Houston-Wisconsin Postgame Quotes
11/20/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 20, 2005
Houston Head Coach Joe Curl
Opening Statement:
"I'm really pleased with the second half. Our kids played with a lot more heart. We're awfully young and no excuses. I felt like Wisconsin just really beat us in every phase of the game - clinic'd us blocking out. And I tell you what -- their coaching staff and their players just really need to be complimented, because I think this could be a year that Wisconsin really gets back on the map. Playing them last year and this year - their kids are so classy. They play so hard, and now that those freshmen guards that they had a year ago at our place have grown up like our freshmen showed tonight, I really think you've got something special there."
On last season:
"What happened a year ago - we were very experienced. We've had two top eight draft picks in the WNBA. We've been very talented and I think we are, but we're just very young right now. I think we did to them a year ago what they did tonight. They killed us on the glass.
"The difference between this year and last year - experience. We were very talented and I think we still are, but we've got to find our way to play. Last year we started 6-5, 6-4, 6-4. This year we can't stack `em up to that height at this point, but I think we're still going to have a good year and a good team once we find our way."
On his halftime remarks:
"What I said at halftime was, I think we need each other more now than we did before the game started. To be an ugly coach at halftime of that kind of game I think is totally opposite of what those kids needed, because I didn't have a player out there that tried to do something wrong. I thought they just got on a roll and picked us apart. We just tried to get their heads up and one of the hardest things to do as a coach is stop that momentum when you're young. Older kids blow off those mistakes a little bit quicker and we're trying to get to that point and I thought we did that in the second half."
Wisconsin Head Coach Lisa Stone
On the first half:
"It might have been the best half, from a turnover standpoint, ever in my 21 years of coaching. One turnover at the half, we caught up a little bit in the second half with some turnovers, but a great half and a great start. Joe Curl has his kids playing hard. They graduated some players, but their rebounding was certainly an issue and something we addressed all week in practice and I thought we made a big statement. We were out-rebounding them by nine at the half. I'm very pleased with our team. They came to compete and win and beat a good team. Hopefully this is the start of a great home-court advantage, the fans were great."
On getting to the free throw line:
"I'm excited. Our kids were really very focused. I had a wonderful feeling after my pre-game speech. The eyes, the look on their faces, the smiles on their faces, it was tremendous team basketball. I thought the opening play of the game, we were just running a jump ball play. We miss Annie (Nelson) first and then (Kjersten) Bakke gives up wide-open jumper of her own to give her teammate a better look and we get a foul. I think that was very indicative of what was to come in the rest of the game."
On Houston's Sha'Ratta Hawkins:
"Houston came on and Hawkins was one heck of a handful for a while there, making shots from all over the place. We put (Janese) Banks on her at the end and Janese quieted her down a little bit."
On individual contributions:
"Akiya Alexander and Shari' Welton certainly are doing some very nice things for us. They gave us some nice energy offensively and defensively. So when you categorize those people and look at our balanced scoring and rebounding, it's terrific. Annie Nelson doesn't score a whole lot, but gets us nine rebounds.
