Lady Vols vs. Georgia State Postgame Quotes

Tennessee Head Coach Kellie Harper

Opening Statement
"We're excited about the win. I thought we had some good individual performances. I thought our execution in the third quarter, offensively, was a little more of what we wanted to see. I thought we did a good job getting the ball inside and establishing a post presence early. There are some things that we've got to clean up. We had some defensive breakdowns and too many turnovers, but I think those are things that we can work on."

On the team getting back into rhythm as final exams wrapped up…
"I thought we were a little low energy today. It's a long week, and we've got a few more days off before our next one. So, they had a lot going on, but hopefully, we'll be a little bit better in that area. Coming out, I felt that a little bit, honestly, all day today. They still played hard. They still tried; it was just a little bit lower energy than normal."

On what factors will play into the team's success after a perfect 9-0 start to the season…
"We're not going to really change who we are moving forward. We've just got to be the best version of ourselves to be successful. We do need to continue to play well on the boards. We need to continue to guard. We've got to do a better job cleaning up our turnovers and our offensive execution—do a little bit better job of that, consistently. Tonight, we had 10 going into the game. We knew we were going to play a lot of people. I thought the bench did a nice job. They've had a good week of practice. I thought they did a good job coming in and really giving us a big lift to start the game. I thought them coming in and providing that energy was important."

On updates on freshman guard Kaiya Wynn and junior center Emily Saunders...
"Emily sustained a minor concussion, and then Kaiya had surgery this week for a broken nose. So, we're hoping that we'll get them back in just a few days. It shouldn't be anything that's going to keep them out extensively."

On Brooklynn Miles' career-high 11-point performance in Sunday's win…
"Brooklynn is a high-energy player. She really sets the tone for us defensively when she's on the court. Right now, she's playing with great poise, pretty good court awareness and good confidence. We've been working towards that. She's got a pretty good command of the team and running our offense right now. I love the way she has progressed and where she's at right now."

On what her objective for Sunday's game was in light of the upcoming matchup with Stanford…
"Honestly, for us, I wasn't on Stanford. I wasn't really thinking at all about them, other than that's our next game and what can we do now to be the best team we can be? So really, we tried to clean some things up throughout the game and make some adjustments. We tried to get some people, who maybe weren't playing well, some extended minutes to feel good about what they were doing. We did try to practice some different things, whether that was offensively or defensively. That's really not for Stanford. That's more for us. We were just trying to be a little bit cleaner with all of our stuff."

On her confidence in her freshmen and if she's seen their confidence grow through the first nine games of the year…
"I think our freshmen have provided us good minutes, including players like Sara Puckett. Sara's not playing like a freshman. She carries herself a little differently. But, she is still a freshmen, so she's learning and getting better. For Brooklynn Miles, it's the same thing. For Karoline Striplin, I think getting some good minutes as of late is good for us. One of the things we tell our players, our bench, 'At any point in any game, you may be called on. It may be one possession. It may be five minutes, but you have to stay ready, regardless of how many minutes you have or have not played prior.' I do think that they've had great attitudes. They come to work every day, and they give themselves a chance. They put themselves in the best position ,so that if I do call their name, they're ready."

On Tamari Key and Keyen Green being on the floor together…
"I didn't realize I hadn't played them a whole lot together (before). I think one of the things that we've done is we played Sara Puckett a lot at the four. So, she's taken up a lot of those minutes, but today, because of our guard situation, we moved Sara (Puckett) almost exclusively to the three. So, it required Keyen (Green) to play a little bit more four. I like them in together. I thought Keyen (Green) played with good patience at the four. Those are two players that can score on the block. They can really go get boards when they're in together, so I do like playing them together."

On if UT's rebounding mentality was taught or inherent…
"I think a little bit of both. I think if you ask any of our players what a priority is for our staff, they're going to say rebounding. That's going to be what they say. So, if it's priority, we work on it. We have high expectations there. Then we have some players that are naturally good at rebounding, so I think it's a combination. We drill it; we drill rebounding on both ends of the court, defensively and offensively. They've taken great pride in it. We come back to the bench, and we had one kid, she stepped up she said, 'My bad I let I'll let her get that board.' That was a big deal to her. So, our team takes a lot of pride in our rebounding right now."

On everyone contributing…
"I think it's great for several reasons. I think one is chemistry, camaraderie - everybody gets to play and pull for each other. Also, just the experience. I think that's important. You know, we have players come in and give us some good minutes. That's something that we can feel confident about in our next game. You know, again - foul trouble, injuries - you never know what's going to happen and you've got to try to prepare your team."

On the significance of matchup against Stanford…
"This is one of those games that I'm really excited that's on our schedule. They're always going to be really good. It's going to be a competitive game. It's just a great challenge. When our players come to Tennessee, they want to play a tough schedule. That's what we want to have, and when you have Stanford coming in, it's a big deal. It is a tradition. We had some wins and good games with them. I think it's something that we're really looking forward to."

On facing Tara VanDerveer as a coach…
"I've always admired Coach VanDerveer and how she coaches, how she carries herself. I did as a player and still do as a coach. I've had the opportunity to coach against her a few times, even prior to getting to Tennessee. Her teams are always going to be tough. They're well coached and really play intelligent basketball. So, we know what we're going to see, and it'll be a great challenge."

