need to do."

On how much Meme Jackson has improved defensively:
"I will say this, Meme Jackson could be one of our best defenders. At times she lets her offense control her defense, but she is great on the ball. She is a great anticipator. I loved her energy today. Could it have been because she started off hitting threes? Probably, but I love what she brings us on defense. She set the example. We need her to play like that every game. It's so good. I got it on tape, and this is what she can do, so we're going to talk a lot about that. This is what you did, you need to continue to do it."

On Zaay Green working through shots and if Rennia Davis is letting the game come to her:
"I think Zaay is thinking about her shot a little too much right now. I'll have to watch the tape. I didn't think she took bad shots. She's a better shooter than 3-for-11. We'll watch the film with her and try to make sure her percentage go up. I think today Re (Rennia Davis) was trying to get the team involved, and we talked a lot about reversing the basketball, don't take a quick shot, and I think she was doing what she was asked to do. Can she do that the first quarter? Do I want her to? I do. She is our go-to player. She is our player that makes things happen. She's taken a while to get warmed up, but when she does, she's a heck of a player."

On what she wants to be most mindful of in preparing the team for the Bahamas:
"We've continued to talk about that, and we talked about that after this game. The competition is getting better and again, we have to focus on us. I've played against Amanda Butler and her teams a long time, and her kids are going to play hard. They're going to make us have to earn every basket we get, so we just have to make sure we apply what we're doing in practice to a game and stay focused on doing what we've been doing: pressing, rebounding, getting great looks. We don't want to get just average looks, shots; we want to get great shots. Rebounding has been great for us right now. When you don't make every shot or shoot a good percentage, you've got to be great rebounders, and right now we're fantastic on the boards."

On if she was surprised about the 20-0 start tonight:
"I never think we're going to be ahead of a team 20-0 but just wanted to keep working on us. I know I think I sound like a broken record, but it is about us. It is about what we do will determine if we win or lose the game. Our kids are prepared enough that whatever is thrown at them, they should be able to handle it. When our second group went in, I just wanted them to maintain and focus on what we continue to talk about. That doesn't happen too often, but you can get carried away with the score, and I don't think our young ladies did that. These are games about getting better, getting minutes, getting game situations, so I wasn't as much concerned about the score as I was of what we were doing. We only pressed one quarter, and that's unusual for us, but it gave us an opportunity to work on our zone defense."

On how the success of volleyball and soccer helps the Lady Vol brand overall and if the team feels other programs' success:
"Absolutely. We took our basketball team to the soccer game the other night and we had a great time. When they scored that last goal, Dean Lockwood and I, you would have thought we won a national championship. We're into it. The success that volleyball has had with Eve (Rackham) as a new coach has been outstanding. It does help us. We want everybody to have the opportunity to compete for championships and both of those programs have done an unbelievable job. They put everything into it, and they believe in this program. They believe in the Lady Vol brand, and you do feed off it. You feed off of everybody's success. We feed off of men's basketball's success, and we hope other teams feed off our success as well."

On how the defense is responding to the press and the zone:
"I hope we continue to do that. I don't care who you play, it's difficult. It's basketball. When you stick to the game plan, they get after it. We're always talking about being a presence on the ball, and there's so many different games within the game that we work on: ball pressure, don't let them drive the middle, helping rotate. We want to continue to work on that, and tonight I thought we did a great job. That needs to continue to happen for us to be successful. We've got great footage. When you can put your defense all together, it's five people guarding the ball. It's five people guarding the ball and sometimes we get caught up in just guarding our man, but you've got to guard the ball. When you do that, you've got something special on the defensive end."

On her main concerns about facing stiffer competition in the Bahamas:
"Probably, offensively, (my concern) would be to not quit shooting the basketball and to keep taking great shots. Defensively, it would be keeping people in front of us and not getting into foul trouble. Those two things come to my mind first."

On when the team will head down to the Bahamas and how she thinks the players will adjust:
"We are off tomorrow because we have to be. Tuesday, we will lift weights and have practice at 8 a.m. and then we leave at noon. We'll practice Wednesday, play Thursday. And then we will see where we play from there. We will have to reel them (the players) in. They will have curfew. You want them to have a great experience as well, but when you cross that line and go onto the basketball court, it's about basketball. So we will see how they can separate having fun and being serious and competing. It will be a good test for us."

Sophomore Guard Evina Westbrook

On if playing zone defense was useful:
"It was really good for the whole team. We have been working on it a lot in practice lately. When we get our hands up, we are a really good zone. We have just been trying to cut down the little things like turnovers or getting another team to make turnovers. I think it will be really effective this year."

