Chattanooga Men's Basketball - Postgame Quotes
Dr Pepper Classic
McKenzie Arena - Chattanooga, Tenn.
Dec. 30, 2009
Chattanooga Head Coach John Shulman
Opening Statement:
"I don't know if anybody realized how good Eastern Kentucky is? Eastern Kentucky was tied with Maryland with about six to play. That is a good basketball team. If they are a good basketball team then we must be getting better. We are not a finished product. We battled, gave up fifty four points, we have given up three straight games where our opponents have scored in the fifties, so that is promising. I am excited. We talked during the pregame meal about finding our identity, what is our identity, who are we, who is this bunch, are we just young and inexperienced, what are we, who are we, how many guys do we have playing tonight, maybe we will be the scrapers. We scraped, we scraped it out, and all the credit goes to Keegan [Bell]. Keegan [Bell] bailed us out of many situations and I am happy for him. It is like he has the weight of the world lifted off his shoulders after that performance. I think it all started earlier. We had a great pregame meal. We talked about trying to have fun and win a championship. It is my fault that these guys have been playing under a lot of pressure and that is my fault, not theirs. I am really proud of them. Winning the Dr Pepper Classic, doing that for Gary Davis, you have got to do it for Gary. It is only my third time in six years. He was my supply of Coke; Diet Coke was going out if we did not get that done."
What about Watson?
"I think he can be that guy. Sam [Watson] is a solid guy. He doesn't get to up tight. He made a big play at the start of the second half. I think he can be that scrappy, tough, hard-nosed guy that can make some things happen, take some charges, box out, drive the other team absolutely crazy. That is who I want Sam [Watson] to be. But you have got to remember know, I don't know where it goes know. Ridge McKeither comes back, and Dontay Harvey is getting ready to come back. We are talented enough, for the last two games we have been very disciplined. I am proud of Sam [Watson], proud of our team. Our team was actually happy for each other. I thought Chris Early played poorly tonight and he was happy for our team, which is a good sign."
More on the team:
"Before the East Tennessee game we had no expectations. We were just a bunch of misfits trying to fit into some uniforms and play a game against East Tennessee State. We had eight scholarship guys; we lost five starters that were all pros, which does not happen often. We beat East Tennessee and our expectations go up. We beat Jackson State on the road, the more you win it does not get calmer, it gets more pressure. You talk about pressure, playing at eight o'clock, in you own tournament that is pressure. Paying bills is pressure, higher than that is playing at eight o'clock on the second night of the Dr.Pepper Classic. It is excepted of us and that is the problem. The pressure, cause it is excepted, and if I am going to have Gary Davis as a friend we are going to have to win it. So he is going to be my friend for the next year."
"I thought Ty [Patterson] played poorly last night, he didn't have great effort. I said Ty [Patterson] he is the lone wolf out there. He is the lone wolf with all these little children that do not have any idea what they are doing. He is either going to go one of two ways. He is either going to say God almighty why did I get stuck with these misfits and what am I doing out here, and I thought he did that last night. Or you can raise your game to another level and say come on guys come with me. I thought he did that tonight."
Eastern Kentucky Head Coach Jeff Neubauer
On the effectiveness of the zone defense:
"We do pay 1-3-1, 3-2 zone and man-to-man, so that is part of our package. We have played quite a bit of 3-2 zone this year and it did affect Chattanooga for a little bit. They are obviously very well coached and did have a good plan for it, so it only lasted for so long."
On the number of three-pointers taken (13-41):
"That is coach Shulman's philosophy, to really protect the paint and make you shoot it over them and that has been our strength. We really are a great shooting team and I think we are the best shooting team in the country right now. We just didn't look like it tonight. Even though we took 41, which is probably an EKU record, those are the shots that we want. We have great shooters, we just didn't shoot well tonight. You have to give Chattanooga credit for that because they do close out hard on the shooters."
Things UTC did well on defense:
"They really protect the paint. Every time you drive the ball, they do a great job of flooding it and stopping the dribble. They never let you get to the rim. They ar very well trained and very well coached in that, so they make you shoot jump shots all night. We are comfortable with that. We want to shoot jump shots, we just didn't shoot it well tonight."
Sophomore Keegan Bell
On shooting the ball:
"When I went home for Christmas break I really tried to break down my stroke and get it right and get it fixed. It just felt better tonight. I felt more confident and felt more-loose and it was just better."
"It was fun because it just felt like high school days again. Everyone give credit to me or whatever, but Sam (Watson) and Big D (DeAntre Jefferson) setting screens it give me open light to shoot it. I give all the credit to those guys, they got me open tonight."
On EKU's 3-2 zone:
"They do a great job of keeping it flat and we have never played against it. It was definitely different. I think it took us a few possessions to get used to it. They have such long guys on the perimeter it is hard to make those crisp passes. We had to jump just to get it over them, so I definitely think it bothered us. Onc we got in the groove and coach really put it down and figure out what we needed to do I felt like we did a much better job."
Senior Ty Patterson
Overall thoughts on the game:
"I think we guarded well. We rebounded well and got off to a good start. We came out a little sluggish in the second half but I think we got it back together. We buckled down and started guarding more. We all went to the glass. I think I made a huge effort to go to the glass tonight. I took some (rebounds) from my teammates, but coach kept getting on me about being a leader and then my team will follow. I had to go out there and do my job."
On closing out the game:
"Coach pulled us to the side and said we had to get stops in order to give us a chance to win. We came together and trusted each other and we guarded and helped each other out on dribble drive and started rebounding. That all gave us a great chance to win."
On the benefit of playing a team like EKU:
"Eastern Kentucky is a very well coached team. They would be great in our league. I think they gave us a good test tonight. We could be a contender in our league, which we will if we rebound like we did tonight."
