Michigan State University Athletics
Post-Game Quotes: Nebraska
1/15/2026 11:48:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Michigan State Head Coach Robyn Fralick
Opening Statement…
What I shared with the team after the game was as we continue evolving and becoming a better team you just find ways to win. I did not think tonight we had our best stuff. Nebraska is a very good top 25 team, and our league is relentless. We just didn't have our same energy for whatever reason. You just have to find ways.Tonight we didn't shoot the ball well, and we were fouling too much in that second and third quarter. Jalyn (Brown) hit that huge three. Juliann (Woodard) had the biggest offensive rebound of the night. We get consecutive stops. I am just so proud of our group because you just got to figure it out and find ways to win the game in front of you and we did that tonight. We knew we had to regroup and reset and re-energize. Nebraska is a good team and is hard to stop. They are really efficient offensively and they have a lot of weapons. They shoot the three ball well so you are always spaced out. With all that being said, we found a way. Spider (Rashunda Jones) makes a huge play definitely to break up their lob and we will take it. We know there is a lot to learn and a lot we can do better but really really proud of our group for making winning plays.
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On putting the ball in Rashunda's hands and the final minute…
Rashunda has been so clutch. I love her and Kennedy's (Blair) tandem. They both can play with and without the ball. They can both cut. Rashunda is really fast too, and I think that is an advantage. People try to do stuff on screens, and she rejects it or gets to the paint. She makes tough pull ups. Finally, she has been a great free throw shooter. She has just had a real knack for making really really timely plays. We felt like she could do that again. They tried to back cut us twice and Jalyn did a great job both times. Forcing turnovers and getting us the ball back. Which was really important because we had a hard time getting stops. They were picking up on some of our switching and we found a way to get stops at the biggest time. The rim had a lid on it tonight and, we made the biggest one of the night when it mattered. Jalyn's corner three was huge. It changed the whole game. Just proud of our team for finding a way against a good team. Nebraska is a really good team. When we watched them on film offensively they are hyper officiant. So we just kind of dug in.
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On getting the best shot versus going inside…
I mean we were down three. That was absolutely the shot we wanted. They all collapsed and to be honest we had had a lot of those tonight they just didn't go in. I felt like we shot a lot of ove rhelp kick-out threes. Spider made the right pass and Jalyn was shot ready and made a huge shot.
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On the crash and free throws by Woodard…
That's Juliann. She's a winner. She's someone that you can count on throughout the whole game. She's got a fearlessness to her and it was the biggest offensive rebound of the game. Something we have been doing better is rebounding and tonight I felt like that disappeared. Every time we would get a stop it would be a jump ball or an out of bounds. We were doing a good job getting those extra possessions and tonight we didn't but Juliann got the biggest one of the night and made some big time free throws.
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On Jalyn coming back when it mattered…
We always say be an every possession player but those possessions are extra extra and there is a whole different level to them. I am so proud of her. I am really proud of her defensive stops. Those were big time and her three in the coroner changed the trajectory of the game. The games are imperfect and we need to get our energy back. We just came back from the west coast and I am not trying to make excuses but tonight I felt that. Sometimes people think when you go out there but tonight I was like we have got to get our connective energy and relentless effort back. Kids made some big plays.
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What did you tell your group in that last 4.1 second time out…
Well we knew they were going to run a lob play. They run a down screen lob play and we had Inez on the ball. Spider isn't that tall but she can jump so she did a good job at seeing the ball, making a play on the ball, tipping it out, and not giving them a chance.
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About Juliann making big plays…
I mean that's being a hooper. We always say star in the role you have and work towards the one you want. Juliann is so good at that. Whatever role we ask out of her is different but she always does a good job at delivering. It is a great lesson. Some many times in life there are just excuses for not being able to do something like oh I didn't play or oh I was cold. Juliann doesn't have any of that. When she is called upon, she is going to do her best to try and help the team.
