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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEDIA DAYS (WOMEN)

October 27, 2011

Suzy Merchant

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

SUZY MERCHANT: We're excited about the season. I think having the opportunity to practice a little bit earlier for the second straight year has been a positive thing for us. Our team is a little different this year compared to last year. We lost some leadership and certainly some key players. At the same time we're really excited about our youth. We went from a team that was pretty guard intensive to a team that has some power post opportunity and very long and athletic, really from the 2 through 5 positions.
So we're excited about our length, we're excited about our athleticism, certainly getting Madison Williams back, as she was injured last year right before we started the season, will make a big difference for us. We have the Defensive Player of the Year back in Lykendra Johnson and certainly just a special player.

Q. You talked about your team getting a little bit bigger, a little bit longer athletically. Across the board in the conference it seems like it's almost a guard-oriented league right now coming into this year. Can you talk about what you see as a guard versus post across the board in the league right now?
SUZY MERCHANT: Well, I think probably the biggest difference is just the 4 position. If your 4 man is a face-up 4 or if they're a power 4, the one nice thing for us is we have the ability to have size in that position but be a face-up position, too. We have some pretty talented kids that play that 4 spot for us, Lykendra can go back and forth between that position, certainly for us probably the most impactful freshman we've had so far has been Becca Mills. She probably has a really good chance to start for us at the 4 position. But she's 6'4" and unbelievably talented and can shoot threes, handle the ball, pull-up jumpers and then she can post, as well.
I think that versatility is probably the biggest word that you would use in terms of guard versus post-oriented team, and we used that versatility to our advantage last year. We lost Madison Williams, we moved Lykendra into the 5 position. She was a 3 and moved her to a 5 and became a very guard-oriented type offense and spread the floor a little bit more and shot a lot more threes than we had in the past.
I think we're a team -- the nice thing about our team, I think we're two teams within a team. We have that power game and that size. At the same time we can also put a team out there that's very versatile that can be a very guard-oriented team at the same time.

Q. Just the rule changes with the arc and the three-point line, and also they're going to use the experimental rule with the ten seconds. Just kind of your thoughts on some of those changes and how they'll impact the game.
SUZY MERCHANT: Yeah, I'm against the 10-second rule in the backcourt for women. I think we have a 30-second shot clock. That's a pretty fast pace, and I don't think that's really necessary for our game.
The three-point line, I've said this before, I don't think it's going to affect the game that much because you had two lines out there, and to be honest, our kids, we shot behind the men's line more times than we didn't. I went back and watched some footage when I got my first question about that, and really it wasn't -- most of our shots were from behind their arc. I don't think it'll be as significant as maybe what people are thinking it'll be.
Do I think field-goal percentages from the arc will go down? Yes, but they have anyway because kids play a lot of summer ball and they don't spend as much time individually in the gym with repetition on getting their shots up. That's just across the board. I don't think it has anything to do with moving the line.

Q. Are you able to evaluate Madison at this point versus the player you recruited and where she is health-wise with her game?
SUZY MERCHANT: You know, she's probably about 80, 85 percent right now. They went back in in June and cleaned up some things in her knee that were a little bit of an issue for her. That set her back about four more weeks. But at the same time, she's tough, she sat a whole year. It was really important on October 2nd when we were able to start practice that she was on the floor and not in the corner riding a bike or lifting her leg up and down. Just the mental aspect of being part of the team in a role that was significant was important, and we accomplished that goal. And she's been doing every single drill we have, every scrimmage session. Her biggest issue is getting her lungs back, getting her in a position where she can go up and down for longer periods of time for an aerobic pace. That's our biggest challenge right now.

