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Virginia Tech coach Megan Duffy and players Carys Baker and Mackenzie Nelson after loss at #UNC
Feb 14, 2025
Virginia Tech coach Megan Duffy and players Carys Baker and Mackenzie Nelson after loss at #UNC
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uh just really really proud of um my
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team today the way they fought and
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battled um after getting down in that
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first quarter I thought our grit to to
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come back and fight um was really good
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um and then I just thought Carolina was
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a little bit better down the stretch in
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that fourth quarter executing they got a
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couple easy baskets downhill a couple
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offensive rebounds um that changed a
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little bit of the trajectory of that end
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of that fourth quarter um so great great
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effort by them to finish the game start
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over here on the left of Carter coach
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how would you evaluate how you guys Play
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Def L today as yeah I mean we we knew um
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honestly because Carolina's defense is
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so good we had to kind of raise our
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level to make sure we could keep it
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close um I thought we had some great
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possessions where we slid over and
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helped off their bigs I thought we took
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a couple nice charges um and then again
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the crushing part of that is it wasn't
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quite good enough at the end of the
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fourth quarter so uh a lot of really
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great possessions but at the same time
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we had a couple um you know breakdowns
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uh late in that fourth quarter you guys
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shot over 60% from three again what a
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lot you guys to be so good from distance
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over the course of the night yeah I mean
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they they were trying I think to guard
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the three-point line and um I thought we
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we moved and shared the ball um executed
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a couple uh sets nicely and then you
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know Carris stepped up and hit a couple
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big ones um Matilda had a couple nice
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ones um you know Mackey threw an in off
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the glass which was which was great so
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we were just kind of talking about
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having that balance of you know getting
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the paint and score and then obviously
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if we have the the kickout threes off of
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execution um to shoot him and uh let Let
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it
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Fly yeah I want to ask about the final
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play that led to the baker shot what
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were you looking for it and was it did
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their switching kind of throw you off uh
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I don't know I mean they were switching
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a lot of the game so I think a little
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bit was um just being able to create off
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of um the late gameplay we had and I
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thought they did a really good job of
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switching up and switching physical and
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then after that a little bit you have to
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play out of things and I think that was
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the um you know the game within the game
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you know everybody's got their sets and
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packages of things and when you get into
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late ACC play um so much of is about
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players making plays um and I thought
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they did a nice job of that and um
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unfortunately for us at the end um you
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know we didn't do quite as good of a
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job on the right side yeah just for both
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of the players wanted to ask what
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specifically about unc's defense do you
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think was the most difficult for you
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guys um I would say just their
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aggressiveness I think we haven't um
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really faced a lot of teams that play so
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aggressive and I think they a really
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good job of on ball screens just
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switching up being really strong um so I
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think in the beginning uh we didn't
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really handle it very well in the first
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quarter with their with their bumps we
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kind of um fell back instead of taking
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the bumps but I think we overall in the
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game in the second half and in the
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second quarter I think we got better
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with their aggressiveness and I think we
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kind of just adapted to it in a better
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way but I think just their overall
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aggressiveness yeah oh sorry I would
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just say their aggressiveness just sped
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us up a little bit too much uh
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especially in the beginning of the game
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getting into sets um um I mean as a
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point guard when you get sped up it
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speeds the rest of the team up so um
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that was definitely something huge in
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the beginning of the game that kind of
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got to us a little bit too much go the
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back of the room coach uh shot selection
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was kind of a big factor in this game
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and it looked like you guys didn't
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really get a lot of the shots that you
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wanted to get how are you kind of work
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on that moving forward yeah I thought we
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got some great shots um I respectfully
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disagree I thought we moved the ball we
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shared it um now late game we didn't get
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exactly what we wanted but I thought um
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the reason why we were up in the game
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was because we we we moved the ball we
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shared the ball we were balanced um so I
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was really happy with some of the
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execution um against Carolina's defense
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Mackie uh on defense you were a able to
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be all over the floor just talk about uh
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your mentality on the floor and
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especially on that yeah I think that's
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uh something I bring to the team um
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coming off the bench just being that
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little energy um especially on defense
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uh we talk about it a lot our defense
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starts our offense um so any type of
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charge steal um helping when the post
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are fronting any kind of energy play
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like that I think just carries the team
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and I try and carry that uh anytime I'm
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on the court back to Carter on the left
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coach in such a tight game weight how
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challenging is it when you guys are in a
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little bit of foul trouble with three of
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your better players on the floor yeah we
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were trying to rotate him in um you know
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Carly was sitting a lot this game and
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you know Rose as well which are two of
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our obviously extremely important
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players I thought Mackey did a great job
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and then she got a couple fouls so was a
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little bit of um just taking our normal
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you know 8 n player rotation and getting
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them minut and out but I thought I
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thought that was um I thought the way
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our team handled that was was pretty
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good um obviously we got to get um you
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know Carly on the floor a little bit
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more and figure out how to get that
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better but I thought um you know with
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rose being out a couple games prior I
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think that gave you know kale some more
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confidence macky's getting some more
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minutes with it um so a lot of there's
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some good things that have been built
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from that unfortunately um you know uh
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Carly and Rose were on the bench too
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long all last one did you adjust how you
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were uh defending Kelly in the second
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half she wouldn't scor quite as easily
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who Kelly Kelly yeah I mean I don't know
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if we did that good of a job after I
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mean she had a great first half um you
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know we just tried to change up a little
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bit of ball screen coverage um you know
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once she gets going she's she's good I
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mean her pull-up is awesome and then you
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know you get her downhill or shooting a
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three every once in a while it's hard to
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guard she's that true three level scorer
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when she's when she's feeling so I
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thought she did a a really nice job and
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um you know made some big plays for them
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at different different points and it was
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interesting because it was a little bit
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of a chess match of like playing big and
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then both teams were playing small and
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you know that's that's the fun as you
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get down the stretch of ACC play you're
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just trying to find an advantage um
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whether it's us or them so I I thought
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just overall you know great atmosphere
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and you know a tough road game but I
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hope um you know a game like this shows
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where a really really good quality team
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and obviously the end didn't go how we
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wanted to but I I think we had a you
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know very much an opportunity to to win
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this game thank you ladies thank you
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