Houston-Georgetown Postgame Quotes
12/28/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 28, 2010
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Head Coach Todd Buchanan
On his initial thoughts on the game
"I felt like our marketing department, our athletic administration, our ticket office, the city of Houston, our alumni and our boosters were there for us tonight. That means the world to me and to our program, and from the bottom of my heart I am sorry. I am sorry, and I will take the bullet for us playing as poorly as we played and not being prepared - or so it seemed. This one's on me. Everyone wants to point a finger, if they want to point a finger and blame somebody I want them to blame me. With that being said, I promise everyone of those same people, persons, organizations and family that will never happen again. I'd be remiss to say that is by far the best basketball team we've played to date, but that is no excuse of why we didn't show up tonight."
On what he told his team at halftime
"I told them for as badly as we played and as poorly as we shot, that we were lucky to only be down 26. We still had somewhat of a light at the end of the tunnel and we could if they believed we could do it, but to know that they didn't have the luxury of wasting time. I used the old Kentucky vs. LSU game as a reference, when they came back from what I think was 34. I told them that it's been done. Obviously, we're going to have to make shots and make our free throws. The best thing about the free throw scenario is you get to score while the clock is stopped. The thing that I think is ironic and eerie is that I told them before the game, if we get to the foul line 40 times, it's a `W.' What I should have told them is that we also have to make them if we get to the line 40 times.
On the injury that caused senior forward Courtney Taylor to miss the game
"It was a freak accident that happened during practice. It was a severe knee sprain (that resulted from) a loose ball situation. She's probably landed like that a thousand-plus times. This time, I think she might've gotten bumped and caught it underneath her to hyperextend it. We're certainly day-to-day with her right now. We're thinking there's no way we'll have her back for HBU. Our target right now is the (Jan. 4) Lamar game."
On Taylor's absence making the team play mentally scattered
"To be very honest with you, I hope that's it and that's all it is. I believe in my heart that's probably certainly the case. Courtney is everything to us, make no mistake about that, everybody here understands that she is everything to us. What we've got to understand is that no one person is a team. What we have to learn from this situation is that these are the things we were trying to tell them. Not one individual can bring us back to the promise land, so to speak. We're not going to make up 26 points with three or four possessions. We have to change what we're doing. We stood tonight. We were nonexistent with motion - and emotion. A lot of times emotion leads to motion. I just didn't get the job done. I didn't get the job done of getting our kids motivated. So I hope (Courtney's absence) is all that this was and it's a one-and-done and we forget about it. We have to be mentally tougher than we showed tonight times a trillion. My heart wants to tell me that we never gave up tonight, but there were certain possessions that we looked like we would rather be anywhere other than Hofheinz Pavilion."
On Georgetown's performance
"They are a great team. They are very long and very athletic. The thing about them is that they don't just run two or three (talented players) at you. They run six, seven, eight, nine kids at you. I don't even know how many of their kids played, but I think they brought in at least 10 to a dozen players. That's something that we've known since I got the job. Our depth is suspect; it's very, very inexperienced. When you add three freshmen to that, it's something that we were very vulnerable with tonight. We tried to be smart and play everybody where we would get not only experience for the youngsters, but we play in another 48 hours. We have to game manage and player manage. Maybe it's in my head, too, that if some freak accident happened to Courtney, the last thing you want is some freak accident happening to any of your other kids."
Senior forward Brittany Mason
On her overall thoughts regarding Tuesday's game
"I don't know how to put it, but I think the bottom line was our minds were everywhere since (senior forward) Courtney Taylor wasn't playing. That just took us out of our game."
On Courtney Taylor's absence affecting every aspect of the Cougars' game
"Our team has always had a problem with if things aren't going well, we just shut down. A lot of times that makes it hard for us to get back in it, but I think it's all in our heads. The same people that were missing free throws (tonight) are the same people who are knocking down so many free throws each and every game. It seemed like everything was going wrong on both ends of the floor. It was a domino effect with everything."
On trying to attack Georgetown's zone defense
"We've done well against so many different types of zones, but they were long and they played great defense and rotated well. I felt like once we had those few turnovers against their man (defense), that we were being passive, being timid and stopped attacking. Then it was the same domino effect; it just got worse and worse."
On the difficulty surrounding getting over this type of loss
"For some people it will be easier than others, because stuff like this has happened before. I'm ok, I won't forget it, but I'm ok because I feel like I have to be. Being a leader on the team, there is a way you're supposed to act to things like this. We'll see tomorrow come practice time, because I'm pretty sure it's going to be intense. Only time will tell and tomorrow's practice will tell a lot."
