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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2014Brandi AgeeSuzy MerchantBecca MillsINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA Nebraska - 86 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by coach Suzy Merchant. Coach, we'll go to you for an opening statement. COACH SUZY MERCHANT: Well, that might quite possible be the worst game we ever played. Give Nebraska a lot of credit though their upperclassmen and leaders really showed up and set the tone early. And then it was just kind of a snowball affect. Kids that don't even really play in the rotation were double figure scorers. We didn't have good leadership from our vets, I thought a bright spot really this whole weekend has been Brandi. She really came through for us this weekend in both games. And you like to see that. We just need more doing that. But give Nebraska a lot of credit, I thought they did a really nice job with setting the tone and really punching us in the mouth and we just kept taking it. So I guess we, it is sometimes what you get sometimes in that situation. We didn't punch back, that's for sure. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes, please. Q. Can you explain maybe why you guys didn't punch back? BECCA MILLS: I think that we were just really flat in the first half and I think that we weren't disciplined and we weren't executing. And I think that we had the effort, we thought we were making an effort, but we weren't making the right decisions and defensive positions. We wouldn't be in the right positioning and so it wouldn't matter how much we hustled. And we weren't disciplined. I think that was the biggest part. Q. Brandi, coach talked about your weekend here, how do you feel about what you've done in this tournament? BRANDI AGEE: Well, the first game I thought I did good and the second game it just wasn't enough. It was a tough loss. Q. Becca, what else kind of happened? Was there anything that they did to you guys during that run, after Hooper picked up that second foul was when they took off. Was it more you guys or something they did specifically? BECCA MILLS: You know, it was us, they came out attacking us and they were shooting the ball well and we weren't doing anything well to make a difference on that. They were beating us off cuts, shooting it in our face, but it was on us, it wasn't, they were attacking, we just weren't responding. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies. Take questions for coach. Q. You said this might be your worst game ever, you weren't kidding, right? COACH SUZY MERCHANT: No. I wasn't. Especially from a defensive perspective. I mean that first half was, I mean, as bad as you can get. We couldn't set a ‑‑ we just, we were awful. And it didn't matter what position, I felt like that our point defense was bad or whatever, the one kid we were guarding, we couldn't stop the backup. That's not a good sign. And it was bad. It was ‑‑ you can't dig a hole against Nebraska. A 10 point lead for them feels like 30. So when you're down by 23 at halftime, 30 whatever it was, more than that, I guess, I don't want to look at the stat sheet, but it was bad. It's just, it just felt monumental. So the second half, you're within five, but when you're down by 23 points, you know, you lose by 30. And to their credit, they came out and they really stuck it to us and like I said, you think you either answer or you don't. I don't think our upperclassmen vets were anywhere to be found, quite honestly. And that's what this game is about, to have a good showing for your seniors and juniors who have been here and done it, and they need to do their job. And we didn't get that out of them today. And obviously it affected what we needed to win the game. Q. Any thoughts on calling a timeout when things were starting to spiral out of control there in the first half? COACH SUZY MERCHANT: Yeah, I mean, I just felt like it was one of those things where watching it, quite honestly, you know, our kids were really making tons of excuses, quite frankly. I was just sick of it. So sometimes you got to learn a lesson and play through it. I didn't think it was going to matter. As bad as that sounds. Sometimes they got to take the heat a little bit and it wasn't about timeouts. I could have called four timeouts and be down by 30 at halftime. I mean it just was the way it was. They need to fight through some things and I felt like that was one of those situations where I wanted to see what kind of grit we had a little bit, and see if we could pull ourselves up. Because every time we ‑‑ I mean a media timeout after media timeout. How many timeouts do you need? How many more can I call? At that point I just felt like every time they came they had a reason for why they weren't performing or what was going on with the officials or each other or something. And I'm not going to add to that. I just ‑‑ sometimes you need to own up and be accountable and gut things out. And I don't think it would have made a difference, quite honestly. You get a media timeouts every four minutes, you can get your self together at that point. Q. Where do you go from here you got a week off before the selection show. What can you do? COACH SUZY MERCHANT: Well, work. I know that. I mean, obviously, we'll have a day or two off, but we got to get back and work together a little bit better. I thought we were a little ‑‑ even in the first game we were a little bit sluggish. I think that we got back to some individual focuses instead of team focuses. Really work on execution in the quarter court. We didn't pass the ball with each other. Even in that first game a lot of our offense, even against Michigan, was really created off of rebounds, it wasn't a good flowing offense and I think that's something that we have to do a better job of. THE MODERATOR: All right. Good luck, coach. COACH SUZY MERCHANT: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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