Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU-Marshall Quotes
February 26, 2003 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 26, 2003
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
BGSU HEAD COACH CURT MILLER:
"Going into the game, after the last time we played Marshall and gave up 21 rebounds to Catie Knable, she was a major focus. If you would have told me that we'd hold Christina Harbin to one basket, and Catie Knable to five (points) and five (rebounds) ... I'm feeling pretty good about what we did against their starters. What you don't account for, and what is a killer, is that Amy Smith and Nadia Swanigan combine for 21 and 17. That's a huge effort from off the bench, and really hurt us."
"Marshall is the best rebounding team in the league, and we did a decent job on the boards. We held them under their average of offensive rebounds ... overall, we didn't rebound too badly at the defensive end. But, I'm very disappointed. Marshall, basically, runs three plays. You prepare for them, prepare for them, prepare for them, and they hurt us with all three plays. They were executing their stuff offensively better than we were executing our stuff defensively. And, it's frustrating, because you know exactly what is coming and you know exactly what they're trying to accomplish. And, tonight, to their credit, they got it accomplished."
"I'll use a boxing analogy. In boxing, Mike Tyson wins a lot of fights before they start. He's intimidating, strong, physical, and there's an air about him that already puts the opponent on their heels. Marshall is the same type of basketball team. If you aren't going to stand up to them, and if you back down or are intimidated by them, Marshall wins games before they even start. Tonight, we were timid, and we were intimidated throughout the game."
"Francine just finds ways to score. It didn't matter tonight if it was inside or outside, going to the basket or simple post-ups, Francine is still going to find her points. And, she'll be the first to admit that she still didn't shoot the ball very well, and missed some shots she's capable of making. But, you just absolutely know (that she will get her points). Unfortunately, you don't know who else is going to show up night-in and night-out."
"One of the things that hurt us was getting only four minutes (of playing time) out of Kim Griech in the first half because of foul trouble. She's your second-leading scorer, she's shot the ball well, and she's a person that can extend their zone and not only make 3's, but deep 3's, and really spread their defense. Losing Kim for 16 minutes of the first half really was a blow to our offense."
"I still feel confident that we can play with anyone in this league. Tonight, I'm the most frustrated because I feel like we beat ourselves. They beat us doing exactly what they do. We've prided ourselves for nearly two years on making people beat us outside of their star players, or outside of their (typical) offense. Tonight, Marshall did what they wanted to do, and beat us in every facet that they do well. That's what makes this maybe the most frustrating game of the year for me. They executed their stuff so well, and we were a non-factor; we didn't disrupt them at all. They're playing great basketball."
MARSHALL HEAD COACH ROYCE CHADWICK:
"Francine Miller's the real deal. We tried to play her with two and three people as much as we could all night long, and she still had 16 points. And, I thought we did a pretty good job on her, to tell you the truth. They do a really good job of moving her around, they do a good job of finding her when you play zone, they do a good job of getting it to her (when you're) in the man (defense). And, she's just really good. Good luck to her at the next level, because she's got some opportunities, I'm sure."
"I thought we played good defense and did a good job on the boards. And, we had some post players step up tonight and have good games. That was a big key for us, to get our inside game going. We didn't rely on the three-point shot to make us or break us. I think it broke us at Ohio, but it didn't break us tonight, and that was a positive for us."
"We want to try to run the ball down the floor, and get a good, easy look. If we don't (get that look), we don't want to settle for something that is not a quality shot. That was a huge key for us tonight; we settled a lot of times, and we didn't want to settle tonight. ... By that, I think we were able to control the tempo a little bit. And, I don't think Bowling Green had their normal shooting night. Over the course of 27 games, you're going to have that, and we happened to catch them on a night when they didn't shoot it very well."
