Coach Quentin Hillsman Quotes
Niagara at Syracuse
December 14, 2080
Opening Statement
"Lampkins makes us a better team. She makes us faster. She makes us more athletic. I think that’s one thing we missed with Cyntia (Johnson) was having someone who is very quick and athletic who can get the ball from point A to point B. She’s a very good contrast, a very good compliment to Tasha (Harris). I thought that at the point guard position we played really, really well. When you look at our overall game and just how effective we were it was just unbelievable. Just from getting the ball from A to B. It was good to have 10 assists and three turnovers from your point guard position makes you better.
We did a very good job on the backboards. I thought we did a decent job on the defensive boards because I think we had some young kids in the game and they did miss some box-out responsibilities on the weak side. When you miss box-out responsibilities you give up 15 offensive rebounds -- that’s just way too many. We need to take care of that aspect of our game. Overall we were really worried about their three-point shooting and we held them to 14 percent (.148)behind the arc. I thought that was the key to our game. We really wanted to force tempo and try to keep our turnovers under 12. Obviously we didn’t do that -- we had 14 turnovers -- and try to keep their points under 40 and they had 54 points so overall it was a B. We should have taken care of those two aspects of our game. I’m really happy with the win so I don’t want to diminish what we did winning the basketball game. I definitely know there are a few things we need to do to make sure we can take care of our next game against Ohio University. "
Talk about the games Juanita Ward and Nicole Michael had:
"Just having them on the glass, just having them being very aggressive, that’s the game we have. We have two players getting 18 rebounds and 38 points. That’s huge out of that spot. They really imposed their will in the paint with Niagara. I knew we had an advantage in the paint and we did a very good job of scoring in the paint and being
aggressive.
Actually I don’t think it was a complete game. I really think we gave up too many rebounds. Offensive I thought we were very good and very explosive. We have to do a better job on the glass and once we do that then that would have been a complete game. If we had done a better job on weak side rebounding and making sure we keep people out of the paint."
What role do you see Lynnae (Lampkins) playing?
"It’s going to be that. She’ll be complimenting Tasha and they’ll be playing, splitting that point guard position. Chanieka actually is o.k. She has some tendinitis, nothing major, no injury it was just more she was sore it was just a good chance to rest her a little bit and to play with Lynnae. We need two-three point guards that are going to pushing that tempo. Obviously scoring 90 points against anyone is a lot of points. That’s how we want to play. I thought she came in and really forced that tempo for us."
When did she start practicing?
"Yesterday. We just showed her two or three things that we want to do. Obviously, it didn’t take me long to get yelling at her. She’s acclimated to the court and acclimated to me early so that’s positive.
I thought she played good. She did exactly what we needed her to do to force the tempo. She’s a scorer and she can make shots. None of her shots were bad except for the horse shot that went over the backboard. Other than that, I thought she took all good shots and she took open shots and that’s how our offense works. You can take open shots and when people close out you go by. I thought that for her to not know what we were doing but three things that we do it was great. She didn’t play one possession in our zone defense in practice and she came in and did some good things. We had a little junk defense to try and hide her so it wouldn’t expose her. We put her on the ball and let her guard somebody and take her out of the rotations of our zone. Then we put her in a zone and she did a good job except for a few things that are very, very easy fixes. She has a very high basketball i.q. When you have a high basketball i.q. – basketball is basketball. She plays in space and does a good job."
How was her conditioning?
"I don’t know. How did you feel, 'Nae? She’s all right. It was good to play 18 minutes at the pace we played I thought it was good. We might need to check our teams conditioning. She came in and had us playing a lot faster than we played all year. Maybe we have to get in better shape. We practice tomorrow so we’ll do some things to get in better shape tomorrow."