Pitt Women's Basketball Postgame Quotes

Dec. 10, 2016

Pitt head coach Suzie McConnell-Serio:

Opening Statement:

Who thought igniting this rivalry was a good idea? It started out as a competitive game in the first quarter and Penn State didn't do anything that we weren't familiar with or didn't prepare for as far as full court pressure, man feeling back into the zone, a 2-2-1, 2-3 zone, trapping in the short corner, trapping your wings, hedging with your 5, switching one through four on ball screens; they didn't do anything we didn't prepare for. I can stand on that sideline and make every call, which I thought at times we executed very well, we just didn't hit enough shots. When you look at their defense and how to attack, your offense has to be your best defense. When you're fishing and you're scoring, it slows them down because they are very, very good in transition. It took our players 40 minutes to realize how good they were. We tried to make the adjustment, and its effort, but disappointed with how many points we gave up in transition. We knew their guards are their strength and we knew they attacked in transition, looking to score quickly and when you get players in foul trouble; putting them on the foul line 25 times and we're only there three, your players tend to not be as aggressive defensively, they change how they play, so it was disappointing; we gave up way too many points in transition but their guards are very, very talented, and when their guards weren't scoring, they were finding their post players running the floor and then the other thing was we gave up way too many offensive rebounds. It was disappointing that we gave up an offensive rebound, they'd put it back and it was a three-point play. We just needed to be tougher, to finish our defense with a box-out. I watched every one of their games, except for their first one and I saw everything that they did, and I knew how talented they were coming in. We had to play a great game and we didn't. We played two good quarters, but needed to play and compete for 40 minutes and that just didn't happen today.

Q: Coach, what did you see with Penn State's guard play with [Lindsey] Spann, [Amari] Carter, and [Teniya] Page and what type of problems did they create for your defense?

A: Well make or miss, they take it out-of-bounds and push in transition. Their guards are crafty, they can shoot the 3-pointer, they can elevate on their jumpers, they're very difficult matchups for any guards. We just needed to make sure we had multiple people back and we didn't. Jasmine Whitney, I love the kid to death, she's dealing with a back injury right now and played her heart out, but just didn't have the speed she needed to get back. And we're dealing with a lot of injured players; we're playing without our best player basically, Yacine Diop, our best defender and most athletic player and in games like this it's glaring that we really miss her. Players need to step up and take advantage of the opportunities they're given right now. Their guards are just so explosive and dangerous because they can shoot the three, they can take you off the dribble, they can get to the rim and they get to the free throw line. They're crafty, they use their bodies well and finish with contact.

Q: You mentioned rebounds earlier, what was Penn State able to do to hold the advantage on the board?

A: They just out muscled us. I mean, that's the bottom line. That was a disappointing thing, fighting for position, shot goes up, they just out hustled us today and that was a disappointing thing. We talked about winning the hustle plays and that just didn't happen.

Q: You mentioned Teniya Page, who went 4-for-14, not an impressive night by her standards, what was key for getting in her face and bothering her tonight?

A: Well, I would've liked to have had Kauai Bradley on the floor a little bit longer, those two were high school teammates so there's familiarity there. But Kauai got in a little foul trouble and also with a bigger lineup, we had to switch Kauai [Bradley] onto Jaida Travascio-Green or Sierra Moore; so we would switch matchups and take Kauai off of her, but we just paid attention to her. Having seen her last couple games and how effective she has been, we switched some things out-of-bounds because we know they like to bring her off of the down screen. I thought we defended their out-of-bounds plays well. She's just really talented, but you key on her and Lindsey Spann goes off her 20. So, it's pick your poison with Penn State. Their guards are very, very good.

Q: You think you guys keyed on Teniya Page a little too much tonight?

A: I'd like to say that we did but we didn't. I mean they just had their ways with us in transition. I think other players were hitting shots and making plays in transition that she just wasn't as big of a factor with the amount of shots that the other players were taking. Although she took 14, but maybe she was trying to prove something against Kauai Bradley, I don't know.

Q: Coach it seemed that you had a lot of unnecessary turnovers especially traveling, I think you guys got called for three or four travel calls. How deflating was that for your team because it seemed like every time you guys tried to build momentum, there was a crucial turnover?

A: We are a pretty young team playing in a big game; it's an in-state rivalry that is now being hyped as that back on the schedule. I just think that being excited, trying to play too fast, trying to make an impact too quickly, and we weren't as deep as we needed to be today with the struggles we were having; we couldn't go deeper into our bench. I started to go off the first half when we had five fumbled passes, dropped passes, we were turning the ball over, we were fouling, just didn't come ready to play. That was disappointing. We are a team that needs contributions from every player on this team. Every player that steps on the floor, we need contributions from. We're not made up of high school All-Americans and superstars. We are made up of players that buy into our system, that work well together, they believe in each other, there's great chemistry and a trust on the floor, and we have to outplay people for us to be successful; we're not made up of athletic guards like Penn State is. So for us to be successful, we have to allow our system to work. But it's also defensive effort, transition and rebounding; that's just effort that we need to get better at.

Q: Your team had momentum in the first quarter, what really changed from the first to the second quarter?

A: We got in foul trouble, Kauai Bradley is someone who is very key to do what we do. Whether we play our matchup at the point of it, her length, her athleticism, she's a scorer for us and a shooter, and when she's not on the floor we're a different team. When we had to go to our bench, we got slower; we do have scoring opportunities coming off our bench but I don't think defensively we're as good. When you get in foul trouble, it just messes with you mentally. Players are afraid to get around a post player, they're afraid to get up and pressure a guard, they're afraid to drive because they don't want to get called for a charge. It just changes the way you play the game and we have to learn to play through those situations and play with two or three fouls and not pick up that extra foul. We also still have to stay aggressive on both ends of the floor. For whatever reason, we came out of the second half with great looks, we just didn't score enough and had eight offensive rebounds to their 19.

Pitt Women's Basketball Postgame Quotes

Players Mentioned

Kauai Bradley

Yacine Diop

Jasmine Whitney

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