Lady Vols vs. Texas Postgame Quotes

Tennessee Head Coach Kellie Harper

Opening Statement:
"Well, that was an exciting, competitive game, and it felt like that was going to be the case when we started. Obviously, I hate the loss, but it's definitely an opportunity for us to measure where we are against high-quality athletes and a really good basketball team. I told our players that we have to find a way to get better, otherwise, the loss helps you none."

On the attitude in the locker room after the game:
"I think their attitude was where I would want it to be when I came in to see them. I don't want them happy; I don't want them excited that we did something positive, I want them feeling it. I want it to be a little bit of a gut-wrench. I also explained to them, because this is our first loss and the first time that we are dealing with this, I don't deal with (losses) very well, so I didn't need to see anybody happy in the locker room. I think they're pretty motivated, so we'll see."

On Tamari Key and her performance today:
"I think the bright spot from the game today was our post play, especially defensively with how physical that game was. We have not seen that this year - the physicality, interior play - and Tamari Key did a really good job. I thought she was alert. I thought she was physical. I thought she was competitive, and that's a good sign. I thought Kasi was… I thought all of our post players stepped up to a huge challenge of guarding two big-time post players. They did a great job."

On if she would have rather played a tougher non-conference schedule to get a better idea of where the team stands:
"Yeah, I think for us, and where we are, maybe if a few teams had given us a little bit more of an SEC-type look, it would've been a positive. We knew that when we picked up the schedule when we arrived here. That's what we were dealt with, and we've got to be able to play through all that."

On what she saw in the last nine minutes of the game that she wants the team to get better at:
"Well, we came down, and we were empty for three-straight possessions and three turnovers. We did not execute our quick-hit action. That's definitely an area that we're going to look at. We have to communicate better when we're out on the court, the game's coming really fast. It's loud, so our communication has to be better. I think defensively, we were a little bit slow during that stretch. When you take the lead, you've got to be able to get one more bucket and finish that off. You've got to get a bucket in those three possessions and give yourself a chance going down the stretch, and we just couldn't get that bucket that we needed."

On if the team is starting to understand the importance of rebounding:
"I think today, our defensive boards… we didn't give up a lot of offensive boards, however, I didn't think they crashed as hard as they typically do. They were getting back in transition to guard us in transition. I think they were sending people back so they could be set and take that away from us. Offensively, although, we got 17 offensive boards. The percentage of our misses wasn't as high as it has been. It's not going to be playing the team that we're playing today, but I think we could've gotten in there for a few more offensive boards. I think they looked good, but I don't know if they're completely where I want them to be."

On continued shooting struggles at the rim:
"I thought we were rushing our offense. I thought we were a little impatient. We were impatient throughout the game. I thought we were impatient with our offense. We were quick shooting the basketball. We'd get the ball in. and we were rushing our shots as well, just trying to get a shot up instead of score and finish. It's the first time, in my opinion, that we've been challenged, that we had to work for a shot. We needed to work, and we were really quick to move on to getting that shot up instead of utilizing a little more shot clock. I think that's an area of growth for us that we probably couldn't have predicted prior to this game."

On her concerns about free-throw shooting:
"I think our free-throw shooting has been a concern of ours, and we work at it a lot in practice. We talk about it. We try to hold our team accountable in pressure situations throughout practice to maybe simulate what they'll see in a game. We've got players that can make free throws; they just need to step up there and do it. We'll keep working with them and keep trying to get that percentage higher. We knew that to keep that going at the percentage we're shooting as a team, you're going to lose a game at some point because of it. You can make an argument that today, if you make a few more, it's a different ballgame."

On if the physicality of Texas better prepares her team for future games:
"That was a great game for us. We needed this. I don't want to say we needed the loss, that's hard to say, but we needed that game. That was one reason I've been looking forward to this game, because I knew we needed this. We needed to see where with a physical, athletic team with size. That's going to be what we see in the SEC, so we needed to have that to learn from and to grow from."

On how Tennessee's young guards can grow from a game like this:
"I think we're trying to mature some kids very quickly. We want them to develop some savvy. Sometimes you can't get that without experience. Their guards were very under control. They were aggressive, and they were able to knock down shots. In my opinion, Higgs was the difference in the ballgame. We knew Sutton could play and score. We knew their bigs could score, but Higgs comes in and doubles her output. I thought she was the biggest factor in the game, and that's a veteran guard that knows how to play."

Junior Forward Rennia Davis

On what happened in the fourth quarter when UT took the lead?
"I personally don't think it was just the fourth quarter. I think it was the build up from the first quarter. We weren't as efficient with our offense as we wanted to be. I don't think we were taking the shots that we wanted to take. On top of that, we weren't stopping them from scoring the easier shots. It was a combination of a lot of things."

On if they were surprised by Texas' perimeter shooting:
"I wouldn't say it threw us off. We knew they had a couple of guards that could make plays. We were focused in on their post, but their post got in foul trouble early. It's on all of us as guards to lock in. We've seen that a couple of their guards were hitting shots early, so that was all on us."

Sophomore Guard Jazmine Massengill

On what did you see during the fourth quarter that caused the team to struggle to score:
"We made it harder on ourselves with scoring. I feel like we could do more with the ball. I feel like we took the hardest spot to make a shot. I think that could improve."

On Tamari Key improving her play:
"Tamari is a phenomenal post player. We try to get the ball to her the best we can. Every game we try to do a better job of giving the post the ball and doing a better job of getting in position. It's a learning tool for both of us. I definitely think Tamari held her own. Freshmen through senior, we expect everyone to perform the way they know how. I feel like she did that today."

