Michigan State 67, Vermont 33
12/21/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 21, 2010
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Michigan State Head Coach Suzy Merchant
On capitalizing off Vermont's mistakes ...
I don't think we played very well offensively and we didn't shoot the ball particularly well tonight. Because of that we found different ways to score and a lot of that came from the defensive side. We were doing a good job of getting in passing lanes.
On Michigan State's defense...
I feel like sometimes this team got away with things that we won't be able to in the Big Ten. My expectation of everybody is to get around and use our quickness. That was a little disappointing. I am not really sure how to gauge how many points people score. You don't know how they compare to Big Ten opponents. I don't think we are going to see that as much. I think the Big Ten is top to bottom as good as it has been in a long time. I like our intensity but I think there are a lot of issues we have to clean up.
On being 12-1...
I am proud of the girls. I think they have found a way to win. We play really good competition as well. I do think we have learned a lot about ourselves and we kind of know what our strengths and our weaknesses are. There are areas we need to improve on. I think it is a good opportunity for us to go home and have coaches reflect and really evaluate and start to prepare ourselves for the Big Ten season by looking at some film of teams and see what they are doing and how they are doing it so we come back ready to go. I am a big proponent of the Christmas holiday and the break. I am thrilled we have the by because I have always wanted a little more time around the holidays. I think it is really tough to ask the kids to come back on the 26th and turn around and play the 28th. I don't think that is good for the student-athlete welfare with the season as long as it is. It is a time of reflection.