Postgame Quotes Lady Vols 52, Mississippi State 71

Tennessee Head Coach Holly Warlick

Opening statement:
"Mississippi State was outstanding today. They did exactly what we thought they would do. They shot threes and had some wide open threes. They penetrated and scored. We took a lot of ill-advised shots. We just didn't have it today. Tough day at the office. You can't make a lot of mistakes against Mississippi State. They're solid. They're veterans. We are still learning, and we are still growing. We will go back and evaluate and get better."

On Mississippi State's defensive pressure:
"I was pleased (we had) less turnovers. We didn't make them guard us. I thought we quick-shot the basketball. We were really strong and got the ball into Mercedes (Russell). Mercedes (Russell) was outstanding. We will go back and look at it. We cut it to seven, and we had the ball, and we take a not-great shot. They come down and hit a three, and then we turn it over, and they hit a two. That's how the game is, and you have to take advantage of any opportunity you get. In the third quarter, our defense was solid. If we do that all the other quarters, we're aright. We had stops but we didn't take advantage of our shots. We just couldn't get over the hump today."

On Mississippi State possibly being even better than last year's team:
"They are veterans. They have a kid inside that's an anchor that's just strong, physical, solid. (Victoria) Vivians is just an outstanding player. She scores from the outside and the inside. They have roles, and they play really well. (Morgan) William gets the ball where she needs to, and she scores when she needs to. They probably aren't as deep as they have been, but I think this year they are better than what they were. It comes with experience, and getting the opportunity to play in a Final Four has done nothing but recharged their batteries."

On what Holly Warlick has learned about her team:
"That we need to get in the gym and practice. It was a tough stretch and we understood that. We've been on the road. We had three tough road games, and then we come home, and our crowd was outstanding. We have to clean up some things. We have to value the basketball. That goes both ways - on offense as far as the turnovers, and the shot selection, and we have to really commit to defense. We started off really strong, and now we kind of took a dive. We played some tough teams. They are exposing us a little bit, and we have to go back and work on a lot of things."

On Mississippi State's toughness and Tennessee not rising to the challenge:
"I'm disappointed our kids weren't more tough. I'll be honest with you, I thought we gave up to many loose balls. We didn't get on the floor as much. We have done that (in the past), it just didn't appear that we had that today. We have to make sure we instill that in our kids. Mississippi State's kids were tough. They are veterans. They are seasoned. They've played in tough situations. This is still a learning process for us. We are going to get better. It starts with me and getting back on the practice floor and correcting the things we need to get better at, and toughness is one of them."

On Mercedes Russell's play and teams playing defense against her:
"They are just physical with her. I think we could have gotten the ball to her more. I wanted her to get the ball to her more. She was outstanding today. We moved her. We wanted to pull her away from the basket and make (Teaira) McCowan come out and guard her. She hit some solid jumpers, and then we fed her inside. It's just physical inside. The hand-touch foul away from the ball, I get that. I guarantee you (Russell and McCowan) are both worn out, because they're two big kids going after it and not backing down. Just being solid, both of them. It's a physical game in there. I thought Mercedes held her own. I thought McCowan did too. It was just a battle, and I really wanted us to get the ball into Mercedes more."

Tennessee Senior Jaime Nared

On how the Lady Vols' defense affects their offense:
"It's hard when you're not getting stops. And if you're not scoring, you're not going to win games, especially against good teams. We weren't getting stops on defense the whole game. We did well in the third quarter in spurts, but you have to put a full game together to beat a good team."

On Mississippi State last year compared to this year:
"Mississippi State plays smart. They are a defensive team. I can't connect last year with this year (for Mississippi State), but I can for our team. Last year we were tough. They came back to everything we did this year, but last year they didn't really (do that). A lot of tonight was that we just didn't play hard. To play 40 minutes against a top team is tough. We are 1-3 over the last four games, and each game taught us something different about us that we need to get better at."

