Post Game Quotes: Northwood
11/6/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Michigan State head coach Suzy Merchant
Opening Statement
So you know just sort of a little bit sloppy. Just up and down. There were parts that I thought we looked really good and there were spurts where you know we needed to do a much better job at both ends of the floor. We got off to a slow start. I don't know if those were jitters. There were a few kids out there that hadn't been there before, so sometimes it's the newness of you know everybody is in the stands. We did preseason scrimmage and did really well in that. But then I think in games with families and officials things kind of go a little different, but we did some good things and there are some things that obviously we have to improve on and it's early in the season.
On Hana Vesela's performance
I think she blends herself to a little bit of a different match up situation. She doesn't really score on the block, as she's 6-5 almost 6-6 and then she's got really nice up space skills. And she's worked really hard on her shots. She's put a lot of time into the gym. She can extend the defense a little bit by her ability to pick pop and shoot threes on the front runner, and she's really good at running and transitions. So, it was nice to see her have the opportunity. We had a lot of veteran kids out there last year, and she didn't get as many reps, but to her credit, she has committed herself to get into the gym every day. Working an hour every day on her own. Working on her shot and really committing to that game difference.
On Tori Jankoska's performance
Tori is Tori. She's probably the most competitive kid on our team. She plays with that kind of intensity and toughness that you need. People need to understand that they need to follow her and that's a part that's not happening right now. Kind of getting her edge and her attitude. It was hard to start the game with her at the one, but we felt like in the scrimmage and some of the things that transpired from the scrimmage that ---- deserved the start and that meant that Tori had to move to the one, which she's fine with. But she's definitely more comfortable when she's in the two. As soon as we put Tara in the two, she can hit three threes. There's no question that she's in a different attack mode when she's in the 2 vs the 1. But at the same time, I'm just really proud of her the way she started and the statement she made. She's coming off a little bit of a shoulder injury. She got hurt in the Toledo scrimmage and hasn't done much since. And she only played seven or eight minutes in that scrimmage. It's her shooting shoulder, and she didn't really get many rebounds like she normally does, because she didn't want to get hit again and she took a really nasty fall and it could have been an end of the season kind of fall so it was pretty nerve wracking for a couple of days, but to see her play with a lot of intensity. Proud of her.
On the slow start
Just missed layups. Make the layups down there. Really, we had really good looks, and we were really soft in the paint early on and we had to fight you know to get around. We have to give them credit, we were a little bit flat but we got after that timeout, we got back and needed to get but definitely that was something that we got have to look at and we've done that a couple of times so I'm trying to find the right combination but we need to do a better job of finishing and we established that we wanted to go in there. The Kenny kid was guarding Jenna who was 6-4 and she wasn't very physical with her,s and I thought she got toughed out early. We have to fix that problem. It's not a major concern I think it was just a little bit on the softer side.
Northwood Head Coach Jeff Curtis quotes:
On Lindsay Orwat's performance…
Yeah she's definitely going to take on a bigger role. As the season progressed last year she was able to get more and more minutes. And you know, she's a division one transfer coming from Oakland, so you know she got a little bit of that experience behind her, too. Yeah, she's going to have to step into that role for us but I think that Lindsay's capable of scoring 20 plus for us every night in our league, so hopefully that's what happens.
On Jordyn Nurenberg's role…
Jordyn is, she's the best player we've had in our program. I mean, plain and simple. She's been the heart and sole of our program the last two years. She's a very special player and she's likely gunna walk out of here as the school's All-time leading rebounder and scorer and those are players that don't often come around too often so, that's a testament to her. She's worked hard over her career and we're thrilled with her production. She's going to have a great senior year. I know she has stitches and that's about all I know. So hopefully she's okay.
On basketball talent in the Lansing area…
Well, I was born and raised here. So, for me, it's great to be able to recruit back in our hometown and look at this great talent that they have here. You know, there has been a ton of talent in the last five to six years that we've been able to get and we've been able to get a couple of those kids and they've really been able to help us out. We're going to continue to try and get those kids. Lansing kids are really talented.
