Michigan State University Athletics
Post-Game Quotes: Iowa
1/16/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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Michigan State Women's Basketball Coach Suzy Merchant
On having a stronger second half...
I mean we just settled in the first half for bad shots, quite honestly. And even if they're open, or the first one in the shot clock, and it's five seconds gone on the shot clock...there's a difference between the first shot available and the best one achievable, you know. In the second half we had nine assists compared to three in the first, we're passing the ball. We were inside outside. We only took a handful of three's versus the double digits we took in the first half. You know, Aerial starting putting the ball on the floor. She needs to start doing that more than she does shooting outside three-point shots. She is unguardable in those situations. She is absolutely unguardable. I mean, she could score 20 points on drives every night. Because she's going to get a hand check call. She's going to make good decisions and pass; she does have a nice little elevation pull up jumper. But she got herself to the free throw line quite a bit because she was putting the ball on the floor instead of settling for outside, 22-foot jump shots.
I give Jasmine (Hines) a lot of credit too. I thought that in the first half she was getting no calls on getting hit and it not getting called. You know, the passes kind of bothered her so it was kind of nice to see her gather herself, get herself together in the second half and really be effective for us.
On Aerial Powers performance...
Defensively has been the biggest issue, and I think she struggled a little bit early with her conditioning. I want to think that that side of the ball probably suffered a bit. We puts some stats in front of our whole team on who was a good defender and who was not and stats don't lie. I think that she took that personal a little bit and to me the defensive side of the ball is the side of the ball that you should never, ever question. You have direct control over that side of the ball. And, I thought the first half was a little bit poor as we were worried about the offense. But in the second half, I thought we were up in our gaps, we were guarding the dribble drive and extending our hand onto their shooters. The tough thing in the second half...if we would have cleaned up a few of our offensive rebounds it would have been a little better for us since they scored a bit in the second half. But our initial defense...probably in the second half besides those few misses, that was probably one of the best performances we have had...against a very hard offense to guard.
On Iowa's Tania Davis performance...
You know you can't take everybody, you can't recruit everybody. I think she is a really good player and a great kid. I always have kind of rooted for her when she wasn't playing against us since she was a freshman. I knew she was going to be highly motivated to come in here. I mean, she's home. And I thought she played extremely well and I was happy for her. But I definitely think that we played better on her in the second half. But I give her all the credit. Sometimes when you go back home is when there's a lot more pressure on you to play well. But you know, that's the best game she's had all season long. Look at her numbers, she should be really proud of herself for the way she carried herself, and I am very happy for her. But...more happy that we won.
On consistency of Jankoska and Powers...
Obviously, it is an important part because it opens driving lanes for people like Branndais (Agee). It opens up inside post up opportunities for Hines. They hadn't played well the best couple games offensively. So to see Aerial struggle there in the first half...like she had in Indiana, really the whole game and then see her pick herself up. That's what great players do. She didn't settle; she really attacked. I kept telling them to drive the ball and she did that. She is virtually unguardable in those situations and hopefully she can really draw from that and learn from that. When she puts the ball on the floor really good things can happen for us...great offensive rebounding opportunities, we get to the line more, it helps her score points. She can take a hit and finish as well and it's great to see her come back from that.
I still don't think that's Tori's best offensive game. But defensively she was taking on some challenges of guarding a long range shooting from even short ranges. She really did some things for us. The rebounds, she took care of the ball. It was one of the best performances we have had offensively in terms of not turning it over. We only had seven turnovers after 24 last game, so that's pretty good. It was big.
On what the team worked on this week...
All defense, all defense, all defense. It's not an easy thing. It's a shell drill for forty minutes. You know they're constantly cutting and moving, and you throw in random ball screens, run that step-up screen sometimes, sometimes its an in-screen, they use them, they refuse them, you get in help situations...We really, really worked on keeping our defense tight against that type of offense. I thought our defense was really poor in the last game, and like I said that's the one side of the ball we shouldn't compromise on. I thought our kids did a really good job.
