Everything From Karen Blair and Talayah Walker After Georgia Tech's Win Over Radford

Georgia Tech advanced to 1-0 on Thursday after picking up a win over Radford. The Lady Yellow Jackets used their defense, paint presence, and hot second half to pull out the victory. Here is everything head coach Karen Blair and Talayah Walker said to the media.

Opening Statement:

“Well, thank you guys for being here. Um, obviously, really proud of our group. I mean, first of all, let's talk about the crowd. I mean, that's uh I think as players and coaches, this is a kind of environment that you love to play in. You know, just the energy, and I thought our team did a good job of fitting off this energy. One of the things we've talked about a lot as a program is we really wanted to hang our hats on our defense and our rebounding, and I think you guys saw that today that this team really came in locked in. I mean, holding a team scoreless, you know, or 0 for 12 in that second quarter. Then more impressively is I thought we stayed consistent with it throughout the game. We didn't let up on on that end of the basketball. And again, from a rebounding standpoint, you know, when you're you're getting this many, you're getting 51 rebounds. We got a lot on the offensive rebounds as well. And then also limiting them to only two second-chance points. So, I think that's a lot about what we have to be. The sharing of the basketball is something that we've been talking about constantly. And as a coach, when you can start to see, you know, 24 assists on 28 made baskets, you know, you're playing the game the right way. That is, you know, very unselfish basketball. And again, so impressed with our bench today. When you get 41 points off your bench, you're going to have a lot of success. So, I was really proud of them and the energy they brought to our team when they came in.”

Blair the offense in terms of shooting….

“I think you know when you get this first game, it's one thing, at least Radford had a game under their belt a little bit and for us coming out in that first quarter, we just had to get our rhythm and get our feet wet. But I do think our defense really helped us in that and that's what you expect from your senior, right? Someone like Ines, she's played a lot of minutes here. She's always a very calm factor. But like I said, I thought we wanted to dominate in the paint, and I thought we did a good job. Like I can't speak enough about Talayah like her energy when she came in, she was just relentless in getting to the basket and getting to the foul line and that sets the tone when somebody's just their will to get to the basket. She was able to do that for us, and I think it feeds confidence into everybody else.”

Blair on emotions getting first win at Georgia Tech…

“Yeah, you know, this is special, right? This is, you know, your first time as a head coach here at Georgia Tech to get this win, and you know, it's like what I just shared with the team. I mean, this is a group that's believed in me, right? They came here and those that stayed. So, for me, that's really a special moment to be able to share that with them and and them just the way that they played and the way that they performed today. So, for me, this is will stick with me, you know, like the the first one's always a special one and um I I'm so grateful that I got to do it with this group.”

Talayah Walker on how fun of an environment it was to play in…

“Yeah, it was very fun to play. You know, early games everybody might start off a little slow but the kids and the fans definitely helped with that energy. So it just made it more fun to play and we had to like play for them since they brought all that energy. So it's only right that we bring it back and give them a great show.”

Walker on how she ended up at Georgia Tech and playing for Coach Blair….

“Many people might not know this, but I've known KB for a while. She started recruiting me when I was a sophomore in high school. I ended up committing to Penn State, going there my first year, and then got on the transfer portal, and she reached out, and it just seemed like fate, honestly. So, I wanted to come here and play for her. I've heard so many great things about her. The way she just lets everybody be themselves and play freely is just amazing. It's easy to play for her. It makes us want to play harder for her. Just knowing a coach that having a coach that believes in you and wants you to succeed, everybody individually, not just some certain like people like she wants everybody to be successful and it's just so great to play for her, honestly.”

Blair on the contributions from different players…

“I would absolutely love for our bench to come in and give us 41 points every game. You know, actually, it's kind of how it is. Like you know, this is the starting group, they're they have really been able to gel offensively and defensively, which we've seen in practice. I don't know if it'll just be this full unit, but what you see is what we come off our bench, is that we all of a sudden bring in a lot of speed in this defensive prowess that they just have. So for a coach that's fun, right like you have different lineups that we're going to be able to play you know ge,tting into it, so what it looks like in the future this is you know getting in November I think this is what we're trying to figure out is what are these lineups what are these matchups and really trying to hone in on what what the identity is going to be for for our group.”

Blair on Brianna Turnage…

“The one thing you know about Briana is what she does every single day for our program. She is nothing but energy, heart, and hustle. That's what she brings and you may look at the stats, and you can see the rebounding and you know 11 rebounds, you know that's going to be very consistent for Brianna. That's what she does, but it's those intangibles that you're talking about, the defensive stops, talking on defense, you know, like she's just always so locked in. She's invaluable like that's what I said on the defensive end and then on the offensive end she creates those extra opportunities for us.”

Blair on how the offensive got going in the second half…

“I think we finally got into our transition game. You know, I think in that first half we were not quite playing at the pace that we want to be able to play at. We were playing more of a half-court game, and then I think you see you saw in that second half, we were able to get into that press early, be able to get some steals, but really we were just trying to we wanted to get out in transition you know, play less of a half court game. So I think that's the difference. Then once the momentum, you know, started building, you know, then the shots started to fall. But I thought also our defense was able to create those D to O points and we were able to convert them.”

Blair on post players being a part of your success…

“Yeah, I mean our post play has been phenomenal for us this preseason. I mean, you like you said, I mean, you have Ari that comes in and then D’Asia. Well, like you talk about, just having two low-post scoring options, and D’Asia just plays with a different kind of physicality, and I mean, she's just relentless on the boards. And so then you kind of add in that with the athleticism of Snoop and Jada, and it's a it's really good combo, you know, of those four post players that we have.”

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