Post-Game Quotes: No. 5 Ohio State
2/27/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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Michigan State Women's Basketball Head Coach, Suzy Merchant
On Hines playing being a senior and playing probably her last game
Yeah, a double-double and a double-double with 36 points - that kid couldn't score 36 points her entire freshmen year. So to see her growth and development, I think staying the course and working hard and being the best she can be. I'm really proud of her, and you always want to go out on a positive note. Down the stretch and the shots she made and took, and her free throws were basically made for us. And I couldn't be happier. I knew we all wanted to do well, but that kid really deserved it, after the injuries she went through last year, she really deserved that on her home floor.
On winning against a top ten/five team at home
We talked a lot about that. It kind of felt like we had some things slip, and we didn't finish some things out. We were up with a 1:20 to go and, we just didn't close it out. Louisville, we made that run and we couldn't get over that hump. Obviously, it felt like Ohio State was huge after being the first game in the Big Ten season. Secondly, they knew what was at stake for Ohio State, and they wanted to make sure there wasn't a celebration on their home court. Obviously, there was some motivation there. I'm proud of our kids, and proud of the fight. And happy to see us move forward and get that key win at home.
On the discussion in the huddles and mental toughness of the team though three overtimes
There were times I had to tell the girls to stop coaching and start playing. Aerial (Powers) and Tori (Jankoska) were like you shouldn't have called a time out there, and I'm like can you guys just let me coach and you guys can concentrate on what's going on in the game. Obviously, there was some of that going on. I think they did a great job. In the huddles, we were mainly focusing defensively on closing gaps on Kelsey (Mitchell). She's such a dynamic player. And we probably should have done a better job on her down the stretch. Her efficiency is off the chart, we knew she was going to take those huge shots. The biggest thing down the stretch is that they run this sort of in-pin down the screen and inside the zone where you can let the guy take the guy one on one and she got away from us about three or four times, and we let her go to the line. And we talked about huddling up and getting on top of that so that we could close that gap and force her to get rid of it and give it to somebody else. Then, we also talked in the huddles about offensively how we needed to get the ball inside because they have no answer for Hines, and I thought she did a real nice job keeping her balance up. Alexa Hart's a great shot blocker. Hines had great poise and what the defense gave her, and I think our kids did a good job of giving the ball to her. So that's mainly what we talked about in the huddles, getting our kids the ball and closing gaps on Kelsey (Mitchell).
On Powers' missed layup
We tried to get her just right. She was so emotional, and that's what makes her good. You know, her emotions make a great player, but it can sometimes work the other way. I was thinking about dribbling it out, but then she had such an easy lane, so I said let's just take the points. So I didn't think the decision she made was bad, or else I would have called it off. She was coming right towards us on our side, I just didn't think that would happen and obviously I didn't think she didn't either. Just trying to get her mind back in the moment, because she's a kid that really dwells on it, and we can't change what happened. We just had to get the stop, and she found a way to get herself together. Especially the kids that had a lot of fouls. We had a lot of kids that had four fouls down the stretch. We were just trying to get Aerial back in the moment, and what she could control which was the next play.
On performances throughout the three overtimes
Yeah we had some kids give us great minutes who were our key guys, and then we had some other key guys give us some good minutes too. But, when certain people are playing that well, it's just like you have to ride it. You don't want to change the momentum. That was it, mostly that way. One more overtime, I was like "Oh lord". Tori hit that huge shot, and she was supposed to come off on some in-screen, and then they switched it and didn't do a good job setting that screen. So we were able to get Tori free and she made that huge three and kept us right where we needed to be. I don't know if we would have had one more in us, especially with the foul trouble we had. And I was glad we were able to kind of finish it out eventually.
On what the team is like headed into post-season
I think this is an interesting team. I was kidding around on the court when I was getting interviewed down there and said they were kind of schizophrenic. They score a lot of points, and then the next night, they can't. They can really hold someone to 43 points and 24% field goal percentage. Then the next night, they give up 100 points. We thought that was very interesting. I think the one thing I found about them is that they can morph themselves into whatever needs to happen in order to compete with the other team. Like Minnesota and Ohio State are very high-scoring offensive teams. They morph themselves into the ability to put points on the board. And other teams are more defensive teams, like Rutgers. I feel like they have been able to morph themselves into whatever the opponents' strengths are. That could be great, but that could also be frustrating too because you don't always know what you're going to get. I'm hoping that we can get a little balance in between there as we go down into postseason and the Big Ten Tournament.
Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff
On losing in overtime…
I thought we had that game won in regulation, but I guess not. It was tough. It was a great environment and both teams played hard. It was tough to come in and lose in overtime.
On Kelsey Mitchell's looks at the end of periods…
The first one was really good. She was open and looked good but the second one was certainly deep but not a bad look at that point.
On having to see what Maryland does today…
We had a chance to control our destiny today, and we did not do it so that is disappointing. I am proud of the effort though that our kids put forth today.
On number of Ohio State turnovers…
"They were tipping a lot of balls, we weren't pass faking or coming to meet balls. We started moving better in the fourth. We stood around a lot in the third quarter."
On Kelsey Mitchell's play…
"She played her heart out and competed like everyone did. She had the ball so much in her hands today, and we expect so much out of her. We tried to drive it in a couple times too much."
On Jasmine Hines' play…
"She was really good. She played great. She hurt us the last time, but nothing like this."
