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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 5, 2010Aisha JeffersonKalisha KeaneSuzy MerchantINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA Michigan State – 61 THE MODERATOR: Okay. We'll begin with an opening comment from Coach Merchant. COACH MERCHANT: I thought after a slow defensive start for us, I thought Michigan did a really good job of coming out with a lot of energy and enthusiasm on the offensive end. I think we just kind of caught us off guard. Maybe that extra day of prep, I don't know, we weren't used to the rhythm of it. To their credit, I thought they really gave it to us out of the gates. And really liked our composure. I didn't feel we were in a good offensive flow at all ever in the first half. And so to our credit, we found a way to come out on top at halftime, and mostly it was because of our defense. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. We'll take questions for the student-athletes. Q. Aisha, is this one of those games you're just happy to come out with a win, not sort of how you played but happy to get the first game over with? AISHA JEFFERSON: No, this is a ugly game, and all year we've been finding ways to make it work and dealing with the situations with Allyssa not being in there. We had a couple of situations where I was guarding the 5 and Kalisha was guarding the 5. We've never been in a situation like that. I give us credit for us figuring it out. We always find a way. Not the most ideal way to win the game, but a W is a W. And we're not satisfied, but we definitely are happy that we won. Q. Kalisha, could you sense them getting frustrated with your defense in the second half? KALISHA KEANE: I don't really feel like they're a team that gets too frustrated. I think they really have a good concept of their motion, cutting, and they do a good job of shooting the basketball also. So I think it just came down to our team focusing on defensive rebounding and really getting after it on the boards because we were down in the first half, and we came out on top in the second half. Q. Kalisha, what was it like not playing with Allyssa in there, and also with Brittney being out in foul trouble? How did that affect the team's rhythm? KALISHA KEANE: I think it really showed our poise offensively, and defensively I think Lauren Aitch came in and had great minutes for us, playing really hard defense, showed we can play multiple positions at all levels. And I think Brittney also being in foul trouble we had the opportunity for other people to step up, like Jasmine Thomas hit some big shots for us down the stretch. It shows the depth we have offensively and defensively, and hats off to them. Q. Aisha, with all of your ailments, how do you get ready to play a game back-to-back? AISHA JEFFERSON: Just all year we've been doing a good job. Coach Merchant has been doing a good job of just keeping things in moderation for me. I mean, I know pretty much the Big Ten pretty well since I've been here for five years. So the physical play isn't as important as getting ready mentally. But a lot of rest and ice and prayer. KALISHA KEANE: And drugs. (Laughter) Q. Kalisha, you scored your 1000th career point tonight. What does that mean to you? KALISHA KEANE: Wow, no, I had no idea. That's exciting, I guess. It's a great milestone to overcome. I'm just glad we won, to be honest. If I didn't score the 1,000 today but we got the W, I'd be as smiley as I am right now. That's sweet, but I'd rather have the W anyway. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies. Questions for Coach Merchant. Q. In terms of the lineups you had to play, is this one of the more weirder games you've coached here? COACH MERCHANT: Yes, but I think that's where our depth came in. It wasn't like Lauren never played out there. The difference was she had to play a little longer. What I felt good about is even with Allyssa being out of the mix at that point, nobody played over 30 minutes today. So I still was a little conscious of that with Brittney getting in foul trouble, Jasmine having to play a little bit more. She played well offensively, had a couple of turnovers and got rattled a little bit, as freshmen can. She scored the ball well for us and rebounded it and played good defense. I thought she got some good experience for us. But it's definitely different not to have our normal rotations out there. But to the kids' credit, I thought they didn't allow that to get out of whack in terms of their composure. Q. Are you going to have Allyssa tomorrow yet? Do you know yet? COACH MERCHANT: We don't know yet. We're going to wait and see. Good thing is we have over 24 hours to get her back. We don't play until tomorrow at 5:00. She had a back spasm. It started Wednesday, and so she did practice, but tonight when Krista Phillips made a move and kind of hooked her a little bit, it obviously ignited that a little bit. But she was feeling pretty good, and then it just got a little flared up on her. Q. Will it change your preparation any or your game planning? COACH MERCHANT: You know, we're just going to -- we have to see who we're going to play, certainly. And we just gotta find a way to get it done. We do have a lot of kids with experience. And Lauren Aitch is one of them. She's been tremendous for us all year. She brings a lot of passion and enthusiasm and offensive rebounding. So I feel confident about our ability no matter what the situation is. Q. This seemed a little bit like the game at Michigan the second half where they didn't score much. What was it about your defense in the second half? COACH MERCHANT: We played it. I mean, I just -- to me, I think our field goal percent defense is really good. We really get after people. We challenge shots. I was disappointed in the first half how many easy looks they got. Then when we decided to get the job done and turn it up, we communicated better. We evaded screens. We jumped to the ball. Reynolds right out of the gate had six quick points. I was like, You gotta be kidding me. Then we tightened up and that was pretty much that, she hit one more after that. I thought our perimeter defense and the ability to contain one-on-one was really big. Couple that with it was pretty much even at halftime. I think we were up 1 on rebounding and ended up really getting after them on the boards. I thought that was big. I think that was something that they couldn't -- they just couldn't match. So we kept harping on that. I knew that was a big focus for them. He called a couple of timeouts just because we got an offensive rebound. I knew that was big at both ends for us. I thought we did a nice job. Q. Suzy, the one possession Cetara had, two offensive rebounds and then had the putback on the second one and defensive rebound on the other end, did you think that was kind of a game-changing series for both teams? COACH MERCHANT: It was a backbreaker for sure. They needed possession of the ball. We were able to run some clock off, certainly. And one thing that Cetera has is -- early in the year when we were struggling a little bit -- Lykendra is a very good rebounder, everybody knows that, but she doesn't always go. I can tell you Cetera a couple times on the bench is like, Why isn't she rebounding? I'm like, You know how you remedy that? You rebound it. Seems like ever since I've said that to her, and I know Coach Shane said that to her on the bench, she's been a terror on the boards, really fighting to get offensive rebounds. So when we do bring Lykendra out, we're not losing anything. And if we play them together, now you have options in different ways. Cetara has been nothing but tremendous for us in terms of her hustle plays, defensively she's really -- she loves to play that end of the floor. And that's what we needed is to defend and rebound. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. End of FastScripts |
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