Chattanooga Basketball - Postgame Quotes
Western Carolina at Chattanooga
McKenzie Arena - Chattanooga, Tenn.
Jan. 28, 2010      

Chattanooga Head Coach John Shulman
Opening Statement:
"It's important to have the lead at the end of the game. It's been a long couple of days, a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of stress. You find out who your friends are when you struggle. Our kids battled, we were very good in the first half, but we battled and battled. We had a good halftime talk and we came out with some belief in ourselves. For the first half this year, I thought we played pretty good defensively. I thought we were pretty tough. We did a nice job on the glass, for the most part, and we did a nice job defensively. Keegan [Bell] looked a little bit better and he looked a little fresher. He had a little spring in his step the second half, made some shots and got to the foul line. You lose four in a row and got probably the best team in the league coming in and it's not a great formula. I am proud of our kids. I am proud of our kids for battling through a lot of adversity."

On what it took to win:
"We did a better job driving it, a better job of throwing it inside and a better job defensively. We were tougher. It's not a secret. You make a couple of shots and you get some belief. Jeremy [Saffore] had a big first shot, scored it and we got some belief. I tried to tell them before the game that in 20 years they aren't going to remember we beat Western Carolina tonight, but in 20 years they will remember the adversity that we came through and figured out a way to have some success. That's what fans don't understand. You are in that locker room, you haven't won in a week and everybody is against you. Finding a way to be successful and battling adversity. If this was going to be the biggest challenge of their life, they are going to have an unbelievable life."

On road weariness affecting the team:
"I knew that wasn't road weariness; that was no confidence. If you go through what we've been through in leading by 16 at Greensboro, up 14 at Elon and having a chance at Wofford, but being so fatigued that we had no confidence. If the half time talk is about let's-do-this, let's-do-that, let's-do-this and let's-do -that, it doesn't matter if you don't believe in yourself. The half time talk was about belief. I am a 43 year-old man. I have knocked away everybody from the outside. You have to have tunnel vision and believe in what you believe in. When things get bad you have to believe in yourself, and sometimes it's hard. So I am proud of our kids and their second-half battle."

On Ridge McKeither:
"He's getting better, but he still cost us a little late defensively. They were just silly, stupid plays, but he gives us an inside presence. We have to have that. I thought Dante Harvey had good minutes. We are still such a work in progress and have nine games left in the regular season. I talked to them in our meeting last night at 9:30 p.m. and I looked at Ricky Taylor and asked him if he could guard like Steph [McDowell]. He said yes, so I asked him when he was going to start. The season is almost over. If you're not having the type of season you can have, you better change it up pretty quick. Hopefully, Ridge has panicked a little bit. If he doesn't buy into me he won't play. I have ruined many good careers, if they don't buy in then they sit. It's all about buying in to be part of a team. It is a team sport."

Sophomore Keegan Bell
On the team's scrapiness:
"We just fought. First half wasn't pretty. We didn't play very well. We were still in that funk we had been in while we were on the road. Bench guys really stepped up. [Dontay Hampton] really came in defensively. It was a fun game and big game."

On the key to second half:
"Ridge McKeither. That's why he's here. We see that in him everyday. He's a great player. We were really struggling to shoot the ball and that was our plan, to get it inside. Ridge was the man and he really got us going."

On the team defense:
"We really picked it up. We got after them and frustrated them. I really felt for the first time that we were really out there together. It was fun. We were all for each other on the defensive end. Offensively, we're always wanting each other to do well, but defensively we really bought in. We were just going after it. If we did mess up, we messed up going as hard as we can. When we focus on defense and get after people it helps our offense. We just made the game nasty tonight."

On the difficulty of the road trip:
"It was a tough road streak. We're not down, but to come against a tough team, I think it was huge for us. It just gives us confidence. We just can't enjoy this too much. We have to be ready for Appalachian State. We're going after rings so we have to buckle down."

Senior Ty Patterson
On buying in as a team:
"Guys are starting to trust each other and play together. We came together as a team and got the win."

On Ridge McKeither's play:
"We need him to win. We can't hit shots outside so we have to throw it inside. He helped us a lot."

Junior Ridge McKeither
On the key to your success tonight:
"Buying in. Putting myself aside and putting the team first. That was all Keegan Bell. He's the captain on the floor. He told me he wanted me to move and drive. He knows that I'll finish. I just wasn't thinking as much. I give great respect to Coach Shulman for making me buy in. We had success and it was a lot of fun on the court. He told me to buy in or sit down. I didn't want to sit down." 

Western Carolina Head Coach Larry Hunter
On the difference in the second half:
"I thought that Chattanooga had a lot more energy and really gained some confidence. I thought they broke us down with some dribble penetration. Bell was really good with that. He got some other people the ball and they got good looks. When they missed, they ended up getting several key offensive rebounds. They made a bunch of threes and did some really good things offensively the second half. At the other end, they were able to shut us down."

On Chattanooga playing up to the first place team in the North Division:
"I think their backs were against the wall and you respond when that happens. From my perspective, that was one of our worst performances in the second half. We did not hang on to the ball. We bobbled it and did not catch it. If you are looking at it from our perspective, we did not help ourselves. I could not find a combination out there that would give us a spark or extend the tie. We could not steal the momentum back. It just kept growing and growing as it often does. It was a great effort by Chattanooga, they earned the ballgame in the second half. They out worked, out hustled and out competed us in the second half."