I knew we could play better. Against Arizona, we weren't focused. There were some parts of that game that I think I carried around with me all week and into practice. I thought we worked really hard Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, getting ready for Washington. |
I know after the Connecticut game, I was personally exhausted. I felt like I had a rod in my neck and I didn't sleep at all that night. Some of it was the pressure the team felt with all those seniors. |
I love [having] it in San Jose. But [rotating] it would be more fair to other teams and expose the tournament to other areas. |
I saw some really uncharacteristic things, too, and I'm glad we got those out of our system. I think we can do a better job offensively. |
I think Candice realized, once she got going, that 'Hey, this is what I can do', and she sets a really high standard for herself. There's not too many shots she's met that she doesn't like. |
I think how we want to play as a team is coming into focus. They are starting to see things they didn't early. |
I think it's hard to explain to our players the emotion that Arizona had today. It's impossible to understand their mental place, what they've gone through, the things they've dealt with. We weathered that storm today, but I'm disappointed with the way we came out and I think we are fortunate to win. |
I think the trend in this bracket is big-scoring posts. It seems to be the thing to have. I'm glad we have two of them (juniors Brooke Smith and Kristen Newlin). |
I think this is the way it's going to be for us. We don't have a lot of room for error. We played poorly, and we were still in the game, we still had a chance to win. They outworked us. |
I think we need to get the ball to Brooke and (leading scorer) Candice (Wiggins) more. And then we need to put other people in situations that are more successful for them. |
I think we'll mix it up. We've got a Plan A, a Plan B and a Plan C. Maybe none of them are going to work. We will try to do a lot of different things. She is so different. She is not like anyone we have played against. |
I thought our players were really paying attention this week in practice. They saw her in person and they said, 'Wow! OK, we know what we need to do. |
I thought we were uninspired in the first half, and we came out and got things going in the second. I was disappointed we couldn't get Brooke out of the game. It was very physical and I didn't want people getting beat up heading to Washington (on Thursday). |
I was upset with some of the knucklehead plays we made early. People were trying to force things they don't usually do. In the second half, people focused better, made better decisions and we didn't turn the ball over. |
I would think both teams have really improved a lot and this is going to be a good measure to see how much we've improved. I think there's a natural tendency, when you lose to someone, that it would be extra motivation not to let that happen again. |