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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2015Tori JankoskaSuzy MerchantAerial PowersHOFFMAN ESTATES, ILLINOIS Maryland – 70 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Michigan State head coach Suzy Merchant, along with student‑athletes Tori Jankoska and Aerial Powers. We'll start with an opening comment from Coach. COACH MERCHANT: Well, pretty physical contest, that's for sure. And I give credit to Maryland. I thought they did a really good job coming out of the gates in the beginning of the game, just really attacking us at both ends of the floor, and we had some good looks I think early. The ball didn't drop as it did in Michigan, and I think then you play a little defensive and playing defensive against a team that can score like that and turn things up is a little challenging. I'm proud of our kids' fight. We battled in and battled back and dug in and just really, really proud of our effort today. It just wasn't enough. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Tori, there was a moment in the first half where Aerial goes out. It's a 16‑point game, something around there. Looked like you guys might easily cave‑in. What was the determining factor to try and fight and battle back even though the odds were against you there? TORI JANKOSKA: I think we have that fight in us all year. And whenever we get down or it's not going our way, at some point we're going to flip a switch and turn it around and get it back to within striking distance. And when Aerial came back in, brings us energy on defensive end, offensive end, so we were able to cut the lead before half. Q. Tori, how difficult was it with their length for you to get good looks on the perimeter? TORI JANKOSKA: I mean, it was pretty difficult, because you never know how long they are. I didn't get a hand up and easily contest a shot. I think in the first half that affected my play a lot and I wasn't being as aggressive. In the second half, started taking it in using shot fakes and doing things so their length didn't affect me. Q. This run of the season, what does it feel like in your legs right now, you've been through this together, you survived it? AERIAL POWERS: I'm happy we survived it and everybody's healthy still. But I guess it did kind of tire us out. My knee's feeling it a little bit. A little bit older that I am. But I'm happy that we pushed through. And we still were able to give Maryland our all. We just came up a little short. Q. Aerial, there were about three or four different spots where it looked like it was going to be a blowout. And why didn't that develop? AERIAL POWERS: Because we don't give up. And our fight, we just have amazing fight in us. And every time we saw like them kind of surpassing us, we come in the huddle and we talk, hey, stop, we need three stops and three scores. We need to cut this lead right now, cut it right now. We did it throughout the whole game. We just couldn't take a lead. Q. Could both of you talk about how talented those guys are individually especially? TORI JANKOSKA: Well, they are ranked four or five in the country. I think they got a pretty talented squad from their starting five to the five that sit on the bench. They bring in reinforcements and wear people down. They've got a great point guard, two bigs that play. They have all five spots that are just really talented. AERIAL POWERS: To go with what Tori said, they are talented, having two big bigs affects anybody you play. But I feel like we still, even though they are a good team, given what we had, we did pretty good, I think. If we had a couple more things going for us, I think we would have won the game. I'm not giving them I guess too much. I'm a little upset. They're good, but we could have got them if we were healthier. Q. How soon do you guys start focusing on the future, and how much rest do you need? I don't know if the WNIT is something you guys will do or not but how much time do you take off and how excited are you for next year, how much has it derailed you, I guess? AERIAL POWERS: I mean, I love basketball, right? But after a season like this you kind of do need some time off to get your mind together and to get your body back to 100percent. Especially because we've been playing so many minutes due to our injuries. But I really don't know what timeframe I should give you. So I don't know. I guess whenever you feel fit to get back on the court. Q. Aerial, Maryland's defense, that turned you into a high volume shooter. I think you were 6 for 24 today. Was that as much to do with Maryland's defense and their length as it was with just kind of being tired, having to put games together on back‑to‑back days? And for Tori, same thing, couple times at the top of the key you were trying to shoot over somebody that's 6'5", Brionna Jones 6'4". Did that affect your shot or were you tired from coming back to back? AERIAL POWERS: I feel like the first half I did okay and I guess their length didn't really bother me too much. I felt like the second half I was kind of forcing things, trying to get things going, because the deficit, we cut it down and it went back up. So in the time, it's the second quarter. So time is not on our side anymore. And I feel that's what made me turn into a volume shooter like taking too many shots is what you're saying, right? TORI JANKOSKA: I don't think we're out there playing tired you've seen me and both Aerial diving on the floor, getting after loose balls, so I don't think you can say that we're tired and we're not going hard and their length is affecting us just because we're tired. We're out there and getting after loose balls, getting offensive rebounds. It's not necessarily that much longer than every other team we've played. We played a bunch of teams in the Big Ten that are just as long. She has guards, people that are guarding her that are that are a lot bigger than her. It wasn't just that we were tired. I think we were just trying to help out our team. I think if she has open shots she should be able to take them, the same for myself. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach. Q. Will you guys play in the WNIT, do you know what you'll do with that? COACH MERCHANT: We haven't even thought about it. We're eligible for it, obviously. But I think we're honestly, we're just trying to manage what's going on right now a little bit. I know we'll meet. We've talked about it a little bit. I know we're eligible and there's been discussions, but right now I'm not sure where we're at, with 100percent. I haven't really talked to the players about it yet. Q. You survived this season and I know 29.8seconds left Tori goes down for a brief second. You survived it without any additional‑‑ COACH MERCHANT: My first question was, Do you feel like anything's broken? She's like, No. Q. Could you talk about your sense of getting through this and what you feel right now for these guys and this team? COACH MERCHANT: I told them I've been doing it 20 years, I've been a head coach, and I've never been a part of a team than this one. We've won a couple of championships, I've won several championships actually if you go back in the day, big