Postgame Quotes: Lady Vols 82, Texas 75

Tennessee Head Coach Holly Warlick

Opening Statement:
"It was a great environment and a great crowd. We just have a tremendous amount of respect for Texas. Our goals were to limit their transition points, and they got four points - that's huge for us. We wanted to limit their offensive rebounding opportunities, and they had 15. They got 12 points off of that, so we could probably do a little better. Turnovers were not as good as we wanted. We had 18 and they scored 19 points off of that. We knew the game was going to be physical and mentally challenging, but we competed. We competed, we kept our composure, and the first three quarters we didn't let our offense affect our defense. I'm happy for these kids. They put in a lot of time and energy and a lot of work. Right now, we're going to enjoy this. I know we have to go back to practice and move on, this team has been really good about staying focused, but I hope they enjoy this win for them."

On Tennessee's 10-0 start and the confidence she has in the team:
"I want to take one game at a time, and it's a great win for us, but we can continue to get better. Our focus now will be on Long Beach, and then we'll focus on Stanford, but our schedule is so tough we have to continue to zero in. Again, we'll enjoy this tonight and we're off tomorrow, so I'm sure they'll be enjoying it tomorrow, then we'll go back to work on Tuesday."

On the team's toughness:
"I think this is one of the toughest teams we've had. They're very competitive. They don't like to lose. They compete. They don't appear to let things bother them. It's not too often that we've lost our composure. I think this is the toughest team I've been with as a head coach."

On Tennessee's ability to stay in the lead:
"Texas cut it, because I didn't think we took great shots. We took quick shots, and then in the fourth quarter we shot 75% because we got the ball inside. It's a learning experience for us, but they always go back to when we talk about getting stops and playing defense. They're intelligent basketball players, and when they take a quick shot or the ball gets knocked out of their hands, I think they adjust and understand what needs to be done next. We're just going to continue to get better."

On having past NCAA championship teams here:
"They're longwinded so we just let them introduce themselves to (the team). They came into the locker room after the game. We talk to our kids a lot about tradition and Lady Vols for Life. We take that really seriously, and there are things where a lot of programs are the same, but I think what separates Tennessee is our alumni and the love they have for this program. The former Lady Vols take a lot of things personally. They're competitive, but they've been nothing but positive with this group. I was excited that they could be here to watch a big win for us."

On freshman guard Evina Westbrooks' technical foul:
"I mean, I love her fight and that, but she has to keep her composure. It's a lesson learned. She's just caught up in the moment, and she can't do that. It gave her a foul and then we had to bring her out, but she'll learn. She's a smart kid. She'll learn."

On the losing streak against Texas being broken:
"Wining is awesome. That's an easy question to answer. I'm glad the skid is over. It's a good thing."

On having new players gain playing time in these types of games, especially, redshirt junior forward Cheridene Green:
"Cheridene just played this year, so she hasn't experienced too many lows. Every kid that came in did something special. I was about to pull Annie (Anastasia Hayes), but I went, 'No, I'm going to go with her,' because she makes things happen. Cheridene, the productivity within her minutes is awesome. She's going to get rebounds, and I don't know how she gets shots off in the paint. People were all over her. We don't win the game if she doesn't do her job. These kids just battle. They're battle-tested. They battle and they fight. They don't get down on themselves, which I love. They miss a free throw, and they don't drop their heads. They turn it over, and they don't drop their heads. They think about the next play. That's been solid for us and to get a team to do that, that's big."

On allowing the younger players to make mistakes:
"I've taken a different approach to our turnovers. As long as we're trying to make a play and the ball doesn't get stuck in our hands or it goes off our foot dribbling, then I'm not going to be upset over that. A lot of our turnovers are attacking and trying to get the open player the ball or trying to get it inside and those type of things. We'll go back and watch it, and we'll see what they're doing and if it wasn't good. We have to get better with our turnovers, absolutely. I haven't seen the tape but the majority of them were trying to get us better looks, and I'll take that. I'll take that right now."