On what they have learned at home in the first three games:
"I think we are just learning how every one is playing, especially our young players, and just getting used to playing with each other. I think the energy everybody brings to the team is going to be very fun to watch in the Bahamas. We are ready to get out there and just prove who we are and what we can do."

On if playing against the zone defense was useful:
"Yes. We were able to get the ball inside pretty well. We have shooters all along the arc, so just putting up shots and cutting into the gaps worked out well for us."

Sophomore Guard/Forward Rennia Davis

On what she is telling the young players before going on the road:
"Just the same thing since they got here - it only gets tougher. In these first few games, especially the exhibition game, we wanted our freshmen to get out there into the game and get adjusted to the speed and how the game would be. After today, we are on to real competition and we have to play a lot tougher and better than we have been."

On holding the team to 31 points:
"It was a good defensive effort for our team. Thirty was the goal, but nobody can really be mad about 31."

On what they can improve on:
"Just the little things. Today I felt like we had a few turnovers that were unforced. I told a couple of the younger players, 'When you get the rebound you have to catch and look first instead of trying to dribble through the traffic.' And we had a few turnovers like that. We had a few turnovers from trying to force it into the post inside which, we do emphasis getting the ball inside, but if it's not there, it's not there. Maybe (we need to be) ball faking and going inside, or getting the ball and reversing and it will be open later in the possession... little things like that. Cleaning up the turnovers will be big for us."

Senior Guard/Forward Meme Jackson

On why she was shooting so well to start the game:
"We were moving the ball well and my teammates were finding me for the open looks. We were playing inside-out. There were a lot of times I know that (Kasiyahna) Kushkituah got it and then got double teamed, so we just were moving the ball a lot and getting wide open looks."

On how it feels to hold a team to such few points:
"Today we tried to hold them to 30 points. We came out with a lot of energy and were full-court pressing. We got out there and got them playing fast and turning the ball over, so we just wanted to keep pressure on them."

On the balanced playing times:
"It keeps everyone engaged and also our legs fresh. We are doing five in and five out right now. We are just getting out there early, and then the next group comes out there. We are just trying to keep the energy up and pressure up on the team. We are just subbing to keep the pressure on them."

Florida A&M Head Coach LeDawn Gibson

Opening statement:

"We played a great team. I told our girls to not leave with their heads down. There's a lot of rich tradition here with basketball with what Coach Pat Summitt did for this program and how its continued to grow. We had a great time being here."

On how the game came to be scheduled:

"They called and asked if we would play. To me, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity for these young ladies to do this, so we just wanted to come down and play and give them the experience."

On how she prepared her team for this game:

"How does a low Division I team prepare for Tennessee? We just prepare for later. You just go in and you just play. I just told them to stay positive, play hard and just go out there and play. They're longer, they're more athletic and they're taller. Wherever the ball was, they were there. I have much respect for Coach Warlick and what she's doing for the program, and I just told the ladies to go out there and have fun. That was the most important thing for me."

On if Tennessee playing zone will be something that her team will see a lot of:

"It is. When we get into conference play, a lot of teams play us in zone, so it was great to see that length. Of course our conference won't be this lengthy or as athletic, but it was great to see that early on this year so we can prepare a little bit better for it."

On positives to take away from the game:

Well if you want to go off of the stat sheet, we did force 21 turnovers, so that's big, even though we had 32. We rebounded halfway decent, I thought we could have rebounded better. But to me, it's about pride and playing for what's on the front of your jersey. I'm proud of them, even though we lost, we got blown out. Like I said, it's about experience more than anything. We knew what we were getting into when I took the game. I'm not shocked; they're a great team, and I wish them the best the rest of the way."

On if Tennessee's zone could end up being a good asset for them this season:

"I think that they should press more. I'm glad that they didn't press us more, but I think if they did press more, I think they would be more disruptive because their girls are very quick; they read the passing lanes very well, have a very high basketball IQ, and I think with the length that they have, the SEC is in for a big surprise this year."

On if she was impressed with the way Mya Moye performed:

"I am. Our starting point guard is back at home with an ankle injury, and we left our 6-4 post player back home, but I am proud of her, because I took her from the two to the one. Mya has no fear. She's from DC and has a no-fear attitude. She has swag that I've never seen in a freshman that I've coached. I'm very proud of her. She came off of Friday night when she had 24 points, and she didn't get her shots off like she did on Friday night, but she has a great future within this league, and I think she has a bright future within basketball."

Freshman Guard Mya Moye

On the overall experience of playing Tennessee:

"I feel like it was a great experience. I just wanted to go out there and give it all I had. We played a really good team, and I just wanted to prove to myself that I could play against any level."

On what she can take away from a game like this:

"Moving forward, I know certain things that I have to work on and get better at. That's about it, just improving my game from now on."