I thought he played pretty well the whole game. We went with our experience and that's what we've been doing all season. This was nothing unusual. |
I thought he was fabulous. He did all the things we needed him to do to win. We needed every rebound, every basket, and what I liked was absolutely every time we needed him to score, he got a basket. |
I thought our defense was pretty consistent. We wanted to keep changing our defense and going between our zones and switching back to man. We wanted to keep them off balance and we didn't want Withers to get comfortable with our defenses that we were trying to throw at him. |
I thought our guys responded well. Every guy that came in made a major contribution. We had guys making big plays after big plays, and they were different games. That's been the character of this team all year. |
I thought our team played with a great deal of effort. We had a tough mountain to try and climb today. We lost to a very good program and I thought we played as hard as we could. |
I thought we got out of the gate pretty early. Pops established our inside presence, which is what we wanted to do tonight due to the lack of experience among their inside guys. |
I thought we played very well. Both teams were trying to force their will and style on each other. Obviously, Carl Elliott hit some big shots. |
I thought we stepped up our intensity in the second half. I thought our depth really came into play. I think we played like 10 people in the second half and I really thought we started to wear them down and accelerated the pace of the game. |
I told the guys to settle down. |
I told them to settle down and they need to relax. I wanted to assure them that I was under control. They were playing the way I was acting. I am acting. That's exactly what I was doing. |
I was so impressed with St. Bonaventure tonight. It's kind of unfortunate they're playing their best basketball now. I truly believe they got a couple wins left in them. Unfortunately, the season has kind of caught up to them a little bit. We were pretty nervous. Thank God for our experience. That was the only difference. |
I was very pleased with his first game. He made his first 3, but I was more concerned with his effort sprinting back on defense. It's going to take some time for him. |
I would think most teams will try to go inside from an offensive standpoint because we will be down an inside defender. I think that will be the biggest challenge. |
I'm not so sure mentally we were prepared at the beginning. And that will be addressed. |
I'm not sure where we belong [in the national rankings] and I honestly mean that, but I want to make sure that when we go [to Xavier] that we play great defense, we take good shots, and we play the way we're capable of playing. The worst thing that can happen to us Thursday ... we can lose a basketball game. |