On the pressure the team felt going into this game:
"We talked about the pressure being on Texas. They're No. 2 in the country, and I don't even know what we're ranked. They're a veteran group and we're young. We believe we can do it. I didn't feel one bit of pressure from our kids. We talked about the pressure being on Texas. Now, when we went out there some of the freshmen were playing in front of the most people they've played in front of today. We'll get better, but we just played the game, and we played it hard. Again, we didn't let negative things affect how we play, which I love."

On the effect the fouls had on the game today:
"It's a physical game. That's our style of play, and that's Texas' style of play. It did. They fouled out their best player. Brooke McCarty is outstanding. She's been the leader for that team. She's been just the go-to everything for that team. For her to foul out was huge for us, but it was a physical game. It was physical inside and it was physical outside. We had to pull some kids because they got in trouble as well, but we had some kids come in and step up and do some really nice things."

On this being a statement win:
"It's a statement win for our kids. They're young, so absolutely. We have a tremendous amount of respect for Texas, and to beat Texas is big for us. It's a statement win for us. Now we're going to see if we can carry it to the next game and the next game. Every game is big for us and we've tried to make that a focus. We've tried to not look past people. We continue to try to work on us."

On emphasizing to players that they are part of an elite program:
"That's why they came here. That's why they came here, because they are some of the best players in the country, and this is the best program in the country, in my opinion. So, why wouldn't you come to Tennessee? They're going to have pressure everywhere they go because of the expectations, so why not come here? We have high expectations of you, and we're going to put you in that environment to succeed."

Jaime Nared Quotes

On how the team moves on to next game after a big December win:

"We have to because no team that you play is going to give you an easy game. We play Long Beach State next, and I think they were in the tournament and made it to the second-round last year. Each game that we have is going to be tough from here on out. Obviously, it's a good win, but we have to get ready for the next game."

On how the team gutted out a win:

"We had 18 turnovers, but we got stops when we needed them. We really showed toughness, and I was just proud of everybody. And how when Texas scored, we came back and got a stop the next play. We didn't hold our heads, and when they went on their runs we didn't back down. We kept fighting and kept pushing it at them. We kept rebounding throughout the game, so I think we did a good job of that. Even when shots weren't falling we went to the boards and got easy put-backs. We got a lot of easy put-backs on the free throws too, just going hard and crashing.

On how impressed she was by Cheridene Green coming up clutch in limited minutes:

"She had eight points and five rebounds. That is just Cheridene. We know when she comes in she is going to rebound. We know how strong she is. You guys might not know, but she is really strong. When she comes in and shows just how tough she is, battles on the boards, and gives us eight points like that, it just helps us so much—especially when we are struggling. She just came in and made an immediate impact."

On if intensity of game made it feel more like a post-season game:

"Any time top teams are playing each other is going to be intense, especially with how close the game is. What we did a good job of was staying together. A lot of times in games like that it gets so up-and-down and other teams make runs you kind of get scattered, but we really stayed together. We were talking the entire game. When things aren't going our way, we are still pushing and still finding ways to just get it back and really competing together. I thought we just did a great job of staying together and not getting frustrated, not collecting it into ourselves, and really just playing as a team."

On interactions with former Lady Vol champions:

"They came to our shoot around today—just so much fun. When they introduce themselves, they introduce themselves as a champion. They introduce themselves as the "2007 champion", or the "'97 and '98 champion". When you win championships that's just what comes with it. You are now known as a champion. You might play two minutes in the championship, but you are known as a champion. They just brought so much positivity. We had so much fun after the game. They were all in our locker room. We were just having a good time and enjoying each other. It was just the sisterhood that the Lady Vols have.

Mercedes Russell Quotes

On significance of holding lead versus great team:

"I think we just never gave up. We went on a run, and then they went on a run, but we just kept coming and coming. One of our keys of the game was to limit their transition points, and I think we did a really good job of that tonight. We just never gave up, which was awesome."

