George Washington University Athletics
GW/Duquesne Post-Game Quotes
1/26/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 26, 2011
NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
January 26, 2011
Duquesne 61
@GW 53
Post-Game Quotes
GW Coach Mike Bozeman
Opening statement
"In this conference, we have a bunch of teams that are very similar. And on any given night, one team can beat the other. We just have to be able to get that winning attitude, but it's tough when you're going through a stretch like we're going through right now. That's going to change. It's not going to snow like it is right now. I'm so fired up, I want to go back to practice right now. The fight in me is still there, the fight in the team is still there. We're going to keep hacking at this and come out with some victories."
You had some stretches of solid offense and defense. How do you maintain that for the entire game?
"We're still developing. We have some young players who are still learning how to play hard for longer stretches. Our goal is for the time we're on the court, to maximize our effort and execution. We're going to make mistakes; you can't help that. I was a lot more pleased with the effort tonight, but I've been getting that for the last few games. You don't win many games shooting 28.6 percent, but we're getting the effort that will help us overcome that."
Is tonight the kind of game you can build off of and see that you're moving in the right direction?
"No doubt. Against Fordham, we were up 10. Now we have to learn how to close that kind of game out, and to not let a game like this get to the point where they're up double digits."
You seemed to slow down Duquesne in the second half. What kind of adjustments did you make at halftime?
"We have to try and make it to the half without using our press, because we don't have the bodies. I wanted to go more zone, and do more trapping out of the zone. If we didn't do that, we went to the half-court zone and trapped out of that. We went from man-to-man to the zone with the adjustment, and then we tried to offer more traps."
It seemed like though you had only eight players available, you got better and picked up energy as you went along.
"We had two days off this week, and I thought that helped us as opposed to having them in here and going over the same things. We just need the bodies to execute."
Junior guard/forward Tara Booker
Do you sense that the team is starting to build something after these past couple of games?
"Yes, we're trying to develop that winning attitude. It's hard when we're losing like we are. We' are coming together a lot better. If you look at our bench, we're all cheering for each other. We just need to put it together for 40 minutes."
Do you feel like having some time off helped your energy?
"I'm still in a shooting slump, but it helps my knee to have a day off. It's hard to go hard for seven days. So the day off was definitely good."
Sophomore guard Danni Jackson
Are you seeing improvement in certain areas as this stretch has gone on?
"Every game, we're improving in something. Our team camaraderie is getting better. We're playing together, and we're trying to have fun."
Do you feel like having some time off helped your energy?
"It was a good day off for the ones who played a lot, especially with the injuries we have now. It was good mentally to rest from that heartbreaking loss at Fordham. So I think it helped more mentally than physically."
