University of Tennessee Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Pitt 51, Chattanooga 40
March 21, 2015 | Women's Basketball
Pittsburgh Head Coach Suzie McConnell-Serio
Opening statement
"What an incredible moment for us as a staff, for our players, for our program, to come away with a win on my first trip as a coach. For our players, this is their first opportunity to be in the NCAA Tournament. What a special moment. The enthusiasm and energy in the locker room, it's why you coach every day. It's seeing your players with the smiles on their faces and their reaction to get a win like this, a signature win. As far as the game, I'm so proud of our players and the way they executed our defensive game plan. They defended every concept, every play that we had prepared for. They knew exactly what was going to happen. You're going to have mistakes that are made but our players kept playing through. They know I'm intense on the sideline, but they feed off of it. They feed off of my energy on the sideline. I got in some players' faces. This was too important to just let them go out and play and not give them everything I had. That's what I promised them, that they would get my best and all we asked of them was to give their best. Stasha Carey, as a freshman in her first postseason game, to step up and play the way she did today was truly amazing. We knew what she was capable of. She's so unassuming on the court that sometimes you can't even tell what she has until you look at a stats sheet, and very quietly she has a double-double. Brianna Kiesel, she is our point guard and our leader. She is fearless, wants the ball in her hands. They [Chattanooga] did a great job of pressuring her and disrupt her, but she kept her composure. She made plays and hit free throws. We always talk about how we win as a team and we lose as a team. This was a great team win. Every single person got on that floor and contributed. I was a little concerned when we got into foul trouble in the first half with five offensive fouls. Our players responded. Everyone got on the floor, made contributions and we couldn't be happier to move on to the next round."
On getting intense and motivating players
"I can be pretty intense. I'm not someone who goes off a lot. I pick and choose my moments to get in a player's face and motivate them. I think you learn to understand who you can get in the face of and who you can't. Certainly, I'm going to challenge our players, attack their pride. But also when you do that, the next thing you do is turn around and say something positive to them. This team needs you."
On getting into early foul trouble
"We're not very deep as it is and then to get into foul trouble that early in the game was frustrating. As a coach you're on the sideline trying to watch the entire play. You don't see if the player is set. The block charge is called on the other end of the floor. We had five of them in the first half. We had eight players in uniform capable of playing. My daughter, who is playing one year of basketball, ended up coming in because we were in foul trouble. We had three players with two fouls and needed to get them off. The game could've changed drastically. We were able to sustain it. That was a concern. We thought they [Chattanooga] would go after the three of them to start the second half."
Pittsburgh Guard Brianna Kiesel
(On keeping her composure)
"When Stasha (Carey) plays the way she plays, it's really easy to get her the ball. I thought she did a really good job as post, defensive wise. Every and-1 she got, I was just as hyped as she was. As for keeping my composure, I caught a couple of quick fouls. Coach kept reiterating `Bri don't pick up your third, don't pick up your third.' I told her, `Coach I promise you, I wont pick up my third.' I thought we just really put up a great team effort. It just makes it easier as a point guard when everyone is making plays."
(On Coach McDonnell-Serio's motivation)
"We've been the underdog all year. Coach she just fires us up. We could be playing the Cleveland Cavaliers and Coach would go in and say that we could win. She just gives us that type of confidence. She's very fiery. Everything she says is what needs to be done. When we go in and execute, that smile that she gives us, that's how we know we're doing it right."
(On what gave Pitt control of the game midway through second half)
"I think we really picked it up on the defensive end. I thought we made them take a lot of contested shots. Chattanooga--they definitely get into their sets all the way through. They got a couple easy buckets with two or one second left on the clock. Once we really dialed in and said that defense was what was going to win that game, I think that is when we started to make our runs."
(On going from three conference wins in 2013-2014 season to winning an NCAA tournament game)
"Great would just be an understatement. It's an amazing feeling. It just really shows that when you buy into a system--with coach and the résumé she has, you can't do anything but buy into what she was saying. It just goes to show the confidence that we have with each other and the coaches. We have a phenomenal coaching staff. Every day, we go in with the idea that we can win no matter if we're the underdog or the high seed. No matter what, we're just going to go out there and try to play good basketball."
