University of Tennessee Athletics
Postgame Quotes: No. 6 Tennessee 85, UCLA 64
December 17, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 17, 2011
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
HEAD COACH Pat Summitt
(on Tennessee's win against UCLA)
"Well, obviously we shot the ball really, really well. I thought we had great composure because you have to have that when you're on the road. We did a good job of going inside. We played inside-out some. (Shekinna) Stricklen came back in during the second half and did a nice job for us, but wasn't feeling well. And you look at what Glory (Johnson), Vicki (Baugh), Meighan (Simmons) and Taber (Spani) did. When you shoot like that, you feel good and I think that gave them a lot more energy and a lot more confidence."
(on Simmons' pair of three-pointers late against Rutgers and how it helped her today)
"I thought it meant a lot to her in that game and a lot to us, obviously. She gets on a roll and she does that frequently. I just really think that she is willing to come down the floor, pull up or go to the rim. She really has a great skill set."
(on the difference between the second half and first half)
"I thought in the second half we settled down a little bit better as opposed to the first half. Overall, when you go on the road like this and you get a win you just have to tell them, `Great job. We have to get better.' And you move on."
(on Tennessee's game at Stanford on Tuesday)
"I think they will be focused. I think it's very important we get a good game plan and I think we have that. Our coaches are working on that. They have a great team. We have to do what we do best and hopefully we can do it and come home with a `W.'"
ASSISTANT COACH Mickie DeMoss
(on Meighan Simmons playing 39 minutes)
"Our bench was very thin. We had Briana Bass that obviously we could've put in at the point, but Meighan was doing a great job for us. She didn't appear to be winded and she didn't appear that she needed a break. I don't think Meighan (Simmons) was thinking about that. She was loving her shot falling tonight so that gave her a lot of energy."
(on the challenges UCLA presented)
"We were throwing a lot of different looks at them. I think it was more of what Tennessee wasn't doing. We weren't real inspired in the first half on the defensive end. We put all of our energy down on the offensive end. We were going through the motions. We were supposed to be switching screen. We weren't talking. We were missing some switches. They took advantage of us switching. They tried to post up Meighan a few times and posted up our guards when we did switch on screens. UCLA took advantage of the switching. We just didn't play as hard as we normally play on the defensive end until the second half."
(on Vicki Baugh's performance)
"I thought she had one of her better games tonight. She has a lot of family here, her grandparents and some other relatives that hadn't seen her play in a long time. I think she was really inspired to play really hard and play with a lot of heart. She ended up with 12 rebounds and 14 points. She had a full day's work today. It was one of her better outings."
SENIOR FORWARD/CENTER Vicki Baugh
(on being able to return to California and play in front of her family)
"I haven't played in front of my family in California since my freshman year. It's good to be back and good to be healthy."
(on adding another weapon to her game)
"One thing I had to really work on was playing with my back to the basket because I was so used to facing up. I'm definitely more comfortable with the face-up game."
(on staying focused before Christmas)
"We just know that everyone comes ready to play Tennessee. It doesn't matter the ranking. I think that's one thing that keeps us ready. We just have to stick by our philosophy, which is defense and rebounding. We have to take it one game at a time. Everyone is going to come and play us tough."
(on Tennessee's game at Stanford on Tuesday)
"We just have to come ready to play. We know that every possession is extremely important at Stanford. They have a very tough crowd and we're going to have to play through a lot of noise and communicate. It would just be great to go home with that Christmas gift. I've never beaten Stanford in its house. It would just be great to do that this year."
