Wisconsin vs. Michigan State
Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2017
Kohl Center

Head Coach Jonathan Tsipis
Opening statement:
"I'd like to give Michigan State credit. I thought for 40 minutes tonight they were tougher, they gave better effort, they fought through adversity whether it was a turnover or a foul on a consistent basis. When you see the pride they took not only when they were successful but more importantly when things didn't go their way.
 
"I thought Brandy Agee was outstanding for them tonight, three threes in the first half. For somebody, as a senior, who knows they need extra scoring punch. I thought they really responded well tonight.
 
"(Tori) Jankoska's just tough. She's a tough kid playing on one leg right now and she's still guarding. She didn't have her best night from the field but she ends up with the double-double and five assists.
 
"You watched a team, who everyone of their kids made a positive impact for them tonight. Not just scoring, but they're active on the glass. Every kid on their team had a rebound. That's why they won.
 
"All of those areas our team had a really, really poor level of any type of consistent effort or intensity throughout the game. Parts we were good but you can't start that when you're down.  It was 16-14 in the end of the first quarter and they hit two shots, and our team looks like it's a 20-point advantage at the end of the first quarter.
 
"It's a collective group effort of not being into yourself when something doesn't go your way. We have to be better. We still have a lot of Big Ten games left, but that's got to be every single day. Honestly since last Thursday, I thought we've had good practices. We've competed, we've risen up when there was adversity whether it was a foul call or a turnover and continued to play. I think that tonight, when you get this far into the Big Ten season to not have more pride on your own home floor and take advantage of that."
 
On keeping Jankoska in check but still not being able to win the game:
"I think before you even concentrate on her is I thought they did what they wanted to do in transition. When we do our keys to the game, Jankoska's up there of we've got to find her early, we've got to make sure and slow her down. We can't let her get anything uncontested. But they thrive off transition. Other people just absolutely killed us in transition in the first half.
 
"You could see that confidence. Even if they missed a shot early in transition or in their offense, you could see those kids were ready to shoot it that next time because they were in a position to be successful. I don't think all of the sudden we had three kids occupied with her that we were running out of bodies to match up. I think it's a matter of it's never like hockey where you're a man down. You always have five to match up against five. I think that's where the defensive breakdowns started.
 
"Then things we do on a daily basis that have been from day one in our zone, we didn't execute. They were able to move the ball to different areas of the floor and take advantage of that no matter where she was. I think that led to the confidence part, not necessarily that we had two people following her around wherever she went."
 
On Cayla McMorris and how to get her going:
"Well she's got to stay on the floor. She had two offensive fouls in the first quarter. I put her back in with two (fouls) to try to get her started. She scored right away when we ran action for her to start they game but she's got to hunt her shot, too. You can't play this game worried about the next foul that might get called on you.
 
"She got a shot at the beginning of the second half in rhythm and I'll be honest, it didn't look like she hunted it. It was kind of 'I'm going to take this shot because I happen to be open.' Not the mindset that we want to have of 'hey, I just spent a lot of time sitting on the bench. I'm going to take advantage of this now.'
 
"This game is too difficult to try and play scared. She didn't get to the free throw line tonight, which she was able to get at the Ohio State game, but I think that part of getting things started no matter what you run, she's got to be able to manufacture points. She had one rebound in 18 minutes. So we got nothing where she's one of our better offensive rebounders and that's how you get to the free throw line. She got nothing in transition and I think that when you're the focal point of somebody's scouting report, there's going to be multiple sets of eyes on you and I think you saw it when she got it in the post early on. They sent an extra body.
 
"We can always do more. I think that's obviously the coaching staff's job, but their job has to be an attacking mentality and not worry about how the game's being called or what's going on on the other end of the court. And if you run two people over, you've got to understand how to give it up earlier and be able to get it back or be able to manufacture points like I said."
 
Freshman Guard Kendra Van Leeuwen
On how it feels when people say a team is out talented or out toughed, but it shouldn't get them down:
"Well coach always talks about how we can control our effort and that's one thing we really need to do out there. Whether it's diving on the floor for a loose ball with a 50/50 chance, but it's in our control. Sometimes we can't control if our shots go in, but we can always control if we can get back on defense and make hustle plays, and that's what we're going to do moving forward."
 
On if she could feel aggressive play as the game progressed:
"It's a very physical game, especially in our conference, but it's our job to adapt to it and in order to move forward we can get stronger, we can get faster and we can just look to bring more energy to our game."