Lady Vols vs. Texas A&M Postgame Quotes

Tennessee Head Coach Kellie Harper

Opening Statement…
"Obviously, our team is happy, and they should be. This is a really good win. I'm proud of our team and thought we shared the ball, thought we got a lot of production from a lot of different people. I thought our defense was extremely tough. Texas A&M is a lot better basketball team than that score. I'm proud of our team what we were able to do; it's a big win"

On team chemistry…
"This team is having a ball. The staff is having a ball. I mean, it's been great, and I think the thing that makes it so special is how much they genuinely love each other. As a mom, when I see Jackson (Harper) and Kylie (Harper) hugging and loving each other, it makes me so happy, and it's no different as a coach, right? They genuinely care for each other, and they pull for each other, and it's a strong, strong bond, and it's really going over to the court right now."

On Gary Blair…
"Gary (Blair) has been someone that I've always looked up to and someone that I've always enjoyed being around. I think there are a lot of opposing coaches that it's easy for fans to dislike, right? I mean, that's kind of the nature of sports. He's just the guy that you just can't help but like. He's been an SEC staple at two schools, and he is a terrific, terrific coach. (I'm) excited that we have the opportunity to celebrate him this year as he makes his final rounds in the SEC. He's a great person and a great coach."

On Tamari Key…
"Tamari (Key) is so mobile and right now, her instincts in anchoring us in the paint are terrific. She is more than just a tall player. I mean, she is a really good basketball player. I'm excited for her because she's just blossomed. I mean, listening to her in the press conference just made me so happy because she's growing up. She's a wonderful human being, and I'm just proud. I'm so, so proud of her and what she's been able to do."

On the SEC this season…
"Yeah, I think the SEC is tougher this year than it was last year. I really do. I think there's a couple reasons for that. I think you've got some teams that are really pushing the top up. I think the bottom teams this year are better. So, the one thing that we've talked about quite a bit is if you don't show up, if you take a night off or if you're not your best, you're probably going home with a loss, and it doesn't matter who you play. It's really that competitive. I think our team knows that. Being there every night is not an easy thing to do. Showing up with great energy and great toughness and doing what you do every single night is tough, because it's just a long, physical season. That's what we're asking our team to do. I think the team that is able to accomplish that, you know, be the consistent team, they're the team is going to be on top."

On Rae Burrell returning…
"I think one thing that Rae (Burrell) has always been, she's always been a high energy player. I think that was, in my opinion, one of her strengths when we first got here her sophomore year was she was always on go. I think she came in with that same in energy. I thought the pace of the game... I thought A&M wanted the pace to be a little bit slower, and I thought she came in and immediately kind of bumped that up a little bit. Her knocking down a shot got the crowd into it, and then probably got our team into it and maybe made A&M sigh a little bit, you know. I think right now... I thought especially in that first half, I thought she played really well within herself and did what she needed to do for our team, so it was good to be able to get her in. I don't know how many minutes she totally got... 17 minutes. That was really good to be able to get her that many minutes in this game. You know, it's good for her offensively, defensively, and then get her some board work."

On Jordan Horston…
"Well, I think for us, one of the things that she does when she's more aggressive offensively, I think her turnovers tend to go down a little bit. So we want her to stay aggressive. I thought she played well. I thought what she did tonight, I felt like she was involved in about every play. You know, you look up, Jordan (Horston) is involved on both ends of the court. I thought she guarded; she obviously rebounded really well. She was aggressive offensively. She was finding her teammates. I thought she was just all over the place tonight, and I think that's really good for her. The more active that we can get her, the better we're going to be."

On Gary Blair calling Lady Vol Basketball 'the Mecca of women's basketball'…
"Yeah, well, I'm not going to lie, it was great to celebrate him and still get a win. I got the best of both worlds tonight. It's not lost on me that that our program is the Mecca, It is. It is and people know it. We're a big part of women's basketball. We're a big piece of women's basketball. I said this when I got here: I think women's basketball in general is better when we're good. I think that's where we're headed."

Tennessee Junior Center Tamari Key

On if she knew she was close to breaking the record for most blocks in a game…
"I knew I had a lot. I didn't realize that I had hit double digits. I was not aware of the 12 blocked shots single-game record. I'm just glad that we were able to get stops on defense today. I feel like we got a lot of points off the boards today with our defense."

