Jan. 16, 2011
Washington vs. Cal Washington Coach Tia Jackson Opening Statement A couple of things we wanted to do going into this game, especially after the game on Friday, was get more free throw line attempts. I think we did that, we got 19 tonight. We still ended up hitting 63% but I think we hit them when it really, really counted which was towards the end of the game, forcing a very good team in Cal to 21 turnovers is huge. Something that we've been doing consistently, for the most part, is keeping teams below their average. I think tonight we kept them 20 below their season average and out-rebounded the 5th ranked team in the country. I think we, for the most part, came out and were very focused and stuck with the game plan and it was just nice to see them go out there and get that win. On what makes this year's team special defensively They are focused. They get out and, whatever our game plan is defensively, they do it. We have enough players that have been in the system long enough that they get it and they're able to pull a Marjorie Heard along or a Mercedes Wetmore along, as a freshman, and they just know what's expected. They know, more than anything else, defense is what's going to win it, rebounding is what's going to win most games and tonight we just had a tremendous defense focus and we've had it, for the most part, all year. On what changed in the second half On how much the Stanford game was motivation for this game I think after the Stanford game we were all, as Coach Jackson put it, "pissed off". Before the game, we were all really focused. You could tell, yesterday at practice and before the game today, we were all really focused. Seeing WSU beat Cal, WSU is our rival and we didn't want them to one-up us. We knew they were going to be a good team and, yes, Stanford served as good motivation but I think, more than anything, we just wanted to come out and play Husky basketball and I think we did a good job of that. On how post players were able to be more effective today |
