Old Dominion at #5/5 Duke University Postgame Quotes

Duke vs. Old Dominion Postgame Quotes
November 29, 2006

Duke Head Coach Gail Goestenkors
Opening Statement:
“Overall I'm pleased with our defensive effort, not as pleased with our rebounding effort and, specifically in the second half, I thought we did a really nice job offensively moving the ball and sharing the ball, and I think that showed with the percentage that we shot in the second half. Overall I'm pleased, but we know that we've still got many things to work on before we play Rutgers.”

On the play off the bench:
“I thought they did a nice job, for the most part. I thought, in particular K[eturah] J[ackson] came in and this was the best game that she's played. She was very much in control, but I thought she did an excellent job on both ends of the floor, both defensively and offensively. And then I thought Joy [Cheek] came in and gave us really good minutes as well. So, I was pleased with the bench. I think they're starting to feel more comfortable. I think everybody's understanding their roles a little bit better.”

On the team's transition offense:
“The first half, we did okay. We could have done much better. About halfway through the first half, I was upset with the team because I felt like we really weren't pushing the ball and attacking the basket the way that we needed to. I thought we did a better job of that in the second half.”

On Duke's outside shooting:
“It should be a strength. I think, at this point, it's not. I think it will be for us. We place such an emphasis early on of getting the ball inside to Ali[son Bales], so I think sometimes our guards are second-guessing themselves a little bit. We want to work inside and then come out, and I think once we really get more comfortable with that and Ali[son Bales] sometimes is drawing double and triple teams, then I think things are going to open up for our perimeter and they'll be able to shoot in rhythm and I think we'll see our percentages go up.”

On reading defenses:
“Sometimes we've got some mismatches that we're trying to take advantage of and we're not necessarily making the right reads. We might still score, but in games where our opponent is a lot better, we're going to have to really be able to make the right reads, and we're getting away with some things right now that we won't get away with in a big game.”

On whether the team sometimes loses its focus with a big lead:
“Not sometimes. I think we lose our focus. I think that's human nature, but the difference between a good team and a great team is one that plays at their own level regardless of the score, and we're still learning to do that.”

Alison Bales
On Duke Defense:
“Duke Basketball is really known for its team defense. And that is really key; Coach G works on it everyday. We start off every practice with a drill to work on team defense and help side rotations. When our defense is clicking, we are pretty unstoppable.”

Carrem Gay
On her performance as of late:
“I have been pleased; I have been playing well with my teammates. I'm happy.”

Lindsey Harding
On this year's team as compared to last year's team:
“We are a completely different team. You can look now at total points and we have five people in double figures, and, so far, we haven't really relied on one person to get this amount points. Every game, somebody can step up, like today, when Keturah Jackson had eleven points for us. So I think the balance on the offensive end in scoring has been different from last year.

Old Dominion Head Coach Wendy Larry
On an early timeout:
“You talk about the great assets that the Duke team has and certainly transition is one of them, and the first two possessions of the game we gave up two transition buckets. It was kind of an emphasis we had talked about in preparation for the game, so it kind of set the tone for the way that we weren't prepared to start the game the way that we needed to be. That was the reason behind the first timeout.”

On dealing with early frustration:
“I think that you have to break it down. We try to talk about eight quarters and how you have to deal with it in quarters and not as a whole game. We tried to do that in the second half as well, talk about four quarters versus a half. Can we win three of the four quarters? Or can we win two of the four quarters? How did we play those quarters versus how did we play a half? Obviously you try anything at that point in time to just see how you can execute certain things or can you be patient and take good shots. Can you limit them to a certain number of transition buckets? I think when you get that down against a team like Duke it doesn't matter what kind of second half you play, and I thought we played a much better second half as far the competitive edge was concerned.”

On playing against Abby Waner:
“Well, she leaks out a lot. She's got a nice luxury that she has a front line that rebounds really well for her, so she's actually gone before the ball is off the rim more often than not. She has a distinct advantage in that regard that she can get down the floor and have that kind of advantage before the defense can really get into transition. We've seen enough tape to know that that's something that she does and prefers to do, but it's still very difficult when you have the mindset that you need four rebounders, four people really attacking that you can only put one fullback back there, and she's pretty good one-on-one.”

Tish Lyons
On improving taking care of the ball:
“I think it all starts in practice. Duke put pressure on the ball today obviously and then from that pressure we turned the ball over. In practice we have to definitely go at each other harder and make it game-like so that when we get in the game we're better able to deal with pressure and take better care of the ball.”

T.J. Jordan
On the second half:
“I think our intensity was a little better; the effort was still there, but we have to have it starting in practice and then bring it to the games, point blank. That's starting with me; I'm going to take that responsibility.”