Lady Vols vs. Troy Postgame Quotes

Tennessee Head Coach Kellie Harper

Opening Statement
"I am really proud of our team. This was a good win for us. It was a good basketball team that we beat. They're going to win a lot of games this year. We had a long week, a very good week of practice, but it's been tough going into the game not full strength. So, I'm really proud of our players that stepped up and I do want to mention Sara Puckett had not been feeling well and wasn't even in practice yesterday, so coming into shoot around today we didn't even know what her status was so a gutsy performance by Sara to be out on the court and playing."

On updated injury timelines…
"We don't have an update on timelines. Sometimes injuries just don't allow you to have a timeline. You have to work with them to help get them healed and able to get out on the court. Jasmine Powell is nursing a wrist injury, Avery Strickland is in concussion protocol and no new update with Rickea's (Jackson) status."

On Destinee Wells' performance…
"I think for her, she had a really good week of practice. She was very aggressive in practice. She looked like the Destinee Wells that I know she is and then she performed that way tonight. She looked like she was free, having fun and just playing basketball. She looked really comfortable out there, but she's looked really comfortable the last few days of practice so that's a good sign for our team."

On how the team can improve in first quarters…
"I think Troy made some tough shots early. We had some shots that didn't fall early. We did not finish around the basketball early. We had some–I thought–easy looks that we weren't able to convert. For us to get better and to improve, you want to capitalize on the ones you can get. When they are easier, you have to be able to stick those in. Defensively, I thought we had some good possessions early on, but they made some tough shots.

On Edie Darby's performance…
"Edie Darby played like Edie Darby. That's what we see in practice. I am proud of her, I thought she did a really good job being aggressive. I thought she took some notes from Destinee (Wells) probably during the game. She knows how to play. She's tough and we needed her. She's pretty consistent, and that's what we've seen from her every day in practice."

On how Troy defended Jewel Spear from shooting...
"I think they did a really nice job on the ball with Jewel (Spear). She didn't get a lot of easy touches and the looks that she did get early, she just didn't make them, and that's going to happen sometimes. If you would've told us that we were going to score 100 and Jewel's going to have three, I might not have believed you at the beginning of the game. It just shows that we've got players that can step up. Jewel claimed a lot of attention from their defense, and it opened up some opportunities for some other players."

On if she's noticed Sara Puckett's shift in confidence throughout the season...
"I think so. I think you can see she's playing with a lot of confidence. We're seeing that at practice. I think she feels good about her role and her production and what she can do. She's a very versatile player. She's a go-to player. I think she's in a really good space mentally right now."

On what Tennessee's doing better to play off the glass...
"I thought we were really locked in defensively to box out. We still gave up 13 (points), but I think it's about 13 of 55 or so misses. It's a pretty good defensive rebounding percentage for the game, especially against that team. That team historically, the last five years or so, has been one of the top rebounding teams in the country. That's just what they do. You could see glimpses of that throughout the game, but I thought we were pretty disciplined with our box-outs. It's been something that we talked a lot about this week. That's probably the area that I'm most proud of when you pick up that stat sheet and look at the rebounds. Again, 63 rebounds is an amazing number. We had a lot of possessions. When we play Troy, we have even more possessions because both of us like a hot pace. The stat sheet is a little bit skewed in terms of total possessions. This is probably a little bit higher than most games will be, so we tried to look a little bit more at percentages and we're pleased with that."

On Karoline Striplin's performance against Troy...
"I thought Karoline (Striplin) had a really good game. I felt like this could be a really good game for her. She's a very physical player in the paint and that was good for us. We knew we wanted to get the ball inside. She gave us some touches. She did a good job going to get offensive boards and had some put backs. She had a few turnovers, but we'll continue to work on that. I'm really proud of her and her game, her positivity, her communication - all of that was really good as well."

On what it says about her team putting up triple digits with multiple players out...
"I think it tells us that our team is tough. Our team did a really good job preparing for this game this week. I think they were bought in. You could see we were going to share the basketball. We have a lot of different people putting up points and I think that balance was necessary to be able to put that number on the board."

On what has led to growth in the post position this year...
"I think necessity a little bit. You don't have Jordan Horston cleaning up the boards for us right now. You've got to go get it. I think our players, all of them have to find ways to be better. In particular, our post players have been good at tracking down balls. I think they've been disciplined. We've worked hard on it, and we'll continue to work hard on it. I'm proud of their production."

