Nov. 19, 2008

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Q: Regarding having all three freshmen on the court at the same time.
A: Oh, it was interesting, at best. They made some mistakes, and I knew they would. They need to get out there and play, and they need to learn how to play well together. Individually when they are in with the returnees, they do pretty well. But they have to learn to play well with each other. I have to put them out there in those situations so we can get better, and they have the confidence to go out there and execute. I knew it would be ugly at times when I put them in, but I wanted them to get the experience.

Q: How did you feel about the start?
A: I felt good about the start. I felt we came out and imposed right away, and set the tone and tempo for what kind of game it would be. I thought our defense started out pretty well and we did a good job on the boards. So I was pleased with the start.

Q: What do you do as a coach when your team is up by 30 points in the first half to keep the other team from getting back in it?
A: Quite honestly, I thought we did a pretty good job of playing for intensity for the most part until late in the second half. Then, some of the lineups we had out on the floor...I knew we might struggle with execution on both ends of the floor. Overall, I felt like they were working hard, but things weren't going well. But I felt like we had the intensity that we needed to have for the most part. But sometimes when you are working your bench in, or you have certain lineups on the floor, what may look like lackadasial effort may be the pieces coming together.

Q: Can you talk about how nice it is to get the freshman minutes in games like this?
A: It is really important because we need them to get their confidence. We need them to get to a point where they feel relaxed when they go out there and play. I think Renee (Womack) obviously has had a little more game action, but Emily (Phillips) and Zhaque (Gray) are players that we need them to be able to contribute. The more we can get them minutes and get them relaxed and feeling good about their play, that is definitely going to be to our advantage.

Q: Can you talk about how important it will be for players to get the assists that they did?
A: We want to take advantage of whatever teams give us. We felt, coming into the game tonight, that we would have some height advantages. We worked and shot around today, and a little bit in practice today on being able to take advantage of that with some of the lob passes. A couple of those were not things we practiced, but I really thought Rashida Mark came off the bench and had a really impact game for us. She led us in rebounding and had some big plays around the basket for us. She jumped off the gym on a couple of those lob passes and really made great plays. It is a matter of us taking advantage of what the other team is going to give us, and that was one that we thought we had tonight.

Q: Talk about how Brianne O'Rourke only played 25 minutes today.
A: It's really important. That is really critical. We need to have her rested and healthy. When she can have a night like tonight...not only did she only play 25 minutes, but it wasn't 25 straight minutes, so she could get some rest, and then come back in and be affective. We are looking big picture and long term. I felt like last year, she wore down towards the end of the season because she laid so many minutes every game. If we can have more nights like this where we are ahead by a lot and she can get some rest, that will be good.

Q: Discuss Julia Trogele and her progression.
A: She is just playing really well. I'm really happy...I get excited when I see her with the ball. She had a great summer playing overseas with the Junior National Team. She just came back with a lot of confidence. Last year, she had a lot of illnesses and injuries and never got into a rhythm. This year, I think she has been able to be in practice on the floor. She is just a really tough match up for most teams because she has a guard build and a post body. She is not afraid to mix it up around the basket. Her progression has been very key to our success this year, and she has to continue that to keep growing.

Q: Discuss how happy you were that you only had 14 turnovers tonight.
A: I thought our defense was okay. I really thought we gave up too many points...we gave up 58 points. When they only had 12 at halftime, but they ended up with 58. That is a lot to give up in the second half. There are a lot of good things that came out of this game, but our second half defense wasn't one of them. I'm really not pleased with that effort in the second half, and we need to get better. That was a team that we should not have given up that many points to in the second half. But I was pleased with our ability to take care of the ball. This is a Stony Brook team that forced MSU to 24 turnovers and Quinnipiac to 22 turnovers. For us to come out of the game with only 14 turnovers, I thought we did a pretty good job. Having played a our freshman for a significant time together, I thought we came out of the game with a pretty decent turnover ratio.

Q: How do you think Zhaque (Gray) has progressed in just two games?
A: Game 1, I thought she was really nervous and looked uncomfortable out there. This game, I thought she looked a little more relaxed. She is someone who can put points on the board in a hurry, as you saw tonight. We need her to come along. I think she will give us some of the depth off the bench. Production off the bench as the season progresses. I was really, really happy to see her be aggressive and take good shots; she didn't really take a bad shot all night. As she continues to grow and develop, I think it will really make our team stronger.

Brianne O'Rourke
Senior, Guard

Q: Brianne, what was the game plan? It seemed a lot of times you were streaming lob passes over the defense to Janessa or just basically anyone down low to put up easy lay-ups.
A: That's really just our game every game. We play run and transition but we thought they were going to play a lot of zone, so we worked a lot on our zone offenses. But they switched it up and played a lot of man so we just kind of wanted to get out and run and try to do it early on.

Q: Brianne, as a senior point guard, can you comment on the three freshmen and their performances tonight?
A: They're coming along. Like you guys said earlier, ZhaZha had 17 points. They're learning a lot of new things but I think they played well tonight; they're just looking to improve game by game.

