West Virginia beat TCU 77-52 on Tuesday night. The Mountaineers forced 20 turnovers, scored 50 points in the paint and had four players break double-digit scoring.
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00:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]
00:02 >> All right, we'll start with the opening statement from the coach and
00:05 then open up for questions.
00:06 >> Yeah, well, it ended up being a solid win.
00:09 Took us a while a little bit to get going, but TC's been doing that to teams.
00:13 I don't know what, I think it's just they keep you off balance,
00:16 gonna play some man, gonna play zone.
00:18 They just keep mixing up their defenses, so
00:20 trying to kind of game plan for a little bit of both.
00:22 It's just, it's not the easiest task at times when you're not sure exactly what
00:26 it's gonna look like.
00:27 But our kids got the good start, TCU answered it.
00:31 Maybe kind of had a little late answer to end the first quarter.
00:34 We started to settle a little bit in the second, but
00:36 then that third quarter was really good.
00:38 That was us at our best, got some turnovers, led to some easy baskets.
00:42 A lot of those steals were, we call them pick sixes, like in football where you run
00:46 it back for a touchdown, so the layup.
00:47 So got some pick sixes that quickly got the separation that we needed.
00:52 Yeah, all in all, pretty good outcome for us.
00:56 One we needed after the Baylor loss the other night,
00:59 we kind of needed to bounce back.
01:00 And I know the injuries and the depletion that they had.
01:03 So they're battling it and feel for them.
01:06 And I think they'll get a couple guys back here pretty soon.
01:08 But they're doing a great job and it was a tough battle for sure.
01:11 So I'm proud of the outcome.
01:13 >> You talked about the turnovers.
01:16 How much did that help you guys kind of maybe get in a little bit of a rhythm
01:18 there offensively?
01:19 You said kind of start wasn't exactly what you wanted.
01:22 >> Yeah, well, I thought we got some turnovers early, but
01:24 we gave them all right back.
01:25 I know at one point, I think in that first media, we had four turnovers and
01:28 they had four turnovers.
01:29 And so there just wasn't flow to it.
01:33 We want flow, we wanted tempo.
01:35 Probably a little bit of pace in this game too,
01:36 just knowing what they had and some of the numbers.
01:39 So yeah, we just finally, we tweaked a couple things in the press for
01:43 the second half after we had seen kind of what they were doing.
01:46 But really our kids just made plays, yeah, and it was the difference.
01:49 Yeah, no doubt those were some easy buckets that, like I said,
01:51 got some separation in the score.
01:53 Cuz it went from whatever it was at half to 18, 19, 20.
01:57 They're pretty quick and then we were able to just kind of keep them at bay.
02:00 >> Coach, Mark Suttle, also running for the Dominion Post.
02:03 So what was it like to be back in the Metroplex here for you to come back?
02:07 >> Yeah, I've been on this campus a lot.
02:09 My brother actually went to school here and played soccer at TCU.
02:12 So I was over here visiting him a ton back in the day and
02:16 been over here watching football games and all sorts of stuff.
02:19 And I've been here twice as a coach, once as an assistant,
02:22 once as a head coach when I was at SFA.
02:25 But they were redoing Schollmarner, so we played over at the volleyball place and
02:28 that didn't go so well.
02:29 So my first time to win in here, so that felt good.
02:32 But yeah, I've got some family friends, some people from the SFA days are here as
02:36 well, so I had a good little contingent.
02:38 But my parents still live here, my brother lives in Dallas, so good to have them.
02:41 >> What do you miss the most about Texas?
02:43 >> The Mexican food and barbecue, without question.
02:45 >> [LAUGH] >> So yeah, definitely miss that.
02:47 And of course, family for a little bit, but they can get up there quite a bit as
02:50 well.
02:51 Yeah, Mexican food and barbecue, I miss tremendously.
02:53 >> What about, you guys have a really tough stretch with,
02:57 I guess it's OU, Kansas State, and Baylor again.
03:02 So it's like, getting those three, how important was it to get a solid win tonight?
03:07 >> Yeah, and we just played Baylor too, so it's four out of five here.
03:10 So we knew this was the gauntlet,
03:12 this was the stretch that we need to find a way to get through.
03:15 And we just need to pick off somebody.
03:16 We need to get another ranked win, which we had one earlier against Penn State.
03:20 But OU will come in ranked now on Saturday.
03:22 And then I haven't thought too much past that one, but
03:25 I know what's coming for sure.
03:26 But we'll have to put our full attention to Oklahoma,
03:29 who's leading the Big 12 at the moment.
03:31 So we'll get prepared and they'll have our full attention.
03:34 >> And I know that you guys are having a pick out in Morgantown.
03:38 They had it here tonight.
03:38 How important, special is that for you?
03:40 >> Yeah, no, it's always special.
03:42 And women's basketball in particular, and the KEO fund.
03:44 And I don't know how much money they're raising now, but
03:48 it's a tremendous amount.