(On importance of maintaining lead)
"I think that we ran our sets really well today. When one of our options wasn't there, we went to our second or third. Whenever we needed a good bucket, I thought Stasha did a phenomenal job of either getting to the basket, drawing a foul or finishing. That just says a lot to her and how she has grown over the season and what she can do for this team."
Pittsburgh Forward Stasha Carey
(On taking advantage of plays)
"I took advantage of when they put a shorter person on me rather than a bigger post on me. I thought that was my time to do what I can do, get to the basket, rebound and do what I do best is work the best."
(On the team's defense all year)
"Our defense is our main point of the game. I think it's where we're strongest at. I think that helped us out a lot, being able to box out, keep people off the glass, making turnovers and helping our teammates with backup."
(On creating one-on-one matchups)
"Definitely. At points, we really need to get baskets around the rim. When they leave me one-on-one, I try to make the basket or draw an and-one."
Chattanooga Head Coach Jim Foster
(On shooting 25 percent from the field)
"Missed shots. Had great looks. Some good looks. Defensively they played well. Defensively we did a very good job. I thought the Carey [Stasha] kid hurt us, she took advantage of some position defensively. We constantly talked to our team that there are times that the ball isn't going to go in and you have to do the intangibles those days. I thought we did a pretty good job. I thought the kid Carey really hurt us, I thought we defended everyone else very well."
(On if the team was our of sync today)
"We have a couple of young players that need to keep evolving their game. Keiana [Gilbert] is going to be a very good player but when people don't guard her. Her summer project is going to be to work on her shot and make people guard her because if you get up and you have to she is going to go around most. Very talented, athletic player but sometimes they take away you strength and until you make your weaknesses strengths you are susceptible to that."
(On what Stasha Carey did to their team)
"I thought she just moved our post player anywhere she wanted to. I thought she shoved her under the basket and got alot of rebounds. I thought she was a very physical player, I think Jaz [Jasmine Joyner] learned a lot of lessons today."
(On Chelsea Shumpert)
"She was out there 18 minutes and she got six pretty good looks at the basket. Defensively she did a few good things and Moses [Johnson] helped us more defensively."
(On Moses Johnson)
(On the challenge to the after this game)
"Work harder. Get better. We have a bunch of freshmen and sophomores out there that got some experience. Get in the weight room. Get stronger. Understand the commitment that is necessary to be successful at the level. Getting there is one thing, winning is another. The offseason is about you. The offseason is, as players to get better. Teams get better during the course of the year, players need to get better in the offseason. That was the challenge to them after the game."
Chattanooga Guard Alicia Payne
(On shooting)
"We had open looks. A lot of people had great open threes, great open jump shots. That's what we wanted. They just weren't falling today.and that's why our defense has to be constant all the time. Today was just one of those days where they just didn't fall for a lot of our players."
(On Pittsburgh's defense)
"We've played big teams before and we found a way to be effective. I think they did a very good job of boxing out, rebounding and we couldn't get a lot of second chance shots we wanted. Offensive rebounds. They did a good job of boxing out, crashing the boards.they did a good job contesting our shots when we go in for lay ups with out fouling so much. They did a really good job at that."
(On guarding Brianna Kiesel)
"I just tried to play hard for my teammates. She's a good guard. One of the best I've ever guarded. I just tried to go out and play her the best that I could. I tried to do that for my teammates and make it hard for her. It still doesn't feel good because we came up short. I'm glad I could do it for my teammates. She's a guard that is relentless. You could tell she wanted it bad. She's a senior. This is it for her. You could just tell she wanted it. When I play guards like that who don't give in under pressure just because I'm pressuring them, I know that they're tough so I just try to stay with them."
Chattanooga Forward Jasmine Joyner
(On Stasha Carey)
"She was definitely more physical than me and there was also miscommunication between me and my teammates on who we were going to double. Most definitely she was more physical than me. If she didn't score the basket she found a way for me to foul her so she could get easy free throws."
(On the atmosphere in the locker room)
"We didn't say much to each other. You could tell by faces we were upset, disappointed. I definitely think underclassmen were feeling like we should've done better for our seniors. We didn't say much."
(On team leadership)
"I feel like we were missing that strong leader to step up.i feel like that's our first step to becoming a better team. We have to find that leader that will step upend get us in order. We have to prepare ourselves this summer. We have to work harder. It's not just going to be given to us. We have to just work harder so we can get here next year and go further."