On the crowd's passion and how their energy affects play…Â
Our fans were awesome. It was a back-and-forth game. It was a frustrating game, but it was a back-and-forth game. They came alive. I loved it. The people that were here were awesome, I'm going to challenge more people to come, cause we had a huge, top-25 matchup tonight and we're going to continue to have those. Our league is loaded, and I'm going to encourage and challenge people to keep coming out: bring a friend, tell a friend, bring an aunt, bring a cousin because there's going to be a bunch of good home matchups, a bunch of really, really good basketball teams and our crowd makes a difference.Â
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On regrouping when Nebraska took leads…Â
They led for six-and-a-half, but I think those were right near the end of the game. Every time we took a lead- eight or nine- they cut it back. I thought that when they did that we were following, so the game would stop, they're a good team, they're a free-throw shooting team, and they would shift their weight back into it, but we found a way to lead when the clock ran out, which was important. They're not a team that goes away, and if you go up eight or nine, they keep finding their way back. Our team stood strong and found a win.Â
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On the exhaustion that comes with an extensive schedule…Â
In my opinion, it's the best league in the country, it's the deepest league in the country. They're projecting up to 12 to 14 NCAA tournament teams - that's insane, out of 18 teams. That is a fist fight, but that's also the beautiful thing about it, you sign up for challenges and great players and great environments and great games and great teams, but we all have it. Everybody in the league's going up against a gauntlet. There's a high level matchup night-in and night-out. Across the league this is part of it, so I think it's going to be the teams that can stay focused, keep endurance, have enough intensity and understanding of the importance of every game- that's going to be what separates them.Â
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On the team's resilience over the past few weeks…
Well I think it's easy to talk about the resilience they have to be in, and I think it's easy to say you're tough until you have to be it, but when your team begins to show that and finding a lot of ways to win; what I love about our group is there isn't one particular way we have to win. It's not like we have to make this many threes or we have to shoot this many free throws- we've just kind of found a way within the game. We still have so many league games and so many good opponents, this was a big one. This was a big one to find a way to take care of- take care of business at home and we know moving forward that we have to play better than we did tonight.Â
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On Grace VanSlooten's offense and defense during the game…Â
She did a good job of going to the basket, getting fouled. Early, she was rolling. Like I said, that second foul, I thought, was unfortunate because she had such a rhythm going early- especially early in the game. It's huge. It's huge when you have somebody that can get points in the paint and finish.Â
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On Coach Fralick's 35-4 record since taking over as head coach…Â
I mean home games are precious. They're precious, they're really important. You've got to feel a certain way about playing at home, got to feel a certain way about protecting home. Our fans are awesome. I mean, like I said, I'm going to challenge more people to come out, this is incredible women's basketball, the Big Ten is awesome. You only get nine of them in the conference, and so they are… yeah. They're precious.Â
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On the performance tonight solidifying MSU women's basketball's best start in program history…Â
I'm just thinking about how we're going to guard Iowa's players… credit to the team. We've got a lot of people who we've put together and are figuring out how to do this together. There's a relentless day-to-day to this. We ask a lot out of our players and out of our student-athletes. They keep showing up, they keep coming together and that's our goal, that we can be a team that's finding ways to get better throughout the season. Credit to them and, yeah, no rest we've got another big game on Sunday.Â
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Opening Statement…
What I shared with the team after the game was as we continue evolving and becoming a better team you just find ways to win. I did not think tonight we had our best stuff. Nebraska is a very good top 25 team, and our league is relentless. We just didn't have our same energy for whatever reason. You just have to find ways.Tonight we didn't shoot the ball well, and we were fouling too much in that second and third quarter. Jalyn (Brown) hit that huge three. Juliann (Woodard) had the biggest offensive rebound of the night. We get consecutive stops. I am just so proud of our group because you just got to figure it out and find ways to win the game in front of you and we did that tonight. We knew we had to regroup and reset and re-energize. Nebraska is a good team and is hard to stop. They are really efficient offensively and they have a lot of weapons. They shoot the three ball well so you are always spaced out. With all that being said, we found a way. Spider (Rashunda Jones) makes a huge play definitely to break up their lob and we will take it. We know there is a lot to learn and a lot we can do better but really really proud of our group for making winning plays.
Â
On putting the ball in Rashunda's hands and the final minute…
Rashunda has been so clutch. I love her and Kennedy's (Blair) tandem. They both can play with and without the ball. They can both cut. Rashunda is really fast too, and I think that is an advantage. People try to do stuff on screens, and she rejects it or gets to the paint. She makes tough pull ups. Finally, she has been a great free throw shooter. She has just had a real knack for making really really timely plays. We felt like she could do that again. They tried to back cut us twice and Jalyn did a great job both times. Forcing turnovers and getting us the ball back. Which was really important because we had a hard time getting stops. They were picking up on some of our switching and we found a way to get stops at the biggest time. The rim had a lid on it tonight and, we made the biggest one of the night when it mattered. Jalyn's corner three was huge. It changed the whole game. Just proud of our team for finding a way against a good team. Nebraska is a really good team. When we watched them on film offensively they are hyper officiant. So we just kind of dug in.
Â
On getting the best shot versus going inside…
I mean we were down three. That was absolutely the shot we wanted. They all collapsed and to be honest we had had a lot of those tonight they just didn't go in. I felt like we shot a lot of ove rhelp kick-out threes. Spider made the right pass and Jalyn was shot ready and made a huge shot.
