Coach Q Quotes 2_22_09 Gtown
Head Coach Quentin Hillsman Quotes
Syracuse vs. Georgetown
February 22, 2009
General Statement:
“I love my kids. They’re my kids. I’ve been very hard on them about this game because this is one that we really let get away. They didn’t run anything that we haven’t seen. They didn’t do anything that we didn’t know they were going to do. We were over prepared for this game. I’ve never prepared for a game like this in my career being here. We had three edits. We knew exactly what was coming down the pipe. Georgetown really made plays, and you have to give them credit for it.
Back when I first started coaching here, they wouldn’t have been this hurt. They were in a situation where losing was just happened here. We have done everything that we could to prepare these teams that we’ve had, and we compete like crazy. We never go out there with the attitude that we’re going to lose. I think that every past coach that has stood at this podium has prepared their teams to win at Syracuse. There have been some very good coaches here. All I want to do is change the culture. These faces have changed the culture because they’re hurting. When they’re hurting this bad, we can see that the culture at Syracuse University has changed. When I go out into the community and people are saying ‘What’s wrong?’ when we’re 15-10, that means that the culture has changed in the community. Three years ago, 15-10 would have been great. Now, 15-10 is not acceptable here amongst our team and in the community. I embrace the pressure. I embrace the high expectations and the changing culture. That’s what we want to do here. I’m going to continue to talk about winning. No one’s going to back me down from saying that I’m here to win championships and that I’m here to win every game. That’s what we’re all about here, and that’s what we’re going to continue to be about.
My kids are hurting and I’m hurting because we understand what this game was about. We don’t need anybody to make us think that we don’t understand what this game was about. This was a must-win game, and we didn’t win it. We tried our hardest, we competed like crazy, and we did all we could to win this basketball game. We made three or four errors down the stretch when we had the lead. I think that just comes with having some maturity. What a lot of people don’t see is that we’re subbing in freshmen off the bench, and we’re subbing in first-year players like Juanita Ward who’s in her first year in the BIG EAST. We have a very young bench, and they really stepped up and did a good job today. We subbed in a whole five, and they came in and really picked up the intensity and picked up the effort.
I embrace the culture here, and I want the culture to be changed. I want you guys to expect us to win every basketball game. That’s what I wanted when I first came here, to change the culture of winning. For every time we lose, for us to be hurt, and for everyone who supports us and watches us to be hurt too. I think everyone understands that we have very good players and good kids. And they do all that they can to represent Syracuse University to the highest standard. All we talk about in the locker room is playing hard, competing, and having a level of gratitude. Every day we write about having gratitude around here, being grateful and thankful for where we are. All I can tell you is that we’re going to continue to play hard and compete. We’re not going to walk around here with our heads down. We’re going to keep fighting and keep pushing to do all we can to win every basketball game, starting with Tuesday.”
On the last play of the game going to Nicole Michael:
“That was the call. We designed the play to get two hard, double curls, and they would chase and we would get the ball. The referee has a hard job. I thought it was a jump ball, and they called a travel. Refereeing is tough. We have the best referees in the country. These referees call WNBA games. When you have the best in country, no matter how I’m on them during the game, they are the best in country. I have to give Juanita credit. She’s a very good ref and she made the call. We lost. We have to deal with it.”
On the large number of free throw attempts in the second half:
“That’s our offense. We’re in the top five in the country in free throw attempts. That’s part of our offense, to get the ball in the lane and go ahead and score from the free throw line. We don’t care how we get the points; we just want to score them. I don’t feel that our offense is sputtering when we’re shooting free throws. I thought that we were being aggressive, taking the ball to the basket and not bailing out, instead of chucking up a bunch of bad shots.”
On the last defense play of the game:
“It was a contested shot. We did a good job with a screen and a re-screen. I thought that Tasha (Harris) did a very good job on her. She got underneath the screen twice, and got a challenge. She made a big shot. She made a big play. I give her a lot of credit for making a shot, and for being poised. That’s a tough shot to make to win a basketball game.”
