Post-Game Quotes: Michigan Tech
11/8/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Michigan State coach Suzy Merchant This is a starting point, I give Michigan Tech a lot of credit, they are a really good Division II team, ranked top-ten in the country and only lost three games last year with four starters returning. In my mind I was like ‘Who scheduled this game?', but it was me. I appreciate what they brought and the way they played. They are well-coached and I thought they brought a lot of intensity and really just made adjustments as the game went on. As soon as we started running our break they just sent everybody back and just did a lot of different things that made the game, the flow was different is probably the best thing to say. Positive things, though, we have 22 assists on 25 baskets, we have four kids in double figures, we did a pretty good job for the most part defensively. One kid got away from us, we didn't put them at the foul line â€" turnovers and fouls were something I was a little worried about as we had them in practice and in the scrimmage. I was proud of our kids for being able to handle that situation and make sure we didn't give them free points at the free throw line.
On having 13 players to play…
Well I'm looking forward to the fourteenth, Aerial, when she comes back. It was nice; it was good and bad, because some of those kids played a lot of minutes last year. It is encouraging and I think Izzo talked about this in his first press conference was that during the first half you're just trying to get people out there to play and get the jitters out, so it's hard to get the flow going when you're doing that, but it's important because you're going to need them later. It's certainly something I haven't been used to in a long time, that's for sure.
On playing a lot of different people…
We had scrimmaged at Toledo and that was good, but you know you can make mistakes and nobody sees you, there's no lights on, no uniforms on, no one in the stands because it's a closed-scrimmage, so I think you can see from the scrimmage with our young kids, which we have, you really look at our roster and our starting lineup, you only have on kid that played extended minutes last year and that's Tori. Branndi [Agee] sat out last year Jasmine [Hines] basically sat out, Morgan [Green] is new, Akyah [Taylor] is back here, so you have your five starters â€" one of them has really been in the flow, but you could see a little bit there were some deer in the headlights, a little bit of nervousness out of the new kids. It did feel good to play somebody else and I'm glad we had the opportunity to play such a good team like Michigan Tech.
On playing Tori (Jankoska) 37 minutes…
Yes and no. We don't have a lot of experience with Aerial [Powers] not on the court so to me you have to have a glue guy. The whole thing that Tori does is that she does defend both ends â€" she defends and she can score. Was it ideal to play her 37 minutes? No. But, that kid also can play those kinds of minutes for us.
On Aerial [Powers'] status…
She's good; she started practicing this week so we'll see. It's sort of a work in progress, but she's really trying to get there. She did step in some live drills yesterday and going up and down a little bit, so for her it's sort of a day to day thing.
On Branndais[Agee]…
She does a good job, the problem is she is a kid that hits her wall a little bit from a fatigue standpoint. She hasn't played in a year and even prior to that, that's one kid that as good as an athlete that she is, the way her body works, she hits that point of exhaustion a little faster than a kid like Tori [Jankoska] or Aerial [Powers]. We were really trying tonight, and I wanted her to push through, which I think the best way to get in the best shape is to play the game. I loved her energy, and I think she did a really good job for us at both ends of the floor. Now we just have to make sure that when she does get tired we get her out and give her a rest. She's so much better when she's not fatigued.
On Jasmine [Hines]…
It's good to have her back. She's a beast in there we have a lot of subs at the four and five positions, so it was good just to get her out there and to let her play through her fatigue because it's been a while since she played in a game up and down. I think she did a nice job, I think there was a couple more opportunities that she has to do a better job finishing things when she gets in there. I liked her minutes. I thought she have us really good minutes. It's not easy for a big kid to have to defend a guard on the perimeter. The way they played their offense, it was like they were almost playing five guards a lot of the time so it was good for her. She had to labor a little bit and fight through some things, but I liked what I saw.
