December 20, 2014
No. 11/12 Tennessee 59 - No. 7/7 Stanford 40
Knoxville, Tenn.
Thompson-Boling Arena
Tara Vanderveer - Stanford Head Coach
(Opening statement)
"Well, we've played a lot better than that. To compliment Tennessee, they came out with a lot of energy and worked really hard. They were extremely physical. I don't think we adjusted. We have a lot of really young players and it was good for them to see -- you know, we've played Connecticut, we've played Texas -- it's really good for them to see what the top teams look like. It was a much more physical game than our team was ready for and their size really bothered us on their switching. Obviously, we turned the ball over a lot and we missed a lot of, I think, very makeable shots. So it's disappointing."
(On today's performance versus her team's performance in a win over No. 1 UConn on Nov. 17)
"On that day we were good. We played very well. So I think that we have a lot of really young players that we have a lot of time to improve and we're going to need them to learn from this type of game and get better."
(On her team's two assists versus 20 turnovers on offense)
"We're obviously struggling with our offense -- just passing the ball, moving the ball. We've got a lot of work to do. I think some of the turnovers were called as illegal screens and I'll have to watch those to see if I agree with that. But offensively we really struggled on this trip, both at Chattanooga and here, just getting good shots. Lili [Thompson], of her 14 shots, at least five were layups. I think that we're capable of making more shots than we did."
(On the difficulty of scouting Tennessee)
"I think Holly [Warlick] is in a little bit different situation [than us]. Look at all her returners. Basically, they have a lot of experience. All these names [on the Tennessee stat sheet] are familiar. We're playing some really, really young kids that have no experience. We've changed what we're doing to accommodate some young people and it's taking a while to really sink in."
(On the absence of a low-post presence for Stanford)
"We don't have anyone that is an established low-block player, whereas Tennessee with [Bashaara] Graves or with [Isabelle] Harrison - they have people that they put in there. Graves was 5-for-8 and Harrison was 5-for-9. We'd love that. They have some really good, big bodies inside and they look for them really well. And today they also got perimeter shooting from [Ariel] Massengale. These are people who have played together and I think Holly has done a really good job."
(On Tennessee's guard play)
"[Jasmine] Jones is disruptive with her size, although she didn't shoot that well. Jordan Reynolds is big. They've got [Andraya] Carter, who is really athletic and long, but their ability and quickness to switch on their screens was very disruptive. We worked on it and we did things to get ready for it, but maybe not enough. Today was definitely a real struggle, a real battle for us."
(On the play of Tennessee's Ariel Massengale)
"I think she's just a terrific player, and she has been every time we've played against them. She played really well for them. She's their best three-point shooter and she really hurt us coming off screens. We couldn't go under on her or she'd knock down her shot. I thought Tennessee played well and she's a bit part of their offense and their success."