On how team weathered the game's shift in pace during fourth quarter:

"I think we shot 75% in the fourth quarter, so I guess we ended up hitting the shots late. We just really relied on our defense tonight, and I think we did a really good job just keeping them off the glass, which was a huge point for us. I think dictating and not letting them do what they wanted all the time was really good."

On if the team wanted to make a statement on their toughness after it was questioned last year:

"I don't think that you can question our toughness this year. Every game we play as hard as we can, and we have been really solid every game. Our preparation for Texas was awesome. These last past couple days of practice, we knew that our confidence was high and coming into the game we knew the atmosphere was going to be awesome. The fans are great. We had a couple championship teams here, which was awesome having them around. I don't think that our toughness can be questioned thus far."

On what stood out about play of freshmen:

"I would definitely just say composure. Being young and having all these fans in a big game like this; they kept their composure. They played great."

Evina Westbrook Quotes

On game's impact on the confidence of the freshmen players:

"This was definitely a big game for us. Our real, real test as freshmen. I've never had a game like this before, but our fans and just the whole atmosphere, I think, really blew us away at first. At the same time, we have to go out there and perform like we have been practicing and just do what we do best."

On how it felt to be playing against one of the best teams in the nation:

"I think, to me, it was really just more the atmosphere. It just made the game a lot more intense. They're a great team, but also, as Jaime said, we are a great team. I don't look at it like they are the most superior or anything like that. We are a great team too. We knew coming in this would be a great game."

On how much freedom she has to make mistakes:

"I know that I have a lot of freedom, especially, as a point guard, but to myself I can't make mistakes. Everyone is waiting on me to call the play, tell them where to go, tell them what to do, so for me, my part is huge. I never shied away from it. I always embrace having the part that I have, and I love it. I just have to do what's best for my team, and I know that I have to make the least mistakes on the team. Obviously, I had like seven turnovers. I can't have that. It's just something I have to take care of the ball better, and my team is counting on me."

Texas Head Coach Karen Aston

Opening Statement:

"Well, first of all, anytime you get beat, you have to look in the mirror sometimes and think about what you could've done better. But, sometimes, you have to give credit to the other team, and I thought Tennessee looked like a hungry team today, a team that wanted to win this game really bad on their home court. We'd won the last four games, and we ran into a team that was very anxious to get a win today. Credit to them, and congratulations for their effort today. I thought our team was a little uncharacteristic today. We were not very good in some areas where we're typically pretty good in. We typically do a good job on the boards, box out and secure the ball. Ball security is a big deal to us, and it wasn't very good today. A lot of possessions kind of went in-and-out of our hands. We stood around too much, watching them go pursue the ball, which turned into a large amount of their free-throws attempted. Some were lack of detail on defense, but a whole lot of them were trash points while we stood around and watched. I thought the difference in the game was those loose-ball, kind of fifty-fifty balls, that they won a lot of, and just our recognition of reversal. Offensively, (we struggled with) our shot selection. I thought it was really, really poor. Quite honestly, it didn't look like we were a very well-coached team today. I will definitely go back in film, do a better job, because our team didn't look very well-coached. That bothers me, because I like to pay a lot of attention to detail. We didn't look very detail-oriented today."

On her team's shot selection early in the game:

"There was just no ball reversal. I think we were expecting, maybe, I'm not sure why, for the ball to go in as easy as it has been. When it didn't, we missed some early, easy shots. We did look a little panicky, like we're not going to get another shot if we refuse to throw it up and shoot it. I think ball reversal would have solved some of those issues and also given us a chance to get some of those rebounds. I thought, at times, we did a really good job attacking, but it seemed like every time we would get in a flow, we'd have a poor shot. We just never could get out of that lack of rhythm, of getting ball reversal or working inside-out. We took a lot of ill-advised shots, I thought, the entire game."

