Samford at Chattanooga
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Chattanooga, Tenn. - McKenzie Arena
Postgame Quotes

Lamont Paris, Head Coach
Opening statement after first SoCon win.
"It feels great to get a win. I can't lie. It feels good, especially for the guys. They needed that. They needed to get a win. We've played really hard and very well over a nice little stretch of four or five games. Not that deserving means anything, but they deserved to be on the right side of this one. As excited as I was for them, we still have to know some of things we did were potentially catastrophic to winning a game. Luckily we built enough cushion to weather the storm. It feels good for the guys. It's not about me at all. They did a good job. They hung in there and kept fighting. Sometimes playing with a lead is the hardest thing to do. These guys haven't been in too many of these situations. That was some of these guys first time in that spot in their college career. I thought they handled it well."

On allowing Samford to cut large lead down in second half.
"I don't think focus has much to do with it. I think the circumstances have a lot to do with it. Maybe on one or two occasions it's a decision. Maybe the other one was them making a play. Now you see the lead go from 14 to nine. Those circumstances. It's hard. We were tentative at times where we needed to be aggressive. We were aggressive when we needed to be tentative. These are real moments. Guys have to be in moments before you can expect them to perform in them. I think it was more of that than the focus. We knew what we wanted to do, it just wasn't happening."

On glowing confidence on the court.
"I think that's attributed to how they've played in the last four games. That's what has been built up. We've had double-figure leads in games, out-played the other team a couple times, and didn't win. We try to remind them and I think they know that we've out-played teams. We've played harder, we've played with more emotion, we've defended better. Those are good teams too. To defend like that, they have to believe and have that confidence. We had to adjust in how we coach too. I can't make them perform better. But we can make them play harder. They know that the staff is behind them. We tell them to play hard, play smart and stay within our rules. One day, I'll be at the point to be upset at pure performance. But for now, we're just not there yet. It wouldn't be fair to pin performance on them." 

On things to improve and moving forward.
"Forget stats, forget equations. All the equations that go into winning a basketball game can get debunked. We had 22 turnovers and allowed 49 points in a half. That's not normal to be able to do that and win. One game at a time we have to work on everything. We have to work on everything."

Makinde London, Jr.-F
On notching first SoCon win of the season.
"I think we've been in a lot of these tough situations. We all had this sense of feeling that it's time. We kept attacking every day and every game the same way we have been. With focus, hustle, all the little things we have to put together to get a win. Everyone was doing their job tonight and those are the things we preach. I know we can do more. I have complete confidence in this team to keep getting better. We're going to keep striving to do more." 

On growth of team during conference play.
"We've been in these situations a couple times this season. We have to continue to grow. Everyone is seeing the growth. We're going to continue to dry and do that. Hopefully we can build leads like that the rest of conference play. We're going to try and ride the momentum and keep playing hard."

On the play of post players.
"James [Lewis, Jr.] has an unbelievable high ceiling. He's definitely one of the most skilled and talented big guys I've ever been around. Josh [Phillips] gives us a whole different aspect of toughness, grind and grit down low. Things we need. That's why I think this team could be something special. I have a lot of faith because we have a lot of good pieces that are coming together."

Nat Dixon, Jr.-G/F
On relief of picking up first conference win.
"It feels good. It isn't necessarily a relief. We know that we could have been doing this all along. We know we're a young team but we don't want to make that an excuse. Ending up in another close game and coming out on the right side for the first time this season will really help some of our young guys moving forward. It's easy to go out there and play 40 minutes for these guys. It's an exicting team."

On nailing long three pointer at shot clock buzzer.
"I felt pretty comfortable. I just let it go and tried to shoot it like normal. Sometimes me and Makinde [London] work on shots that deep in practice. I wasn't too surprised it went in, I was just really happy it went in. I heard everyone on the bench say 'shoot it' so I just threw it up. I'm glad it went in."

On grind of the SoCon.
"It's really tough. The SoCon has a ton of good players and some really good teams. It's definitely hard. In these conference games, even if you have a cushion, it can go away just like that. You'll end up right back in the fight. I'm glad we pulled it out and I'm proud of these guys."