Nov. 10, 2009
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MARYLAND QUOTES
Head Coach Brenda Frese
Opening Statement:
"We talked before the game that every time we stepped out on the floor we just want to get better. I thought tonight we definitely improved as a team. When you take these two exhibition games, it was fun to see with so much new talent, the improvement, specifically if individuals didn't feel that they played as well in the first game, they came ready to play tonight. We're still just trying to get a feel for our best combinations on the floor, different matchups when we're out there defensively, different things that we can run. I like how hard we're competing and like I told them tonight, if we can compete that hard in 40 minutes when we step out on the court, good things are going to happen for us."
On their defensive approach and size advantage:
"We wanted to test out a lot of things in our man, different things with how we defend on balls, our press, different looks, our matchup ... we wanted to start working on being able to throw some things out there when we get ready to go live.
On the progress seen in two exhibition games:
"Well, I think there is some positive and negative. We've been challenged with this team in turnovers, so the really big improvement in that area tonight, I thought we valued the basketball and as you can see, when we value the basketball, we get good shots. I still think we have to get better in that area, though. Fourteen turnovers to me is still a lot of turnovers, and we have a lot of great offensive firepower. We want to step up and we need to do a better job from the free-throw line. As a team, we'd like to shoot above 70 percent and that's an area that we feel like we can definitely improve, but I feel like we're more ahead defensively at this point in the season than we've ever been, so we just want to keep playing great team defense."
Freshman Guard Dara Taylor
On her comfort level with her teammates:
"We've been practicing for awhile now, so we're starting to get used to each other, starting to come together as a team and starting to communicate better. I know who I can pass to in certain situations and Coach [Frese] basically told me to stay under control and just make sure I have eye contact when I'm passing to my post, so I really tried to work on that tonight."
Redshirt Freshman Guard Jackie Nared
On her 15-rebound performance
"Crashing the boards has been a big emphasis, Coach [Frese] has been trying to work on that since preseason, so I've been trying to work on improving that.
