Dec. 28, 2008
South Carolina Head Coach Dawn Staley
On South Carolina’s improvement from the Stanford game
“There are some things that happened in the game today that make you feel good about the team, and there are some things that do not make us feel not good. I think a part of it is the nervousness you feel when you are playing the number one team in the country. We just played the number three team in the country [Stanford], and that should have taken out some of that. The turnovers really killed us, and it was the type of turnovers that we had that really hurt us. We just gave up too many turnovers that led to easy buckets. I really feel that that once we had them in the half-court set, we felt that we put them in position to take the type of shots we wanted them to take.”
On South Carolina’s positives to take from today’s game
“I thought that we did pretty good job of executing the game plan when we were not turning the ball over. We picked out certain players on the UConn team, and we were trying to take their strengths away from them. I thought that we didn’t always do that, but we were conscious about it and that is what we are trying to accomplish on a daily basis. We want to stick to a game plan and be disciplined enough to execute that each time out.”
Samone Kennedy • So. • Guard
On South Carolina’s improvement from last season’s game at UConn
“We had a lot of goals going into this game, and a lot of them were not met. We did do some things well today, and it definitely helps us going into SEC play. We definitely played a lot better from last year, but we still feel that we can get a lot better. There are some definite positives to take from today’s game.”
Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma
On South Carolina’s improvement from last season
“They have (gotten better). They are a little more disciplined and a little more deliberate. They were able to stay in the game without it (getting away from them). Last year when they got behind, the game kind of took off and got away from them. This group did a much better job of remaining in the game.”
On playing the home and home series with South Carolina
“It’s always important to go to places we haven’t been to get ourselves some exposure in arenas where we haven’t played, especially when you have someone who has such a tremendous amount respect down here (in junior Kalana Greene). She did a lot for this area and has a lot of friends and family here. For me, it was important to try and come up with something in this area. It’s great when it works out that way, and it worked out perfectly for us.”
On how his team has played during its 11-0 start
“Somebody asked me that earlier, and I thought that we played some of the best basketball we’re capable of playing in those 11 games, we played OK basketball and we played some bad basketball. If after 25 games you ask me that question and I still have to say we’re playing some bad basketball, I’d be disappointed. Right now it’s that time where you’re going to play great and play OK. It’s all relative.”
