Post-Game Quotes: Georgia
11/18/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Michigan State head coach Suzy Merchant
On team having swagger
We certainly have some kids back that I think are extremely talented, but a lot of that comes from work ethic. We say confidence comes from preparation and a lot of these kids are in the gym on their own working on their game and that transfers. You call it swag, I call it confidence. It's my job to make sure we don't get too confident. There's a fine line between confidence and cockiness.
Describe the things that Morgan (Green) brought today as the point guard?
She's a scorer and a really good defensive guard for as small as she is. She was three assists away from a triple double, but I think her better days are coming. Once we get Aerial in there, we can really begin to set her up too.
Talk about the difficultness of getting into a rhythm with the game being called as it is?
No one wants to come to watch 54 fouls being called. I mean I have struggled with what is and what isn't a foul sometimes, and we have to clean that up. I would like to take away the hand checking. Nobody comes to watch us shoot free throws or crash the board for whistles. We are trying to change the game to go to four quarters and speed up the game, but you have to look at all the touch fouls you are calling. Fifty-four fouls called is just too many.
On the defensive pressure and the way Morgan speeds up your game
She has a tremendous IQ for the game and ability to get in a passing lane or provide strong-side help. She and Akyah (Taylor) both have helped our defense be better earlier, and one thing that they do is communicate. Then, when you throw in Tori (Jankoska), who is underrated as a defender, and you add (Jasmine) Hines back in there, it's a recipe for some positive things defensively.
On rebounding after offensive slump
We have to attack, because I thought we got a little jump shot happy. I thought we came out and were really aggressive defensively and pushed the tempo. Then they adjusted on some things, and we were settling for quick outside shots. You always want to be the one to ignite yourselves and move more north to south and get to the free throw line. The other thing that we talked about is how [Georgia] is a good team and in a good league. The SEC is never going to go away; you're not going to blow people out by 40 or 50 points, so you know they are going to come back. I liked the fact that we came back and were resilient and came out stronger than they did. We did a good job of putting our foot on the gas and getting back to those things that we did early in the first quarter.