Baylor Head Coach Kim Mulkey:
ON FEELINGS DURING GAME:
"I was out there prior to the game taking pictures. I was smiling, hugging and coaching a little bit and laughing, I thought I was relaxed for me."
"You are always going to be competitive and intense, and I learned a great deal about my basketball team tonight."
"I learned that I have some players that can play. I thought it was funny that (the USA National Team) played a zone the whole second half, so we had to find some shooters that can take some shots. We got some good looks, it was just a matter of time before those guys quit playing with you and they start nailing shots, and they did."
ON THE AURA OF PLAYING TEAM USA:
"I think you saw that in the misses. We saw the missed free throws all night. I think you saw it early in the game in the missed shots. But, what you did see that was real encouraging for me was I never saw but one shot where we backed away and tried to avoid something. I thought for the most part we were very aggressive and did what we usually do. We just played extremely hard and it was a lot of fun out there for me as a coach."
ON SCORING:
"It wasn't important for me to keep it under twenty. We have three games in the next three days. It did not matter to me. At that point those guys that are going to be playing significant minutes this weekend needed to get off the floor and let some other people play."
"It was a very memorable night for Baylor University and we were very honored that we were selected to play against those guys."
"Jessica has good size for a guard and what you saw tonight was Team USA spreading you so far. They are able to spread you so far because of their wingspan and their size and Jessica was able to do some thing because of her size. She was able to see over people where maybe the smaller guards could not. Because of their size we rushed a lot on the perimeter."
"I thought what was encouraging in the first half was we only had two turnovers. I think we had twelve for the game, but that is what kept us in the ball game in the first half. We were making hustle plays and making sure we got a shot in every time down the floor."
"I thought we did a pretty decent job in executing some stuff."
ON RESPECT FOR TEAM USA:
"Respect. Wow. All of us have watched these guys play. Some of these girls have grown up idolizing these players. I am never going to coach a team that is in awe of anybody. I am going to coach a team that respects everybody they play and plays hard. And then hug them and take pictures after the game because many athletes will never have the opportunity these athletes had tonight."
"I took away a memory that eight years after taking over this program we are hosting the Olympic Team. We have won a national championship. It just doesn't get any better than this. People coach a lifetime. People try to build programs. I hate it for those people who weren't here because this may never happen again for Baylor."
Angela Tisdale:
ON PLAYING WITH LISA LESLIE:
"She is going to block my shot if I shoot it. She is just so long. I was just afraid to go in there because I knew she would block it.
"This is memories like Coach Mulkey said. I will remember it for a lifetime."
ON GAME PACE:
"It is the same as college pace. I was still tired either way."
"We played hard the first half. They were playing soft and we were playing hard. They blew us out in the second half. But I thought everyone played hard and I wasn't expecting to win."
"I looked at how Sue Bird was running the offense and I thought maybe I should start running the offense like that. She was a good point guard."
Jessica Morrow:
"I was in awe. When they were out there shooting around, we were scared to get on the court."
"I just started playing like we had nothing to lose and we were just having fun."
ON PLAYING WITH LISA LESLIE:
"I told her she was my idol."
ON THE SCORE DURING THE FIRST HALF:
"I didn't even realize we were up by five. I was wondering why everyone was yelling, I looked at the scoreboard and realized we were up by five. I was just happy to be on the same floor as those guys."
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USA National Team Head Coach Anne Donovan:
On the game:
"Give Baylor a ton of credit, they came out really aggressive, moved us around in our man-to-man defense, and we struggled to guard them for stretches. Baylor came out really aggressive, we didn't come out so sharp and they made us pay for that. We did a good job regrouping and then coming out in the second half and really getting after it."
On their exhibition tour:
"We're playing eight of the top 15 colleges. As you saw in the first half, we're getting great competition. Every time we step out on the court together we're getting good preparation for Beijing. That said, it is a great opportunity for these players to get back home and for a lot of fans across the United States to see our players domestically. The WNBA season is pretty short, and in limited cities, so it's nice to have our players have the opportunity to come back, and to have women's college basketball fans get to see them play. It's a good opportunity for all of us."
On what she saw from Baylor:
"What you saw is a ton of fight. Fortunately, they couldn't put the ball in the bucket enough against the zone. (They were) very aggressive, and I thought they showed great composure and aggressive in the first half in particular. They showed their experience playing together. (Bernice) Mosby is a big miss, but the other players are figuring out how to play without her pretty well."
USA forward Seimone Augustus:
On the game:
"I'm glad I never played at Baylor in college; the fans here are great. They were very feisty, they were scrappy, and we just had to limit our turnovers. I think that's what they came in and executed to their advantage."
On what they take from these games:
"Once you hit international ball, it's not going to be a lot of up-and-down. You're going to have to be able to run your half-court set, be efficient and be effective in the half-court. We try to do what we can to execute and run through our plays, and to target the things that coach asks us to target."
On the Baylor team:
"With their tenacity and their intensity, they can compete with anybody regardless of rank. If they can come out and have us within one at the half, they can get with anybody. Number three (Jessica Morrow) came in and played wonderful, and they were very scrappy on the boards."
USA guard Diana Taurasi:
On Baylor's team::
"Baylor's tough. That's what they've made their name off of in the last three or four years, that's how they won a national championship and they're contenders again. This arena gets loud, I think it's probably been the most fun place that we've played at so far, as far as the fans cheering every play. They've got a really tough team."
On trailing late in the first half:
"Sometimes the motor takes a little bit longer to get started, and coach Donovan got into us a little bit, so we came out a little bit more aggressive and tried to do some different things on defense and offense."
On what they take from these exhibitions:
"It's been great to come out here and have all these fans come through and really support their college, and to come and support us means a lot. The ultimate goal is China, and all of this helps us to be a better team down the road, so that's what we take out of it."