On Tasha Butts' breast cancer diagnosis…
"When I heard that news about Tasha, it was a gut punch, to be honest with you. My heart goes out to her and her family and that program. It also is a reminder. She's 39. It's a reminder that we are unbelievably blessed to do what we do and to have the health that we have. You just can't take anything for granted. I love what I do. I love life. You don't want those moments to step up and hit you, but when they do, it's just a reminder of the blessings that we all have. Our prayers and our hearts are definitely with Tasha right now. "

Tennessee Graduate Center Keyen Green

On shaking the rust off after a week between games...
"I think that's exactly what it was - shaking off rust, switching gears. (We have) no more school, so now we're solely basketball. I feel like there's excitement about that, so we saw a little bit of that. It got a little wild out there; (we've) got some things we can tighten up. But yeah, I think it's a combination of all those things, but I like the way we're headed."

On playing with Tamari Key more than normal today…
"Oh, it's always fun. I mean, just like Karoline (Striplin) said, we have great posts, great guards, so I like playing with any combination of them. But it is fun playing with TK, because you can kind of just throw it up and she'll take care of the rest, or throw up your shot and she'll take care of the rest."

On how quickly the team has bought into the culture compared to other teams she's been a part of…
"I don't think they bought in this easily; it took a little longer to buy in. You don't really see it this often that teams buy in this early in the season. You're not making the kind of careless... not like you don't care about the game mistakes, it's all kind of full-speed mistakes. And I really think that's what makes us good; it's that regardless of the mistakes we make, we're going to get back to it, because we know we're not trying to let each other down."

Tennessee Freshman Guard Brooklyn Miles

On the team playing with high effort...
"Yeah, we always have each other's back no matter what. I can always count on any of my teammates off the court and on the court, whatever it is, we just always have each other's back, and I guess that sums up our team."

On where her confidence level is…
"Yeah, I definitely feel my confidence growing. At first during the summer, I was shaky and scared. I mean my confidence isn't all the way there, but it's definitely growing."

Tennessee Freshman Forward Karoline Striplin

On getting more opportunities offensively…
"Yeah, I think that definitely I give a lot of credit to my teammates, that they're always looking inside. I know that I have great guards around me, great posts, and I think that once they do get it inside, I just need to settle down a little bit, and I think that the only way to go is up."

On preparing for the size advantage…
"I think that it's definitely an adjustment. In high school, you obviously have a huge size advantage. Then you get to the next level, and you're kind of on the same level playing field. I think you just have to remind yourself to do the things that got you there and just stay focused and not worry about your competition."

Georgia State Head Coach Gene Hill

On dealing with Tennessee's size…
"I was praying that (Tamari) Key had a final today and wouldn't show up. But no, we knew it was going to be a challenge. We talked about trying to do our work early and hopefully make some contact and try to box them out, keep them out of the paint. Obviously, we maybe went a little overboard with it at times; that's why we got ourselves in foul trouble. But we knew it was going to be a challenge. They're 12^th in the nation in rebounding, offensively. So, we talked about those things and we were going to try to do it by committee, but they're a handful with their size."

On playing aggressive defense…
"We talked about pressuring them. We wanted to pressure them and make them make plays and try to create some easy points for ourselves. It was somewhat designed; we always want to put people in pressure situations."

On their scoring today…
"We talk about sharing the ball, and we talk about trying to put five people out there that can score. All the players, they know how much I love the three. So, we're always going to shoot the three. I don't feel like we played well offensively tonight. I feel like we didn't shoot the ball well. For us, 27 percent from three is not good. I think we could do more. We left a lot of points out there. We knew Key likes to patrol the paint, so we knew that our post players were going to get some opportunities to knock down some threes, and tonight I don't know if any of our posts actually knocked down the three. (We) definitely missed taking advantage of that opportunity."

On how this late addition game on the schedule came about…
"Obviously, me, Kellie (Harper), and Jon (Harper) have known each other for a while. It was kind of a situation where we had some issues with another that we were supposed to go play, and things didn't work out. Some things on our end, so we were kind of looking for a game also. I called Jon and were able to work this out at the last minute. (I'm) happy that we were able to fill the spot. That's what we want to do. We want to play games. That's what these young ladies put in all the work for, so anytime we can play games, we're going to look to do that. We're still short one game, because we were supposed to be in a tournament, so we're still short one. Even right now I'm still looking, looking for a date that if someone is canceled, we may add, because they'd much rather be in games versus in practice with me."

R-Junior Guard Taniyah Worth

On their scoring today…
"I just feel like when we pass the ball and execute the plays, that's when we have the best results. Individually, my teammates find me open, so I can make an open shot, especially when we had tempo on them."

On the experience of playing in Thompson-Boling Arena…
"This is something we do every day. It's really nothing to be afraid of. We just have to come out and give it all we have."

Senior Guard Ashley Foster

On playing aggressive defense…
"It's always the game plan to pressure the ball, to get steals, and run in transition. So, we try and do that as much as we can."

On the experience of playing in Thompson-Boling Arena…
"As players, we like the challenge. We're going to accept the challenge, and we're going to go out there and play. We practice against each other every day, and we're the same size. When you play against taller people, the object of the game is put the ball into the hoop. That was just the main focus."