University of Tennessee Athletics
Lady Vols vs. Vanderbilt Postgame Quotes
February 12, 2023 | Women's Basketball
Tennessee Head Coach Kellie Harper
Opening Statement..."Yeah, that's a really good win for our basketball team. We knew that we needed to play better against Vanderbilt than the first time we played them, and that's been our focus. Vanderbilt is playing some good basketball right now, and we knew that we could have some struggles matching up with them, but just the second half performance that we had, especially the third quarter defense, really was the difference in the game. And proud of our team, proud of the focus and the fight that they had for 40 minutes."
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On the third quarter run…
"Well, I think the flip started on the defensive end. When we got stops, we were able to push the ball in transition, we were playing downhill, we were playing aggressive. It's all related. You take good shots, you score, you get your defense set. You get stops; you can get your offense on a push. So, obviously Jordan (Horston) made some great plays, I thought she played with a lot of energy and focus there to start the second half."
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On Jordan Horston being aggressive…
"Yeah, it's funny that you said the stats, I don't have the stats in front of me, but we are at our best when she (Jordan Horston) is stuffing the stats, and it does not have to be points. Her effect on the game in every other column is so valuable to our team, whether that's assists, steals, or boards, or blocked shots. I mean, she can do so many things and our team, not just Jordan, but our team is at our best when she's doing that."
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On the defensive effort rebounding…
"Really proud. Really proud of our effort on the boards. I think their gameplan was to get back in transition, so they weren't bringing the house to the offensive boards, but we did our job when we needed to. That was a good thing, that was a good number. And then keeping them out of the paint, I thought in the first half they got comfortable offensively and we were fouling, we were a step behind. I thought the second half we set the tone, they never really got in rhythm, maybe a couple plays there in the fourth (quarter), but they just didn't get in rhythm. They are a really good offensive team when they're playing in rhythm, and we wanted to take that away. They missed some easy looks that they are very capable of making. I'd like to think that maybe it's because we made them work so hard, but we'll just keep trying to build on that."
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On the crowd…
"You know what, the coaches are in warmups early and they came to the locker room and they said, 'we have a great crowd out there.' Again, not that you're excited, you come to expect it, but I don't take it for granted. I guarantee you I don't take it for granted. So proud of our fans. They got into it, they were loud, and I think they enjoyed it. Again, I think you can enjoy watching this team I think, and just all the dynamics going on."
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On Jordan Walker and Jillian Hollingshead…
"Yeah, I think we know what lineups are going to give us good spacing. We know what lineups are going to be able to get paint touches, or threes. And obviously Jillian (Hollingshead) has the skill set to pass the ball and to be able to open up the floor. She's doing a great job of being physical and scoring in the paint and worked hard on the boards today. I thought she really banged today; I liked her physicality. But we love where Jill's at right now, just how hard she's playing. Jordan Walker, I think somebody said 'backbone, heart' I don't know- she's a big part of who we are. Again, you don't see +40 (plus/minus) very often, and that's how she was effecting the game on both ends of the court. Six points and +40, I mean, she's so valuable to our success."Â
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On Jordan Horston's improved shooting percentage today…
"I think when she settles in, she's a player. She's so competitive. She wants it so bad, and she wants to do her part. Sometimes, she can rush some things. When she settles in and plays with confidence, it looks good. She's been practicing well. She got a lot of shots up yesterday after practice. It was her jumpers, and I thought she took so many of those short mid-range jumpers. They looked so good today. She puts in work. I think that carries over with her."
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On her personal connection to the Play4Kay game…
"The first one I would go to is my mom's sister, Sharon. She is a breast cancer survivor. For years, she would travel to our pink game, wherever I was coaching, because it was so meaningful to her. She's a huge fan. I had one text message after the game already and it was from her. She's there and she watches. She's an inspiration, as well as so many other women out there as well."
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On seeing Rickea Jackson and Jordan Horston play well on the court together…
"It was great. I thought our spacing was pretty good. I'm relating more back to the second half with those two because they played a lot more together in the second half. The spacing was good. I thought we were playing downhill and being aggressive. I thought we had them where we needed them within the offense. They're such a handful to guard, each of them individually. With them playing well together, it just makes it harder on the opponent."
