Charli Turner Quotations

We're fine, but we did not play well (at UCLA and USC). It's early; we know what we didn't do. It's not rocket science. We'll be pretty fired up.

We're getting back to our old selves. We approached Washington like it was a championship game and we didn't hold anything back.

The expectations are to win it. We didn't win the Pac-10 regular championship, so this is the last chance to get a (Pac-10 title).

We're just getting better at winning with the turnovers.

She's really been able to come in and provide a huge spark for us defensively and really ignite our transition offense.

She's just been amazing, the way she takes a charge in just about every single game. She's just a playmaker and we knew that when we signed her.

She's hit game-winning free throws for us all year. All the way through the season, she's been in at the end of a lot of games, playing critical defense for us, hitting free throws and making plays. She's an amazing talent.

I feel like we really needed a game like this. Maybe we don't dominate the stat sheet, but we play great defense and find a way to win.

I thought everybody kind of found their shots today. Everybody was really playing to their strengths offensively, which we have not necessarily done the last three games.

I thought that was a real highlight that we did a good job of establishing an inside game.

I think we had a lot of confidence coming out of halftime, that we had saved our best.

I think we had a lot of confidence coming out at halftime that we had saved our best for the second half. We were playing good defense and we knew what we needed to do.

(Late-game situations) are going to help our leadership grow and improve in terms of heat-of-the-battle moments.

Last season was our most experienced team. It's hard to quantify (how much talent was lost), but we did lose a lot.

Oregon has a lot more depth. It's been our trend to save our best game for last on the road.

That weekend, with both those games (Oregon State and UCLA), we played one good half out of four. Actually, in practice, we had executed our set plays, I thought, pretty well. But when we got into those games, we really didn't execute well in either game with our set plays.

That says a lot about our depth and our toughness. It also says a lot about our resiliency.

I would hope that the kid didn't mean to. But I don't know, I didn't have a clear view of it.

We really wanted to make them work hard and I think they got tired. They were losing the game, and with the fatigue combined it's easy to not have positive responses sometimes.

We have the mentality and we understand the expectations that have been set. Knowing you can do it and actually doing it are two different things, but for now, I know we can repeat from last year.

We didn't bring any rebounding, but man, we brought a championship mentality. I think that's what we won with. We showed amazing guts.

To be able to win against a team as great as Stanford, just gutting it out with our defense is exciting. We weren't letting them establish an inside game, which obviously put a lot more pressure on Candice.

We want the top spot. That's our goal.

We build a big lead and we let it go. We definitely played scoreboard basketball tonight.

We were real savvy in terms of when we gave it to her and we didn't force it. I thought she made great decisions about when to take it up and when to kick it out.

We weren't digging in at all. We weren't taking anything away, we weren't forcing the action. We were calling out their plays and we were watching them run them.

We've worked so hard to put ourselves in this position that it's a positive thing that we have such high expectations to meet. We'll have to work a little harder this year, but we'll be in a position to contend again this season.

We thought the No. 1 key was controlling the boards. I thought we did a great job of accomplishing it, and tonight it was the difference.

We got hesitant down the stretch. We had a few too many turnovers and that's disappointing, but we're working on it.

You are not going to be a great team unless you can win on the road. That separates the great from the good.

We just have to work a lot harder and take away their transition offense and neutralize Wiggins and Smith.

We're playing aggressive basketball and we're playing fast paced and with that, as a coach, you've got to live with some turnovers.

We just need to take it one game at a time. Obviously, the most formidable opponent is Stanford. We just need to come out and play hard and try to salvage this road trip.

We're very aggressive on offense. We can come out firing, but it has been our defense that has been our one disappointment.

We feel pretty good right now. We are back to winning the way that we were before the skid. We are back on our upswing, and we feel it.

We're disappointed in our performance, but in no way does it take away from an outstanding season that we had.

We have depth and we have speed. When we run on you and pressure you for 40 minutes, you're in for a long, hard day.

Sometimes, a loss helps you out because it helps you focus on things. One thing we have to do better as a team is evaluate and adjust.

Reagan is really growing as a leader. I'm really proud of her.

This game, the way we approached it, is that it was for a Pac-10 championship. Obviously it gives us life, in terms of being in that upper echelon, top couple of teams.

They don't have good depth. If any of their key players get in foul trouble, that's going to be a problem for them.

They are certainly the program to catch and that you have to beat.

They're better every which way. They're just a lot more consistent and a lot more confident. They're always a good team, you just see that level of confidence that last year, maybe, without any seniors, wasn't always there.

They're a young team, and we've got young players too. But, we've also got strong veterans on our team that we can rely on. Cal doesn't have that luxury.

It's February, you better bring it. You better bring everything you have on every possession, and I thought we did that in the second half.

It was coming, just based on how hard she is working before and after practice. She was the first one here today watching film with me, so ultimately when you put the time in, it always pays off.

It was a quick turn around for us the first time we played them; we only had a day to prepare and we usually take it one game at a time. But, all three players are probably going to be first round draft choices and I don't think we played them as smart as we could have.

It's one win on the road at a time. Now, we seem ready to keep up our momentum.

It's the end of February. We've been talking this whole second round that we don't have any margin for error.

It's pretty uncharacteristic of the players who were doing it and the way they were doing it. It was not the defense we saw but us.

Doing a softball game or a walk would not do him justice. He was a maniac in training and it takes an amazing amount of courage to run 4.2 miles.

Everybody's playing for everything right now. I tried to put a little pressure on them.

I've had agents tell me how good of a player Kristen is, so it's disappointing. But now she's just weighing her options. She's figuring out what she wants to do.

They did a good job of pressuring us and we were hesitant. We weren't as aggressive as we usually play. I was always confident that we would settle down. It's an awesome experience to go through that and be able to win. We stay poised and that's one more thing we can take with us the rest of the postseason.

Not many people are drafted. It's a draft -- it doesn't determine the final roster.

Their players are used to playing all those minutes every night and mine aren't. When it mattered, Utah executed and their three senior starters did a great job.

I'm excited for this weekend . . . to see how we'll grow from this, and to see how good we can be under these circumstances. I know this team and its character. I think we can prevent this from happening again. I really do.

I'm confident we are going to get back what we had. Stanford is going to be a great challenge for us. It's obviously a great team.

I just kept telling them we should be playing this like it's the Pac-10 championship. I was trying to appeal to their championship mentality and them being winners.

(California) certainly has a highly touted freshman class. They've got big playmakers on their team.

I don't know if we would have beaten anybody tonight because we rely a lot on our second shots, which we did not get.

I definitely think that the depth was helpful for us down the road. We tired them and built up a good-sized lead up into the second half.

I don't think that there's been anything that's been said as of yet. But, we've been on the road for a while, so I may have missed a meeting.

The Mercury really do know how good of a player Kristen is and that's why they've invited her to their camp.