Post Game Quotes: Ohio State
1/10/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Michigan State head coach Suzy Merchant
On Tori Jankoska's performance…
I felt like I should've bought a ticket to the game. I didn't feel like coaching watching her out there. I've seen, Aerial (Powers) had some games where she's had 22 or 20 plus in the first half but I looked up there and she had 31. Unbelievable. I wasn't worried about it because Tori's a tough kid but I was hoping that she would get to that seven sooner rather than later, and I swear I looked out and she started the game with eight points. That girl broke the record. What a way to do it, you know? In front of a really good crowd, on TV, here at home. It was just special. It was a special moment for sure. Yeah, she's been a God send since she stepped foot on this campus for sure.
On how the team performed and how this game affects the performance for the rest of the year…
I mean, you never know what you're going to be from game to game but I thought our kids had some really good focus. They paid attention to detail. We knew they were big. We had to neutralize their transition. We did some things defensively and went off a shot, those were some things we tried to do to neutralize their transition game and then keep them off the boards. I thought the third quarter they got away from us a little bit in rebounds. (Stephanie) Mavunga especially she's hard to keep off the boards. I thought our kids did a pretty good job overall. Rebounding was a big part of what we were trying to do. As far as the assists go, that's the one thing we really try to look at is make sure we're sharing the ball and I thought tonight everybody contributed. The ball moved. As much as Tori scored the ball, I also thought she had seven assists and Taryn (McCutcheon) had seven assists in 15 minutes. I thought there were some really great, key easy passes and reads that we had to give us the opportunity to score the ball more easily against them.
On taking the lead in the second quarter by double digits…
Yeah that and I thought the third quarter too, their press bothered us. But Hana's (Vesela) three was really big. I think there were a lot of big shots in that game but Hana's was really big but I mean we were in foul trouble and they can get you to do that because they play north and south and attack in the paint which makes you kind of get into scramble situations. We had three or four of our kids in foul trouble. They were playing zone, that's kind of Hana's thing. She's a good shooter and she's really been investing in that side of her game, so we felt like we should put her in because of her size and her ability to shoot the ball against the zone. Probably made a mistake kind of going with the short corner offense when she first went in. They trap there and she's not a playmaker, she's a shot taker and there's a difference. So we went to a different offense that moved her around a little bit and extended her on the wing. She got that big three. That was a really big three for sure.
On Kelsey Mitchell…
I always talk to the kids about the mind frame and the mind set of teams coming in here and you know the last time Ohio State was here we cost them a Big Ten Championship and then the last time we played them we kind of cost them another one or at least an opportunity to get one in the Big Ten Tournament so you know, if you poke a beehive you better be ready for some swarms to come at you. Now, Kelsey's a kid I have a tremendous amount of respect for because not only is she talented, but she's a great kid and she works really hard at her craft and she's a special talent and great for our game. So I was a little bit worried about an upperclassman now, a junior, a kid that can really dominate a game on both ends of the floor especially offensively. So, I didn't think that we would hold her to 13 points. No, I mean I think if the kid scores 13 points she's stepping off the bus. I mean, it's crazy how good she is. Tonight we really tried to gap her and extend and have a couple of people around her to neutralize her drive as much as we could and I thought for the most part that was pretty effective.
On Tori's ability to coach on the court…
Tori's probably one of the best kid's I've ever coached and calling plays on the court. I don't know how every football team works but some coaches let their quarterbacks, more probably in the NFL than college, but they let them kind of run plays. I've never been able to turn that over to anybody, but if there was someone that I let call every possession down the floor it would be Tori. I mean, she sees the game as a coach and I defer to her sometimes on the court. She sees things when she's out there that I don't always see so it's really nice to have a kid that can not only think the game but be impactful at the same time.
On how the win affects this young team…
You know, it builds their confidence. I think we've had a lot of freshmen playing and a lot of new kids and new faces so it's just really fun to see them get better and better. We're getting healthier, Jenna's (Allen) getting a little bit healthier. Drekia's (Mardrekia Cook) getting a little bit healthier which helps us. Everybody's playing on the floor so that helps us. We're trying to extend our bench and give everyone the confidence and as many minutes as they can based on what's going on out there. I hope that they can see that was a really good basketball team that we beat here. And that if we share the ball and defend and rebound and compete with great energy, then really great things can happen. I think they're starting to buy into their roles of what we're trying to accomplish on both ends of the floor. It's taken awhile though.
On both records Tori broke and beating the 11th-ranked team in the country…
I saw there was a lot of hype about that. I was kind of worried about that. She was on Jack Ebling's show and you guys wrote an article about it today and it was like "bam" you know, everybody knew it was coming. Sometimes kids can take that and it can be too much. It just shows you what kind of toughness and what kind of competitor Tori is. I think she knew she would break the record. I'm sure it was something that was in the back of her mind of something she wanted to do but she would rather win that game scoring 6 points than scoring 42 and losing. But to be able to do it in a hat trick kind of way I guess. To break the single season, to break the overall record and to beat the 11th ranked team in the country is pretty cool.
Ohio State Head Coach Kevin McGuff
On the performance of the defense…
We had a terrible start to the game. Bad energy, bad focus. That kind of set the tone for the whole night. You can't come to East Lansing and start the game like that and expect to come away with a win. They are too good for that.
On the play of Kelsey Mitchell…
She did have an uncharacteristic performance tonight, that's not how she normally plays. They did a good job defensively. They kind of pushed us a little further out than we wanted to be and they were very effective with it.
On Michigan State senior Tori Jankoska…
She's a spectacular player. She's one of the best players in the country and she showed it tonight, just an unbelievable performance by her.
On the late defensive possessions…
We had a lot of late possessions where we would defend, defend, defend but we wouldn't finish them off by either contesting a shot late or getting a rebound.
On the plan for defending Jankoska…
We were trying to be there on the catch and take her out of her rhythm. We were trying to keep the ball out of her hands, neither of which were very effective.
On the use of the press…
We wanted to press early but we were playing with such lack of energy that we were getting carved up by it, but we finally got them to play hard and we had a little bit of a flurry there. But you can't do that for five or six minutes and expect to win here. It's a 40 minute game and we didn't play anywhere close to that.
