Feb. 17, 2011
Vanderbilt Head Coach Melanie Balcomb
On Defending Diamber (Johnson)…
“We did a lot of switching on defense. We were really worried about Mary Kathryn, and I think we did a good job of taking care of her. I loved having Jence (Rhoads) on Diamber. Her size helped a lot, and she had several big hustle plays. I had a lot of confidence in all of our player’s defensive capability.”
On Freshmen Players…
“We have a young team, but we’ve definitely developed over time. It’s so nice to have freshmen with confidence, freshmen who don’t play like they’re freshman. They know how to make big plays, and they don’t have that senior pressure. They can play so much more relaxed.”
On Tiffany Clarke…
“Tiffany did a great job guarding Mary Kathryn. She was playing so well and being so aggressive that we needed her out on the floor. I tried to give her small breaks, but I just couldn’t make myself take her off the floor.”
MSU Head Coach Sharon Fanning-Otis
Opening Comments…
“Vanderbilt is a very good team. They have a lot of experience. I felt like there were three or four minutes in the second half where we had a mental lapse. You cannot have that. I felt like forcing turnovers and attacking them would be key tonight. [Catina] Bett is getting better. She will be able to turn and make shots, and that will be key for us. That is important for us. We need that balance. Right now, we just do not play for the entire 40 minutes. Sunday, we have another opportunity to get better, but we have to play for the entire 40 minutes. In the second half, we let them shoot 50 percent from the floor. We cannot let them do that. We talked about that. We have to keep them under 40 percent for the game. Rebounds and free throws really stood out to me. We have to have more toughness. We have to get better position on defense too. The fouls are our fault.”
On Vanderbilt run in the second half…
“I felt like we were fine. We just needed more energy. Of course [calling a timeout] gives them time to talk as well, but I felt like we needed it. We just had to make a stand. We had to make good decisions. They answered that bell and really took the momentum. Our five starters that we have right now are learning. I think Darielle [Gaynor] gives us a spark off the bench. She is not 100 percent, but she is helping. We have to get better positioning on defense. Some of these fouls are our mistake. Both teams had some runs. We would make a run, and then they would make a run. We were trying to make a run there [after the timeout]. I told our team that teams get tougher in February. They get more focused and they get tougher.”
On Vanderbilt’s defense on Diamber Johnson…
“I feel like we missed a lot of shots the first game up in Nashville, between Diamber and MKat [Mary Kathryn Govero] and everyone. You could see tonight down the stretch, that Diamber was taking the ball at them. We have to do that all game long. It has to be more consistent. We have to do that as a team. You cannot be passive as a team and win. You are going to hurt and you are going to get tired, but the teams that play through that are going to win.”
MSU Player Quotes
Diamber Johnson; Jr. G
On defense targeting her…
“They definitely tried to take me out of the game tonight. I of course, didn’t do as well getting the ball to my teammates but I did my best to drive and look for open players.”
On Vanderbilt’s defense…
“They are a team that plays very hard and unfortunately, we didn’t handle it. We didn’t respond like we should have.”
Mary Kathryn Govero; Sr. G
On Vanderbilt’s scoring run…
“We knew ahead of time they were a team that makes runs and we didn’t fight back. Before we knew it, we were down by 11.”
On mismatches against Vanderbilt…
“We definitely had some good mismatches going our way tonight. When that happens, we try to set ball screens for Diamber (Johnson) and let her be an athlete.”
