Colorado-Virginia Quotes
January 02, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Colorado Head Coach Kathy McConnell-Miller
OPENING STATEMENT
"We felt pretty good coming into this game. We felt pretty confident, and we liked the match-ups. I just think my message to the team right now is that Virginia is a very good team. We challenged, we battled. There was one stretch in the second half where they went on that run, and against a team that good, who has a player like Monica Wright, it is difficult to come back from that. I thought we fought hard. We continued to persevere on the defensive end. I thought Bianca [Smith] kept us in it on the offensive side. She consistently gave us opportunities. We turned the ball over late and Monica Wright hit two shots and I think that was the back-breaker. If you look at the stat sheet, we had some positives. I think that is a result of Big 12 play. They felt comfortable on the floor, Meagan [Malcolm-Peck] and Chucky [Jeffery] struggled a little bit. That was the toughest opponent we have played this season. They face some challenges. I can see their stat-lines looking like that in a year. Hopefully we gained some experience and confidence with this game knowing we can hang with a top-20 team. I am proud of them, I told them to remember this feeling. It should be a feeling that when you come back on the floor, doesn't keep you from getting better. It just makes you better every time you step on the floor."
ON ENCOURAGEMENT FROM A CLOSE LOSS
"I don't look at it as a moral victory. I look at this as a team as we prepared to play. We had the opportunity to win. I don't think any of them are going to walk away and feel like if we had won we would have stolen one. I feel like they were confident enough in themselves and how they were prepared and what the expectation was. I do want them to continue to feel confident and continue to feel proud. I don't think anyone is going to look at it and consider it a moral victory because we stayed with them."
ON OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES
"The tough part offensively was the amount of pressure that Chucky and Alyssa [Fressle] had to endure the length of the floor. Typically teams allow us to run our offense; they have played off of us. The entry pass has been easy; there has never been that amount of pressure and denying the wings, as you have seen in games before where the backdoor pass has been open. All of that was taken away, so it was a little bit of a struggle for us to get into our sets. At that point the shot clock was running down and we got a little rushed."
ON PLAYING A SHALLOW BENCH
"I do wish I had gone deeper into the bench in the first half. I felt like we ended the first half a little bit tired, and I wish I would have gone to the bench. I thought fatigue set in a little bit, as tough as this game was I thought we got tired. We always know we are going to get scoring from Bianca. I have to get more comfortable with somebody else in that rotation. If I look back and look at the bench I wish I had gone deeper."
Colorado Players
Bianca Smith, Sr., G
On What Tonight's Game Proved- "I think it showed that we can hang with an ACC team or a top 25 team. It also shows that we do have experience on the floor. It also showed that we can compete. A lot of people are going to look at the score and get the wrong impression and not understand how close we were to winning this game. I think we are going to use this for fuel, not only for Yale but for going into the Big 12 season."
Brittany Spears, Jr., F
On Virginia Guard Monica Wright- "She didn't really play in the first half because she was already in foul trouble. She was the same player from the first half to the second half. She just played more."
Alyssa Fressle, So., G
On Virginia Guard Monica Wright- "She's the real deal. She can shoot, she can post up, and she can drive. She's the toughest opponent that I have had to guard. She just made shots in the second half."
Chucky Jeffery Fr., G
On Tough Performance Tonight- "I just learned that I need to learn how to keep my composure more under pressure. I struggled a bit and not to settle for shots. When I make mistakes I tend to not drive to the basket I'll tend to just pass it and not do what I usually do. I just let it get to me. I just need to learn how to stay level headed and work under pressure."
Virginia Head Coach Debbie Ryan
ON MONICA WRIGHT'S FOULS-"I really don't feel like that was it at all. I feel like Colorado was ready for us, they played to our weaknesses, and I thought it was a great job by them. I felt like I played Monica (Wright) a decent amount of time, I don't really think that was an issue. Obviously, she was out of the game for a little bit but the rest of the team also played really well without her in there. I would not attribute that to anything. I think Colorado is good."
ON INJURED CHINA CROSBY-"She has a sprained MCL, which is the good news. She could have played but I didn't want her to."
ON PLAYING AGAINST FORMER PUPIL KATHY MCCONNEL-MILLER-"It is very, very difficult. I mean I love seeing her and I love being here, but it is a very difficult thing to have to do. It is really bittersweet. It is so hard because she is trying to establish herself nationally and we were sort of like the stepping stone for them but I think she proved a lot today. They got to play on television and definitely proved themselves. I am very proud of their performance and I am proud of our performance."
ON STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE-"We have just played a lot of great games. We have a very difficult schedule. Our strength of schedule right now is an 11."
ON COLORADO'S IMPROVEMENTS-"They have changed tenfold. They were nothing like they were last year; tough on boards and the three point line. They were very impressive all around."
ON BIANCA SMITH-"She was dynamite. We had to switch everything up and that isn't something I wanted to do. She is a great player in all respects of the word."
Virginia Players
Monica Wright, Sr., G
ON CLOSE GAME-"At that point I definitely knew I needed to stretch the lead out a little bit. Colorado came out with a lot of three point shots by number 2 (Bianca Smith), we just needed to get a more comfortable lead. I definitely have to thank my teammates for getting me the ball and setting me up on plays because I definitely didn't create those shots on my own, they were created for me."
ON COLORADO COMING BACK-"The game was never done at any point except for maybe the last couple of seconds. It was never finished, never a done deal. We knew we couldn't stop playing until the buzzer and with number 2 being on fire like she was, it was definitely uncomfortable."
