2006-07 BKW at Central Michigan -- Quotes
11/28/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Michigan Head Coach Cheryl Burnett
On her impressions of tonight's game ... "We're really taking everybody's best shot on the road. Central Michigan came into this game with a lot of pride. They're playing extremely hard. They were getting a lot of what we call "hustle points" in the first half. On every defensive rebound we got, they would jam our rebounder. We talked specifically about how we wanted to get a good "bust-out". LeQuisha Whitfield got an incredible bust-out and eventually got a few fouls called. It gave us enough transition baskets that made a little bit of a difference."
On the keys to Michigan's success tonight ... "We knew coming into this game that we had to stop their post play. They do a great job of going high-low. Ann Skufca has been a force to be reckoned with in the non-conference. We held her to 1-of-13. We also knew that we had to keep them off the free throw line, because they're a great free-throw shooting team. A couple of our kids ended up hitting the big free throws. Jessica Minnfield got to the line and hit two, and then we inserted Katie Dierdorf into the lineup because we know she is a fabulous free throw shooter. She was definitely the person we wanted at the line in the end. I thought we battled well. We got some really great minutes out of Melinda Queen defensively, and Kelly Helvey came in and made some great passes to get somebody else an easy score. This was a full team effort. We wanted to play a lot of people. We thought that our depth could really make a difference, and it looked like it did. We wanted to wear their post out. We knew they had to have those two post players in the game most of the time. We wanted our post to run, and it was good enough to win."
On Michigan's season-high 28 turnovers ... "It is a very big concern of ours. It's just something we have to go through as we learn to execute and as we learn our roles a little bit better. Our frustration is that we're not recognizing as a team when we have an easy on-the-fly layup or an easy transitional basket. We're just throwing it to the other team when the defense is very solid. We just have to value the basketball a lot more."
On the play of Krista Phillips ... "She was really a force and we were really looking to her tonight. If we were a better post-passing team, which is something we are working on, Krista could score 30. We give it to her in some tough situations. It's just something we're going to have to get better at. Post passing is definitely an art. When we start learning how to get the ball to our post a little bit better, it will make things easier. Ta'Shia Walker came in and did a couple of very nice things to get Krista some easy scores. It's just a matter of executing, and our veterans did a nice job of coming out and doing that tonight."
On the ability of rebounding from a loss to Duke and responding with a win ... "I've always respected this group because they do a great job of gathering themselves. We have talked about how we want to be the best team in Michigan. That's one of our goals. Our kids came in tonight and played with a great sense of pride to represent the University of Michigan extremely well."
