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Coach Quentin Hillsman Postgame
Syracuse vs. Brown
Saturday, January 10, 2010
Carrier Dome – Syracuse, N.Y.
Opening statement:
We were very happy with the win. It's tough to play a non-league game in the middle of your league schedule. To come out and play and win the basketball game was very important for us. My goal tonight was to win the game. They had a couple of shooters that we wanted to care of. We gave up two threes to one of their shooters, but the other shooter didn't make any, so I was very happy with that. We out-rebounded them. We shot 51 percent from the field, 45 percent from three, 81 percent from the foul line, so overall, I thought we did a very good job of taking care of business and winning the basketball game. I'm very happy with the win, it's good to be done with non-league, we had a perfect non-league, and that was our goal. We got that done, so now it's time to move on to the BIG EAST for those basketball games. I'm very excited to play Wednesday. We have a very tough conference and we're looking forward to the competition.
On what the team had to work on this game:
We have to understand that we're open. We're getting open looks, we're moving the ball well and we have very good looks. So, we just have to make sure that when we get the ball, we have good looks and we make shots. In the first half, we were 10-for-26. You can't have that, because I thought we had 26 good looks, and we have to knock them down.
On committing so many turnovers:
I think we were just very aggressive. We really wanted them to push the ball up the floor and attack. We were getting the ball to Kayla (Alexander) and to the high post. I just think sometimes they were very surprised that when they got the ball and turned around, that no one was in front of them. They got real excited and ran to the basket, taking it back to the fourth grade. They're good basketball players. I know they're going to break the problem. At practice, we've been working on catching the ball, and turning and facing in the post. I think if the high post is there, they're getting it, and to their defense, they are looking at Kayla first. So, they're getting the ball and turning and looking opposite and then taking off to the basket. It's going to be okay. They're good basketball players, and one thing, they're doing what we're asking them to do. They're turning and facing, but we just have to do a better job of executing that.
On the play of Juanita Ward the last three games:
She's been aggressive, and her strength is in the open floor and rebounding the basketball. We’ve been telling her, 'just play your game, get to the rim, and rebound the basketball.' She does that, she runs the floor. She shot 5-for-10 tonight, very efficient, no turnovers. She's doing a great job for us right now.
On their run midway through the second half:
I thought it was very good because one thing we worked on in practice was getting up in the passing lanes. They were doing a very good job of playing up the floor a little bit and getting in the passing lanes. When you have that kind of action off of the ball, and you can't reverse the ball, you're really doing a very good job of keeping the ball on one side of the floor. When they did get the ball reversed, we did a very good job of flying out at their shooters. I though our forwards played a really good game defensively.
On playing Rutgers on Wednesday night:
It's BIG EAST conference, and it's very exciting. It's going to be good. They're a conference game. They're a good team, final four, Hall-of-Fame coach. They're a great team, so it's going to be a challenge all the way around and we’re going to come out and compete and play as hard as we can play and win the basketball game.
