Coach Quentin Hillsman Quotes
Syracuse Women’s Basketball Quotes
Coach Quentin Hillsman
Syracuse vs. Providence College
January 6, 2007/Carrier Dome
Opening Statement
“I thought we played a solid game. First half we were real shaky. We didn’t execute our offense, but overall I think we came out strong in the second half and Vaida (Sipaviciute) started scoring. Nicole (Michael) became more aggressive and I think that was the difference between the first half and the second half. I think that our turnovers were too high. I think we had 17 turnovers and of course they had 20 offensive rebounds, and those two things alone lose a basketball game. I think they had 22 points off of second chance points, and those things right there—that’s the game. Other than that I liked the effort in the second half.”
On the end of the second half if the offense was unorganized
“No, we just threw the ball to the other team. We were very organized. We were in our steps and in the first half we got our players through the lane. I thought they did a good job of cutting hard, and a couple times I think Mary (Joe Riley) tried to get the ball and just threw two errant passes. They knew exactly what they were doing offensively. I think we just made a couple mistakes.”
On the issue of Providence’s 20 offensive rebounds
“What they were doing is their guards were getting rebounds, because they were shooting a lot of three pointers and they were bouncing long, and when you are closing out on the shooter and you got to fly out on the great shooters and the ball bounces long you are pretty much out of position. Those are the hardest teams to rebound against when they shoot the three. When they shoot from the inside you can get a body on someone and kind of contain them. When they are shooting threes and they are bouncing long and you are boxing someone out and you can’t get to them it’s kind of tough.”
On the frustration of Providence getting the ball to Chelsea Marandola a good free throw shooter at the end of the game
“Yeah, its one of those things where you got two possessions that she didn’t get it, and we got it down to five and that was the time that she caught it and she made the free throws. It was one of those things where she did a good job closing out the game for them. It’s one of those things where you do the best you can, and we double teamed her to get the ball inbounds. One time when they were real aggressive they called a foul, and after that our kids got a little cautious about putting their hands on her.”
If there was a section or two in the game he would change
“Yup, just the last three minutes in the first half. I think that overall we played a pretty good 17 minutes and the last three minutes we started throwing the ball away a little bit and I think that was something that kind of hurt us. We had a little bit of momentum going up until that point we were playing pretty well. Its like I tell the girls you can’t have mental lapses for two or three minutes at a time because those kind of mistakes are what loses ball games.”
Ashley’s play in the first half
“It’s always critical when you have people off the bench and your best shooter making shots, and she made a lot of shots. She did an excellent job of catching and shooting the ball. It’s one of those things that Ashley’s injuries and the things that she is going through are now well documented. So you know everyone knows what is going on with her. So she has good days and bad days and today was one of the days that she felt great. When she feels great she is going to play really good and other days she’s going to kind of be down a little bit, but she definitely felt good today and played a strong game. She is a really tough kid.”
