Post Game Quotes: Virginia

On everyone getting into the game making a contribution…
I thought that's one thing we kind of put down there as a group before played. We talked to the kids it felt like it was a good team win. You know, not having Shay (Colley), not having Sid (Sidney Cooks), not having Claire (Hendrickson), you know Mardrekia (Cook) is a little limited, but obviously she can play. So, it was you know we were a little bit concerned about some things, obviously and who was going to step up. I think going into the game we really challenged Jenna (Allen) as a senior, and you know I just talked to her about working on trying to do a better job with the guards of getting the ball in there. But, I thought she did a great job of really pinning and sealing and burying and kind of demanding the ball, just keeping it simple you know. She had some nice moves, but she did so much of her work early, she didn't really need to make a move which was great. I thought she got us off to a really, really good start for sure. And then you have your two guards Taryn (McCutcheon) and Clouden that only turned the ball over twice between them and both of them were almost double-doubles. You know Clouden was a double-double and obviously Taryn was one assist away from being a double-double, that was positive. And our freshmen, you know you got to look at them, I mean that was an ACC team and I thought Nia Clouden really got us off to a great start with a couple of rip and takes, got that energy going and that kind of thing. I thought when Kayla (Belles) came in she did a great job running the floor and keeping it simple, catch and finishing, getting rebound, that kind of thing. And then Tory Ozment I think is just getting better and better, so it's really fun to kind of watch her development and then she sort of, that mono held her out for a bit and now she's starting to get her legs and her lungs underneath her and you can see how beneficial that has been. Those three freshmen really played well and I thought our veterans did a nice job as well, I thought it was a good team victory. I mean when you have 27 assists on 33 field goals it's a pretty positive thing and we only turned it over 11 times.

On getting everyone good looks to be able to score…
Well I think we have a balanced group out there of scorers. I think it makes it difficult like if somebody helps really hard on a dribble-drive, we have a kid that can knock it down. I think we share the ball well, we move the ball, we don't have a lot of play killers. You know I've had kids that I've coached that when the ball went there you were pretty sure it was going to end there. You know I don't really feel that way about this team. I think they have a really genuine interest in playing together and getting the best shot achievable, not the first one that's available. You know and there's a difference. I'm really kind of proud of where were going, I mean we still have a lot of work to do in certain areas, but you know I wasn't sure how we were going to respond to this game without Shay and without Sid and without Claire and that's kids that have played a lot, you know Mardrekia didn't even play in the last game so she played in this one a little bit for us. So, this is going to be a different feel, you know last year we lost a couple kids it just kind of the wheels came off the bus, so it was really nice to see us fight and compete and battle and get a win.

On how she plans to utilize Kayla Belles going forward this season…
Well, I mean we got to be smart I mean she literally started practicing, I think she has had three practices at Michigan State because of her knee. So, she's really fully cleared. I think she's done a great job just personally on her own making sure she's in shape, because basketball shape at this level is a whole lot different than high school, and she's really committed to what she could do and just making sure she would have her lungs and her legs when she was able to go based on some of her surgeries. I'm just you know I think she's got a huge, huge upside, she's extremely coachable, she plays really hard, she can catch the ball, she can block shots, she can rebound, she keeps it simple. She reminds me of a couple different post players that I've had in the past and certainty some that are in the league that I think have had incredible careers. So, it's just about like baby steps, day by day keep working with her pinning, and sealing, and finishing, you know building kind of her face-up game too at times. So, I'm proud of her because this was literally just the second time the kid's basically been in a uniform at Michigan State and really performed well I thought.

Players Mentioned

Kayla Belles

Nia Clouden

Sidney Cooks

Tory Ozment

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