Ohio State 54, Michigan State 53
2/24/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 24, 2011
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Michigan State Head Coach Suzy Merchant
On this team winning the Big Ten Title...
I don't think you get into the top by accident. They have a tremendous amount of chemistry. They play very well together and they are tremendous leaders. That permeates everywhere. They are close knit. They don't play with each other, they play for each other. They gave it everything they had.
On getting a piece of the net...
You don't get one every single year. You don't get this kind of chemistry. They are very low-maintenance kids and they come to work every day. Good things happen. I felt like it was a great battle and nobody can take away that we are Big Ten Champions.
On a defining moment...
Well I don' t think there is a defining moment that can predict the future. I really appreciate how this team can focus on what is going on right now. We are not getting ahead of ourselves. It how are you defending ball screens against this team and what you have to do offensively to be on top. We are a team that keeps the most important thing in from of them which is the game.
On prepping for the next game...
Tomorrow we are back to work. We will have a film session. We have another game to prepare for. Season is not over. We have to play our best basketball heading into the post-season.
On the post-season plan...
I like our approach. The girls have really come together and know what our whole season is about. We prepare all year long for the conference season and now we head into that survive and advance mode for the Big Ten Tournament. It is not going to be easy. I doesn't matter what seed you are. Not only are you looking at a challenging race of teams, but you are looking at back to back to back nights.
Ohio State Head Coach Jim Foster
On the defense in the final 10 minutes of the game...
Well we played great defense down the stretch. They went to the same kind of strategy they used at our place. They just wanted to drive us and we just finally got down in a stance and moved our feet a lot better and rotated a lot better, and we were much more effective defensively as a result.
On the game plan for Jantel Lavender and the job that she did...
When she took her time she got great shots, rushed a couple, but we rushed a couple. This is one of those games, I say this to my team all the time, `ugly games determine how good you are.' We've had a sequence of games where we scored 90 points, we scored 89 points, we scored 83 points, but those games are easier to win. But when it's not going in, I should say when you don't score field goals for a certain period of time, how do you will yourself to win a game. I think you could probably say Tayler got hit and then you got 10.4 to go. With Amber on the ball the whole goal was to make their kid really have to work hard bringing the ball up, try to turn her as often as you can, eat as much clock as you can. Then it comes down to she's got to make that shot because there is not enough time to get an offensive rebound and put it back. I just thought Stokes just played absolutely terrific, terrific defense in that situation. There's no options, there's nobody open, there's nothing to do so the player that has the ball has to take it upon herself to try to win the game and she did that, she did exactly what she should have done, Amber just made it a really difficult shot.
On when your offense isn't going well, what do you do...
Again, if you're not scoring you have to get stops. That's been the hardest thing to get through to this team. It's almost poetic justice to win a game at this time of year, at this phase of the year, in a place like this, having to do what we've told them all year long we have got to get better at. We've got to understand what stops are, how important they are, and how much they matter. This is a pretty talented offensive basketball team I think that they had relied too much on their offense and not enough on their defense. So a better job tonight.
