Here are some quotes from the post-game press conference by IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack following her team's 81-57 victory over Northwestern Saturday night in Bloomington. Also there are some quotes by Whitney Thomas and Jamie Braun.
Opening Statement
"What a fun game to be able to play. Everyone, the way we did in tough situation, I'll tell you, Northwestern is a good team and their going to play till the end and we really had to pull out our A game in order to take down our first Big Ten Opponent. Hats off to them, but kudos to our team. Our team was really playing with a sense of urgency, and it shows you that it doesn't matter who gets the credit as long as we get the job done. People came off the bench and did some really good things for us, so we are stretching our team just a little bit more."
On Northwestern cutting their lead to 6 in the second half
"We just never thought about them. My coaching staff looks at the score and figures out what plays we need to run. We needed to focus in on what we needed to do. I thought our defense was stretching too much in the match up and we were not in help side, when we played man so made some corrections with that, but we stayed focused on Indiana and we were able to stretch that lead even more."
On what they will do over the break
"We know that you get out of shape in two days so I don't worry about these young ladies. They are going to find an open gym and play pick up games and our seniors are going to do a great job of making phone calls to everybody making sure that everybody is working out. We are not looking at time off. When we get back on the 26th we are going to be ready for battle again."
On playing in the Big Ten-Whitney Thomas
"The Big Ten is always physical. It's expected and everyone is fighting for something, we are all fighting to make it to postseason. If you don't come out there and fight hard than you're not going to get very far."
On full court press applied by Northwestern-Jamie Braun
"Coach Jack has always talked about push the ball, push the tempo. If a turnover happens, turnover happens; at the least the tempo is being pushed. I just tried to push the tempo and dribble through them or get half way towards them and get people to collapse on me and hit the person open on the outside."
On the balance of scoring
"When you have a team that no one cares who gets the credit and there is no bickering about I need to play five minutes more than this person here, we don't have any of that. We are just playing for each other. We are just playing with a common goal of bringing some notoriety to our women's basketball program through effort, and whatever comes through the effort is what we will take. Sometimes you have to make that extra pass and this team here, I've been trying to tell this community, this is a special team, and it you want to see something special you need to come out and watch us play. This is a group that really does not care about the credit they just care about the results."
On difference without Sasha Chaplin in the lineup-Whitney Thomas
(Note: Athletic department will not talk about specifics of the season-ending knee injury to Chaplin due to privacy laws)
"Sasha is a great player and we lost a lot, but we also picked up in that area. We have Lindsay (Enterline) coming down the post and Jori (Davis) helping when needed. We just pick up where she left off. Everyone knows their role and wherever they have to play that is where they are going to play and work just as hard."
On Sasha's role from the bench
"We just put her to work. I think she is probably playing tic-tack-toe, no I'm joking, she is doing some work for us. You have to keep the kids in the game and they are staying in the game and doing a good job. I really appreciate everybody and we are playing for 13 players and no matter whether one of them is out or not we have to pick it up and play for 13."
