Quotes: Duke 83, Miami 70

Duke Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie

Opening Statement:
“I am really proud of our team at making adjustments and doing great things throughout the game and playing hard together. Defensively I think we were for the most part on point, we weren't at the end but we were throughout the rest of the game and the most important aspects of the game, rebounding wise not bad, and pretty good ball movement, too many turnovers we know, that was something we can look at and correct, it is all very correctable. I like to see our assists going up. I love the poise the Lexie [Brown] showed, obviously shooting the ball extremely well and making good decisions on the floor and having to get hit a lot, a lot of contact. For Becca just incredible rebounding, that tip in was the coolest thing I have seen in a long time, a tip in three-point play, we just hadn't seen that in a while and it was such a wonderful way to lead her team because then we go into the locker room up and it just sort of sends a message. So I thought that was absolutely terrific and the play of the game. For Kendall [Cooper] I thought Kendall was rock solid, she was looking for her offense, she was playing very good defense, she was talking a lot, and our seniors were both very good which is nice because it is senior day and it is very special so it is nice to play well. We can play a lot better I believe given our turnovers and some of the things we missed on defense, and we didn't have much for 23, [Adrienne] Motley had a great game and [Laura] Cornelius did a great job for them as well.”

On going big:
“Well we just wanted to kind of mix it up a little bit, and we felt very confident. Kendall [Cooper] was playing well, Oderah [Chidom] was playing well, Ducky [Leonna Odom] was playing well and they were all playing well so we wanted to utilize them as much as we could on the floor and Lexie and Becca [Greenwell] were holding down the guard responsibilities very well. So it was nice that we could move to our bigs, I thought it was significant, I thought it was a difference maker, and it gave us a lot of length and I think they had a hard time trying to get into the paint and penetrate, kick, and score. So our bigs were very important and it made us grow a lot today, so that's a good feeling to grow a little bit.”

On Lexie Brown's addition to the team:
“Well it hard to compare years I mean we were so injured last year and Kendall wasn't with us, so I can't compare, but I can talk about what Lexie adds. Not only offensively, which is pretty evident, her confidence and her ability to score and attack. On the defensive side of the ball it's incredible, her ability to deflect, to steal, and to get one-on-one stops. Her and Kyra [Lambert] have really developed a great tandem in one of our defenses and she and Becca today were fantastic in another one of our defenses on the wing, so they're working together has been great. And Lexie has brought so much work ethic, she works very hard, she prepares, when you have people like that who work so hard and prepare I think it bleeds over to everybody else and there. There is just absolutely no comparing years, I can't even go there.”

On gaining Brown's trust:
“I think it is really hard to sit out a year for anybody, you try to communicate but it's really hard because you're not sharing the on court experience. I just thought Lexie just hung in there and did everything she could to learn and help the team. I don't think it was a lot of fun but I think she is benefitting enormously this year, and just having the opportunity to play with her teammates and trust that something build overtime. I think you just work together, talk together, have adversity together. I thought I saw enormous trust from our team today in the second half. The first half I thought we were kind of funny at times not quite all in the group together but without question in the second half there was fantastic trust and that was really fun to watch as a coach from the sidelines. That is just something that comes through time, and we are really excited about our team because we know we can play a lot better and we are hungry to do that. It is hard because I know we had success today and it feel very good, but we are also eager to see where we can push this.”

On the use of brutal honesty:
“I think it is important that you are honest and that you share without anything wrapped around it. I don't think you want to play any games, you just need to say 'I need you to play better defense', 'I need to you to run this play', 'I need you to be vocal', whatever it is I think you have to say it and sometimes yeah it can come out pretty Italian. But I am so proud of them because I thought the second half… I think there are a lot of reasons we could've made a lot of faces in the second half if you look at the calls, if you look at the physicality but our team just kept marching on. They were not happy with things but they kept marching on and that was evident in their play. Coaching is demanding, trying to demand and that sometimes can be hard on players and coaches, but we have really appreciative for everything Lexie's contributed, and exited to see how far we can push this.”

Redshirt Junior Guard Rebecca Greenwell

On being called a “stone-cold killer”:
“That's a really nice compliment. I really like Coach Meier, she's a great coach and I've gotten to know her a little bit through USA basketball. She has a great team, she's a great coach. I really appreciate that.”

On injuring her finger:
“I dislocated my finger in warm ups. I tried not to think about it, once the game started I completely forgot about it and just focused. The trainers took care of me and I feel fine now.”