Â
On the crash and free throws by Woodard…
That's Juliann. She's a winner. She's someone that you can count on throughout the whole game. She's got a fearlessness to her and it was the biggest offensive rebound of the game. Something we have been doing better is rebounding and tonight I felt like that disappeared. Every time we would get a stop it would be a jump ball or an out of bounds. We were doing a good job getting those extra possessions and tonight we didn't but Juliann got the biggest one of the night and made some big time free throws.
Â
On Jalyn coming back when it mattered…
We always say be an every possession player but those possessions are extra extra and there is a whole different level to them. I am so proud of her. I am really proud of her defensive stops. Those were big time and her three in the coroner changed the trajectory of the game. The games are imperfect and we need to get our energy back. We just came back from the west coast and I am not trying to make excuses but tonight I felt that. Sometimes people think when you go out there but tonight I was like we have got to get our connective energy and relentless effort back. Kids made some big plays.
Â
What did you tell your group in that last 4.1 second time out…
Well we knew they were going to run a lob play. They run a down screen lob play and we had Inez on the ball. Spider isn't that tall but she can jump so she did a good job at seeing the ball, making a play on the ball, tipping it out, and not giving them a chance.
Â
About Juliann making big plays…
I mean that's being a hooper. We always say star in the role you have and work towards the one you want. Juliann is so good at that. Whatever role we ask out of her is different but she always does a good job at delivering. It is a great lesson. Some many times in life there are just excuses for not being able to do something like oh I didn't play or oh I was cold. Juliann doesn't have any of that. When she is called upon, she is going to do her best to try and help the team.
On the crowd's passion and how their energy affects play…Â
Our fans were awesome. It was a back-and-forth game. It was a frustrating game, but it was a back-and-forth game. They came alive. I loved it. The people that were here were awesome, I'm going to challenge more people to come, cause we had a huge, top-25 matchup tonight and we're going to continue to have those. Our league is loaded, and I'm going to encourage and challenge people to keep coming out: bring a friend, tell a friend, bring an aunt, bring a cousin because there's going to be a bunch of good home matchups, a bunch of really, really good basketball teams and our crowd makes a difference.Â
Â
On regrouping when Nebraska took leads…Â
They led for six-and-a-half, but I think those were right near the end of the game. Every time we took a lead- eight or nine- they cut it back. I thought that when they did that we were following, so the game would stop, they're a good team, they're a free-throw shooting team, and they would shift their weight back into it, but we found a way to lead when the clock ran out, which was important. They're not a team that goes away, and if you go up eight or nine, they keep finding their way back. Our team stood strong and found a win.Â
Â
On the exhaustion that comes with an extensive schedule…Â
In my opinion, it's the best league in the country, it's the deepest league in the country. They're projecting up to 12 to 14 NCAA tournament teams - that's insane, out of 18 teams. That is a fist fight, but that's also the beautiful thing about it, you sign up for challenges and great players and great environments and great games and great teams, but we all have it. Everybody in the league's going up against a gauntlet. There's a high level matchup night-in and night-out. Across the league this is part of it, so I think it's going to be the teams that can stay focused, keep endurance, have enough intensity and understanding of the importance of every game- that's going to be what separates them.Â
Â
On the team's resilience over the past few weeks…
Well I think it's easy to talk about the resilience they have to be in, and I think it's easy to say you're tough until you have to be it, but when your team begins to show that and finding a lot of ways to win; what I love about our group is there isn't one particular way we have to win. It's not like we have to make this many threes or we have to shoot this many free throws- we've just kind of found a way within the game. We still have so many league games and so many good opponents, this was a big one. This was a big one to find a way to take care of- take care of business at home and we know moving forward that we have to play better than we did tonight.Â
Â
On Grace VanSlooten's offense and defense during the game…Â
She did a good job of going to the basket, getting fouled. Early, she was rolling. Like I said, that second foul, I thought, was unfortunate because she had such a rhythm going early- especially early in the game. It's huge. It's huge when you have somebody that can get points in the paint and finish.Â
Â
On Coach Fralick's 35-4 record since taking over as head coach…Â
I mean home games are precious. They're precious, they're really important. You've got to feel a certain way about playing at home, got to feel a certain way about protecting home. Our fans are awesome. I mean, like I said, I'm going to challenge more people to come out, this is incredible women's basketball, the Big Ten is awesome. You only get nine of them in the conference, and so they are… yeah. They're precious.Â
Â
On the performance tonight solidifying MSU women's basketball's best start in program history…Â
I'm just thinking about how we're going to guard Iowa's players… credit to the team. We've got a lot of people who we've put together and are figuring out how to do this together. There's a relentless day-to-day to this. We ask a lot out of our players and out of our student-athletes. They keep showing up, they keep coming together and that's our goal, that we can be a team that's finding ways to get better throughout the season. Credit to them and, yeah, no rest we've got another big game on Sunday.Â
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Players Mentioned
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