Debbie Ryan
Debbie Ryan
Debbie Ryan is the former head coach for the women's basketball team at the University of Virginia. Ryan also coached the American women's basketball team at the 2003 Pan American Games. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2000 but is currently in remission. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008. Ryan was also inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 2012...
critical good step team
Our team has to step up and have a good start. It is important, and it is going to be critical for us.
climb difficult good hole job lull stayed
I thought we stayed right with them. It was just that one lull that put us in a hole that was difficult to climb out of. But I thought we did a good job climbing.
affected good great shots
I thought we started out with good intensity. We got great shots and they just didn't go down. Then that affected us defensively.
ball bench energy gave great half played strong
I thought Denesha had a great first half. She played a very strong first half and really gave us some energy off the bench and was able to put the ball in the basket.
averages both ends execution good job per pleased points team
I thought defensively we did a really good job on a team that averages 83 points per game. I was very pleased with our execution at both ends of the court.
chance exciting great opportunity playing prove team win
It is going to be exciting because we have a chance to win a championship. I think that is how you get them excited. This is a championship. You are not just playing games. You are playing for a championship. I think this team would like to prove something with this. It is a great opportunity for us.
few five force forcing job key nice order winning within
I thought we did a nice job of forcing turnovers and that was a key to winning the game. They got within five and we had to force a few turnovers in order to put them away.
ability court difficult game high last level minutes people played separates seven stay
What makes them No. 1 and separates them from us right now is their ability to play 40 minutes and to put 11 people on the court that can stay at a very high level at all times, which makes it difficult for seven people who just played a game last night.
changes excited indication seemed upbeat
He seemed upbeat and excited about the changes he was making. There was no indication there was anything wrong.
afraid asset behind came challenge coach great head knew program question stand strongly
He was a great asset to our program. He made me a better coach just because he was never afraid to challenge or make suggestions and stand strongly behind how he felt. There was no question from the day he came into my program that he?d be a head coach, and I knew he?d be very successful.
great honor knew point
I think it?s a great honor for him, one that we all knew would come at some point or another. He?s one in a million.
deep digging holes rule slump stop
We're mired in a slump right now and we're digging a pretty deep hole. And the first rule of holes is to stop digging. But that's all we keep doing right now is keep digging and digging and digging.
critical error four pull sign within
We would pull within two or four and then we would make a critical error and it would just deflate us. That is a sign of a young, inexperienced team.
ball bring extra understand
With these guys, they have to understand that you have to make it go your way. You have to put a little more into it. You have to bring the ball down. We just don't have that little extra spurt at times to make it happen.