Kim Gervasoni Quotations

We want to try to end on a positive note. Obviously, everybody's goal is to win it, but in order to win it we have to play well and that's always been our focus, how we play. San Jose did a really good job taking some things away from us, things we normally do well. We have to be ready to adjust to San Jose.

We've shown character in spots, but this was the first game where we showed resiliency and character throughout the game and a lot of heart.

She's pure energy on the bench and on the court. She just wants the team to be successful. Anyway she can help she does. You hear her constantly off the bench keeping them focused. In the locker room before a game she gets them ready to play. She's a leader.

She had a really great week of practice building up to this, so I expect her to play her game. I don't think she'll be nervous.

She gets along with everybody. She's always dancing, she loves music. That's a side of her that people don't see.

She does other things for us on the court besides scoring. She's actually a very unselfish player. She just wants the program to be successful.

Obviously (losing Keys) impacts our team, but other people have to step up and fill the void. That's part of the game. Injuries are part of the game. We're sad we don't have Sabrina out there, but we still have a lot of talent and other people have to step up.

I was so into the game. I didn't realize she had four (fouls). I was a little surprised she had five and was in there at that point.

I don't think it's just one solution. If I knew what one solution was, I would fix it. That's what people don't seem to understand. The girls are working hard, we're working hard, we've been in a lot of games. We just have to learn to finish games.

We talked about playing in the past. It made sense with the two sisters playing. It's great for their family too.

I thought she was the difference. When she came in, she gave us a spark.

That's the same kind of stifling defense we played against Hawaii. They know they're capable of it. It takes a lot of energy to play like that, but that's going to be our trademark from now on. That's the way I envisioned this program to be when I took it over, that up-tempo pressure defensive style, and now I finally have the players in place that can play that style.

We are playing better now and we just need to keep improving on it. You want to be peaking at the end of the season. We're definitely not happy going into conference 3-8, but there's nothing we can do about that now. It's a new season, we're 0-0, we just have to focus on conference now and learn from the preseason.

We didn't handle that very well. They pressured us and made us rush, especially early. That's why our shooting percentage was so low. We were rushing shots. We turned the ball over we didn't play with a lot of composure and we dug ourselves a hole. Defensively they did a nice job on us and took us out of our game.

We need to build on it, we need to win two in a row. I will build off of it. The team needs to be ready, to enjoy it for tonight, then be ready to play Utah State. We need to have focus, and this needs to give us motivation to do it again. That's what they have to start understanding. We need to play just as aggressive, just as determined on Saturday.

The defense is the catalyst to our offense, so I was really proud of them for their effort.

Boise State is an extremely hard-working team. They're the hardest working team I think we've played. They're not overly big, but they're athletic and just work really hard. The key is matching their intensity because they're going to come out hard and play hard, that's a given. They do a lot of things well. We have to be ready to play and we have to be sharp and we have to match their intensity.

At the beginning of the year, if we would have struggled like that, we would have had a lot of people hanging their heads and it would have just escalated. They just bounced back, kept looking for what was open and kept focused on the target. I wasn't too concerned. I tell them, 'If we're not scoring that's OK, we just need to get stops.' Defense creates some offense. I tried to stick with the plan and not get too frustrated with them.

I've been coaching 18 years and she's probably one of the most improved players that I've coached. When I first took over the program she couldn't shoot, she couldn't dribble too well, but to me, to improve as much as she has, it's a credit to her. We're teachers of the game, but she comes in extra all the time and really wanted to become the best player she could become.

San Jose is a very talented team and we have to shoot the ball better. Part of that is a credit to their defense too, they made us rush shots. We have to be a little bit smarter on offense, play a little bit stronger. And they played us pretty physical. We need to handle that better, play with more composure. They're game plan was great against us last week. We need to be more prepared.

Della has been a huge presence for us on the defensive end. She's done a great job on the opposing team's point guard and has had some big scoring games.

Anything you need her to do, she'll do. Even on the court at practice, in drills. We got permission for that from the medical staff. She can be on the court as long as her heart rate doesn't get up there. She likes getting out there and blocking everyone's shots.

Back when we were recruiting her we knew she would be an impact player. She kind of does it all for us. She's leading the team in steals. She's been pretty consistent for us all year.

They're a great team and they're very well-coached. They're great, but not cocky. They go out there and leave it all on the floor. ... They're a classy organization. I respect them a lot, and we'll have to play a great basketball game to beat them.

It's a huge win. I wanted to see how we responded after that (loss). I'm just really proud of them for their effort tonight. I thought we played a pretty complete game.

I told them in the locker room, 'Every game in the WAC will be tough.' Hopefully they'll be ready and respond. (Hawaii) will be fired up, but so will we.

It's one of the biggest wins in my three years. We're definitely peaking at the end.

They keyed on her. They stepped up defensively on her. She wasn't pushing the ball as much as I would have liked. I think she ran out of gas.

The rest of the field is pretty evenly matched. Anything can happen on any given day. People know it's do or die and they're going to play like every possession is the last possession of the season.

It's really been a progression. Now, she's finally a senior and she's putting it all together. It's amazing. She finally gets it and then she's graduating, but it's great she finally got it. To me she's having a very good senior year. She's contributing a lot.

I know they'll be extremely motivated to keep this going.

I knew she could get a shot off. I knew with her speed, that's her game, getting to the hole, creating and finishing. I knew she was capable of it. We had talked about her looking to score.

I'm just really proud of both of them and obviously they couldn't have won these honors without their teammates.

Before, we would hope we would win, now we believe we can win. I asked the kids to come out and play to win and fight for 40 minutes and I believe they did that, so I'm proud of them for that.

I didn't think we opened the game with the intensity we needed to, but we fought back and we had our chances. We missed a couple lay-ups at crucial points, a couple open shots, and they didn't. They hit those shots, that was the difference. Both teams played pretty well defensively.

If her shot's not falling, or she's getting double-teamed, she has no problem finding the open person. For a freshman, sometimes that's a tough adjustment. Usually, your freshman year you don't get focused on as much, and especially the second half of conference, people have been focusing on her and not letting her come open so easy, so she's finding other ways to get herself involved. Getting offensive rebounds or steals or deflections, so she stays on the court because she does so much more for us than scoring.

The first 8 to 10 minutes we played sloppy. We were just not on the same page offensively.