On defending Mississippi State's Victoria Vivians:
"She's a good player. She can hit the three, and we obviously knew that. She can also get to the basket. She has a green light which everyone knows, so it's more about containing what she gets as far as shots and trying not to let her touch the ball coming off of screens. Not letting her get the ball helps as far as her shot selection goes."

Tennessee Freshman Evina Westbrook

On what this game showed the Lady Vols:
"For us younger players, we got a really good look at what the SEC tournament is going to be like. Moving forward we are playing amazing teams, and we saw what we need to do to win games. We have to continue to get better in practice. No one is going to take us lightly. The games we have coming up next aren't going to be easy. We have to continue to get better."

On playing in her first "We Back Pat" game:
"It meant a lot. I feel bad because we didn't get the win for Pat. This day, how she impacted people as a whole, and how we represent her by being at Tennessee means a lot. We try to play for her every day, so it means a lot to me and everyone on the team because of how she impacted people."

On if the Lady Vols were tired today:
"I don't think any of us were tired. It doesn't matter if you're a senior or a freshman, you come into every game ready to play, and we just didn't do that."

Mississippi State Head Coach Vic Shaefer

Opening statement:
"Well that was a heck of a basketball game between two really good teams. You know, today was, for us, it was about toughness and competitive spirit. You are going to come into Thompson-Boling, play this team—this program—on a special, special day; for me, to honor Pat (Summitt), it was a about toughness, about competing, and about rebounding. For my team to go out there and win the rebounding battle, it really says a lot about my kids. I'm really proud of them. That is a heck of a basketball team we just beat. Holly (Warlick) has got her a heck of team, and they are well coached. Those kids play so hard. It's the hardest playing Tennessee team I've seen in a while, and Holly has them playing at such a high level. I just love my kids today. Competing and competitive—the tough plays, loose balls, all the hustle plays I really feel like we got. We set the tone early with about two or three or four offensive rebounds on one possession. Everybody in this room has seen that happen for the team wearing orange for many, many years, and for us to come in and kind of establish that early; I was just really, really proud of our kids. We can talk about offense and who made big shots, but Roshunda Johnson and Blair Schaefer proubly made as big of shots for our team in the fourth quarter as any shots we made during the ball game. Victoria Vivians kind of carried us. Teaira McCowan is just down there competing against an All-American, a future first-round draft pick. The whole night, just competing her tail off. She gets 12 points and 18 rebounds, 10 offensive. That allows us to shoot 67 to their 53, so we got 14 more shots than they did. That is because of our competing and competitiveness on the offensive boards, and mainly, its Teaira. We had 17 (offensive rebounds), and three of them were loose balls, so she got 10 of our 14 live-ball offensive rebounds. Our kids just play so hard. My team is just made up of tough, tough kids. We talked about it, you are going to go out there and get in a basketball game in front of 18,000 people that are going to be screaming against you. You better be ready to punch first, and you better be able to punch again. That team that we played has been notorious—their first quarters are like 400-something to 200-something in points scored. So for us, it was about being ready to play, and I thought we were."

On differences between this year's team versus last year's team that also won in Knoxville:
"I just think offensively we are different. You have four senior guards. In this conference, you are going to win and lose with guard play. I don't care what your size is. If you don't have good guard play you have no chance in the Southeastern Conference, and I have got four senior guards. I believe that with their decision making, with their skill set — and today they'll tell you, I've been on them about defense—that's the difference between this year's team and last year's team. We aren't very good defensively. Today, we managed to find a way to really play well defensively. Holding them to eight points in the fourth quarter is a pretty good job. I'm proud of our defensive effort today. I mean, 52 points, that team is averaging 84 or something like that. Tremendous effort and toughness from our kids today."

