Tennessee vs. Colorado Postgame Quotes

Tennessee Head Coach Kellie Harper

Opening statement…
"Well, I'm excited to go into the locker room and great the team after a win. They are excited. I think we made some growth, especially on the defensive end. I thought we had really good focus and especially to hold them to 14 points in the first half. The defense was really solid there. I thought the game got a little ugly at times, but that is ok. You still have to win those games. You still have to find a way to do that. We will clean up a lot of the mistakes that were on this. I'm really happy for our team, really proud of them. I'm glad we got a lot of people some minutes. I'm glad we get to move on and learn from a win."

On how much better Jordan Horston and Rickea Jackson are getting playing together…
"I thought they both looked really good tonight. The fact that they were not just scoring; they were scoring, and I thought they guarded really well and rebounded well. That was really good to see their dynamic. I thought we were able to move them around and find opportunities for them in different sets. That's a pretty powerful 1-2 punch."

On how she saw Horston and Jackson regroup after the trip to the Bahamas…
"To me, they set the tone defensively tonight. I think both of those players did a really nice job. Between our last game and this game, I think the talk has been right. The focus has been where it needs to be in terms of 'hey, we do need to get better on the boards. We do need to do a better job defensively.' They are working towards that. For me to challenge those two to do a better job on the boards, they stepped up and did it today."

On Jillian Hollingshead's minutes off the bench and the improvement of the team's decision-making in the game…
"We have been trying to find minutes for Jillian and what works. Today, she played a little bit more at the five position, and I think that probably helped her a little bit more defensively and where she needed to be. She is pretty active and very skilled as you can see. She can dribble the ball about as well as anyone. She handled it and passed it up the court. She still had a few turnovers that we can clean up, but I thought she was really active. That's really good for us.

"In terms of our decision-making, we had 22 turnovers, so we didn't play clean in either half. I think we were in much better control of our offense and what we are trying to do. We tried to put a few new things in during the last few days to try and help us be a little more specific on where we are attacking the opponent."

On her thoughts on the defense…
"I thought our awareness was better, and that is not one specific thing. Typically, our off-the-ball defense has been a little behind. We have been a little late. We have not anticipated what was going to happen next, and then we are a step behind when that action happens. I thought we were a little bit better there. I thought our communication was a little bit better. We talked through some actions that we needed to guard as a team. We have been practicing that. We have been working really hard on our communication and how that needs to be better. I would say that. Our off-the-ball awareness and communication was the best thing. That's where we needed to grow the most."

On the importance of Horston and Jackson having good energy and how that spreads to the rest of the team…
"Jordan and Rickea are both emotional players, so they play with a lot of emotion. When you have players like that, it is very contagious when they are high, but they also can't lose that energy. I think they understand that. They are playing with good energy, and they are communicating well. Sometimes, a game like this is contagious. They like it and want to reproduce that feeling, and to do that, you have to play defense and have energy. Hopefully, that will happen."

On the substitutions…
"We are still fluid. We did whole line changes for the first couple of games in the Bahamas. We are still on a quicker substitution pattern. It just may not necessarily be five at a time. We looked at that and thought it was really good for us at Rutgers. It's not going to be an every game thing, but we are trying to keep the same quick rotation. We want those minutes. We are trying to cut those minutes down, especially in the first half."

On adding the Colorado and Eastern Kentucky games late…
"We needed some games in this slot, and we were struggling to find those. These two popped up late. We are happy to get them in. With the Bahamas trip, your Thanksgiving trip is typically over Thanksgiving. Because it wasn't, we were really happy to be able to get someone to come here this weekend to play us. We were very fortunate that it worked out."

On if they did anything schematically to help out with Horston and Jackson combining for 14 rebounds…
"More than anything, it's just awareness and understanding where they can find more rebounds, showing it to them on film and being more consistent with it in practice. I think they understand they can do that. To me, it has to be an effort thing, but before the effort, it has to be the awareness. That has to be a habit for them."

On Karoline Striplin blocking three shots…
"I thought Karoline's minutes were really good. I was excited that we were able to get her in with about five minutes left. But also, the way it played out, she ended up playing with Jordan (Horston) and Rickea (Jackson) a little bit, and that was good. She did a good job; she was where she needed to be defensively. She can score, and she can give us a paint presence, offensively, so it was good to see her execute on the defensive end in this game."

On Jordan Horston and Rickea Jackson consistently being the top scorers…
"You know, I think it's going to be spread out at times. I think there may be some other people step up each game, but I think we have the ability to find that. Sometimes it's going to be a little bit more spread out. I think we have several people that are double-digit capable, and each night is going to look different. Some nights we're going to have someone else with a hot hand, and that's ok."

On Jillian Hollingshead's increased confidence…
"I think Jillian was overthinking in the past, so what we tried to do this week was really simplify things. You know, try to be a little bit more precise and have less decision making on the court, just more free-play on the court for her. And I think that paid off. I think that really helped her. We're trying… we don't want things to be complicated for our players. When they step out on the court, you want them to play free, and I think she needed a little bit of that this week.

Sophomore Forward Jillian Hollingshead

On her comfort level on the court vs. Colorado…
"I felt pretty comfortable. After my teammates gave me a chance to score and just feeding off of their energy, I just felt really good. I just wanted to bring it tonight."

On getting the win for the team's confidence…
"We definitely needed this. This is only the beginning for us and (there is) a very bright future ahead of us."

On her confidence with the ball in her hands…
"I feel like, with my skill set, I feel pretty confident with it. Just doing a little bit more in games when I need to."

Senior Guard Jordan Horston

On how the team needed this win…
"We needed it a lot. We needed it to boost our confidence. We are putting in the work, and to see that is paying off by winning, is helpful. Like I said, from the last game, we've grown a lot since the last tournament, and it feels good to pull it off."

On being vocal…
"Honestly, just communicating is everything. Communicating helps me through things when I'm confused. So by over-communicating, I know no one has to read my mind, and I don't have to read her mind, so I feel like we're all getting there with the communication piece. I'm always on the bench or on the sideline coaching them up, tearing it up, being a teammate; that's always going to be me."

On what has helped her and Rickea Jackson build chemistry…
"Just playing. Just playing and practicing. Obviously, everyone knows Rickea Jackson, they know she's a bucket. I'm being for real, she's a bucket; she's a bucket-getter. It's finally clicking for us. And with two, it's going to be harder for teams to guard both of us. So if she's the one, feed her the ball, keep getting her the ball, find more things, and vice versa. We just feed off each other, and I'm so thankful that she came here."

Senior Forward Rickea Jackson

On how she and Jordan Horston feed off of each other…
"It's always good when me and Jordy (Jordan Horston) are on the same page. With me being a transfer, we were still trying to find that chemistry, and I feel like after that tournament, it really started to get better. Even though losing sucks, I feel like I'm very grateful for going to the Bahamas and playing against that tough competition, because I feel like it only made us stronger."

On if that chemistry helps in decision making…
"It definitely helps, especially when we know we can get any shot we want or get the ball in to who we need to get the ball in to. It just helps a lot to feed off of each other's energy, because we know at the end of the day, this team needs us and needs our scoring abilities, needs our defensive abilities, needs our leadership. So, I feel like we've been doing a really good job at that."

On Jillian Hollingshead's performance…
"It helps a lot. Jillian (Hollingshead) is still young, and she has such a high ceiling. Jillian (Hollingshead), I just know she's going to be great, and she works her butt off each and every day in practice, so I'm glad she's really starting to get going during games, because we are definitely going to need her down in these stretches in other games and things like that. But I'm so proud of her and expect big things from her."