On biggest takeaway from this game:
"I would agree with what Kamera said, which is focusing on the small things and the details. When playing against teams that are equal to you or are larger than you, you have to focus on the details. That's what it comes down to during these ball games."

Senior Forward Kamera Harris

On learning from this loss:
"I think the team plays like some of the same matchups in the SEC, so I think we can just take this loss and learn from it. I think we can use this to our advantage and just learn from it. I think it's the first time we really faced adversity, so just need to take it and learn from it."

On what specific lessons can be learned from this loss today:
"I think just focusing on the little things such as boxing out and not giving second chances. I think taking those little things and practicing them is going to be great for our team. "

Head Coach Karen Aston

Opening statement:
"I thought this was a real gutty performance on our team's part in a lot of ways. This one sitting to the right of me (Joyner Holmes) kind of led the way in guttiness. She tweaked her ankle yesterday in shoot around and was really a game-time decision, but I thought the presence was huge for us as far as leadership. And then Sug (Sutton) and Lashann Higgs looked a little bit more like themselves today, which is real helpful for our team. They are the leaders of the team, and they set the tone for us today. I am just really proud of our team. We have struggled; I think everybody knows that. But it is just a process when you have players that are new and return from injuries and those type of things. I have been preaching to them to just stick with the process, and we will get better and better every day. I think they are trying to do that. I thought this was our reward for that."

On Tennessee guarding their post players and if Joyner Holmes' tweaked ankle led to the lack of production:
"For sure. I definitely think that it limited her mobility and power, but I think some of it was just some decision-making from our guards to try and attack the basket. Even though Joyner and Charli (Collier) have size, they (Tennessee) are quite a bit bigger than we are. I didn't necessarily think that it was smart for us to pound it against them. We tried to get the ball moving and tried to post feed, but they had something to do with that. I think the lack of her mobility did also."

On if she thinks this team is better than its record:
"No question about it. I expected some struggles early just because of Sug and Lashann returning from a long stint away from our team, if you count summer and fall. I think players expect that when they come back from an injury they are just going to return to exactly who they were, and I knew that it would take some time. Then you integrate players who didn't necessarily get a lot of playing time last year, and it is just a perfect storm of process. Sometimes you are as good as you need to be at tipoff for the very first game, and sometimes you are just not. We have had some adversity, and I think the best thing that has happened to this group is if they'll continue. That is just the biggest thing. You have to continue with the process. You have to continue to do the things that it takes to win and work on what you are not doing well. We have had our weaknesses exposed. That is why we play the schedule we play, so we can figure out what it is that we need to be better at. I thought that the adversity probably helped us today when it got tight. They took the lead, like Sug said, we have sort of been there and done that quite a bit. I think they have grown from it. That is what you want. You want to grow up and mature as a team, and I think we are trying to do that."

On how much of the game was actually won on the perimeter:
"It was completely won on the perimeter. I could go down the line. Obviously, their (Sug Sutton Lashann Higgs) scoring was huge and that was what we were missing because they are scoring guards, but I also think their ability to just stay locked into the game plan and think a little bit for others is what we need from them. They were fresh-minded today. I thought that helped because we have a couple of younger players that might struggle with some decision making. Charli struggled most of the game, really until the fourth quarter where she went out big. But those are young players that haven't been in that situation before, so it was huge that Sug and Lashann show up and be who they are."

On how much their defense in the fourth quarter played a role:
"I thought we definitely reset ourselves sort of back to the game plan. I don't know if it was fear of foul trouble, but we went through a span of time where we just weren't doing our work early or helping in the paint. I thought they were getting way too easy into punches into their five players. They got a few and-ones from that. We just had to make some adjustments to that and do what we were trying to do during the previous three quarters. I really thought we got away from it at the end of the third, and probably midway through the fourth quarter, we probably locked back in. I thought Jada Underwood was huge for us today. She is another senior that really got out of the gates for us. She took huge shots in the first half and guarded multiple players. I thought she was huge for us."

Senior Forward Joyner Holmes

On if her and Tamari Key talked at all after the game after going against each other the whole contest:
"I don't really know her at all, so no I didn't speak any words to her after the game. I respect the physicality. I mean, we respect that. We came into somebody's home court, and we also have our rivalry, so I was expecting that. I did twist my ankle yesterday, and it is what it is, but it was a good and physical game. It was what we expected, but we pulled it out as a team."

On what she couldn't do because of her ankle:
"I just think my jumping ability. I could've gotten a lot more offensive rebounds today, but I couldn't really get my bounce back as well as I could. I think the guards did a really good job at shooting from the outside and attacking the paint. We are kind of quick off our first bounce, and we were quicker than them, which I think helped. I did what I could today, and I think what I could do led us to the point we are at today."

Senior Guard Sug Sutton
On how to prepare for the scoring run and to get the lead back from Tennessee:
"It has happened to us a lot these past few games before we played Tennessee, so just coming together as a team to stay poised. It has happened to us before, but let's go out and punch back and respond to the runs that they gave us in the third quarter. So, I think just coming together as a team helped us a lot and motivated us a lot, too."

On how the previous games this year helped her for this specific game:
"It has helped me a lot just building my confidence back and getting into my flow. The past couple games have been rough for us, but I think just coming together as a team and supporting each other and the coaching staff. Everybody is just sticking together. We are keeping our circle tight. I think everything just worked out for itself today, and it showed that we have been working really hard to try and get a really good win under our belt."