Colorado-San Francisco Quotes

Colorado Head Coach Kathy McConnell-Miller

General
“Well, sometimes I'm at a loss for words. Sometimes. Not often, but this time I can say I am. I can say I've never had that combination of players on the floor before. They did some drills before or some five-man weave, but as far as anticipating how good their coaching was, it was great.”

On the first half
”I thought in the first half, we settled for shots. I thought we forced shots. I thought they outplayed us and at times, really made us work so hard to get into our offensive assignments. They did a good job of getting what they wanted.”

On the second half
”I thought we were passive in the second half, got off to a good start and then went into a little bit of a lull, and then it fell on our younger players. Very pleased with the chemistry between the five of them. There was a mutual respect on the floor among all of them. They moved the ball, they made the extra pass, and when they made the mistake, they pumped each other up, and it was exciting to see them.”

On Colorado's free throw shooting
“That is amazing to me. It really is, because we've been such a good free throw shooting team, and I thought we could've hit some free throws, but we continuously gave them the ball back.

On Colorado's ball control, late in the game
”At the end of the game there you have them trying to get the ball in their hands, and it's a mark of experience knowing how to keep it away from them. In the last seconds of the game, we turned the ball over twice and Jackie is giving it up instead of keeping it.”

“There's just a little uncertainty and having that experience will help these guys understand a little bit better as far as what we want. Candace and Whitney, we don't want to come down and take a quick shot. We want to move the ball and take a little time off the clock, and that comes with experience.”

Colorado Players

Jr., F, Jackie McFarland

On Missed Free Throws
“Usually we are a very strong free throw team, so it was more surprising and shocking than anything else. We shoot from the free throw line everyday in practice, and we know they are going in. We are counting on those points.”

On the play of Whitney Houston and Candace Rucker

“One of the biggest things tonight was the energy they brought to the floor. So much of any sport is having the momentum and having the energy and they brought the intensity when they came the floor. Having five players pumped up at one time, it raises the level of play tremendously.”

Fr., G, Whitney Houston

On her comfort level

“I got comfortable, especially after watching Susie (Powers) at the point guard. I feel I just need to keep learning from her.”

Jr., C, Kara Richards

On missed free throws

“Being one of the people that missed them, it was very frustrating. But we shot 45% for the whole game and still managed to win.”

San Francisco Head Coach Tanya Haave

General-

“I thought we played really well for forty minutes We had some mental errors, though, which I felt cost us the game that we normally didn't make. I am pleased with the effort, especially coming out on the road against a Big 12 team. We could learn a lot from this game, and I think it's a great start for us.”

“[The team] is down there right now, really mad that they lost. They thought they should have won the game. I think we should have won the game with a few less mental errors. I think it was a game to win, now that's not taking anything away from Colorado, but I think we could have won this game.”

On Being Back at CU-

“It would have been great for us to win, but it was really great for me to be here, it was actually really comforting. I knew the gym, I knew exactly what to expect, so it kind of calmed me as opposed to coming in here really nervous. I was a lot more nervous last Sunday night than I was today.”

On Outstanding Players-

“I am really lucky to have someone like Dominique [Coleman]. She's got more talent than anyone in the country. She's probably the best player in the West Coast conference. She's been a joy to coach, and overall she's just a great kid. We have been working ever since I got to San Francisco to find a player that can replace her, fortunately we have her for two more years.”

“We didn't handle their defensive pressure very well, and that's something we should have adjusted to that we didn't. We told Dominique that we wanted her to kind of put the ball on the floor. We followed our game plan pretty well with [Ilic], even though Richards and McFarland are kind of hard to stop. I don't know that you can really stop those players, but you need to contain them, and I don't think that we contained them quite enough.”