Head Coach Gary Gait Quotes
Syracuse v. Northwestern
March 24, 2008
Carrier Dome – Syracuse, N.Y.
On the final score:
“I don’t like looking at that. That is the No. 1 team in the country, three-time defending national champions, they can do that to anybody on a good night and they had a great second half. It just goes to show we have a long way to go to build this program.”
On what the team learned from the game:
“I think they learned how deep and how hard you have to work and the total team effort you need to be a national champion. Northwestern did a great job of demonstrating the confidence and the poise it takes to be the best.”
On whether he thought the team was closer to the No. 1 team in the country:
“We hung in there with them in the first half. I think that showed that we were at least with them for a half and then we just couldn’t finish out the game. We struggled in the second half and that comes from depth and maturity and experience.”
On how much it hurts to be on the short end of the score:
“It is just a game. It is not a make or break for us this season. It’s a great lesson for our team. We still have more than half the season left so we will build from this and learn from it.”
On the importance of reminding the team it is just a game:
“I think they understand that’s it is the defending champions, that is the best team in the country right now. They understand that so we’ll go back and next game we don’t have to play the best team in the country. We’ll regroup and refocus and get ready to start building ourselves back up from this game and continue on with the rest of the season.”
On Northwestern scoring with two seconds remaining:
“They’re just playing the game. It is our job to stop them. If we are going to leave them wide open with a couple seconds left they are going to score.”
On the Northwestern defense:
“They played a tough defense. They shut (Katie Rowan) down and I think it was a great lesson for how hard you have to work if you want to get the ball against a good, athletic defender that is going to deny you the ball. We will learn from that and work on some things to try and get her focused if that happens again.”
On what changed in the second half:
“Draw controls and getting possession. We didn’t get the ball much in the beginning of the second half. They went down and every time they had possession they got quality shots and put the ball in.”
On draw controls in the second half:
“Sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way. We mixed it up a bit. We had opportunities but they are a very swarming, athletic team that went after the draw and they were all over it.”
On the magnitude of the game playing into the slow second half start:
“We are a young team. We haven’t been to a final four and we haven’t been to a championship. I think anytime you are playing a team like this you are going to test yourself and see how you react against pressure. I think it was a great learning experience for us, how we have to play and step up.”
On whether he was surprised by the draw controls:
“We were happy with the way it was going this season and they just out hustled us around the ball and came up with the loose ones. It wasn’t always right off the draw into their sticks. It was a lot of jump balls in the air and batted away with them coming up with it. That is just a little bit more athleticism around the ball.”
On whether the difference in the draw controls was hustle:
“They were a little more athletic than we were and they did out hustle us. They had the horses to keep going in that second half and I think our players may have been a little tired.”
On Northwestern’s Hilary Bowen and Danielle Spencer:
“They are very good players. They are a couple of the best players in the country and they proved it. They are super athletic and you saw that in the way they ran all over the field and it makes it tough to stay with them. They drive in on you and you play good defense two or three times and they get you the fourth time. It is just a very good team with very good athletes.”
