EAST LANSING, Mich. –
Michigan State Head Coach Suzy Merchant
On the significance of Abbey Kimball…
She was out early this season with mono and that’s never good for anybody going into their freshman season. It was also during the preseason where you are putting all the time and work in, so she wasn’t able to do anything then. With mono, there is no rehab or anything. All she needed was rest. She also had that back injury, so she has had a lot of struggles early. She is starting to get back into her groove a little bit. I think her basketball timing is coming back. We saw that a little before Christmas, and certainly saw that through this early part of January.
On the Spartans first half play…
We certainly felt playing up tempo was something we needed to be able to do. Our press helped us and didn’t allow them to run their Princeton style offense. Methodically, we wanted them to feel a little off balance. Early in that first quarter, they shot the ball really quickly. One of the things I thought we did better is our defensive rebounding. These guys are thirteen plus and a great offensive rebounding team. I think part of the reason we were efficient was because we were able to get stops and keep our pressure on them. Our players, whether they were subs or starters, did a good job of pushing the tempo and making good decisions within that. They didn’t give it back to them when we had the opportunities to get stops.
On the significance of the win…
The Iowa one was a heartbreaker. We have lost three overtime games this year. Those are tough pills to swallow, especially when you are at home. We didn’t have a great practice the day before, but our shoot-around was really good. We had great energy and focus. I felt like we were going to play well. We focused on the things Rutgers does well and did our best to not allow them to do it. If there is one disappointing thing, it is that number two got away from us. She is their leading scorer, and she played really well all night. She is a three or layup player, so when she puts it on the floor, she is going to the rim. Other people have good pull up game on their team, but for her, she is usually going to the rim. I thought we also started with two turnovers for touchdowns. In our first possession, Deedee (Hagemann) turned it over for a touchdown twice. It gave them momentum…
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