Syracuse vs. Louisville
January 5, 2008
Syracuse, N.Y. - Carrier Dome
Opening Statement:
“I just want to start off by saying that we really competed tonight and that’s what we talked about before the game started. We just wanted to make sure that we go out there and that we competed. I tell you what, this arena is becoming a home-court advantage for us, because our fans were into it, They really pulled us through, They were cheering; they were loud. It’s just becoming a great place for us to get into the Dome and play basketball. Our players played really hard and when you get an atmosphere like that, when people see you and they’re really behind you, it does something for you. I thought that in the second half when we started pulling away, that the fans willed that lead from 10 to 12 to 18 to 20 and they did a great job. Hats off to our players, obviously we had a very good game plan for McCoughtry. We held her to ten points and she’s leading the nation in scoring right now at about 25 points a game and we did an awesome job; a good team effort. A lot of the game, we just guarded her and ran a few traps at her here and there and it really frustrated her. I just have to give all of the credit to my kids. They really followed the game plan, and they really stepped up and played hard.”
On the play of Nicole Michaels in the second half:
“I tell you what, players make plays. We always said that and it’s funny because that’s my thing that she and I spoke about when I was recruiting her. She had to come in here and make plays and I’m always telling her, ‘Step up and be a player.’ She did it; she made some big shots for us in the second half. In the second half, Chandrea really got going and we were very physical and very aggressive playing at the basket. What can I say about Erica? She really just controlled the game. Tasha got in foul trouble and Cintia got banged up and she was a little injured. So we had to put Erica at the point a little bit and I just thought that our players made plays.”
On handling the Louisville press:
“We’ve seen it and we practiced against it, obviously, but you can’t simulate that kind of pressure and that kind of team speed. We got into what we wanted to get into; we wanted to get somebody into the middle of the floor, so they didn’t take us out of what we wanted to do. We made a couple of loopy passes and we didn’t step to a few passes. Our goal was to get the floor spread, to get somebody into the middle of the floor and either throw it over the top or up the middle. But we threw a couple of flat passes and you know when you’re playing that way and you’re up, you know that eventually you’ll settle down and take care of it. And at the end of the game when they were putting pressure on us and we threw the ball away a couple of times, we were getting the ball in the deep corners, it was one of those things where if a team has nothing to lose at that point, they have to press, they have to trap, they’re going to get some steals at that point, because they’re being overly aggressive. They’re doing things they wouldn’t normally do. They took a few chances, and it paid off for them, but at the end we just made a few more plays.”
On Syracuse’s play in the second half:
“I think that if we continued to move the ball into our players’ hands, you know, get the ball in Chandrea’s hands, Slinky’s hands, Erica’s hands, I knew we could make plays, so I really wasn’t that concerned. We were up two at halftime, as bad as we were playing, I was relieved, and because I thought we very easily could have been down by 10 or 12. In the second half, we just came out, made one minor adjustment at halftime and took advantage of what we saw and executed in the second half. We saw some matchups we needed to take advantage of. We just knew we had to keep people closer to the basket so we could rebound the ball offensively and we just wanted to make sure that we got the ball into the player’s hands where we had favorable matchups. “
On the team’s three-point shooting:
“I think that everybody has been waiting for that. You guys have no idea how much we shoot everyday in practice. I never worry about having open shots, I worry about getting shots. If we get shots, we’re going to have a pretty good percentage because we have very good offensive players, so normally for me, it’s not about making shots; it’s about getting good shots. We got good shots and we made them.”
On the season as a whole so far:
“It’s a long season to go and every game is a winnable game. We knew that if we came out and played well and we knew that if we competed and played as hard as we could, we had a chance to win this game. I don’t want to act like I’m not happy, because obviously I am, but I never had any doubt that if we played the way we played tonight we would win the basketball game. We have 15 more to go, so if we go 1-15, we’re still in trouble, so we have a lot of games left. This is one game and we have to continue to play hard. Obviously, I’m very happy and very excited about the win, but we have 15 more games to play and this is the toughest conference in America. We have to be ready to play the next game.”