Colorado-Nebraska Quotes

Colorado Head Coach Kathy McConnell-Miller

On the post play
“I thought they were letting them bang and they were letting them play through a lot of things, and I just don't think that's the most effective for Kara (Richards) and Jackie (McFarland). (Nebraska) did a great job of doubling our post, and they did a better job in the first half than the second half, but we just felt like we needed to open things up a bit, and get the floor spread, try to go at them with high-percentage shots, and then it worked for a little while and then I thought Kara struggled to guard, so it was hard to keep her on the floor.”

On Nebraska's runs throughout the game
“I don't think 10 points is a major, major bleeding. They had several runs that really deflated our team, and we thought that if we got within one, the momentum would go our way but then we'd go and settle for a challenge shot, and then they'd answer.”

“That's what they're good at, and that's why they're 8-2 in-conference and 21-4 overall. They know their personnel. They know each other extremely well. They're very, very experience together and they play like that on the floor.”

On Nebraska taking CU's playmakers out of the game
“We've got other people that can score, but it's not typically their first thought, or for some it's their first shot when it shouldn't be. I tell my team this: We can't win the game when your best player is not scoring.”

“(Jackie McFarland and Jasmina Ilic) are our two best players. We can't get one of them hot and know that when it comes to crunch time, we can't go to one of them for a score. Then we're going to struggle, and that's what we did. It was so balanced for us; it was not us. We want more people to score, but we want our go-to players to be more of a force, and (Nebraska) took the two of them out of it.”

Colorado Players

Jr., F, Jackie McFarland
ON NEBRASKA'S DEFENSE--“They did a really good job tonight. It definitely helped when they sent two people to double, and they had two very big girls doubling. They did the better job defending the pass out which we are usually able to get the pass out of the double team. I was having trouble finding the open girl out of the double team, whether it was them being in the passing lanes or just my own teammates not being where I could see them. Whatever it was, they did a great job of it tonight.”

Sr., G/F, Jasmina Ilic

ON NEBRASKA'S DEFENSE--“They played really good defense on everybody. We were covered from the inside-out game, and even when we were open, especially me, I was not able to knock shots down, the shots I will most likely hit when I am open. Frustration set in, so I really tried to focus on it. Three out of fourteen is totally unacceptable.”

Nebraska Head Coach Connie Yori

On Playing In The Altitude

“[We prepared for this game] just like any other game. We told our players you're going to burn for a little bit in the altitude. We have players that have played in [the altitude] before and we played at Wyoming last year. It's gonna burn and you've got to get through it.”

On Colorado's Comeback
“They're good and that's what allowed them to be close. They're a good basketball team. They've played great, particularly in the conference season. We're just tickled to death to get out of here with a win. It's not easy to win in this building, period. Our margin for error is thin. We're not a dominate team, but we play well together. We've got good players, but we're not a dominate team so we have to play well.”

On Shutting Down McFarland & Ilic

“Their two leading scorers- I thought we did a good job on them. I thought we did a good job on McFarland, I thought we did a good job on Ilic, and those are the kids that you need to put a particular focus on. They've got other good players, you can't put all the attention on those two, but I thought we played smart. I thought we were intelligent in who we chose to help and who we chose to help off of.”

On Nebraska Players

“We've really got two outstanding players in our program; Kiera Hardy, who was first team all Big 12 the last two years and Kelsey Griffin who is one of the best 10 players in this league. Kelsey didn't have a great game tonight but she had a lot of boards. Those are the kids who have been key players for us all year. They've given us consistency offensively, but we've got a lot of scorers and we've gotten sparks from different players all year. One of the things that I think helped us tonight is that we've got a lot of kids. We've relied on doing that all year and coming into this environment it didn't bother us that much because we've got a lot of kids that we can sub in and out. It seems like we've had different players every game give us something.”

General

“They're all big [wins], every game is tough. When you win a game in the big 12, you feel really good. If you look at our league top to bottom, it's incredibly difficult. There are no easy wins, like I said, we're tickled to death on this win.”

Nebraska Players

Sr. Guard Kiera Hardy

GENERAL--“I knew it was going to be a rough psychical game and I knew they were going to bring their ?A game.' One of our main focuses was playing great defense. We weren't making a lot of shots tonight so we had to win with our defense. “

ON ILIC AND McFARLAND--“Ilic can shoot from anywhere and she is an explosive player. For McFarland, her numbers speak for themselves. She is a great post player and it was key for us to try and contain