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Coach Hillsman Quotes
Syracuse vs. Connecticut
February 24, 2010
Carrier Dome -- Syracuse, N.Y.
Opening Statement:
"It was a tough game on the boards. Rebounding was a big factor. We didn't get our normal 18 or 20 offensive rebounds. I thought that was a huge part of the game. We didn't get to the free throw line as much as we normally do. Normally, we are pretty good at getting to the basket and getting a lot of free throws. This game we didn't shoot a lot of free throws and those are points off the board. You definitely need to have those on the score board. We had a few specific things that we wanted to do. We really wanted to score the ball in the paint. We had 26 points in the paint. They had 34. We wanted to keep our turnovers under 12. We had nine. We wanted to keep points off turnovers down. They had 15. We had 15 points off turnovers. They are a very good transition team. We were pretty even on fast break points, 17 to 12. The biggest fact is they shot 33 free throws and we shot 14. We have to get to the line a little bit more to even that number up. It is not a shot at anybody. It shows that we need to be more physical and aggressive going to the basket. We need to play at the rim instead of playing away from the rim. Overall, we did a good job stepping to the basket. We took nine more shots. We scored two less field goals than them. The rebounding and the free throws were a big part of the game. Maya Moore had a monster game. She is a great player. She comes to play in big games. Tonight she came to play."
On the altercation with Erica Morrow:
"I didn't even see what happened. I know the play was going on and they called us over to the table and they said they were reviewing a play and I said, 'What play?' I don't know when the play even occurred. They do not let us see the monitor. I do not know. "
On Erica's response from altercation:
"I really didn't get into it because it is one of those things where she is a competitor. She plays hard and she brings it every night. At some point you kind of let things settle and I will talk to her about it. She is very disappointed in what happened. She was very down about not being able to be on the floor at the end of the game. I respect her and I didn't think it was a good time to have that conversation with her."
On what to takeaway from the game:
"We lost. Absolutely zero. We have to win basketball games. We do not do the moral victory thing. At the end of the day it goes in the lost column. We played very hard. You don’t take anything away from a loss, no matter what the situation."
