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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 4, 2011Lykendra JohnsonSuzy MerchantCetera WashingtonINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA Michigan State – 56 MODERATOR: Coach, we'll allow you to have an opening comment first and then open it up to questions for the players. COACH MERCHANT: Well, it just felt good to play again. It feels like we haven't played in a while. I know it was last Sunday, but we've had opportunity to prep ourselves a little bit. But it did feel good to get out there and start competing again and have somebody we're trying to go against. I was proud of our team defensively. Today I thought we were very, very solid. I thought Jaeschke got away from us when we played them at our place, and I thought everybody did a great job, because there was more than one person on her defending her tonight. And I really was proud of our team's defensive effort. Q. Cetera, could you speak to the team's defense? CETERA WASHINGTON: It's just been the main focus for us throughout the entire year. And the last time we played them, we really didn't work as hard as far as fronting Jaeschke and just really thought we keyed in on that, and it really helped us tonight and we able to get our back side help there in case they did throw it there. I thought we had great ball pressure on the perimeter also that was huge for us for them not getting the ball inside. Q. Lykendra, can you talk a little bit about the job that you and Kalisha did with Amy Jaeschke and what kind of things you were trying to do to force her out of her rhythm? LYKENDRA JOHNSON: Pretty much. Fronting her, and I'm giving full credit to Kal because I barely got her the whole game. So Kal did a good job of fronting her and just not touching the ball, and without her touching the ball, no freshman's offense is off, so kudos to Cal for her defensive presence today. Q. Kind of expanding on that, talked about the defense. In the second half you held Northwestern to a little under 15 percent shooting. Is there anything you can talk about getting on that kind of defensive roll? CETERA WASHINGTON: Well, it was a really sluggish game throughout the entire game and we knew that coming in the second half we needed to make a statement defensively, and I think we really did that. And we ended the first half on a good note defensively, and we wanted to come out with that same focus, and I think we did that. Q. Lykendra, when you're playing in a game like this, can you see the frustration on the opponents' faces, because, I mean, they start air balling the shots, can you sense that you're getting to them defensively? LYKENDRA JOHNSON: Yeah, all around them. If it's a good defensive presence, we can tell when their shots are falling short. Or when they even stop rebounding on the offensive end, we can tell. But we use it to our advantage and just play basketball. Q. Cetera, can you talk a little bit about the sluggish start off offensively? What was off for you guys at that point and what did Northwestern do to you in the first half? CETERA WASHINGTON: I know at halftime we sat there and talked about how we weren't sharp at all, we weren't setting screens. And the person setting the screens was -- we had a few illegal screens, and it's just like the person using those screens needs to use it, and the person setting it just needs to stand there. We just weren't sharp at all. We weren't setting screens or using them, and they played it really tight on Kal, so that pretty much opened up a lot of things for everyone else. And I think we took advantage of that. MODERATOR: Questions for the coach. Q. Suzy, I know a lot is going to be said about the defense, but can you talk about what the game plan was coming in offensively and can you talk a little bit about how you guys attacked the basket, especially in the second half? COACH MERCHANT: You have to give a lot of credit to Porsche. She's done that back-to-back games for us. She is a kid that can punch a gap and make a decision about being a scorer or kicking it to shooters. And I just think she gives us a little different handle at the PG spot, and I played her there a little more lately, just because I do think she is more of a scorer's mentality. So coming into the game we knew they were going to change defenses. We knew they were box-and-one, they could pressure going back to their zone. Their MO is always on misses they're in man, on makes they're usually in some kind of pressure back to that two, three zone basically. And then -- or if they weren't in their pressure on makes, they would be in a box-and-one, and we saw that. So we felt like we had an opportunity to really take a look at that where maybe we could be better. I think we were a little -- what's the word? Just a little bit tight really, you know. It's just exciting and we haven't played in a while. And Northwestern had been in the facility and played and won a game, and it was our first time here. And I think sometimes you get a little bit of that nervousness going. And but once we got settled in, I felt good about halftime. I felt our defense was speaking to us. And whenever that happens, we usually have good things come our way. Q. In the second half you guys went on a 19-0 run to really seal the game. Can you talk about what you think happened momentum-wise? COACH MERCHANT: They had to work really hard to get looks at Jaeschke. I mean, we're not built like everybody else in the middle, and so we just always talk about trying to use our speed and quickness versus someone's power. And it's worked for us. And we have things that we try to do to make sure that, you know, their strength -- and I think with Jaeschke, they played yesterday, obviously, and, you know, you're looking at back-to-back games, and I thought if we made her work throughout a 30-second shot clock, I think that would really bother them because they rely so much on her getting just touches. Whether she scores it or not, she creates a problem because people have to double her and she's a pretty talented kid. So I appreciate what Kendra said. I think that's a depiction of our team. Kal really stepped up and she kept her feet moving and she might give up six inches, but, you know, that speed and quickness kind of never let her pin and seal, and that was a big deal for us tonight. Q. Coach, the 56 points might not look like all that much, but you had three players scoring double figures, two more scored eight. All-around balanced offensive effort. With that and how the defense was playing, how tough does that make you to play moving forward and how confident would you say this team is to go forward in this tournament? COACH MERCHANT: Well, I certainly think we should have a lot of confidence. Obviously we're coming off a year where we've kind of earned the right to build that confidence along the way, and then certainly I feel like we're playing good basketball at the defensive end. Any time you can do that, I think you have opportunities to win games. You look at three of our four losses and they were last possession losses, could have gone either way. We lost at Iowa -- I shouldn't say that. Two of our four. Half of our losses were last possession opportunities that we -- you know, could have gone our way. But they didn't, and so we learned from that. And I do think the one thing this team -- the gift it has is it seems like it has been different people, and more than one, you know. I felt like at Minnesota we had a lot of good things happen, but Porsche Poole was kind of the MVP of that game. I thought we've had Annalise step up at times. We've had certainly Kal and LJ. Brittany has been a scorer for us in the past. Cetera has had great minutes for us. And I think we all really band together and try to look at the match-ups and put them in positions to be successful. You put drivers where they belong and shooters where they belong, and usually you can get a good opportunity. Q. How does this rank with the defensive efforts you've had in the four years here and how does the effort the kids had tonight compare with what you want from them? COACH MERCHANT: I thought we were sharp. I was disappointed the first half, there were two or three things they did that we went over specifically that I about lost it on because there's just no reason for that. Like those are things that we do and we do them for a reason, and that was like a three- or four-day prep that included the opportunity to go through it today at shoot-around, and you want to be the best you can be going into March. And you never know. That one play can ignite an entire game. So for us, you can't really accept opportunities that we know what their trying to do and we let them do it, or we don't communicate it and a kid that's supposed to switch didn't switch. And that's just the name of the game is trying to execute at a high level. But I did like for the most part, you know, I mean, if you looked at 60 possessions, you know, probably 55 of them, you know, were pretty good. MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach Merchant, and congratulations. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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