Chattanooga Basketball - Postgame Quotes
Tennessee Temple at Chattanooga
The McKenzie Arena - Chattanooga, Tenn.
Dec. 21, 2009
Head Coach John Shulman
Thoughts on the game:
"We give credit to Tennessee Temple. I thought they came out with energy and played well. Give credit to our second group who played well. They came out and did what we asked. We are still in this learning process, and some of these guys are going to have to learn by the seat of their pants. It is a great way to happen. The quickest way to your brain is through your tail. When you do what your suppose to do, and Sam Watson does what he is suppose to do and gets uncontested layups, and doesn't make it real hard on himself. I am glad to get a win, and be six and six at Christmas. It looked like some us had already left for Christmas around 6:45 tonight. I told them at halftime, that the last time I checked the Temple players also wanted to be home for Christmas. We are going to get a four day break."
On what you get out of a game like this:
"I think in the long run we are going to get a lot out of this. We you didn't do what you were suppose to do, then you sat, and we still had success. We had success doing things that we wanted to do. If they want to jeopardize their career and not do what we do, that is their fault."
"I am not words or cheap, actions speak louder than words. We will see at practice Saturday night at eight o'clock. Sam Watson put his arm around on the way down to the media room he said, "Take these few days and don't stress about basketball, please." This is an 18 year old kid telling a 43 year old kid, "Please don't stress about basketball coach. You have three great kids, a great wife. Enjoy the next few days. If you do stress about basketball, do it the last two hours at night when your family is asleep."
On getting solid play without the starters playing well:
"If you lose games with them playing how you don't want them playing...what's the difference than losing the game with the guys on the court who do what they are supposed to do. There is no difference, except that I can sleep at night.
Junior DeAntre Jefferson
On what you get out of a game like this:
"We are just trying to get some confidence and go home smiling. Tennessee Temple is a very good team, but I believe we need to just go home with some confidence."
On the pace of the game:
"It was kind of sloppy. We didn't start off too well and we made some mistakes here and there, but we cleaned it up in the second half."
On the play down low:
"I thought we should have had a big margin on the glass. They were smaller than us, and we were more physical. We also beat them out height-wise."
On learning the new system so far:
"I love that it sets you up in the right places to score. Now it is just learning the plays, playing at the right speed and being aggressive within the offense. As the season progresses more and more, people are going to start to click into it and learn how to play their game within the system."
Sophomore Ricky Taylor
On the importance of the upcoming break:
"It is very important. I could see it on my teammates faces. We are just ready to go home. I just hope we can continue to work on our game and come back and be ready to roll."
Have we seen the true Mocs team yet:
"I don't think so. We always have something going on, somebody's sick or somebody's hurt. When we get everybody together we are going to be a loaded basketball team. We are not even close to where we need to be. We are taking steps forward, but we have a lot of room for improvements. We just need to focus and listen to coach and we can be successful."
