University of North Carolina Athletics
Postgame Quotes - Louisville 78, North Carolina 60
February 5, 2016 | Women's Basketball
NORTH CAROLINA POSTGAME QUOTES
Louisville 78, North Carolina 60 • February 4, 2016
Head Coach Sylvia Hatchell
Opening Statement
“If we could play halves, we'd be in really good shape. I thought, first half, we played a really good half; rebounding, we were ahead and everything like that. Actually with seven minutes to go in the third quarter, and then fourth quarter, four minutes later, we were down by four. So they had an 18 to four run there within about four minutes. So we just started breaking down. Again, I think we got fatigued and got tired, but I thought we did a lot of good things. The two freshman are just continuing to learn and get better and better. I think we've improved tremendously, because like I said, to play a team that is undefeated in the conference, 12th or 13th in the country, I thought the first two and a half quarters we played really well, and then we just get worn out. But you can tell we're working hard and we're getting better…Hillary [Summers] had a good game, seven for nine [shooting], then a double double. Stephanie [Watts] keeps learning and doing a lot of good things out there. With the young ones we are a work in progress. I thought Destinee [Walker] played a good game; we're starting to play Destinee a lot more at point guard, which I think that's really good. Again, we're getting better. It's not showing in the win column, but it's showing at half time and all. The third quarter has been our Achilles heel the past six games.”
On keeping the team motivated
“You go through adversity, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I went seven months not knowing whether I was going to live or die. I learned a lot. I'm pretty tough. You don't know how strong you can be until strong is all you have, and I went through that for seven months. So I've tried to teach them the toughness that I have and how to win through adversity, because again it makes you stronger. So that's what we're going. I think the first half we probably played as good as we have all year.”
On taking on more responsibility offensively
“I definitely did try and take that step with being a redshirt senior. Just trying to be more of a leader and do anything that I can to help my team out. They're really good at passing me the ball, and then we're learning the plays better and learning how to really work the offense. So just trying to do what I can to help us win.”
On the difference with having Coach Hatchell on the bench
“Clearly, it's a whole different atmosphere when Coach Hatchell is there. She just brings such a passion and love for the game that it just rubs off on us. You have no choice but to elevate to her level of intensity. It is a big difference not having her there. We'll definitely rise to the occasion on Sunday and play for Coach Hatchell.”
Louisville Head Coach Jeff Walz
On early momentum
“I thought they played extremely hard. I thought they played well. I tried to prepare our kids to understand that Carolina is playing for a reason. There's a purpose right now. They're trying to get back on their winning ways. It's a club that's got a rich tradition of winning, and they're really close. They've got dynamic guards. I thought their post players played extremely well, and I tried to get ours prepared to know that it was going to be a ballgame. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I did a very good job of that because we came out, and we were not focused. We missed layups, just really sloppy.”
On a defensive switch
“We didn't rotate very well at all. We were very slow in it. We weren't giving the effort you have to play with if you're going to try to trap. If you're going to try to press, you've got to be sprinting out of traps, you've got to be looking to back-tip, and we were just – if not sure what we were doing honestly. That's why we lasted about a possession or two in it after they hit a three in the corner, and it was ugly.”
On offensive burst in the third quarter
“Well, we had some good looks in the first half, but we were reliant on the three-point shot. I thought in the third quarter, we started to attack in transition, we started to get to the free throw line, we had a few and-ones, and then we worked inside out. For us, unfortunately, we've got to figure out a way to change it. We become a pretty good defensive team when we score, but when we don't score, our effort is poor. We hang our head, and we get upset because we miss a shot. It's hard to be an elite program if you can't get past the fact that not every shot is going to go in.”
On motivating team in times of deficit
“I told them it was embarrassing at halftime – not the fact that we were down, the fact of how we were responding. It's unacceptable. You can't expect to compete at the elite level if you can't get past the fact that you don't make every shot, and if you make one out of every two, you've got a good chance of being an All-American. Even if you go four for 10, that's a good night, but unfortunately we get so frustrated we miss six. We've got to get past that, and if we don't there are going to be some ballgames that aren't going to be real pretty.”
On mindset coming into the game
“I tried to get them to understand. Carolina's playing – they were 12-11 going into the game, you're sitting there fighting for everything that you can, so we knew that they were going to come out here, and this was an important game for them. You can get to 13-11. You're two games over .500, you might have some momentum going, and I hope we didn't look past them. When you start the year 1-4, I would hope that we would know that as fast as we've gotten to where we've won 15 straight, we did look pretty poor starting off the year. I'm hoping we're not getting full of ourselves because when we go hard and play hard and execute, we're pretty talented. But if we just show up and think we can win, it's normally not a pretty day.”
