Post-Game Quotes: Northwestern
1/10/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Michigan State head coach Suzy Merchant
On defense...
That's been something that we've been working a little more on lately, and I just haven't been super excited on our ability to guard the people in front of us. We have been getting broken down a little bit, and we spent a lot of time in the past couple weeks on that. I also think we did a good job in our zone protecting the paint and athletically we are capable of getting out to some of the shooters, while being able to back in up inside and not allowing people to penetrate.
On Branndais Agee...
Branndais [Agee] is so good at the top of her zone. She is so long and has active hands and can cover the high post. She is really aggressive in her jump-switch situations. She really ignites us out there. The quick reversals against the zone, that's how you make the zone shift is to swing, swing, swing. She does a really good job with her hands protecting the high post as well. Offensively, Branndais [Agee] is extremely skilled. People forget about her with Aerial [Powers] and Tori [Jankoska], but she is an extremely talented kid. She can create her own shot and any time in a women's game when you have someone that can create their own shot, you know you have something special. She's also really worked on her outside shooting because during her true freshman year there were times when people wouldn't even guard her, but now she's high 30 or 40 percent shooter right now. She's doing a really great job with being confident from there and then she can get by people. She has a great pull-up jumper and can get to the rim, so she really gives us our third attack. It really helps our offense and allows us to put more numbers up.
On high energy in this game and having it in the future...
This is a grind. It is a long season and you never get too high or too low as a coach. You kind of just have to fix the problems that you have or look at some weaknesses and try to improve on them. I think our kids have done a good job of staying mentally and physically focused and fresh. They are really working hard and they know it is a grind. We play today, we play Wednesday, we turn around and play Saturday, we turn around and play Tuesday and then again over the weekend so we've got a tough stretch right now coming in. To me it's about doing our job, being as focused as you can be, whatever the situation is, and I think our kids are very motivated. They were disappointed with the loss at Ohio State and we are all really motivated to be the best team we can be and get better at some of the things we need to so we can get victories in tight situations.
On working on defense...
We have really been working hard at it and we have really been looking at and focused on some of the scouting reports. Some kids are lefties, some are jump-shooters, some are right to left scorers, things like that. I give the kids all the credit in the world because it's one thing to talk about it, but it's another thing to focus in on in the game. I feel like in the past couple games we've been really good at taking away the strengths against good teams.
On physical game...
I knew right out of the gate that it was going to be a physical game because they changed their starting lineup. They put Pallas [Kunaiyi-Akpanah] in there to match up with [Jasmine] Hines. I know that's why they did it, for more physicality. And they are long, they are big. They got away from us a little bit in the first half and they came out of the gates in the second half and did a really good job of getting some momentum. We called that timeout and our kids really responded and that shows a little bit of the veteran group that we have out there. With the exception of Morgan [Green], four out of the five kids out there have played a lot of minutes. I was really proud of how we responded to that timeout. They cut the lead to eight and then we got that thing back up to 17. I was really proud of how we responded to that.