Q. You talked about your versatility being a strength, but also defense has always been really the cornerstone for what you're doing. However, in a very guard-oriented or at least a lot more guard-focused up and down, a lot of coaches talk about being a lot more up and down this season, does that change things for you defensively, are you looking at or stressing putting more pressure on the ball in the backcourt or anything at all defensively that you think you're going to have to do to be even more competitive than you have been from a defensive position?
SUZY MERCHANT: I think we're pretty proud of our defense at Michigan State, and we've statistically been the best team in the league defensively in most categories certainly last year, and rebounding, as well. Those two things. We were plus-8 rebounding, which was top ten in the country and didn't start anyone over 6'1".
Am I emphasizing more? Sure, I think I'm doing a lot more teaching this year than I've had to do in the past just because we've had more of a veteran group and understanding, so slowing down a little bit more. Working on our bigs being able to handle perimeter players, that's something that is -- we do every day, closeouts every single day, defending down screens, flare screens, double stags, and Madison has got to be able to do that, Becca has got to be able to do that, Jasmine Hines got to be able to do that.
So our big post players have to be able to handle situations that are going to put them away from the basket, and that's the way the game has gone, and you don't want to render someone ineffective.
So our biggest thing defensively right now is maybe less about what other people are doing but what are we going to be able to accomplish with some key people on the floor with their size and not be put in a position where we're compromised defensively.
I haven't gone through a lot of that with Allyssa DeHaan. I feel like we're pretty equipped and we understand like that's going to happen. We certainly open up the year with Villanova in New York City and Villanova is a five-out team, flare screens, curls, flips, we understand that we're going to get it right out of the gate. We're used to that.
And then there's teams in our league that really run kind of that motion, five-out-type offense. A lot of our veteran kids understand how important it is to be able to guard your man one-on-one, and at the same time be in held position, so we've focused a lot on that.

Q. You lost three significant players but none more significant than losing a four-year starter at the point guard position, and Jasmine Thomas has come along and I know you have a freshman coming in. Where do you see that position coming in in regards to your team and the success of your team?
SUZY MERCHANT: Yeah, that's a great question. That's probably the key for us. Inexperience is the best word for it. Jasmine has played a backup role for us for two years and has done a good job, but she's never been relied on night in and night out for performance, and to run a team, and she's had some up and downs and some challenges. Our freshman coming in out of Chicago, I just love her, Kiana Johnson. She's got a swagger, a confidence about her. She understands the game. She's quick. She can score deep threes. She can get to the rim. How is she as a leader? I think that'll be her biggest challenge, but I can tell you this, this is a team that is behind her, and they've verbally talked to her about stepping forward. They're behind her. They want her to lead them. It doesn't matter how old they are. They know how important it is for a point guard to be that strong leader, and they've kind of opened the door for her to step through, and she's doing it.
You're right, that's a key position for us that you lose a four-year starter at the point guard position as important as Kalicia was, as important as Cetera was, there's something about a point guard that can just carry a presence, and that's the unknown for us certainly.

Q. Going back to Lykendra Johnson, are you anticipating her getting a significant number of minutes at three this year than with maybe being on the court with her and Madison and Becca?
SUZY MERCHANT: Yeah, there's some things we can do offensively and defensively that put her in a position to do that, to go have the opportunity to go back and forth. I think early on we'll kind of keep her in that post position just because of her leadership. She's coming off her best numbers and most significant numbers in a Spartan uniform, so to change her position kind of wouldn't make a whole lot of sense.
I've had experience with that. I did that with Cal trying to get her on the court in the past where maybe we had an Aisha Jefferson, Loren Aitch, Allyssa DeHaan, kept those kids and I put Cal at the 3 one year. She just wasn't as impactful. And not saying that L.J. can't play that because her first two years she was a 3 man. But she's coming off a significant Defensive Player of the Year Award and then turn around and put that as a double-double number basically night in and night out for us and a First Team All-Conference performer. I think our focus is going to be keeping her where she's at and building from there.

Q. I have to ask you about last week. The football break team beating Wisconsin, you're so close with the men's team, the football team. Were you there, and what's that experience been like for your team to sort of experience what that was like?
SUZY MERCHANT: Yeah, we've had two really great back-to-back weekends there in football. We beat our rival at U of M and then turned around and had the Wisconsin Badger game. I was actually on the 10-yard line. I had some duties with homecoming, and so I was at the 10-yard line, at the end that it happened, so I couldn't tell if he was over the line or not. But I was like about 20 yards from where the officials were kind of in their little circle there. And I just thought to myself as a coach, they're never going to call this a touchdown, right, they've got to play it out. But that replay is just really impressive, that they can do that and get the call right.
I've never been to a game with 77,000 people, after that happened and the cheering took place, nobody left, nobody moved. It was probably a combination of the shock and the awe of what just happened, at the same time just watching those boys celebrate, and nobody left. It was like 15, 20 minutes before anybody started to file out. It was just an amazing night. Those are plays that championships are made of right now. That's how championships are won. You just need that one little thing to go your way, and really neat to be so close to it.
I actually then watched Kirk Cousins jump -- he was right next to me, he jumped into the stands to hug his mom and dad and family. That was cool. I got a picture and got to Tweet that right. So right in the mix. But it was neat. We had some pretty big recruits in that weekend, too, so that was even better.

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