Q: Meggan and Brianne, early in the game there was a play where Brianne you stripped it off on a rebound and just saw Meggan streaking up the court and got it to her for an easy lay-up, do you feel like that kind of set the tempo for the game and how important do you think that was to put that kind of transition emphasis on the game that early?
A: I think that's important, to set that kind of tempo to get out and run. Not a lot of teams can hang with us when we get out and run. So, I do think that sets the tempo for us game in and game out.

Q: Brianne, is it hard in a game like this to stay focused because you guys are up by so much, running both your offenses and defenses?
A: I wouldn't say it's hard, but we kind of make it look hard. We've kind of been lacking in that sense. Once we get a team down 30, or even if we're just up by a couple. We have to keep going and not just sit back because no team is going to quit. We need to go 40 minutes every night and that's what we have been talking about for this whole game tonight. I think we're really going to focus on that throughout the year.

Meggan Quinn
Junior, Guard

Q: Meggan, how determined were you guys against a team like this that you should beat to get off to a really good start?
A: It's really important because we can gauge ourselves with where we are with other teams. This game was not about Stony brook, it was about us. It was about competing against a team that we should beat. It was about executing the right things in order to beat teams when it's neck and neck. Stuff that we do now against teams we should beat, we should do when the games are a little bit tougher.

Q: Brianne and Meggan, Do you get the sense that this game is more about getting the underclassmen the chance to play than what you guys can get out of this one?
A: These are the kind of games where it is nice to get a whole bunch of different rotations. We were subbing in and out; coach was subbing people really quick. There were a lot of different options, and that's good for us because it gains us experience, and experience is what wins games. It's good for them to get the nervousness out now - I'm a junior and I still get nervous. It gets the nerves out and then in bigger games we're able to dominate.

Q: What went wrong for you in the first half?
A: What didn't go wrong for us in the first half? I think we just got a little shell-shocked. This is our second Big Ten opponent in the last couple of days and they're just bigger and faster and stronger than we are. We missed a couple of easy shots early and we aren't getting some ball reversal early, which is a credit to their defense. I thought they played great defense, particularly early in the game. As a result, I think we got a little shell shocked and things weren't going our way and then we kind of hung our heads a little bit and we played like a freshman and sophomore team which the majority of people I had on the floor are freshmen and sophomores. I think our youth showed a little bit in the first half and we had speaks, as they say, at halftime and I think we played a little bit tougher and with a little more confidence in the second half.

Q: What did you see with Penn State as compared with Michigan State? Can you compare and contrast what you saw with Penn State and Michigan State this past weekend?
A: Penn State played a lot harder, a lot harder than Michigan State. So I think our kids, after playing Michigan State, they came away with from the game, despite the score, with a little bit of confidence. They were feeling pretty good because they forced a lot of turnovers in that game and there were a lot of things that went right that game. So maybe they expected it was going to be like that and I tried to tell them. This team played with a lot of heart, they played with a lot of pride. That really showed. They just played with a toughness that Michigan State didn't show us. I think if you ask Michigan State, at practice the next day they probably played a lot harder after that because I know their coaches weren't real happy with them after that game.

Q: What were your thoughts on Penn State's transition offense?
A: I think their transition office was really good. They did a good job of advancing the ball and you advance the ball with a pass a lot quicker than you do with a dribble and they do a good job of passing the ball up the court. They do a good job of finishing as well because even when we got back, they made some tough shots. At the same time, at times our transition defense was good and they just scored. Their transition offense was better but at times our transition defense just wasn't there. It was a combination of both a good transition offense on their part and poor transition defense on ours.

Q: Do games like this against Big Ten opponents help you grow as a team for down the road?
A: Yeah, they help us grow. We aren't going to see this in the American East Conference. We're not going to see teams that are as big or as athletic as this team was or as Michigan State was. It definitely can help the team but the thing you have to be careful about is hurting a team's confidence when you have a young team. We take it for what it is and we use it. I told them to remember this game and to remember how you started the game and that's something you have to look back on later on. If you started the game out slow, you have to think of how much harder you played the second half. If you would've started the game playing that hard, maybe not a different outcome, but at least the score's a little bit different. It's something that you definitely learn from it.

Q: In the second half you managed to stay with them, at least as far as the score was concerned. What halftime adjustments specifically did you make to stay with them in the second half as you weren't able to do in the first?
A: I told our team that first of all, we just had to play a lot more physical. We had to toughen up. Secondly, we needed more movement. We were so stationary in the first half. For whatever reason, I'm not sure. We were supposed to have some cutters moving through against their zone. We weren't getting our cutters through. Our post players were stationary. It's easy to guard when you're not moving. That was the first thing we talked about was that we needed to get more movement. Once we got more movement offensively and we hit a couple shots, then we started to build a little confidence and when things start going well for you, the game becomes a little easier.