Everything Kellie Harper Said Following Home Win Over Aggies
The Lady Vols achieved their third straight SEC win of the season to improve to 3-0 in conference play and 14-1 on the season. This time it was against No. 25 Texas A&M who swept the Lady Vols a year ago.
Following the 73-45 victory, head coach Kellie Harper met with the media. The entire transcript of Harper's post-game media availability is below.
Opening Statement…
"Obviously, our team is happy, and they should be. This is a really good win. I'm proud of our team and thought we shared the ball, thought we got a lot of production from a lot of different people. I thought our defense was extremely tough. Texas A&M is a lot better basketball team than that score. I'm proud of our team what we were able to do; it's a big win"
On team chemistry…
"This team is having a ball. The staff is having a ball. I mean, it's been great, and I think the thing that makes it so special is how much they genuinely love each other. As a mom, when I see Jackson (Harper) and Kylie (Harper) hugging and loving each other, it makes me so happy, and it's no different as a coach, right? They genuinely care for each other, and they pull for each other, and it's a strong, strong bond, and it's really going over to the court right now."
On Gary Blair…
"Gary (Blair) has been someone that I've always looked up to and someone that I've always enjoyed being around. I think there are a lot of opposing coaches that it's easy for fans to dislike, right? I mean, that's kind of the nature of sports. He's just the guy that you just can't help but like. He's been an SEC staple at two schools, and he is a terrific, terrific coach. (I'm) excited that we have the opportunity to celebrate him this year as he makes his final rounds in the SEC. He's a great person and a great coach."
On Tamari Key…
"Tamari (Key) is so mobile and right now, her instincts in anchoring us in the paint are terrific. She is more than just a tall player. I mean, she is a really good basketball player. I'm excited for her because she's just blossomed. I mean, listening to her in the press conference just made me so happy because she's growing up. She's a wonderful human being, and I'm just proud. I'm so, so proud of her and what she's been able to do."
On the SEC this season…
"Yeah, I think the SEC is tougher this year than it was last year. I really do. I think there's a couple reasons for that. I think you've got some teams that are really pushing the top up. I think the bottom teams this year are better. So, the one thing that we've talked about quite a bit is if you don't show up, if you take a night off or if you're not your best, you're probably going home with a loss, and it doesn't matter who you play. It's really that competitive. I think our team knows that. Being there every night is not an easy thing to do. Showing up with great energy and great toughness and doing what you do every single night is tough, because it's just a long, physical season. That's what we're asking our team to do. I think the team that is able to accomplish that, you know, be the consistent team, they're the team is going to be on top."
On Rae Burrell returning…
"I think one thing that Rae (Burrell) has always been, she's always been a high energy player. I think that was, in my opinion, one of her strengths when we first got here her sophomore year was she was always on go. I think she came in with that same in energy. I thought the pace of the game... I thought A&M wanted the pace to be a little bit slower, and I thought she came in and immediately kind of bumped that up a little bit. Her knocking down a shot got the crowd into it, and then probably got our team into it and maybe made A&M sigh a little bit, you know. I think right now... I thought especially in that first half, I thought she played really well within herself and did what she needed to do for our team, so it was good to be able to get her in. I don't know how many minutes she totally got... 17 minutes. That was really good to be able to get her that many minutes in this game. You know, it's good for her offensively, defensively, and then get her some board work."
On Jordan Horston …
"Well, I think for us, one of the things that she does when she's more aggressive offensively, I think her turnovers tend to go down a little bit. So we want her to stay aggressive. I thought she played well. I thought what she did tonight, I felt like she was involved in about every play. You know, you look up, Jordan (Horston) is involved on both ends of the court. I thought she guarded; she obviously rebounded really well. She was aggressive offensively. She was finding her teammates. I thought she was just all over the place tonight, and I think that's really good for her. The more active that we can get her, the better we're going to be."
On Gary Blair calling Lady Vol Basketball 'the Mecca of women's basketball'…
"Yeah, well, I'm not going to lie, it was great to celebrate him and still get a win. I got the best of both worlds tonight. It's not lost on me that that our program is the Mecca, It is. It is and people know it. We're a big part of women's basketball. We're a big piece of women's basketball. I said this when I got here: I think women's basketball in general is better when we're good. I think that's where we're headed."
To watch Harper's entire post-game availability, see the video at the top of the article.
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