Michigan State 82, Detroit 42
11/21/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 21, 2010
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Michigan State Head Coach Suzy Merchant
On the play of Annalise Pickrel and Taylor Alton coming off the bench...
Yeah I think they (Annalise Pickrel and Taylor Alton) gave us a great spark. I thought our entire bench looked at us a little better. Jasmine Thomas, even though she didn't shoot real well, created offense for us by the pace that she played. I was really happy to see Taylor do that because I see her do that every day at practice. She is a great shooter and has a high I.Q. of the game. She knocks them down at practice. You know, she does the little things that don't make the stat sheet. I felt every time we put her in she got a little nervous on game night, just didn't perform to her expectations, I thought. So, it was really good to see her relax and play. It is what she always does; It is what she does at three o'clock every day. We couldn't play Kelsey today. She kind of had a knee injury yesterday in practice. We expect her back but this gave her an opportunity and she made the best of it. I definitely think Annalise came into the game and gave us a spark. She is kind of like an Energizer bunny, as they say. She gives us instant offense and defensive energy.
On the play of the Jasmine Thomas...
I think it would be huge and I think she would be in the starting lineup somehow, some way. I thought she and Brittany (Thomas) on the floor were good at times today. But, it is good to have competition. She showed up at Baylor. You know she wasn't 1-for-7, she actually knocked down shots. I think she plays a little fearless, and I like that. Sometimes her decision making has to grow and mature in that way. But, no question, we need a point guard that can score it, run something, push it tempo, create shots for other people and that's the kind of point guard she can be.
On the play of the bench...
Well, we have been going 10 deep. You know, our starting five with five more as a rotation. You get to a point where you don't know if you can continue that. But at this point, we have been able to. Is there going to be a point where we have to siphon it down, I don't know. It makes us hard to scout, when you look at that. The opportunity to go five and Kelsey didn't go tonight, so actually we would technically go eleven deep tonight. I don't know if that is a good thing, or bad thing right now. We are really focusing on our turnovers and taking care of the ball. Anytime a kid turns it over, they are coming out. We just can't give it back to people, and hopefully over time that turns into better decisions.
On bouncing back after Baylor...
Well, I was pleased. The first seven minutes of the game were a little sluggish. We had a tight turn around, a one game prep, and a tight turn around against a team that puts the ball on the floor extremely well. What they (Detroit) run isn't really hard, they don't run a lot of plays and double staggers, and things you need to go through. But, what they do is really hard to guard. They (Detroit) put their players in a position to be successful. I mean Autumn and her staff know what they are good at, and they are good at getting to the rim and spreading you out and setting high end ball screens. They (Detroit) did a great job trying to get miss matches. I was disappointed in our first five to seven minutes, but felt like we definitely got that out of our system and turned things up a little in both ends in both halves.