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On seeing her daughter Kylie and Vanderbilt Head Coach Shea Ralph's daughter Maysen interact before the game…
"Before the game, I'm just blown away thinking about a quarter of a century earlier if you had grabbed Shea and I and said, 'Hey listen. In 2023, you're going to be head coaches and your daughters are going to have cheerleader outfits on before your game playing together', I don't think you can make that up. I don't think that's a believable story to college kids. Family is important to me, and I know it is important to Shea as well. To be able to have our children be a part of our lives and our work because basketball, this job, this school and this program means so much to me and I know it's the same for her. To have our children be a part of that is really something special. What a full-circle moment that they are out there just loving life. I don't know about Maysen, but Kylie now has a new BFF. I think moments like that really put things in perspective. Today was probably a heavy day for that. We have a lot of cancer survivors and people to remember today, so this is a big day for perspective. At the same time, you see these two four-year-olds. They don't have a care in the world. One of them is from Vanderbilt and one of them is from Tennessee, but it doesn't really matter to them. They're just having fun and living life. What a really cool moment."
Junior Guard Jordan Horston
On what the team did to change the momentum in the third quarter…"It was just fun. I was just letting my defense dictate how everything else was going to go and I feel like it's a lot more fun playing that way. It's a lot more fun when our defense energizes us and motivates us to get easy points in transition and just take them out of rhythm. I feel, like we said, came out and challenged ourselves in that third quarter and locked in."
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On how her aggressive play-making mindset impacts her offense…
"For me, what I've been doing recently is letting the game come to me, finding where I can be productive. I can do a lot of things on the floor. I'm always attacking, putting the ball in the basket. I can crash hard, or if I'm sprinting down the court, they're worried about that, but Tess (Darby) is wide open for the three. It's just little things like that just happen, focusing on them and then when it's time, I find my shots in rhythm, and staying in the system and getting shots consistently and buying into the plan to go hard and I feel like that's what helps me. Like I said, it's the little things, letting my defense spark my offense."
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On having a week off after the Mississippi State game…
"It was really great. We got a chance to just sit back and focus on us, focus on what we really need to lock in on and dial in for both practices. It wasn't easy. We got after it, but that was what we needed and I'm very thankful for that. I feel like we got better and we only want to keep getting better from here."
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On what she did to rehab her shoulder…
"Staying in the training room. Waking up early, leaving late, icing, listening to my body. I'm a fighter, I'm not going to let anything hold me back, so I'm determined to not let that set me back."Â
Junior Guard/Forward Tess Darby
On if she is connected to anyone who's been affected by breast cancer…"I have a really good family friend who was affected by breast cancer, so just getting out and having a game that everyone wants to make a change and find a cure for this, it's really really special and I'm very fortunate that all of the teams and schools got to participate in that today.
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On Coach Harper's half time speech…
"She was honest with us. She told us what we needed to do and what we needed to change. The coaches really all changed us the whole game, but just getting in the locker room with everyone, and we were all like 'This is what we have to do, these are our goals, and in order for us to achieve those goals, we have to go out there and play,' so just knowing what we needed to do better and I think that's how the second half worked out so well for us."Â
Vanderbilt Head Coach Shea RalphÂ
Opening Statement…"Hello everyone, happy Super Bowl Sunday. You all excited to go watch the game? This is always a fun place to play. I'm really proud of my team for coming here today and competing the way that they did, especially in the first half. I know that when we play that way, intangibly with our effort, communication, our discipline and our focus, that we can compete with just about anyone. Then, I think you saw the other side of who we can be in the second half. We lose focus, we look fatigued and the control and pace of the game kind of runs out of control for us. What do I mean by that? We have to be very intentional on offense. We can't take shots that are not high percentage shots for us that are too quick and give teams like Tennessee an opportunity to run out in transition and score easy buckets. We're just not the kind of team that can recover from that. If we do that for a two-minute span and we go from a tie game to a 14–16-point game, that's hard for us to make up on the offensive end in the second half. I think there's a lot that we can learn from today. I'm also extremely proud of how we played in that first half. It's something definitely to build on. I got a glimpse of who my team really is, and for me that's a positive thing."