On three and-ones:
“I just dealt with what the defense gave me and I tried to be aggressive and focusing on finishing. My teammates did a great job feeding me passes. I didn't do anything too different, just tried to be aggressive and it worked out.”

Junior Guard Lexie Brown

On attacking in the second half:
“Yeah we talked about it at half time that we were being a little too passive on the offensive end. We were just happy to beat the press and then we wanted to set up and try to pound it inside. I didn't get the open looks, but in reality, we could have just kept going with the flow that we had. We had them on their heels. We beat their press so we kind of let loose on offense in the second half.”

On mindset of the game:
“Today was a special game, my dad was here, it was senior day, we wanted to play the best that we can for them in our last regular season game in Cameron. This has been the most fun season I've ever had in college. It was really important for me to play well today, for our whole team to play well today because this has been the season of my life and I've had so much fun, so that game was just a lot of fun for me.

Senior Forward Kendall Cooper

On this year's season:
“I think we just put last season behind us all together. We know we can do amazing things together, so that was kind of our mindset at the beginning. We all have the same goal. We talked about it at preseason. When things got tough for us we talked a lot through each loss. It all started in the beginning. We all had the same mindset and that really helps.”

On what Lexie adds:
“She's added a lot, it's kind of hard to just pinpoint one thing. One of the biggest things she adds is energy, she motivates everybody and she yells at everybody. We appreciate it honestly, even when we don't want to hear it. But it is hard to pinpoint one thing.”

Miami Head Coach Katie Meier:

Opening Statement:
“I thought that was a game of incredible defensive effort in the first half. My team really focused and locked in. The people we wanted shooting were shooting. We made a couple mistakes and they got us. In the second half, because our offense destroyed it, we went away from the discipline—not discipline like one player, but the discipline with the team defense. I mean we turned them over, we did everything we wanted to do. If we don't score, that has to be okay, and it didn't seem okay in the second half. We let the game get away from us because we had offensive hangover. That's shameful for such an experienced team that I have. Suddenly we lost our assignments, and we didn't think about it because we still couldn't believe we missed that shot, or we just turned it over. We were really into ourselves—not selfish—but just into ourselves. We didn't realize that [Rebecca] Greenwell and [Lexie] Brown were on fire. You have to wake up and make an adjustment there and stick to the game plan on the defensive end. I give credit to Duke for sure, and a great performance by those two, and [Kendall] Cooper who was hitting a couple shots and when she hit them, it kind of broke our back a little bit. They played great team basketball and they stayed committed and faithful. We lost our faith a little bit, and by the time we woke up, it was too late.”

On defending against Duke shooters:
“We talked about it at halftime. They were inviting us to take some threes, and you have to hit them to beat them. Then we started the second half and just missed them. I know we took two or three shots right away, and that wasn't what we wanted to do. Duke got open a lot more and transitioned into more shots in the second half.”

On Lexie Brown's performance:
“If you don't have a hand in her face—well, she's going to score with a hand in her face anyway—but it you don't have a hand in her face it's a layup. She's just really dominant. She's been dominant every season. It's effortless, and she knows the big moments. She knows how to break someone's back. Greenwell does it too, but she does it more in the hustle plays, like that tip-in this game. As for Lexie, you wouldn't know if Duke was up 20 or down 20 by her face. She's a stone cold killer and she can hit it and break your back.”

On Duke's offensive size:
“We were a little deeper in our bench, and I had to make some adjustments with my personality. [Jessica] Thomas and [Laura] Cornelius were on the floor, and I had to give some other kids a look. That was at the very same time that Duke went big, so our ability to gap and get by them was Jessica Thomas' job. If you go big, we're going to get a screen, and she's going to get in the gap and create havoc, but at that particular time I did not have her in. It was just a bad combination with timing. Duke went big, and I did not have my guard that can burn them for it in.”

On playing Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium:
“It's a little far removed now, unfortunately, but it's a wonderful place. The crowd is so sweet. This was a top matchup that dominates any personal feeling I would have had. Each team that plays in Cameron has their own journey, and it's not about me. It is wonderful.”

On changes in Duke's offense from last year:
“Rebecca Greenwell doesn't have to play the point guard. When she has the ball, you know where she is, because you have one person on the ball, and if you coach defense like I do, half of everybody else has an eye on the ball. You have three people at the ball. She was playing a lot of point last year, so you can't lose her. Then when [Kyra] Lambert plays well, Duke is hard to beat, because you free both of them up and you're in trouble.”