Post-Game Quotes: Morehead State

Michigan State Head Coach Suzy Merchant

On today's team victory…
We were hoping that would be the case. We come off exams and we just came off the ACC Challenge game into a ten-day period of exams and whatnot. You want yourself to improve as a team but you want individually everyone to improve and we knew going into this game we were committed now that Cydni Dodd has got herself to a better place from a fitness standpoint as well as the ankle. She tweaked her ankle and so she felt pretty strong about that. We have seen some good improvement in her so we wanted to try and get her in so she could play not long minutes but minutes that could help us be effective. That was an important part going in and that was a kid that maybe hadn't played a lot of minutes in the past because she was injured and whatnot. It was good to see what she could do a little bit for us even in short periods of time. To be able to see… we have to get Alyza Winston going, we have to get her to use her speed to attack the game that way. I thought we shared the ball really well. I think we had 26 assists on 37 field goals so that is a pretty good place to start.

On Nia Hollie…
With Nia, finding that spot exactly for her has been… she has played some three here, played some four. Really she does a good job of communication and energy and whatnot. Actually today, I decided from here on out that I am going to do the Izzo theory and I am going to let the assistants do all the subbing. We have so many kids that can play quite frankly that I can't watch what the other team is doing. We have so many kids with different combinations that I can't keep up with it so I got three really good assistants. When you look at that top to bottom… Dean (Lockwood) is an associate head coach, he has been a head coach… Maria (Fantanarosa) has been a head coach and Kristin (Haynie) has been a WNBA champion so I just turned it all over to them and said this is what we are going to do from here on out and take the Izzo way. Obviously I am going to have a say but at the end of the day, those guys are subbing their positions so we wanted to see how that looked. I think that everybody brought really good energy today… like you mentioned Nia, I certainly thought that Julia (Ayrault) came in as well and sparked us with some good energy there. You look at KB (Kayla Belles), she kind of struggled early but then found her way late. Everybody gave something positive today. When you are a senior or upperclassman that is what you want to do regardless of who you are playing. Your career is coming to an end so you want to be giving energy and playing as hard as you possibly can.

On how fun a game like today was…
We were hoping that it would be like that. Morehead has done a good job and has played some high-level BCS teams and I don't think they backed down in their competitiveness. I think what hurt them a little bit in the first half was that their best player got three fouls so that kind of got them out of a rhythm and although we didn't get a ton off of our press, I think over time that bothers people since we can go so deep and stay in people a little bit. We felt that this could be a game if we did it right and we share the ball and play with our speed and depth. When you are coming off exams it is good to get back into something that isn't so crazy intense because you just had a crazy intense week with exams and papers and whatnot. Last year I can remember we beat Oregon and then had to fly out to Hartford and we won in overtime. Hartford was really good last year and that was like phew... we won that by the hair on our chinny chin chin. You are tired… you are kind of just stuck in the mud, you haven't played in a while. Your mind has been on the books… we have given them more time off to study for exams so it is a tricky time. You want to give them time but not so much time where we can work on the things we need to get better at.

On how talented the team is…
Especially the way we are playing this year… I think it is one thing to have some depth but it is another thing to actually use it so we are trying to use that by pushing kids to play faster offensively and certainly defensively by extending a little bit. There are other things we need to continue to improve on to maybe add to that. I guess the one thing that it does help is that if someone does get into foul trouble it is not the end of the world. That depth allows you, if someone gets two quick fouls… like last year if Jenna (Allen) gets two quick fouls we were in trouble. If Shay (Colley) got two quick fouls we were in trouble. You just didn't have as much behind them in turns of top to bottom; you had to kind of do things differently. It is nice to be able to tell them to go play as hard as they can and if they are tired we can get them out. I think they have bought into that and I think they have enjoyed playing the pace and the speed so I think that can help in scouting reports and carrying forward.

Players Mentioned

Kayla Belles

Cydni Dodd

Nia Hollie

Alyza Winston

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