On Kaiya Wynn's offensive growth...
"I think she can make plays, (we're) just finding where she fits in that. What she brings, she plays hard, she's very athletic, so those two things give us a chance to get somebody to the basket. She gets offensive boards, she'll play physical, so I think those things have been really good because it is what we needed. When we can put a lot of shooters out on the court with Kaiya (Wynn), it does open up driving lanes, and she can put her head down and get to the basket, there is no doubt about that. ('m) really proud of her and how she's finishing, and again, how she is continuing to find and work through her role. She was really comfortable handling the ball tonight, and we work with her playing some point this week, as well. I think she is feeling pretty good, and I really liked what she did today."

On the upcoming Fort Myers tournament...
"You're right to say it's both a challenge and an opportunity. We're going to play some terrific basketball teams coming up that are physical and disciplined. They've got size, they've got speed and they've got skill, so it's a great opportunity for our team to go out and compete and give us an opportunity to gameplan a little bit and see what we can do. It is a little bit hard right now because we don't know what that is going to look like, but we will have a gameplan ready to go, and we will have a completive basketball team. Hopefully, we can find some wins in some tough situations."

On Jillian Hollingshead's effectiveness scoring inside...
"We've worked hard on getting her the ball inside, and we've worked hard to find deep paint touches. She sometimes settles for eight to 15 feet, and sometimes we need her to be a little bit closer to the basket for our spacing and just for the presence. She's really working hard, and (I'm) proud of her progress. She got some good touches tonight and I thought she was aggressive, so proud of her game. Heck of a stat line tonight; (I am) really proud of her game.

On the chemistry Destinee Wells is building with Striplin and Hollingshead...
"When we brought Destinee (Wells) in, this is what we envisioned. This was who we knew she could be, we knew the opportunities that she was going to have here to be able to create. We knew we were going to have shooters that would give her some space to work with, and we've been working towards that, so just excited to see her put it all together tonight and be aggressive and find that creativity and freedom in the game. (I am) proud of that and excited about that. I think there was talk in the locker room about the post players making sure they are paying attention because you never know when it's coming. She can deliver it in a very crafty way."

Tennessee Senior Guard Destinee Wells

On how big of an impact this win made while being short players…
"It was a great win for us. Troy is a really good team and I think we were just better. I think we were tough tonight, and we just came out and showed them and played our best. It was a great game, and it is like we really made a huge step forward even though we were short on numbers."

On how Jasmine Powell being out has impacted the team on a defensive end…
"Obviously, Jasmine (Powell) is a really good player and we miss her, but we're a tough team and it shows how deep we are, we just get it done."

On how Kaiya Wynn helped to run the offense and pull the lead in the third quarter…
"Kaiya (Wynn) is really good, she's a really good defender, so we can break down and get easy layups, push it and transition, she can push the ball and make layups so I feel like the current focus is to play fast-key and make buckets and we did it."

Tennessee Senior Forward Karoline Striplin

On where she felt she excelled today and the focus…
"I think going in, we knew that Troy would be a good rebounding team, so I think there was a really big emphasis for us, and it was a challenge for us to try to beat them in that aspect. It's honestly been an emphasis just in practice from the start, so I think that it's nice that we're finally getting in the groove and making our presence known on offensive plays."

On her thought about this team and the young players…
'I think Jillian (Hollingshead) touched on it earlier, or maybe it was Destinee (Wells), but we are a deep team and I think that everyone just rose to the occasion when we saw that we are short-handed. I think it just shows our toughness and our togetherness. Our word for the season is togetherness, so I think that those players were able to step up and do their role when their name was called. I think that shows our togetherness."

On the development of chemistry throughout the game…
"I've always loved watching players like Destinee (Wells), so to have someone like her on my team that is able to perform like her, I'm awestruck and ready for the ball every time that she is going up the court."

Tennessee Junior Forward Jillian Hollingshead

On where she felt she excelled today and the focus…
"Like Karoline (Striplin) said, it was a really high standard for us to get rebounds, just at a high number going to get it, and just like she said, we are getting better and better at it every game, so on to play the next one."

On what was said to Destinee today to create confidence…
"We were just saying that she is a baller and she's been doing this for many, many years. Just to trust her abilities, she's a really good ball player. She can pass, score, she's good on defense, she can do it all around, so I was just telling her to trust her abilities and get to work."

