He looked like Larry Bird out there for the first five minutes. |
Hopefully that experience will give our guys confidence. Hopefully it will help that they played against a big-name team and played well. |
I am very happy about it and excited about it. I am glad we were able to get it worked out. I think it's a great game for everybody involved. You will have great crowds at both arenas. I know the fans down here are really excited about it and talking a lot about the game. I don't think it will take long for the rivalry to heat back up. |
I have a lot of respect for East Carolina. One of my biggest concerns is stopping Corey Rouse. He is a great player and having a great season so far. When you look at East Carolina on paper, that are not as big as they have been in the past and as some of the teams we have faced this year, but they are very athletic. Ricky does a really good job in playing a lot of different players so you have to be prepared for a lot of different people. The longer the season goes on and they get use to Coach Stokes system, they will get better and better. |
I really challenged our guys in the locker room before the game, especially our seniors. Beckham did an outstanding job of talking to the guys in the locker room, and getting them motivated a little bit, and it was the difference in the game. |
I sure hope CBS has something to do with selections in the future, because we make for great TV. |
I sure hope CBS has something to do with selections in the future, because we make for great TV. Every time we're in the tournament, we give them one heck of a game. Unfortunately for us, we came out on the losing end of this one. |
I thought my guys responded well. We did a good job the last eight minutes of closing the game out. |
I thought our experience showed. We came into the tournament with a little chip on our shoulder. Nobody has been talking about us all week. We felt like we had to play our way into the [NCAA] tournament. |
I thought our team was ready. I would have never anticipated this. We worked hard the last two days and it didn't show. We lost it completely in the first half. East Carolina was better prepared and a better team today. We just didn't defend the ball as well as we needed and we over helped at times and gave open looks. |
I thought we really played about as well as we could play in the first half. |
I told him after the [Hofstra] game 'This will happen again, you will get another chance. You're a good player'. |
I understand we blew a big lead, but we played at an unbelievably high level to get that lead. |
I understand we blew a big lead. But we played at an unbelievably high level to get that lead. You look at our field goal percentage ... I don't know of any team in the country that's going to play that way for 40 minutes. |
It's been a good series. Both teams have played well, so I look for a good game on Saturday. |