Post-Game Quotes: Idaho State
11/21/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
MSU head coach Suzy Merchant
On getting off to a fast start…
It was important in this game for us, too. I think it was the third game of the week, and we came off a good win against Georgia, and to come out well early and I thought our kids did a really good job of setting the tone. Then after that, it was like we got it and went through the motions a little bit in some areas, so that was disappointing, but you have to give Idaho State a lot of credit; I thought they did a good job of trying to eliminate certain things from us and really packing the paint, they wouldn't really guard anyone outside the paint, so good thing this year that we've got kids who can shoot it. I don't think you can play us like that for very long, or if you do, I think we're going to win the game. We didn't play our best basketball today, but we got through it.
On spreading the ball around…
I'm really proud of that. We got 25 assists on 32 field goals, and Tori had nine of them, that's a kid that is a big scorer for us as well. I think last year we might not have had some playmakers and kids who can make plays, and I think this year, if they double (Jasmine) Hines, she can kick it out and get assists that way, as well as our point guard play as well as our twos and threes have the ability to put the ball on the floor and set people up.
On limiting the number of fouls…
Our goal is to not get them into a bonus situation in a quarter and with three minutes left in the second they were in the bonus, and seven minutes in the third, so our second and third were not very good when it comes to that. It's frustrating because I think we do a pretty good job when we'll have a barrage of silly ones sometimes. To me, it wasn't as bad on the hand-checking side, but had a lot of off-the-ball fouls, loose-ball fouls, offensive rebounding fouls, and those are the ones we need to clean up, because even it doesn't result then, later down the line with the situation now with the new rules, five fouls and you're shooting two free throws, it's just not worth it. It's not worth it to get a silly foul and send someone to the line 94 feet from the basket for two free points. So I have mixed emotions. It's better than our last game for sure, and we're really working on that, but we do have to clean up some of those situations.
On Tori Jankoska reaching her 1,000th career point.…
The thing about Tori is that she's a really good scorer, right, and usually when kids are hitting their 1,000th career points this early in their career, the only thing they really care about is how many points they score, and what I think makes Tori so special, and Aerial (Powers) was like this too, is that it is about the team. The kid, on the night she scored her 1,000th point, she led her team with nine of 25 assists. She's a special young lady, there's no question. I've loved coaching her. I've loved having her, she's tough, she's great, she's competitive, and you just know she's going to find a way. So it doesn't surprise me that she scored her 1,000th point so early in her junior year. I'll tell her that she has another 1,000 to go. We'll take that. But at the same time, I'll just take her leadership, her toughness, her grit. I just appreciate the kind of person she is.