On starting the SEC season 3-0, a bettter start than South Carolina…
"It's important to us. I feel like those are things that we recognize but don't take that much into account, because we are still worried about us, our consistency, and how we're doing. The day that we play South Carolina, we know that we're going to give it our all, and that goes for the rest of our SEC games that we have. It's exciting for us to be able to start SEC play on a good note."

On how the team was able to create their own energy with a small crowd in the stands due to weather…
"Referring to last year when we had 25 percent capacity, I feel like that helped. It was a blessing in disguise, because we knew during home games we had to create our own energy because of COVID. I know we did take into note today that there were not a lot of fans out there, so I think for the game a big emphasis for us was energy."

Tennessee Senior Guard/Forward Rae Burrell

On how it felt to get back on the court…
"It felt amazing. I was just so excited to be out there with the team. They've just been doing such great stuff since I've been out, and I'm so glad to be a part of it now. Not that I wasn't before, but to be out on the court is just amazing."

On what she felt after hitting a buzzer-beater to end the first quarter…
"I did feel a momentum shift. My team, they went crazy for me. The crowd went crazy for me. It was a great feeling. I think everybody got energy off of that moment."

On the team's evolving post-game locker room celebrations…
"I think it's fun to add that. It just brings a lot to the team. It's kind of our own special thing that we have now. It's just really fun for us and the coaches. It's kind of like a little bonding experience for us and the coaches to celebrate our success. We just like to spice it up a little bit."

Tennessee Junior Guard Jordan Horston

On having only one turnover…
"That's the most exciting part of the stat line was that I only had one turnover. I don't want to have any turnovers, but baby steps."

On having a healthy roster…
"It felt great. It felt great to have everybody participating, because now you can see what we're really capable of. Even still, we have a lot to work on. I feel like you now see how we play together, and it can be scary for teams like Texas A&M. They're a really good team. We have never beat them since I've been here, so this was a really big win for us. I'm just proud of the whole team."

On how the team flipped the game so quickly…
"We just played basketball. Every good team, they make runs. It's part of the game. This team is very poised. We never get startled. We are just gritty, and we don't like to lose. Everybody knew that we didn't have anything to worry about. If we just play hard and work on doing the little things like boxing out and crashing. If we just do what we do best, the game is going to be ours. Nobody on this team panics ever. I feel like we want to play for each other, so we play hard all the time. We have never felt startled."

Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair

On playing at the Summitt...
"As coaches, as players, as tradition, this is the Mecca of women's basketball. It's Tennessee. I took my kids to the Hall of Fame today. I wanted them to see the Nashville Business College… and see all the championships that were won, in particular ours in 2011. I've got talent on this team. I've got leadership on this team, but at the same time this was an embarrassment to the Mecca that has been built here. Scoring whatever we did - three points - in the last quarter with some good shots, with some good players taking it... I was trying to make my kids slow down and just try to execute, try to get some confidence for Florida before we get back home on Sunday. We played, and we were lucky, but I was disappointed that there weren't the 10 or 12,000 people that normally are here for a ball game. (With the) weather, they should've stayed home. They made the right call and watched it on stream or something, but if this is my last ride, I want my kids and myself to be able to give everything we have."

On Tamari Key and Jordan Horston…
"She (Tamari Key) should've had a triple-double tonight. She would have if the score was closer; she would've had a triple-double. But she's a great player, she's turned herself in. Here's the difference - Horston can go, just like a Michael Jordan or a Kobe or anybody, and go seven for 23 or whatever. I didn't see too many missed shots - I mean bad shots. I saw somebody taking the shots that we were giving her, but then she fills up the rest of the stat sheet."

On coaching one final time at Thompson-Boling Arena…
"Take in the moment, I miss the normal 10-14 thousand that you have here. You have very knowledgeable fans, and you've got a team that has a chance to go very far this year."

On how hard Tamari Key makes things offensively…
"Same as it is when Aaliyah Boston's in the paint next Thursday. Same as it was when we won the national championship by beating Brittney Griner and stopping her on the offensive end because we were taking the shots within our offense. That's what it takes; it's hard. We said we're not going to be able to get to the rim, but three different times my little point guards tried to prove me wrong. And guess what? Reject, reject, reject. She's a great difference maker."