On the development of chemistry throughout the game…
"Destinee (Wells) always knows when you are open, even when you don't think you are open. You always have to just look for the ball when she is going in, because like I said she'll get it to you, even when you don't even think she'll be able to get it to you. Just being able to open your eyes and make sure your hands are ready to catch it and score."

Troy Head Coach Chanda Rigby

Opening Statement
"I want to thank you all for being here today and thank you all for promoting women's basketball. Before the game started in the locker room, I actually used a quote that I believe Pat Summitt said. I don't know if she said it first but, 'A team's identity is formed against really tough competition.' We are still trying to form our identity on this team. It's not last year's team, it's different. We are trying to form our identity. This was a great opportunity and I appreciate Kellie (Harper) for letting us come over here and play today. We found out a lot of things about our team today that we wouldn't have found out today if we would've just played another mid-major team. I'm proud of the team for the fight. We were tied in the first quarter and in the last quarter, we really wanted to win the last quarter and I think we were only down by two (points) in the last quarter. Most teams when you're down and look at the scoreboard, you think 'We got down by 25 points, a lot of teams won't fight that hard in the fourth quarter.' That's part of our identity moving forward. We are dogs and don't quit. I'm proud of these two sitting beside me for what they did today and (they) played a good game. It's not nearly what they can do, but hopefully, we got the ball rolling in that direction to pull that out of them. They're both seniors, so it's time to get the best out of them. I think anyone who watched the game can see that there's some really good players sitting beside me, but I believe everyone is going to see later how great they really are and today was a great start of it because of the level of competition brought it out of us. We got beat at our own game today with rebounding. I'm going to quit saying we are good rebounders because we have been in the past. Troy led the nation in offensive rebounding last year. This team has the right to fight for their own identity. Today we got killed on the boards. (I give) credit to Tennessee, they were good. They were good on the boards. Tennessee's bench did a great job and ours has to contribute more. We got beat in that column as well. One column we did win and I'm proud of is we made them turn the ball over twice as more as we did, and we scored a lot of points off of those turnovers. We put some of those things together and we are going to be a really big basketball team, but the main thing is as thankful as I am to get to come play against this team here today. Thanks to Troy for giving us this opportunity as well. This was not our ultimate goal. Beating Tennessee would've been great, but that's not our ultimate goal. Our ultimate goal is to win another Sun Belt Championship and this film we are going to get from this experience brought us closer to that."

On what Pat Summitt means to her...
"We went to the (Women's Basketball) Hall of Fame. We spent time there last night, and it was great. Being here, we learned some things about Pat Summitt, and we'll continue to learn things. My very first game here as a first-year Division I coach at Troy, it was 12 years ago, and Pat (Summitt) was sitting in her spot where she was no longer coaching but she was sitting in her spot about half-court. I have all of her books that are actually autographed on my shelf, and I went to many of her clinics. I run many things the same way she did, especially scoring on numbers. She was very disciplined where she let players take shots from where they came from a fast break, and I got that all from her. I'm very thankful."

On their full-court press...
"I think we tried to throw the kitchen sink anything we had, but I do think one thing we always do, and Coach Murphy is a new coach on my staff, her scout did a great job. One thing we tried to do is identify what our advantages are. We don't want to just leave off saying, 'Tennessee's good at this and they're bigger. They're good at this and they're shooting percentages are really good.' They (Tennessee) have to play Troy. One thing we do is we run and we're fast. We are faster than them. We tried to use that in any way we could, which on the defensive end is using more feet of the court on the press."

Troy Senior Guard Nia Daniel

On Troy's defensive accomplishments...
"I think defensively, we held the wings to the limited amount of threes and that was basically our goal. I think we really struggled with them towards the beginning of the game for the first quarter."

On what Pat Summitt means to her...
"I've heard about the history. It's really inspiring to play out here where she coached."

University of Tennessee Athletics

Tennessee Head Coach Kellie Harper

Tennessee Senior Guard Destinee Wells

Tennessee Senior Forward Karoline Striplin

Tennessee Junior Forward Jillian Hollingshead

Troy Head Coach Chanda Rigby

Troy Senior Guard Nia Daniel

Players Mentioned

Edie Darby

Jillian Hollingshead

Jordan Horston

Jasmine Powell

Sara Puckett

Jewel Spear

Avery Strickland

Karoline Striplin

Destinee Wells

Kaiya Wynn

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