03:49 And we'll honor our survivors on Saturday as well.
03:53 I wasn't sure, I think they may have did something.
03:55 I heard them clapping for some people over there, maybe wanted the time out.
03:57 So yeah, special opportunity for us.
03:59 And we say we're in the pink, so I got no problem wearing the pink shoes today.
04:03 And we'll put on the pink at our place on Saturday.
04:05 Yeah, very special.
04:07 >> And then you left your starters in there for a long time.
04:10 How come you did that?
04:12 >> No, I don't know about that.
04:13 We had JJ in there, took Jordan out with eight and
04:15 a half minutes to go in the game.
04:17 So no, that last group played probably the last seven minutes.
04:21 So no, I didn't think we did it all, to be honest.
04:25 >> Okay.
04:26 >> You had four girls reach double digit scoring, and almost everyone scored.
04:31 Just talk about kind of the ball movement,
04:32 just the way things kind of got going for you guys.
04:35 >> Yeah, there were two goals we had.
04:36 One of which was I wanted 17 or more assists tonight.
04:39 Cuz I didn't think we moved it very well at Baylor.
04:41 I think we had 13 or 14 assists.
04:43 And then I wanted four in double figures.
04:45 And we can get a little ball dominant for a little bit too much.
04:49 That's not the way I would like to play.
04:51 I would like to share it, everybody touch it, kick it ahead in transition.
04:55 And I thought we didn't do that very well at Baylor.
04:57 And again, we got a little triple happy.
04:59 So yeah, we moved it, shared it, everybody touched it.
05:02 Typically, I think when you get an open shot and you've touched the ball,
05:05 it's more likely to go in.
05:06 If you hadn't touched it in three minutes or four minutes,
05:08 then all of a sudden you get an open shot, you're probably not gonna make it.
05:11 So yeah, we want touches by everybody.
05:12 And that starts with Jordan Harrison.
05:14 She's kind of the one that starts that for us.
05:16 That was a goal coming in, was to get some ball movement.
05:19 And then to get four in double figures,
05:20 that was written up on the board before the game.
05:22 So yeah, we checked both of those.
05:24 >> Well, and you had 50 points in the pan.
05:25 I mean, that's well over half your points.
05:29 Maybe it wasn't a focus going into the game, but
05:31 that's something you wanna just kinda get inside and get those easy shots.
05:34 >> It was really every game, and we call it playing from the inside out.
05:36 We always wanna play from the inside out, even though we're not the biggest team.
05:40 Obviously, TCU without Sado is not nearly as big either.
05:43 But it was, for us, paint points, paint touches,
05:46 even if you're not getting points in there, inside out threes,
05:49 those types of things just tend to go a little bit more.
05:51 So yeah, we were trying to be cognizant of getting it into the paint.
05:54 Again, at Baylor, we settled for way too many shots outside of the paint that
05:58 weren't threes.
05:59 And so analytically, those people don't like that.
06:01 They want layups and threes.
06:02 So just trying to be cognizant of getting the ball to the rim, and
06:06 typically good things happen.
06:07 We just have to do it differently a little bit.
06:09 We don't have the big back to basket dominant necessarily post player either,
06:13 so we have to do it a little bit differently.
06:14 >> And then can you touch on your defense?
06:17 Y'all did pretty well in also finishing the night with 16 steals.
06:20 >> Yeah, I mean, we lead the country in steals, or somewhere in there, first,
06:24 second, or third, something like that, turnover scores.
06:26 So that's a little bit of who we are.
06:28 That is our identity.
06:29 Again, I thought we had some early.
06:30 We just gave them all right back.
06:32 And then we finally got into that third quarter.
06:35 And that's what we can do.
06:36 We can go on a 9-0 run, or 10-0 run, or 11-0 run pretty quickly.
06:39 And if we're up 4-5, it can turn to 15, and
06:41 it just feels like maybe we punched you a little bit.
06:44 And then it gives us enough separation to finish.
06:46 >> Does that give you a lot of confidence as a coach to know that your team can come
06:49 back when needed?
06:51 >> Yeah, we haven't been down a ton, a lot.
06:54 Obviously, at Baylor, we were for the majority of the night, and
06:57 we didn't come back.
06:58 But I've said all year, we have a very even keel temperament about our team.
07:02 They don't really get too high, they don't get too low.
07:05 There's times at practice, I just like, well, where's our energy?
07:08 This is the most boring practice I've ever seen, but they respond.
07:11 And so I've kinda just chilled a little bit as a coach, and
07:14 become a little less animated with this group, because they weren't responding to
07:17 it, and that's kinda been fun in a way.
07:20 I've never had a team quite as chill as this group.
07:23 But every time somebody makes a run, it doesn't seem to bother us.
07:26 If we're making a run, we stay pretty, like I said, even keel as well.
07:29 But yeah, they've been a really fun group to coach.
07:31 >> Thanks, everyone.
07:34 - Thanks, everybody. - I appreciate it.