Post-Game Quotes
4/3/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
April 3, 2008
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Michigan State Head Coach Suzy Merchant
On pulling off the win...
We didn't always play well, but I thought there were some pretty key moments. Whether it was the defensive rebounds here or a steal there, or a couple of key shots. If you put them together at the right time, good things can happen. I thought it was another good experience for our kids to have to fight and find a way to win the ball game.
On Mia Johnson...
They clearly felt like they could rattle our guard play a little bit and we really needed Mia (Johnson). She can handle the basketball, she does a really good job of making decisions, and at the same time, we needed some production from her at the offensive end. I think by switching and playing some zone mixed in with our man, she could play on the floor for longer periods of time.
On coaching against Kay Yow...
You start off in this profession admiring a lot of people. Even when you don't know someone when you're a young coach, I think you always aspire to represent them in certain ways. Kay Yow is someone who has really changed the profession for us. Everything you hear about how her players feel about her is how you hope your kids feel about you someday.
N.C. State Head Coach Kay Yow
On the disappointment following the loss...
Well you know I really am disappointed because both of us have really young teams. Of course we call ourselves the "8 Iron Women" right now because we are down to eight players. There are a lot of injuries on our team but it was very important with a young team to get this far and really hope to have a chance to play in the next game. So it's very disappointing. There's no question about it.
I'd like to say this, Michigan State, they played a great game. They did what they needed to do to win the game. I told Coach Merchant before the game that I know she did a great job at Eastern Michigan University. I know she's from Michigan, this is a great match for her, Michigan State, and I think she will do well and do great things here. So I think it's a credit to her preparation and just getting her kids ready.
I would like to also say that we really enjoyed playing in front of your fans. They're terrific fans. The large crowd, that pleases me just for women's basketball. The support, the people who came out, we notice everything. The minute we entered the building tonight we said, `Wow, they do things right here at Michigan State.' Just all the people that we met from getting off the bus, coming into the building, doing everything - I think you should know you have a lot to be proud of. They treated it as a big game, important, and they made us feel good as guests The fans were terrific at receiving our team as well. So there was a lot we really liked about the atmosphere and environment here.
Even though it's so disappointing to lose the game because when we hit the shot that put us ahead I thought we might get it at that point and then we just made a couple of errors that really hurt.
On trying to stop DeHaan...
She has such a nice shooting touch, as you can tell when she shoots free throws. A lot of post players don't have that shooting touch the way that she does. She's just really good at it. I guess our plan was to just try and be as physical as we could and not let her get really deep in the paint if we could help it. And then when she did get really deep in the paint hopefully we might get help, especially second half we went to a little more help from our other post player to come over if we needed to double her for a minute or two, to hopefully make her give the ball up.
On DeHaan's last basket...
I wish the shot had been short. Unfortunately, it wasn't, it was a little long. And we just talked about it in the locker room, and said one thing I hope that they might take from this game for next year and forever is to remember this because we talk about it a lot is weak side rebounding. You have to cover weak side. We really made sure to contest the shot. The last thing I said in the timeout before we went out there is, we can't foul, we have to contest the shot but we have to box out, no second shots. And when the shot went up we just looked sort of frozen and we never flowed to weak side as the shot was being taken. All those three players, stayed with that one player (Keane), and it just left her (DeHaan), she was in the right spot at the right time. She was right where it came off, got it and of course she is a very good shooter and she just put it in.
