University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota-Illinois Quotes
3/1/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Minnesota Head Coach Pam Borton
Opening Statement
“I was embarrassed with our performance today. We had our biggest crowd in a long time, one of our biggest games and I was just embarrassed. We were outworked, outhustled, out-rebounded, and out-played. Anything we needed to do in order to win we didn’t and we were embarrassed with our performance.”
On comparing the loss against the Northwestern defeat...
“I’m not sure if it was the same. (Illinois) hustled, we didn’t. Their guards went for every loose ball and we did not have enough production from our guards getting loose balls. Even our post players played poorly. I think we had one rebound from our three post players going into half and that was a troubling sign.”
On how Illinois won...
“In the first half, we dug ourselves a hole while they made shots. We gave up way too many shots and let freshmen guards beat us off the dribble, that’s disappointing.”
Illinois Head Coach Jolette Law
Opening statement
“I think my kids played extremely hard. We played well down the stretch and we were able to win in this hostile environment. I thought we were a very poised team today. I also want to congratulate Jenna [Smith] for becoming the career leader in blocks.”
On Illinois improvement this season
“Our record doesn’t show who we are, and how we’ve grown a lot this season. We’re finding ways to win by stepping in and knocking down shots. Having our defense dictate our offense has been a huge factor in the improvement of our team this season. We might be a small team, but when we play together as a unit we can get the wins.”
On Jenna Smith’s leadership
“Jenna is the leader of the team. Sometimes as a leader she gets double and triple teamed, but she always gets the job done. She is rebounding, scoring, and blocking shots, which has helped us grow tremendously as a team.”
Illinois Junior Center Jenna Smith
On Illinois going into the Big Ten Tournament with a win
“We’re going into the Big Ten Tournament on a positive note. If we play together and don’t look at our record we could be successful in the tournament. We’ve really been improving the last few games.”
