Postgame Quotes: Lady Vols 86, TSU 36

Head Coach Holly Warlick

(Opening Statement)
"I am a lot happier, I promise you that. I thought our kids did a great job. Before I get into that I just want to say our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Gatlinburg. I have lived here pretty much all of my life and I have never seen anything so devastating that is close to home and when you see it out west it doesn't really hit home. When I talk to a former Lady Vol and her house burned down it hit close to home. It has really affected our team and the only way we know how to honor them today is to wear shirts that had Gatlinburg on them and make sure everyone knows we are thinking about them.

I am really proud of our team. They were focused, energetic and they were passionate about the game. I think that has been my biggest concern not so much our talent, but what does your talent do. And our last two games our talent hasn't been enough and I thought we had missed a great opportunity to be passionate about the game. We really just went back to work and went back to basics and tried to correct some things that I think are simple, but we were making them very complicated. I am really proud of all of our kids, everyone got to play and I think everyone contributed in a positive way."

(On the reasoning behind the early time out)
"We did not sprint back and we did not talk and that has been our emphasis in the last couple of practices so I was not going to tolerate not talking. Basketball is a team sport and when you are on defense you have to communicate and when we don't talk on the defensive end, we are not very good so it's just a matter of speaking up and saying who you have. You have got somebody and I have got this person so I was not going to go through the whole game worried about us talking so we just hit that real quick."

(On speaking with Lisa McGill Reagan)
"I called her that morning and then I talked to her that night. She left the house with just the clothes on her back. She said she is fortunate because she owns a cabin up there as well so she had somewhere to go to. Her main concern was people who didn't have that ability to go to a different home so she was very fortunate. We have a lot of boosters up there and they lost homes so its just a tough thing and it's around here and it hits close to home and when it does you hurt for them because you talk about Lady Vols for life so when she is devastated, you are devastated. Thats how I felt and I still feel that way. Its going to be a long time of healing and I am sure they will recover. They are strong people up there, but its still tough."

(On Jordan Reynolds' injury status)
"I think she will be ok. She could have gone today probably, but we chose to keep her out. She worked hard and went through shooting practice today and did some things and moved. Tomorrow we are off so I think she will get some time to rehab and she will be better. I think its been good for Jordan, because I have been hearing her talk while she is getting rehab and in practice and on the bench. She is trying to direct and get our players where they need to go and if anything that can come from an injury it can be a positive thing for Jordan to sit back and watch and see how she could be a bit better. I think she did a great job on the bench."

(On Meme Jackson in the starting line up and the reserve players)
"I like Meme in the starting line up because her priority is the defensive end. We need to set that tone and I think Meme sets the tone for that. I am happy that a lot of people got to play. If you look down here you will see Schaquilla had 15 rebounds. Jaime had a double-double and Diamond had a double-double so we just did some great things. Alexa had 11 assists and the most important thing for us is that we had 14 turnovers, we don't have 21 or 20. We did not throw it up to me or you up in the rafters Dan. We actually threw it to people in the white uniforms today. Our goal was 12 so we have two over, so there will be a little penalty for that, but its not as much as the 21 penalty so I'm happy with that."

(On players sitting out the 4th quarter to rest for Baylor)
"I think it's huge. I will say this, this group is an athletic, running up and down team and my feeling the first couple of games has been we have to concern energy and its not working. We cannot do that so this team is going to run. We are going to push and we are going to press. If I have to take extra timeouts I will. This team is not a half-court offensive team. We are a transition team, and we could be a really solid defensive team if we buy into it, but for Jaime and them I did see an opportunity for them to rest, but they are going to have to play big minutes. Our starting five is going to have to play big minutes and they know it. When they need out, they will pull themselves, but I have to be a bit more mindful and call more timeouts than I usually like to."

Tennessee Forward Jaime Nared

(On the Gatlinburg shirts)
"We just wanted to pay our respects to the families who have lost homes and those who have been injured. We wanted to let them know that they are in our prayers and we are thinking about them."

(On how the team played tonight)
"We were focused on playing together. We really haven't been playing hard or together to the best of our ability. I think that this is a good game for us as far as everyone playing hard, playing focused, and doing the little things right."

Tennessee Center Mercedes Russell

(On how important is this game with Baylor coming up)
"It was good to have everybody play. It was good to see Kam come in and get some baskets. Lex got eleven assists. I think everybody played well. It was definitely a good confidence booster. Which is good, because Baylor is a good team and were going to need everybody."

(On her good game tonight)
"Yeah, but I really need to focus on finishing because the last few games I haven't been finishing really well and that's something I need to work on."

(On Schaquilla Nunn and Kamera Harris coming along)
"It's great for them, they had great opportunities tonight. I think they played big. They did very productive things tonight on the court, which is really good for them."

Tennessee Guard Diamond DeShields

(On how much they needed a game like this)
"It was just a good opportunity to come out and make the game strictly about us. We knew we were the better team tonight. We knew that we were going to win by a lot of points, but honestly it wasn't about that. It was just about us. When you're playing a team like Baylor you don't have as many opportunities to make mistakes. Everything has to flow the right way if you want to come out on top. For us it was just important for everyone to work on what has went wrong the past two games. We've been watching film. We've recognized where we're falling short. Tonight we really put an emphasis on those things so that moving forward we can make sure we pay more attention when we play tougher teams."

(On how she played tonight)
"I felt like I played with a purpose tonight. I didn't feel like I was just out there takingup space. I felt like I was crashing the boards hard, going after loose balls and blocking shots. I felt like I was maneuvering around the court better. I felt like I was serving my teammates and I was not as worried about me. I was focused on us, them and trying to improve."

Tennessee State Head Coach Larry Joe Inman

(On pre-game words to the players)
"I talked to a couple kids and said look, 5-6 doesn't mix well with 6-6. So, be smart when you take your shots. You can't play amongst the trees at times. We had to make recognitions as well as adjustments on what we need to do. Jayda (Johnson) can dominate inside when she wants to. Tonight, she was in the forest trying to dominate and it's tough to do that."

(On competing against larger teams)
"I don't think you can take an easy street if you want to compete at the next level. What we try to do is teach our kids to play up a level and I think it's helped us tremendously. Even tonight, as bad as it was, it will still help you because you've played an up-level team. That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to get up and play with the good folks to where if we make the playoffs, which we're planning on doing, then we'll be able to compete like we need to."

(On tough battle against Tennessee)
"We normally can shoot better than that. I will tell you that, but I give Tennessee a lot of credit; they affected a lot of our shots and created havoc many, many times trying to advance the ball. I thought Holly was nice to us at one point and pulled the pressure off of us and I was very thankful. I started to run down and shake her hand to say thank you but I didn't. It was a great night for them and a great night for us even though it was a bad night. I think we learned a great deal and we'll take a lot from this game."

Tennessee State Forward Jayda Johnson

(On playing in her hometown)
"I always love coming back to Knoxville and playing around people that I grew up around, people that have always watched me play from middle school to high school. Everyone doesn't have the opportunity to travel to Nashville. For myself personally, I'm very disappointed in the way I played. I wasn't much of a leader. Like Coach Inman said, I have to take away the positives from this game. Something that I'm going to go back and tell the girls is that when you go against big schools, you can't let the deficit get too large. When it gets really large, they stomp on you. You have to always play with composure and compete, and chip away."

University of Tennessee Athletics