seasons, cut down nets, watched amazing performance. I've never seen a team with this kind of heart and determination and only have seven of them and two of them are walk‑ons and a couple freshmen. And the hits that just kept coming. And honestly, I've never been more proud of a group than these guys. And I think there's a reason why our team finished strong. And even when we lost some games, and we were right there. It wasn't like we lost the two Iowa at home and we had the close one with Nebraska, Michigan, Northwestern. We couldn't finish sometimes with the depth issue. But the thing that I think helped us down the stretch was that we had opportunities for other kids to get more comfortable on the court. I think early on it was just Tori, Aerial and at times Becca. And I think I call them the complementary players, I guess, you have to call them that because Tori and Aerial are your all‑conference players. The other kids finding their niche, finding ways to hit shots when left open or make a play, whether it be defense or offense. And I thought our complementary kids got better, which helped Aerial and Tori down the stretch and allowed us to finally finish some games that maybe we were unable to do earlier in the season. Q. What were you thinking when you saw Aerial go diving for that loose ball and rolling over and calling timeout? COACH MERCHANT: Oh, how much I love that kid. How much I love her passion. I mean, really I wasn't thinking about injuries or anything like that. But I marvel at her competitiveness, her passion for the game, laying on the line. Her and Tori are probably the two kids I've coached in my career that have probably the highest amount of competitiveness in them. So whether you're down 16 or she's having a tough night, I mean she didn't score the ball very well tonight and she's finding ways to dive on the floor for loose balls. And I just had a big smile on my face. I don't know what the score was at the time, but I just was very proud of how hard she's willing to play for her team and for the university and for the coaches. Q. When you came to Maryland, after kind of got run out of the gym at Xfinity Center, you said you thought it was the one game during the season that the team really just kind of either ran out of gas or didn't put forth the kind of effort. You mentioned before that you were as proud of this team or prouder of this team's effort than you have been with any other team you've coached. The last two games with Maryland have been pretty competitive. Was that something that the team found inside themselves to motivate them to be more competitive, or was that something that the coaching staff led them to? COACH MERCHANT: I would give credit‑‑ I think it starts with these two guys that were just in the room. I think when your best players are your most competitive and passionate people, I think it just permeates through everybody else. They have a standard that they're playing to win every game. I went in every game, with the exception of at Maryland, after that game I was really disappointed in our effort. Aerial played incredible in that game. I think she had nine offensive rebounds, 26 points. She played really, really well. But everybody else just kind of watched her do it. It was the first time that I felt like nobody stepped forward and put forward the effort. I would give credit to those two kids. I don't think it's anything else than their will and their drive. Every time we step foot on the floor, I didn't care who we were playing, I felt we had a really good chance to win the game because those two kids bring it every night and they make plays at both ends of the floor. So I don't know, I really give them most of the credit, quite honestly, in fact, all the credit. Q. Given the last two days, what do you expect going forward from Lexi now? COACH MERCHANT: She really came on down the stretch. She showed exactly what she can do. She's a really good shooter. Can hit that open shot. She makes some great passes. The area she struggled the most, like every freshman, Tori was the same way, Tori was an awful defender as a freshman. I had to hide her. Even on the bench I felt like I had to hide her. Lexi is one of those kids that found a way to think the game and it caught up, the rules, the principles, the philosophies that you have have to match up at some point where it becomes instinctive. And for Lexi, the defensive side of the ball was a struggle and it affected her confidence in every part of her game. It's not hard to figure out when you can't close out against a Grand Valley player when you start the season and get beat that there's a bit of a panic button you hit. So to watch her do that and go through a BCS season and get better and better‑‑ I'm excited about Lexi. She has the size and the passing, the IQ. She's gotten better. This offseason will be big for her from a strength and quickness perspective. She has to get a little bit thicker and stronger in the weight room. But I'm really excited about her future. I thought she was a big reason why we were able to win some games down the stretch. No question about it. She was big for us yesterday, obviously. Q. Wanted to ask you a little more about that future. Those two players are back, obviously. Is there value in what transpired this year for them, for all of you guys moving forward? And just your overall thoughts on next year. COACH MERCHANT: I definitely think so. I think those two kids really learned how to be leaders through adversity. As much adversity as a team could face, quite obviously. They had to do it in a way‑‑ Aerial and Tori are feisty people, very aggressive. When they have something to say, they're going to say it. And they learned how to figure it out along the way that speaking different languages to different kids is really important in leadership. And Aerial would come at somebody because she's so competitive and it would send them to a place where they couldn't perform. She figured out exactly how to do that. Tori was the same way. So I think from a leadership perspective, there's no question that that helped. I think they started playing better together. They've always played okay together and well together, I think this year down the stretch they really learned to play with each other, for each other, those two kids. I'm excited about next year, obviously we'll get Hines back‑‑ when we lost her I knew it was going to be an uphill battle, because you just can't manufacture what that kid brings to the table. Those two bigs right there would have helped to have Hines. I think it hurt Becca's game this year not to have Hines. So having her back, we have a great point guard coming in, actually two point guards. But a great point guard out of California coming in. We have some depth there as we've added another one. Tori's now played it. We almost have three point guards which we struggled in that department. So I'm excited about that. And we'll have some depth and athleticism and quickness with the kids coming in. So it's exciting to add into what we already have coming back. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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