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On the difference that Jordan Horston made for Tennessee in flipping game in third quarter…
"It seemed that way, for sure. I think you probably saw the definition of how important she was in that third quarter. She's so versatile for them. She can handle the ball, she can get to the rim, she was making mid-range jump shots and because she's so big she's almost impossible to defend when she plays like she did in the third quarter. Over the years I've seen her get a lot better. She plays so hard now, defensively we could not get the ball to Marnelle (Garraud) because she just wouldn't let her catch it. She's a lot bigger than some of our guards. It was difficult for us to do some things offensively once she came in and played defense the way that she did. The Jordan Horston that I saw two years ago, didn't play like that, the one that I saw today. She's gotten better, credit to them, she's gotten better. She's a force when she plays the way she did in the third quarter. Certainly, it made a difference for us."
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On if the gameplan was designed to keep Tennessee from being able to battle in the paint…
"Well you know, we're not as big as they are. Yes, we knew that they played that drop coverage on our ball screens. We have an offense that centers around, obviously, our two guards that are really great coming off ball screens. Marnelle (Garraud) is more of a three-point shooter and mid-range, Iyana Moore attacks the rim. We knew they were going to play those certain screens, and we thought that if we could hit some of those shots early on, that that would bring the post-players out a little more and then we would be able to attack inside a little bit easier. Again, I don't have a specific gameplan for each team. We obviously scout. We know what they're going to do. We talk about the things that we're going to do that lie within our offense. We don't change based on game-to-game. I just want to get really, really good at what we do. We talk about how we can do that against the defense that we're going to see. Our gameplan generally doesn't change a lot from team-to-team, we just about 'this is what you're going to see defensively, and this is how we're going to attack it'. So yes, you picked up on some good stuff."
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On the difficulty to keep Tennessee off the offensive boards…
"I know for us, this is just who I am, I'm a glass half full kind of person, I don't like to talk about what you don't have. What we don't have as a team, as people. What good is that? We have all we need. The idea in helping our team understand is more technique. It is difficult when you're at a position to rebound against people that are a lot bigger than you are. We have to be much more disciplined with our defensive positioning. You have time, even if you're out of position when the balls in the air, to get there. Our post defense has to be better. I thought for the most part, they had almost 50 points in the paint, it felt like we were just getting buried underneath the basket. That can't happen. We can't recover from that, and our guards can't help you. They don't even have to dribble; they just turn around and shoot it. Then, they'll keep rebounding it until they make it. There are things defensively and technique wise that I think we can get better at with rebounding. Then there's the other part of me that's like rebounding is just effort. It got super physical, and that's just part of playing in the SEC. Some of my young kids, they got beat up a little bit today. That's good, it's going to make them better. We're going to make sure that we continue to work on those things so we can put them in the right positions, because we're going to see it again in the next game, then the game after that, then the game after that. It's not different, every SEC team is like this."
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On her daughter Maysen playing with Kylie Harper being a full circle moment with Kellie Harper…
"Isn't that crazy. When we were talking before the game that's what we were talking about. She was like, 'can you believe, could you have ever imagined twenty-five years ago that we would have two daughters that are besties?' Apparently, my daughter was going up Kellie (Harper) asking her who she was and what she does. I was like, sorry usually she doesn't talk to anybody, she must really like you. It is full circle, it is really, really cool. I am so lucky to be a mom, I didn't think that it was going to happen for me in my life to be married and have a daughter. Then, to be able to have somebody in our conference like Kellie who is in a very similar situation. Both of our husbands are on staff. She's doing an amazing job, she's a mom too. What we do is our passion, but it's hard. It's hard to do it. We have so much support and just to be able to share that moment with her, it's really good. I saw pictures, I've got lots of pictures so that's certainly going up in a frame in my office. Thank you for asking, it definitely was a full circle moment. It also just reminds me that this is just a game. It's one that I love, and it's one that I take seriously because we're developing these young women wholistically. I want them to be able to learn what it is to be great at whatever you do. I'm also a mom and a wife. To be able to have that to come back to after stuff like this is just beautiful, it makes life worth it."
Players Mentioned
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WBB | Zee Spearman Media Availability (10.2.25)
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