Colorado University Athletics
Colorado-USC Quotes
December 02, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Kathy McConnell-Miller
ON POOR SHOOTING PERFORMANCE
“I think when you play more experienced teams like USC, it is a lot tougher to come back, but it is not impossible. We continuously talked about that in the huddles, what we needed to do. I thought we got a little bit impatient with the fact that we weren't hitting a lot of shots, and we were stuck on four (points) for so long, and we probably took some shots that were out of character for us. But, I just don't think you can shoot that poorly for that many periods of time. We eventually came out of it for a little bit but then got back into it against a more experienced team, and a team that capitalizes on mistakes.”
ON SECOND HALF ADJUSTMENTS
“I felt like that group was sort of in a groove, that group was very cohesive on the defensive end with their decision making. I thought that we had them pretty stuck in the zone. We felt that we wanted to come out with the same group in the 2-3 zone and see how they would respond to it. But, we didn't have the same energy and the same fire that we had at the end of the first half.”
ON DEFENDING SHAY MURPHY
“Initially, we went with zone but we had to make sure we had to identify where she was in the zone. Then, we went to man and talked about defending her by committee with Hannah (Skildum), Candace Rucker, Susie (Powers), some of our bigger guards and just really trying to eliminate her touches. I just thought that there were too many times that we were consumed with being in the right help spots. I don't think we've played a player that was that exciting on the offensive end that can do it off the drive and with the three. We've typically identified who are the shooters and the penetrators, but she was one that we felt like did it inside and out. She can go up and down, she can pull up for a three, and she was by far one of the more exciting players on the floor tonight. I thought we just lost her too many times and she made us pay.”
Southern California Head Coach Mark Trakh
General
“I was really happy about the way that the kids played. We did a good job both offensively and defensively. Shay [Murphy] came up big and Morgan [Medlock] came up big. We're really excited. We came up here and played well and it's a game that we needed.”
On USC's Injuries
“We're 3-3 now, and we're missing 6 kids that are really, really good. We're 3-3, we're competitive in every game and we're really happy that other kids are stepping in and stepping it up. 3 kids are done for the whole year and we're getting 3 kids back. We're all happy considering the whole circumstances that we've been through and that every kid is still playing well and stepping it up. I thought it was a good effort, a really good effort.”
On CU
“Although it is early in the season to tell, I think CU is going to be pretty good. They're big; [Jackie McFarland] is as good as any kid we've played this year. They're going to get better and better and we have a lot of respect for them. We're not looking forward to when they come down to our place next year.”
Jr., F, Jackie McFarland
ON RECOVERING FROM THE LOSS?“We have to make up for it in practice. We didn't have very good practices coming into the game. Looking back, we just didn't have that much commitment. We have to make sure and come back in the gym. We need to do the extras and figure out what we need to do to get better.”
ON
Sr., F, Jasmina Ilic
ON SCORING 22 POINTS ? “Well, at this point, that wasn't a real part of it. We lost by 19 points. It doesn't feel good to score 22 points when you lose by 19.”
ON TRYING TO ERASE USC'S 34-26 LEAD AT HALFTIME - “I think it was one of those where we were expecting a situation like Vanderbilt, where we came back from 13 down. I thought we were going to continue that in the second half, however we didn't come out fully focused the first minute-and-a-half, and we went down by 15. That was not appropriate from our behalf.”