On how close team is to playing defense on same level as last year's team:
"Well, one game doesn't make it, but we had a good quarter against Alabama. I thought today we really played pretty well. Third quarter wasn't very good, but, boy, the fourth quarter we answered. We take a lot of pride in thinking that we are tougher than a lot of people. You guys have no idea how hard these kids practice every day. The investment that they have, and of course defensively anybody that follows us knows that we don't just stand around in 2-3 zone. We are out guarding and really trying to impose our will. I was so proud of our ability to be in help tonight. I thought we took some really good charges, missed on a couple others. Tonight is a step, and I hope like heck that we are really making progress, and that we are going to carry this on into these last 10 games. We have some monsters in front of us, but, boy, today was really special defensively."

On the importance of making shots in big games and the difference from last season to this season:
"You are dead right. I stayed up going in the DePaul game, and finally on Saturday night I said, 'To heck with it. We can't guard them, so I'm going to have to figure out how to score some points.' We went out and scored 92 or 93. We also got good offensively in the post season last year because we made some changed personal wise that allowed us to do some things. Ro (Roshunda Johnson) and Blair (Schaefer) were a part of that. I think our kids benefited from change. This year, I have payed attention to offense. This year we had a whole new sheet coming into this game of offensives that we felt we needed to run against them. That's the beauty of having four seniors. You got T (Teaira McCowan) as a junior and Jazz (Jazzmun Holmes) as a junior, you can give them something in two days and they can take it and run with it. Really got to take your hats off to them, because they are smart enough to do it and execute it."

On what it meant to open "We Back Pat" week at Tennessee:
"You've got to know everything that she has meant to our profession, women's basketball. Any positive thing that has happened to me as a head coach, I can attribute to Pat in the early 80's. The fact that Tennessee made women's basketball important back in the 80's, to where we are now, women's basketball is important at a lot of places. It's more important at some more than others, and I'm just blessed to be at a place where it's really important. It's not like that most places. It is here (at Tennessee) and at Mississippi State. You have to have a respect for her paving the way for so many of us, and Tennessee paving the way for us and realizing that if you invest in a women's basketball, there are people who care about it and will come watch it. It's important to them. Pat wouldn't be proud that we won, but she would be proud of how we won with our toughness, rebounding, and relentless effort every possession. That's the way she wanted the game to be played, and that's the way Vic Schaefer wants the game to be played."

Redshirt Senior Roshunda Johnson

On offensive balance:
"It's just chemistry. Our team has good chemistry on offense and just knowing that we had the personnel to pressure them, so that is what we did."

On being in attack mode today:
"(It was) just like any other day. I know that if I'm not shooting a three, I have to attack the basket because that they might be planning for the three. Knowing that if I drive it gives someone else an opportunity, because if someone cuts me off I can easily give it to somebody else. Just being in attack mode the entire the entire game, because that is what we worked on the whole week."

Junior Teaira McCowan

On how rebound that both her and Victoria went after shows the team's relentlessness:
"It was just an energy play, and coach had been talking about those all week. Just knowing that if there is a loose ball around, he said that we want it and they can't get it."

On how critical defensive intensity was on a night when they shot below their season average:
"I focused on the way my teammates played through me. When I couldn't score, or when they were doubling me, I tried to find an open person. We worked on all week playing through me, so it wasn't much of a change. I got 18 rebounds."

Senior Victoria Vivians

On how rebounding shows the team's relentlessness:
"Coach has been talking all week about being aggressive and rebounding, and I feel like if you don't get the first one, go try to get the second, third, or fourth one. I feel like when I was driving the ball, I attacked the basket and missed it, and Teaira was there to clean it up. She missed too, so I had to hurry up off the ground and make a play. No plays off. I took one play off where she got a rebound over my back, so I was trying to do what coach said - no plays off and be relentless on the boards.

On her mentality to attack the basket:
"Coach was talking in practice that they aren't going to foul you, so just go finish at the basket. I feel like I attacked the basket. I just put my head down and drove like you said, and tried to go strong and finish the baskets. My teammates did the same thing."