Pitt vs. West Virginia quotes
2/20/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 20, 2007
Pitt Coach Agnus Berenato:
Opening Statement:
"I just think it was a really tough loss. I felt we were well prepared, but we jut didn't execute the preparation. When you don't execute your preparation, you're probably not going to beat a team like West Virginia. I think Marcedes [Walker] tried to carry the team. She really battled tonight and put up a double-double. And compliments to West Virginia's defense, you can't win when you shoot 13-54. You just can't win. People are going to ask, 'What does this mean for Pittsburgh's women's basketball team?' We're fine. The sun will come up tomorrow and these kinds of games are going to come up when you're trying to build a program. There are a lot of peaks and valleys and I think early on we had more peaks than valleys. But again, you have to credit West Virginia. They're a tough, strong and physical team. And they're strong mentally. We'll learn from this. I think the way that you learn from it is to get back into the trenches and work on becoming physically and mentally tough."
On WVU's zone effecting Pitt's shooting:
"I don't know. We play a lot of teams that play zone. Notre Dame and Marquette played us zone, Marquette's even had a little twist to it. Providence and Syracuse also played a lot of zone against us and we attacked it. If we couldn't get any shots and had a lot of 30 second violations or if we were taking bad shots, then we would probably be more disappointed. Again, you have to credit West Virginia. They came out with the win and they stopped us. We missed several layups in the beginning of the game and I think that was a telling sign. We don't usually miss those, let alone when we're at home."
On Laquita Owens' 3-point shooting:
"She was 5-9 from the three-point line. The last three days we've been telling the team about her. She leads the Big East in threes. She's eighth in the nation. That gives you an idea that Owens is a shooter. We were prepared for it, but just didn't do a good job of executing the game plan and preparation."
On Shavonte's Zellous' night:
"I thought she had some great looks tonight, and then she had some shots that were in and out. I think it has a lot to do with maturity. She was riding a big high there for a while and was really taking over games, but she has to realize that there will be some down times too. And during those down times when the shots aren't falling, she'll just have to get to the line and make some free throws."
On pressure about the NCAA tournament:
"This is a young team, but not a single one of them is dumb. It's contrary to last year because this year they know what's at stake. A year ago I brought (Senior Women's Administrator) Carol Sprague in here to educate them about RPI. They know now about RPI and strength of schedule and all of that. We just need to play our best and have the chips fall where they may. We've got to worry about DePaul and getting win number 21. We can't skip over this phase and look ahead to the NCAA tournament. We've got to take care of our business. The key is to be prepared for Saturday, because we turn around on Sunday and go on the road to Georgetown, which is a tough place to play."
On shooting 1-15:
"I just think it was a bad night. Like coach said, we've got to credit West Virginia's defense. It was just a real bad night for me; I couldn't help Marcedes [Walker]. I just kept shooting because it's like coach says, 'If you miss five in a row, you're going to make the next eight." I'll just have to bounce back and get ready for DePaul on Saturday."
On playing WVU again:
"We'd love to see them again, but we've got to get ready for DePaul and then Georgetown and then get prepared for the Big East tournament, because we know we'll see them [West Virginia] again."
West Virginia Head Coach Mike Carey:
Opening Statement:
"This is a very good win for us against a very good team. I think we caught a break in that they had a rough shooting night, but I was pleased with our defense as well. As far as the game plan goes, it wasn't anything special. Once we built up that bigger lead in the second half we tried to take the air out of the ball a little bit, but nothing too complicated."
On defending Shavonte Zellous:
"I think more than anything she just didn't have a good shooting night. We made an effort to pack the middle a little bit and cut down penetration, but she still got her shots off, she just didn't hit them. What we really didn't want to do tonight was foul their jump shooters, and I'm actually pretty pleased with how that worked out."
On West Virginia's NCAA Tournament chances:
"I know Pitt's sitting pretty well with their record and their RPI, so winning here certainly helps us. Being that we have 18 wins, I think we'll need one or two more plus some luck in the tournament to get in, but we're ready for the challenge. I'm very proud of these girls and the way all of them have stepped up."
On West Virginia's early foul trouble:
"We really responded well to that I thought. Ranisha White came off the bench to give us some very good minutes for sure. I was also very pleased with the way that Chakhia Cole came off the bench to fill in at center. She didn't score that many points, but she played good defense and was physical down low. It was a very good effort from everyone."
On playing zone:
"It's not something we do all the time, but we work on it every day in practice, so we can go to it when the game dictates. If we feel it's necessary, we'll certainly take our chances with it."
West Virginia's LaQuita Davis:
On her play:
"I just wanted to play hard and keep my head up for this team. Everyone works so hard that I really wanted to come through for them when I had the chance."