Mike Thibault Quotes (53 Quotes)

It was a very rugged basketball game for long stretches. Bodies flying everywhere ... a lot of fouls ... but we kept our poise at the end. We played good enough defensively at the end of the game to win.

It wasn't unexpected. We had to kind of wait it out a little bit. I wasn't nervous. She had some things to get settled, national team-wise.

She had already played in the league a couple years before I coached her, so she had already proven that she was worthy of being in the league. And she's been to the Final Four twice. She knows how to win.

From that standpoint, it kind of makes for a very competitive training camp.

My biggest relief was when I found out it wasn't a torn ligament. Not that the other injury is better, but a ligament injury is a long injury. I was a little bit afraid that we were in that realm.

Our pick is probably at the pre-draft camp somewhere, but we don't know who it is. There's a lot of good players here. Our job is to try to figure out which one best fits our team. Whoever it is, she is probably not going to get a ton of minutes. Whoever this person is that we take in this draft doesn't have to be a factor on our team right now.

The reality is that the NBA was in worse shape in the '70s and early '80s. People have convenient memories.

The second half we rebounded better, took care of the ball better. Taj and Nykesha came up with huge plays down the stretch.

The fact that we were in the finals two years in a row is a great thing, ... We put ourselves in a tough position in this series losing Game 1 (69-65 at Mohegan Sun on Sept. 14). I think we're every bit as talented as Sacramento. But they made their breaks for themselves tonight. ... We have been here twice and now we have to figure out a way to get over the hump.

Now we're 0-0 and everybody goes and plays. The playoffs are what you wait all season for.

She still has a huge upside to her game, and we have made a commitment to that potential.

Well, we go to the gym tomorrow, ... we get a little stretch and get a little shooting in and we'll try not to turn it over by ourselves. Then we're just getting ready for Tuesday's game.

This is what we've played for all year. We've taken care of details. We've been more focused on a daily basis about the little things and it's paid off.

Jim's NBA career was all about determination. No one studied the game more. He had notebooks on every single player he ever faced. I bet he still has them.

I don't think it means much because we took three out of four from them the year before. The two teams through the course of the last two years are usually separated by a couple of baskets each game. It comes down to who executes.

When we went down there that, as a U. S. basketball player, you're kind of like a rock star off the court, but the minute you step on the court you are the most hated opponent that there is. Everybody measures their progress in international basketball by how they do against the U. S. That's a constant pressure every time you step onto the court.

We have a very persistent persevering team here, but we didn't make shots when we needed to tonight. They have what we wanted. And it's hard to take.

I guess I'm not much of a prognosticator, because I thought we would play our best game of the series today, and we played our worst. They're disruptive (defensively), but by this point in the series, we should be able to better handle it.

It's a huge road win, guarantees a winning road record for us. Every time you win a road game at this point in the season, it puts pressure on the teams trying to catch you to do the same.

She can post up and shoot the three, she's a good passer, maybe a little bit more aggressive offensively than Brooke was sometimes, defensively. She's a smart defensive player, but I don't think she has the foot speed that Brooke did.

I thought we had some, I would say, not crisp or efficient possessions in the second half. The Fever make you play that way, too. They jump out and switch. But it makes them spend a lot of energy, too. That might have shown up in their shooting down the stretch.

It had nothing to do with the last shot, it was what he said. They won the game, but instead of being gracious, he had to make a smart-(expletive) comment. They beat us fair and square, no need to rub it in.

We had control of the game and we gave it back. It was pretty even for most the game, but they outscored us 17-8 on turnover points.

We're excited to finally have Erin with us. I think she is one of the best young point guards in the world. This signing will give us the opportunity to play both her and Lindsay together. While young, I expect she will have a learning adjustment period, but I expect her to be able to adjust at a fairly rapid pace.

It has no bearing on this game. They're a team trying to get into the playoffs we're a team trying to get home court in the playoffs.

The most impressive part is that she played 25 minutes without a turnover. She struggled a little bit with here shooting. She did a lot of other good things.

