Head Coach Quentin Hillsman Quotes
Head Coach Quentin Hillsman Postgame Quotes
Syracuse Women’s Basketball Quotes
Coach Quentin Hillsman
Syracuse vs. No. 23/23 Rutgers
February 14, 2007/Carrier Dome
Opening Statement
“Back here after another tough one. We are a young ball club and we need to come out and be strong and try to build a reputation and some kind of foundation for our program. I think that more than anything else we are playing hard, we are playing strong but we’ve got to find a way to make some shots. I thought that we missed a lot of open shots and layups and things like that. But overall I thought that we took good shots and we played pretty aggressive at the rim in the second half. In the first half we settled for too many three-point shots. We have to come out initially and play more aggressively at the rim. Looking at Vaida (Sipaviciute’s) play, I thought she played a good game. Going against one of the top post players in the country and she scored pretty well. Nicole (Michael) did not have a very good shooting night but she remained aggressive and she didn’t get discouraged. Up against the defensive player of the year last year in Essence Carson, who can really guard you, for her to go out there and still get 13 points was really big for her because it proves she can score against anybody in the country. But of course I’m not happy with the loss. In the second half, I thought we played a little bit stronger and we closed the lead down in the first half. We have to continue to find a way to play hard and put 40 minutes together.”
On Rutgers’ defense:
“I thought they played very well defensively but we only had 11 turnovers and I thought that we got good shots. We took care of the ball and didn’t do anything to shoot ourselves in the foot. We did miss some easy baskets at the rim. They’re physical and very athletic. Kia Vaughn is a very good shot-blocker. She’s very physical. I thought that she altered a lot of shots. They played very good defense and I thought we did a really good job of handling their pressure on the full court. We did a pretty good job of playing at the rim.
On offensive rebounds:
“One thing about the offensive rebounds was that they had 20 offensive rebounds, but we had 16. I think that overall when we look at offensive rebounds, we did a really good job of rebounding. I think they that got a lot of long rebounds. Kia Vaughn is just an animal on the boards and when she’s staying at the rim the entire game and she’s banging, she’s going to get some rebounds. She’s going to be a first team All-BIG EAST player. Looking at the physicality of the game, we had 16 offensive rebounds and I’m really pleased with that.”
