Post-Game Quotes
Nov 24, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 24, 2008
Tulane Head Coach Lisa Stockton
"We needed to hit some baskets. I thought at the end we played a lot smarter. We have really been trying to get the ball inside and we did that. Towards the end, we did a much better job of making easy baskets and getting the ball to our key players."
On the playing so many games early "It is very difficult with the NIT. We never know where we might be. We are trying to get our kids in classes and we just got back from Arizona. We really have not had the preparation time that we needed. One thing we really need is time to fix some things. We just have not had that time to practice in between games. I think we feel good about the fact that we have played four very good teams. We have a lot to build on and that will help us become a better team in the long run."
On the meaning behind this game "In the past this match up has meant a lot more. These teams had more players from Louisiana and they knew each other. This is always a big game for Tulane. It is a good game for our fans but we did not have to focus on getting our team excited about LSU. Our team gets excited when you play a team that has been in five Final Fours in a row."
On the ability of LSU "I think LSU is going to get better as the season goes on. They have so many weapons. Once they learn how to use them all, I think they will be a very good team. They will definitely start to improve when they get into conference play."
Freshman Forward Brett Benzio
On what LSU did to limit the shots "They started to take the ball away. We were not able to hit the outside shots. They were able to close in on the post and eliminate the passes inside. We tried, but it was just very hard. They played a great game and will have a good season."
LSU Head Coach Van Chancellor "I'm glad that we got the win today. I thought our defense for the first 33 minutes was really good. It reminded me of the LSU defense last year. We got plenty of players in the game, that's another plus. I thought (G Allison) Hightower was outstanding and I thought (F LaSondra Barrett, F Courtney Jones and F Taylor Turnbow) played really well. Somebody asked me if this was the first time I had started two freshmen. I had never started very many freshmen in my whole career, or rookies in the NBA. Not only did we start one, but we started three tonight and played four really early, and that went really well. I thought Destini Hughes, Jones, Barrett and Turnbow played really well for us."
On how rare it is to start three freshmen "It's been since 1965 since Van Chancellor has had three freshmen in the starting lineup. That's never. That's when I graduated from college."
On the eight days of preparation before this game "I thought the eight days that we had off were the best eight days we've had since I've been at LSU. We got better, we changed a little bit. We went back to one of LSU's old motions and cut out one of their other motions and I thought that went well tonight. We worked on defense. We worked on playing hard with enthusiasm, passion and character, and I thought that's what we did. I thought that everything we had worked on, when the score was 51-28, was what we had accomplished. I was very pleased with that."
On how the new offense is different from the old offense "The new motion is more five-man oriented and the old motion was more three-man oriented. There's more movement and we bring the post players away from the basket."
On the defensive intensity "I thought our defensive intensity was really good. I thought against Notre Dame it was ok, we were just scared to death. We come in here against Notre Dame on national television and played in front of 7,000 fans and we were almost like the person who opens up on Broadway and forgets their lines. That's about what happened. Our intensity, enthusiasm and togetherness on defense tonight were everything we wanted it to be."
