Nov. 17, 2014
Vanderbilt – Green Bay Quotes
Vanderbilt Head Coach Melanie Balcomb
On changes from the other team:
“I think basketball is a game of runs, but stamina is still an issue for us. I think we went on runs and we attacked and we were strong and we wore them down. And then they call timeout, and then they go on a run and all of a sudden we looked like we are the ones who are tired, and they attacked us. They are an extremely well-coached team. They are very good at executing offense and defense, it is like playing a first round NCAA game. This team has great experience, they keep you off-balance all the time. They run a switching man, a match-up, a regular zone. And we have a lot of freshmen on the floor who have never seen any of that. And so everything that you’ve executed and we’ve executed can get ugly quickly and hence, 32 turnovers. I mean we did some things that I had no idea what we were doing and it didn’t look right. But to still pull out a win is a real positive.”
On Audrey-Ann Caron-Goudreau:
“I think she changes the game when she plays because of her aggressiveness, her versatility. I think that her rebounding ability is phenomenal. I think what happened when she got two fouls in the first half really changed the game. When she came out the game changed. That is when we had them 22-7 or something like that, and that is when I think we could have really held them down and not let them catch up by half time. We gave them hope again. And a lot of that was when she got her two fouls and had to sit the rest of the first half.”
On the fact that the freshmen scored all but 1 point in overtime:
“I signed scorers and they are confident at scoring. Where they struggled, and where we have to get better is on the defensive end. And obviously, we turned the ball over, so it wasn’t pretty, but they know they can score well. I think they are confident doing that and so they hit big shots. Even the defense is changing so much, they were really out of sync and they made us really out of sync. And that is really what we were trying to do to them as well. We switched our defenses a lot and tried to give them different looks. But they were really in their flow, they like to just dribble drive and kick and that was a tough match-up with our bigger players, with Audrey, with Marqu’es. It was kind of a chess match in that we were trying to hide our players defensively because we couldn’t match up with all of their perimeter game. And yet, we needed those players to dominate inside. And that is what is so nice about Marqu’es dominating inside, she needed to. That needed to be the counter to what we were going to have trouble with down on the other end.”
On holding Green Bay to 4 points in 9 minutes in the second half:
“I think we were on a 15-4 run. That is when they called a timeout, we forced them into a timeout. Last year, that was one of our things, that we let up when we got a lead, we got too happy. We have really focused on in the off-season putting a pedal to the metal and still be relentless, we can’t let up. That was the plan, but the plan didn’t go so well. They turned it up and they went on a run. And so it was really a game of runs, and then stamina became really important.”
On two early season games as learning opportunities:
“I’ve learned a lot too about certain players and situations, because we have been in tough situations. Also it is early. And I have tried to keep it simple and not put a lot of things in. And so that was frustrating with a lot of the end of game situations. We’ve got to get some more things in. I saw we were open, but you have young players playing a lot of different positions and you just can’t put that many things in early. We could have countered some things and I think made it easier down the stretch. I’ve learned a lot and I know my players learned a lot from this game.
Guard Paris Kea
Regarding changes in score and momentum of the game:
“In the beginning of the game we had a lot more transition points. We had a lot more Energy. In periods we got tired, we let them get shots off. We are slow on defense and they caught back up.”
Regarding facing a experienced coach who throws a lot of different looks at opposing point guard:
“I have to stay ready for anything that is thrown at me. I have to make sure the other four on the court are well aware of it. I won’t say it’s difficult but we all have to communicate and we all have to stay on the same page and that is when chemistry comes into play.”
Forward Marqu’es Webb
Regarding changes in score and momentum of the game:
“We have to do a better job at persistently attacking. We started the game like full blown force today, which is a good thing. We’ve been starting the games really well. I think we need to do a better job at being consistent, finishing the half strong. Start the second half doing the same thing. That’s something we have to work on as the season goes along.”
Regarding two close nail-biter games to start off the season:
“Honesty, I love it. I say that because i got a year under my belt; these games are going to help us in the long run. You have teams winning by 50 plus points, that’s great for them and great for their program. … But when it comes down to it, these hard fought wins against Belmont and Green Bay, when we we really have to come together at end of the game and know we have to make stops when we needed and know we can score when we needed. It is going to help us in the long run when we get into SEC play and postseason and all that. It is what it is at this point. At the end of day a W is all that matters. It is our first overtime win and it is going to help us a lot. We learned a lot about ourselves in these hard fought wins.”
Green Bay Coach Kevin Borseth
On taking an SEC school to overtime:
“Well, we didn’t win. I just thought our kids competed really hard.”
On the ebb and flow of the game:
“Well we started making some shots. They did a lot in the paint and we did nothing in the paint. We had a lot of layup opportunities we missed and a lot of threes with good shooters that we missed.”
On the game plan tonight:
“We were trying to get the ball down around the basket but we didn’t do a very good job getting it in there. Sometimes we missed kids in there and we didn’t throw and other times we didn’t pin very well. They shot 60% from the floor and everything they had was around the basket and they made it. This is a game of percentages so that going to happen.”
On creating 32 turnovers tonight:
“Our kids competed. We’ll go back and look at video tape and I’m quite certain there are a few things we’ll wish we could have back, but obviously we don’t have that opportunity. I just think our kids really competed.”