In the morning, I didn't think it was that bad, but the swelling never went down. It's not a high ankle sprain, and hopefully she can play on Sunday.

I'm more impressed with some of the defensive plays we made, steals, tips in the lane, rebounds in traffic. I thought they all stepped up and did that.

I'm proud of our two point guards for stepping up. Jen and Jamie did a terrific job of pushing the ball of the floor and they did a great job defensively. We had a lot of people step up and make some shots.

Thats why you keep three point guards on most teams, so if you have this situation youre not in real trouble. Were prepared for these kinds of things. We didnt prepare for it to be in the first game of the Finals. But it happens, so well just try to deal with it and hope something good happens.

The playoffs are fun. That's what you play for as a player and as a coach, and what the fans wait all season for. So the fun begins.

It had to be fun to sit in the stands and watch, because you had such an ebb and flow to the game.

It's a great win, when you go on the road and win your first playoff game and play pretty well like we did. That was as good a first half as you could play to open a playoff series and then we lost our composure in the second half and got it back and I just thought we played terrific.

They're disruptive, ... but by this point in the series we should be able to better handle it. I think that at least 60 percent of our turnovers (Sunday night) were us. You can't have the kind of errors we had.

It was pretty even most of the way, ... but the difference for me is obvious turnovers. We had control of the game for a while and we gave it back.

I didn't think it was that bad but the swelling never went down. Her knee was fine, but her ankle, she tripped (Wednesday) early in the second half trying to get over a pick-and-roll and it swelled up a little bit after the game. Then today, it was worse. We'll keep getting treatment. It's not a high ankle sprain so hopefully by Sunday, she can play.

That's one of the things, ... you don't have a lot of time. You've got to come watch the film in the morning and see the things that are there you can correct. It's not going to come by going out and practicing. It's going to come by mostly mental adjustments, more than anything, to understand what's available and what's not.

I don't know if you can duplicate the record that we had last year, but I think we're already a better team because of our experience. Our young players will make our bench better. The ones that were here already know what they have to do. The ones that we brought in that new are pretty skilled players.

I like the finals format but I don't like the first two rounds. It's never going to be perfect until we get a best-of-five of the first round and get to play our first game at home. Historically, other than a few upsets over the years, the better teams have still won. But it's not a great scenario to go on the road your first playoff game.

People forget that it took the NBA over 20 years to reach this (point),

We just had a toast to doing what we did, ... When we made the playoffs, we didn't make a big deal about it, but winning the Eastern Conference with a couple weeks to go is a great accomplishment.

I think the maturity of going through last hear helps us. We need to come out and get ready to go right away. We've been through it now two years in a row. This is our goal when we started out and now we're here to go about it.

It drives coaches crazy because there's no predicting that stuff, ... That's why I have no hair. ... This is a nice win, but it's one win.

I guess I'm not a very good prognosticator, because I thought we would play our best game of the series (Sunday) and we played our worst,

We had a bad offensive game. We had a lot of good open looks and we didn't make them. We had really good open shots and it's normally the strength of our team, but when you combine Katie Douglas, Nykesha Sales, and Lindsay Whalen shooting 5-for-30 between the three of them, it's hard to win. When you get that many open shots and don't make them, you are probably not going to win.

The fact that we're in the Finals two years in a row is a great thing, ... We put ourselves in a tough position in this series losing Game 1. I think we're every bit as talented as Sacramento. But they made their breaks for themselves tonight.

The experience she gained should be invaluable to her continued growth and contribution to our team. In reality, compared to American players, she would just be finishing her college career.

We have a very persistent team here, but we didn't make shots when we needed to. We missed too many easy shots. I don't think we got any breaks, but we also didn't make our shots.

I thought we'd play our best game (Sunday) - instead we played our worst. (Afterward in the locker room), I just wrote the stats on the board and let them stare at them awhile.

I subbed early to keep everybody fresh and we got our legs back and played with a little more bounce. About a week ago we looked tired, but tonight we had energy the whole time. I was very happy with how we played. It was fun to watch.