Melanie Balcomb Quotations

What's really nice about having freshman is that you don't expect much of them. So when they do good, it's an added bonus.

We're a better team than the first time we played North Carolina. We have better confidence in what we are doing.

She took big 3s and she hit them when she was open.

She's coached at a very young age at a very high level with a lot of pressure from Day 1. It's a tremendous, tremendous place to be in and to be able to dominate a sport that long and be able to do something like that, it's amazing to me.

I didn't grow up with the rivalry, either. In this conference, every game is a big game. You can't make it any bigger than any other game.

I think we played well down the stretch. Our guards need to be more aggressive and drive more from the perimeter.

Rebounding was a huge concern. We worked hard on checking them out and not being able to hurt us on the offensive boards.

We play Tennessee, it's never really about us. It's always about Tennessee, and now it's about Pat and Tennessee.

We had to be mentally tough. We were down, and they were playing well. We changed our defense and got some stops. Finishing with a 13-0 run, it is the zero I like. I like the effort on defense.

We missed shots, turned the ball over, gave them easy baskets, then put our heads down. What's disappointing is the mentality that we weren't able to get out of.

North Carolina works their butt off, and they happen to be athletic and talented and that's a combination I think is very tough. That's why I think they have a great chance to win it. They didn't let us outwork them. We worked hard, but they did too.

That's what we've been doing. Moving the ball around and sharing the ball. Tonight we had 32 assists on 35 baskets, and that's really nice. It shows me that we're really starting to develop as a team.

And I hope the rims are familiar when we shoot.

It's people like her why you grow up wanting to be a coach and get to this level.

The big thing was that we broke down defensively at the start of the second half. Checking out was a huge problem. On offense, we didn't execute. LSU had some steals and stripped us a couple of times. They got some easy transition buckets off steals.

I like that. It's been three games where we really depend on those two juniors. We have a lot of new people on the floor in key situations and we have to count on Dee and Carla. I like how they've played in the first three (SEC) games.

I don't think that's a situation that anybody wants to be in or maybe deserves to be in. We're just pleased that we're at home.

I'd rather be remembered as the team that held her back maybe a game or two.