Michigan State 88, Dartmouth 33
12/18/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 18, 2010
Michigan State Head Coach Suzy Merchant
Opening scoring vs distributing the basketball...
It is a little bit of both. We have the ability to play inside and out. I do think they play well together. We move the ball. There are opportunities where kids could score and they draw defense and instead of getting fouled they kick it for open shooters. I think it starts with our leadership though. Brittney (Thomas), Cetera (Washington), and Kalisha (Keane) are pretty selfless kids and they work really hard to distribute and still understand that team basketball is as good as they are and individually and understand how important it is that we get better as a team.
On being surprised at the outcome so far this year...
I don't know if surprised is the right word. I am a little (surprised) in some ways because what we anticipated on November 1st of having Madison Williams involved made a big difference. Even thought we lost a lot to graduation we did feel good about the team coming back and having her presence. What it has done is force us to change our style a little bit to fit our personal. It seems to me that we have been able to pick that up easily, and I am surprised how quickly they are playing outside in basketball versus inside out basketball.
On Courtney Schiffauer's perfomance...
They were giving the chant "Mad Dog is back" in the locker room. She looked like she was relaxed and having fun out there. That is kind of what we talked about after the Western Michigan game. I felt like she was carrying the weight of the world on top of her shoulders every time she shot the ball and I was like "Have fun. This is a fun game". She looked really stressed and down and put a lot of pressure on herself and that wasn't working. Today was a good example of her doing more than just shooting the ball.
On where the team is at right now...
I think our ball screen defense has got to get better. I feel like we are not bad but we have to be able to adjust that according to teams that are out there. I think we have to do a better job on finishing at the rim. I think there are times where we miss easy buckets or easy layups. I think free throw shooting is something we continue to improve on because we can.