On the difference in her team when Joyner Holmes returns:

"I really can't answer that. She hasn't played in a while, and we've been clipping along pretty well without Joyner. I'm just disappointed in our lack of discipline today. I didn't think it was very good at all. We pride ourselves on being pretty detail-oriented and disciplined. I thought we lacked that, regardless of who was on the court, down to a lot of simple things."

On injuries and attrition with her team:
"I don't know (the status of Jordan Hosey). She was playing well, so that was, I thought, a significant injury at the time because we went small for a little bit, and that's not something that we've worked on very much. These players know how to adjust, specifically, Ariel (Atkins). I definitely think, again I'm not an excuse maker at all. We have some players that had not been in this situation before and were asked to do some things they've probably never done, or haven't been asked to do here at Texas. But, so did they (Tennessee), so that's not an excuse."

On what she can take from her team's loss at Tennessee:

"Well, I was looking forward to this game. I'm not going to look back and go, 'Oh God, I wish we wouldn't have played that game!' I was looking forward to seeing how our team responded, not only just being in an environment where there was a really rowdy crowd. I thought it was a terrific crowd for women's basketball. I'm a fan, so I appreciate the people that came out today and supported the women's game. However, I was more interested in seeing how we responded to a team that may be a bit tired of losing. I really felt like Tennessee would play really well. Not only have they been playing well, but I've been in this series as a head coach and eight years as an assistant. Teams tend to get on two, three-year runs. Then, one team decides 'I've had enough of you, and I'm going to try to win this.' I kind of felt like we were going to run into that, where they would be very determined, and we didn't respond to that very well. That is what I've learned about our team, that we're not quite ready to respond to somebody popping you in the mouth. Because we got popped today, and we'll get better from this. There's no question."

On Brooke McCarty's struggles:

"I think that, especially in the first half, some of the shots that she got, we're used to those going in. The game looks a little different when we're making threes, and we didn't make very many today. I thought some of them were really good looks. The last three Ariel (Atkins) took was out of desperation, but other than that, I really thought a lot of our threes (were good looks). Those aren't the ill-advised shots. We're used to those shots going in with Brooke, so it probably would have made us feel different, had those shots gone in. But again, this is the adversity that you're talking about. This is what you're asking me about. What do I know about our team? What I know about our team is, right now, today, if the shots don't go in, we don't quite know how to buckle down and do the dirty stuff. That's what I found out about our team today. We'll go back to the drawing board and see who we can find in this mix of players that can really get down and dirty when the shots aren't going in. Because, ultimately, if you're trying to win championships, you're going to go through some games where the ball doesn't go through the net. But, back to Brooke, she took good shots. They just didn't go in today."

On Tennessee and Texas being strong and good for women's basketball:

"Well, there's no question (about it). I was excited to come up here, and I'm glad that our team got to play in the type of game where it meant something to both teams. Because, quite honestly, when I came back to Texas a few years ago, I'm not sure that the Texas-Tennessee game meant very much to the Tennessee people. I didn't feel like it did. I'm not sure it meant as much to their players. I think today meant something. So, it means, first of all, Texas has improved. It means that we're both in a situation where we're both, hopefully, contenders one day. This game meant something to each program. We want it that way. This was a highlighted game for ESPN. It was one that I would expect our players to circle, because I think their players had it circled. So, next year, it'll be circled again."

Texas Guard Ariel Atkins Q

On her condition and the physical play of the contest with Tennessee:

"I'm fine. I just think we need to get tougher. We need to get stronger, just my opinion. I would say, both physically and mentally."

Texas Guard Lashann Higgs

On how much of an emphasis she puts on the loss at Tennessee:

"I will say that, as a team, we have a lot to work on. Just like Ariel (Atkins) said earlier, both physically and mentally. Tennessee was just tougher today. We just have a lot to work on. We have to get back in the gym, keep working and try to fix our mistakes."