2016-17 Chattanooga Mocs Basketball
Post-Game Quotes vs. VMI
Chattanooga, Tenn. – Jan. 25 – McKenzie Arena

Matt McCall, Head Coach
Opening statement after 80-64 loss.
"You don't come out and play that way and give up 80 points to a team in your own building, and 40 points to one player. You don't do that if you are in the right state of mind. It starts with me, I'm the coach and leader. I didn't do a good enough job to prepare our team. It stings and it hurts, arguably the worst performance since I've been here. You have to give VMI a ton of credit. Q.J. Peterson was electric and we had no answer for him at all. They played very spirited. We turned the ball over 20 times and you'll never win like that. I thought we played selfishly. They wanted they game more than we did and that's the bottom line. They definitely out-played us and played harder than us."

On things that contributed to the loss.
"The season is a grind. The great teams have the ability to get themselves ready for each game no matter what. I think we were just trying to get through. We weren't excited to play. The turnovers have been a problem and were a major problem tonight. It was at an alarming rate. You can't win games doing that. At the end of the day, the game was way more important to VMI tonight. You have to give that team a ton of credit. Our team needs to go through these things to get better and get connected."

On offense to defense transition as a team.
"We never got into a flow offensively. It seemed like we didn't know what we were trying to do or accomplish. We didn't get enough stops. They scored 80 points in our building, 50 of them in the second half, that's not supposed to happen to a team that thrives on defense."

On how to improve and bounce back after this loss.
"We need to practice a lot harder. We have to get back to really getting after it practice-wise. It's that time of the year we need to go a lot harder and get better. Hopefully this is a wake-up call and we can get better from this. It starts with me."

Greg Pryor, Sr.-G
On what was difference maker.
"Honestly our energy wasn't there for majority of the game. We had spurts where we had a lot of energy in the first half, but our energy wasn't there the majority of the game. The whole game I was just trying to get everybody on the same page, and to get everybody's energy up, and make sure everybody was playing as hard as they can, even though things weren't going right for us."

On Q.J. Peterson's performance.
"He is a good player. He scores the ball in many different ways and its tough to guard somebody like that. He scores a lot, that's what he does. He is a great player and he had a great game tonight."

On team goals moving forward.
"We have one goal. It's a marathon. You're not just going to blow everybody out and get to the goal that you want. There is going to be bumps in the road. We just have to play our hardest, and do what we do. Get back to working and fix our issues on the floor and off the floor, and just play Chattanooga basketball."

Dan Earl, VMI Head Coach
Opening statement after win over Chattanooga.
"I'm proud of our guys. A lot of us know athletics and it gets tough when you lose a couple of games or more than a couple in a row. Getting our guys to continue to believe and fight, I'm really proud of them. I wasn't born yesterday so I know it helps to have one guy go out for 40 and shoot really effectively. I know they [Chattanooga] didn't shoot a great percentage. Chattanooga is an outstanding team as you all know. I thought our guys continued to fight and believe regardless of what was going on in the game. I'm proud that we came out on top."