Jan. 10, 2008
Vanderbilt Head Coach Melanie Balcomb:
On players adjusting to different roles:
“The last three games we’ve had new roles. People have been doing a good job in those roles. One is Meredith (Marsh) playing shooting guard. We needed a consistent shooter and Meredith has been doing that. We’ve been playing Jence (Rhoads) and also Jess (Mooney) a lot at the point. You saw Jess in the open court making some nice plays. I like the ball in Jess’s hands. She’s playing one and three, but early on she wasn’t playing much one at all. They have really been unselfish and stepped up and accepted those roles and are working very hard to do a good job with them.”
On Liz Sherwood coming off the bench:
“What I’m trying to do with Liz is to bring offense off the bench, basically. I think it’s really important that when Liz and Jess come in, that the intensity rises. I think starting freshmen, playing Hannah (Tuomi) and Jence so much early on, we’re going with defense and rebounding. Those guys have been rebounding the crap out of it in practice. That’s carried over to games and so we’ve tried to go more with defense and rebounding to start and then bring Liz off the bench. She’s been in that role the last two years and she’s comfortable with that role.”
On starting the conference season with a win:
“Obviously, you can’t go to LSU 0-1. This was a game we had to get. We know what the next game is. It’s on the road so we had to get this game and gain some confidence. I like what we’re doing right now with our young players and the experience they’re getting.”
On the team getting off to a fast start:
“I thought they did a great job coming out. I thought we pressured the basketball. We got them to turn the ball over a great deal at the beginning. We hit shots. I thought we did a really good job and got on them right away and came out of the gates the way we needed to. I think the problem was that we got a little too greedy. We started running out of the defense and then we weren’t checking out. They had around 11 points at halftime off offensive rebounds. Originally, we did what we wanted and then I think we got a little lazy and didn’t keep it up.”
Mississippi State Head Coach Sharon Fanning:
On Mississippi State not being able to cut the lead under eight:
“When you get in that situation, you have to have a defensive stand. You have to make sure you block out. You have to get the offensive rebound. You have to get to the free throw line. We would take some steps forward and somehow they would come up with a big shot and started running a little bit better. We really let down. We gave in a little bit at that point and they were tougher. That’s how a ballgame breaks. This one is over. We have a big game on Sunday at home. We have to prepare and become more physical.”