University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC Quotes - NCAA Second Round
March 26, 2014 | Women's Basketball
2014 NCAA Division I women's basketball championship
Carmichael Arena • Chapel Hill, N.C.
Tuesday, March 25
NORTH CAROLINA POST GAME PRESS CONFERENCE
Andrew Calder, North Carolina Associate Head Coach:
Opening statement
"Thank you again to Coach [Sylvia] Hatchell for helping us with the game plan today. She got on me pretty good about not pressing and running more the other night. So, we did a much better job today. I thought the first 30 minutes were just outstanding Carolina basketball. I know Coach Hatchell is extremely proud. The players were outstanding. Diamond's [DeShields] defense, All-American Diamond DeShields's defense on their point guard just took them out of everything. She had 12 defensive rebounds, which we're really impressed with. Allisha Gray got seven defensive rebounds. I just thought it was a Carolina performance that we're all very proud of and want to take to the next game. I want to say Michigan State battled us, and Coach Suzy Merchant is a very good coach. They're talented, and I wish them the best of luck in the future."
On the physicality of the game
"We knew that. We talked a lot about that. ACC, sometimes we have that rep of maybe being a soft league, and Big Ten is a physical league. We said we were going to show them how to play physical basketball tonight, and we did."
On how to stop Michigan State's offense
"Anytime you can have pressure on their point guard ... we thought they would play 21 [Klarissa Bell] at point guard. Diamond [DeShields] up there was unbelievable. Unbelievable. She [Bell] actually just moved to the wing and put the other girl [Jankoska] up there. It started their offense out further, and the pass out three or four feet further than they normally do. That made the pass longer to the post, which helped us in point defense down inside. So, we did a really good job starting with Diamond right up there at the top. I think everybody else feeds off that. If you've got great ball pressure up at the top, then everybody's going to feed off of that. Everybody's going to see that and they're going to pick up the pressure, and that's what we did."
On keeping Michigan State off balance on offense
"We did a good job of mixing our driving with our cutting game and ball screen game. I thought the point guards did a good job. I thought Ivory [Latta] had them adjusting to what they were doing defensively and what we thought we could take advantage of. They started out the second half with that triangle-and-two, and we scored six points right away. Then they went out of it when they called time out. I thought we did a really good job of finding the openings. I thought [Latifah] Coleman did a good job in helping with that. She did a great job pushing the basketball tonight. We got a lot of easy opportunities. We felt like it was going to be very difficult to score against their half court D because it's so contained, and we wanted to try to get as many easy scores as we could. I thought Coleman did a great job pushing the basketball."
Diamond DeShields, North Carolina Guard:
On what she took from the game against UT Martin
"It hurt my pride a little bit as an offensive threat being held to four points in a half. That's uncommon for me, and with what's at stake this season I knew I couldn't do that anymore. So, it did hurt my pride as a scorer. I just told myself that wasn't going to happen tonight. I took my time a little more in finding better shots. I know my first shot against UT Martin was a 3-pointer and I try not to do that in games. So tonight I know I shot like three mid-range jumpers before I even took a 3-point attempt. That was just something that I took upon myself to do."
On the nerves
"There were no nerves. I was fired up. I was extremely fired up for the game tonight. I had no nerves at all. I was at home with these fans who came out deep tonight and they were live too. I had no nerves at all. We had no nerves. We were comfortable with where we were at. We were very comfortable as soon as that ball got thrown into the air, and it showed."
On the physicality of the game
"Definitely, it was physical. That conference is known for being big and being strong and being physical. We knew that it was going to be a big part of the game and that's probably the reason I was crashing the boards the way that I was. I just knew that it was something that I had to do. Their physicality was a huge part of the game."
On the team's confidence after the win
"It definitely raises confidence amongst the team, but you can't let that get the best of you. We were confident against UT Martin and they came out and shocked us. So, you've got to be confident but you've also got to conscious of what's going on and what your goals are and what you're trying to accomplish. We've got to stay focused. This game is over with as far as I'm concerned. We're moving forward, we're going to Cali and we're just going to refocus."
Allisha Gray, North Carolina Guard:
On the youth of the team
"At this point, being a freshman is not an excuse. You've got to be smart as a player. It seems like we hadn't played in a while, so we just had to get the little spiderwebs off of us, the little cobwebs, all that stuff off."
On her game tonight
"I just went for the floor in the game. I think I kinda got on fire a little in the first half and the second half. I focus on playing defense but still I think I did a pretty good job throughout the whole game."
On the focus of the team
"It was basically stop the drive, stop the screen, because we know they're a pick-and-roll team, and basically had to box out because they have great offensive rebound players."
On the team's goals
"It's just a hard work ethic. Next year will be too late. We want it now. The goal is to get to Nashville, Final Four. We just want to work hard to get there."
