March 19, 2015
Tennessee State Head Coach, Larry Joe Inman
On if he can take anything from the team’s prior meeting with Jen O’Neill and Bria Goss out …
“Yes, because I’ve seen some of their TV games that they’ve played. Yes, I know how good they are. They’re very good. I’m just excited. You got a chance to meet some of our kids and I’m just excited of the opportunity that they’ve created for themselves to be here and to play a team like Kentucky. Yeah, we’ll be making adjustments just like Matthew (Mitchell). I’ve known Matthew for years and they’ll be making adjustments on us. We all look at film, we try to critique ourselves. We are trying to better ourselves. We try and look for their strengths and our weaknesses and vice versa, and then we try and correct those. We’ll change the things that need to be changed, so yes, we’ll be doing that.”
On if it’s a homecoming feeling …
“I spent 20-something years up here in this neck of the woods. It’s always very special. I have a lot of great friends, and my family spent a lot of great years in this particular area and it’s always special to be here and to be playing. I said that if I was going to go anywhere, I was hoping here to be able to share this great memory with my family and friends. It’s always special for anybody that goes back home in any situation. I do feel like this is home, as well as where I live now. My original home is Tennessee, but also, I’ve created a home here and it’s very special to be back here playing.”
On how the first game came about …
“I’ve known him for years. He was an assistant coach at Florida, you’re out there recruiting and talking and sitting there side-by-side with somebody. I got to know him a little bit that way and we talked many times before. I coached against him when he was at Morehead over there and I was at Eastern (Kentucky) and so we go back and we’ve crossed paths a bunch of times and I consider him a very good friend in the coaching business, and like everything else, we get paid to coach so we’re going to go hard just like everybody else does, playing against somebody and doing the very best you can and try to be successful. He’s been very successful as a coach and he’s a great person as you well know. The contributions that he’s made in this area are unbelievable for a guy to do what he’s done.”
On how the first game came about …
“We called him and we said that we’d like to play and could you work that out for us and that we’d like to play. We knew we’d have to play here and we did. It’s just like any other game, you just work it out. We had to agree on a time and that took a while to agree on that, and we wanted to play up-level. We knew Kentucky was a great program. We played Kentucky, we played Tennessee, we’ve played North Carolina State – we’ve played up-level. I call it up-level where you’re trying to play kids to where your kids’ level of play moves up a notch and you get better.”
Tennessee State Student-Athlete Rachel Allen
On the benefit of playing Kentucky before …
“To me it is a benefit. We played each other once this year, it was a competitive game, so for me, yes, it is a benefit.”
On what they need to do better in this meeting with UK …
“We just need to control what we can control. With me being a point guard, the ball is in my hands a lot and I need to control the turnovers, control the team and control the game.”
On her imagining that TSU could ever win an OVC title …
“For me, it took me about three days to fully digest it. We’re thankful for Coach Inman for coming here, and like he says – he says that we want to win championships, but to see it really come to pass, it was a blessing and I was in the clouds for about three days straight. I’m proud, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to win a championship with my teammates and with the coaching staff he put together, I thank God for the opportunity.
Tennessee State Student-Athlete Chelsea Hudson
On the benefit of playing Kentucky before …
“For me, it’s always a benefit to see what you did wrong. Film is a great coach itself, so you were able to see what you did wrong and what you need to improve on. Again, it was a very competitive game as Rachel said before, so it is.”
On what they need to do better in this meeting with UK …
“Definitely rebounding and turnovers, whether they’re forced or unforced, boxing out better – they had a couple of offensive rebounds, so we need to rebound and take care of the ball.”
On her imagining that TSU could ever win an OVC title …
“It’s a blessing. When you get recruited, it’s I want to win, I want to win a championship – . To see it come to pass with such a great coach and great teammates, it was just a gift from God. Definitely exciting to win, exciting to be here as well and I’m really ready to focus and play for even more. I’m super excited to have this opportunity. I wish every opportunity would have the opportunity to experience that great feeling.”
