Chattanooga Basketball - Postgame Quotes
Appalachian State at Chattanooga
McKenzie Arena - Chattanooga, Tenn.
Jan. 30, 2010
Chattanooga Head Coach John Shulman
On controlling the boards:
"All we've been doing in practice is defending and rebounding. It's our identity now. We needed an identity. We defended OK and we rebounded better. It gives us more confidence because we can rebound and play defense. I was concerned at half and we hung on. We are a fatigued bunch. We've had a long five game in 10 day stretch. Nobody would have given us a prayer after losing four in a row when we've got the top two teams in the North coming in here. But we went back to work and we battled through adversity and now we're back in the hunt."
On holding on for the win:
"I'm a desperate guy. I probably perform better with my back against the wall. It's hard to do, but it's simple. Go to your beliefs. I know my beliefs in basketball and that's defense and rebounding and we're still not there. I'm going to show them little plays. We should have been up big. We lost the last 5:54 by eight and we were dead. But we made some winning plays and I'm proud of our kids."
On Jasper Williams making the three at the end:
"I told Jasper, stay with it and you're going to win us a game. So when Keegan fouled out, I whispered something in his here, go do it. He was the third option on that play. We executed it and he made it. If I need to go gambling one day I may take Jasper. He's got ice water. He just missed three free throws and he sits there and he doesn't care, he thinks the next one is going. It was a big time shot. But don't diminish the little plays, like Ridge getting that offensive rebound."
On Ridge McKeither:
"This is who I thought he'd be. Conforming is hard, but on a team you have to. It's like breaking a colt. But we've broken him and now he's with us and he's a pretty good player."
On today's free throw shooting:
"We're an OK free throw shooting team. We'll go to work on it but I will not make it a big deal. We just have to rebound and play defense better. I'll make that a big deal."
On Donald Sims missing the free throw late in the second half:
"When Sims missed that, he's one of the best free-throw shooters in the country if not the best. He's missed six for the year. Sims struggled shooting the ball tonight and scored 24. He's a great player and he drives us crazy. He's a Chattanooga killer. He's a wonderful player."
On the team's recent success:
"I hope so. This is not the end-all. We're going back to work Monday. I'm looking forward to going to Charleston. We need to prove ourselves."
On preparing for next week:
"We haven't done anything because we have Charleston coming up. We still have a lot to prove. We can get there. We aren't close to a finished product, which is fun. It was the first time, coming into the game, where I wasn't feeling sick to my stomach. I feel like we do have an identity. We're not close, but I feel like we're trying, which is great."
Senior Ty Patterson
On Jasper Williams' final play:
"Coach ran a play for me to get to the basket, but they cut it off. They played in for the one man to come out. They stopped me on the baseline, so I turned around, saw Jasper, and he made the shot."
On Jasper Williams:
"He brings a lot of energy and helps the team in a lot of ways. If he can keep helping the team the way that he does, he is going to help us win games."
On recent success
"We are making more of an effort in the last two games than we did on the road. We are starting to trust each other and have each other's back. We know that if they drive the baseline, somebody is going to be there to help. If we keep doing that, then we are going to have success."
On not having success earlier in the season:
"A lot of people were out on the court for themselves."
On coming together as a team:
"Yeah, we have a lot of new guys coming together. It is going to be a big issue. We lost a lot of people from last season, so trust was a big issue. But we hung in there, got it together, and we see that it (game plan) is successful when it works."
Junior Ridge McKeither
On carrying confidence over from Western Carolina game:
"The confidence coming in from the Western Carolina game, coach Shulman still motivating us the same way as he did against Western Carolina, We just stuck with our game plan and was successful with it."
On the team's commitment:
"We made a commitment to work hard every game. I don't know if you noticed, but we wore our black shoes, which are our work boots. So we are going to work every game. Everybody is buying into Coach Shulman's philosophy. We listen and do what he says, then we are going to have success."
On the change in the defense:
"I see a lot of change in the defense. A lot of guys are starting to buy in, and do what Coach says. We are also having a fun time doing it, so that gives us another plus."
On Donald Sims:
"He is one of the best players in the conference. We went out there to double team him and try to get the ball out of his hands. If not, then try to stop him from shooting. He still had a good game, and he is a great player."
Sophomore Ricky Taylor
On work boots:
"Coach Shulman wanted them to be called work boots, we worked in them two games in a row. I believe all the guys like the work boots. It sends out a message to the team that these black shoes say something."
On Coach Shulman's philosophy:
"His philosophy is pushing the ball, and putting your heart and soul into it. Shulman doesn't like anybody going out on the court lackadaisical. He wants everybody to play to the best of their potential. If somebody drives baseline, then the whole team will converge on the ball. Once we have all the guys active, it builds our confidence up because we do it everyday in practice. We listen to coach's philosophy then it gets everybody going and we will be successful."
On improvement the last couple of games:
"I have been watching a lot of game film, and looking at all of my mistakes that I had been doing wrong. Fortunately, I have been able to attack the hole more. My teammates have also been finding me more, too. One major thing I am trying to do more is to be consistent. At the beginning of the season I wasn't as consistent, and I felt like I was letting my team down because Coach Shulman expects a lot out of the two spot."
Appalachian State Head Coach Buzz Peterson
Opening Statement:
"This is a typical for us in that the last couple of games that we have had slow starts. Chatt came out with more fire in their eyes. You can tell that it meant more to them, than our guys. I take a lot of blame for that in not having our guys ready to go. You could just see intensity in the Chattanooga players. They were ready to play, hitting those threes early. We gave up way too many there. To me that is pretty much the ball game there. We got so far behind. This is the first time that we have been beaten this bad on the boards in the league all season. They did a nice job. We did see their last game and McKeither has been playing really well. He continued to do the same thing there. When you guys like [Ricky] Taylor and [Ty] Patterson hitting those shots, it makes for a tough matchup. Our guys scrapped and got back. They made the game reasonably. They had a chance to take the lead, but could not finish it. It has been typical for us missing assignments on defense and offensive ends to let the game slip away."
On describing Donald's game:
"To me I feel bad for him. I play him way to many minutes. People run two, three guys at him and you just have to think that those legs get tired. He is a great player, good shooter and a smart, heady ball player. We just needed somebody else to step up and hit shots for us and Booth was able to do it tonight. Brandon hit one there and Ryann made a couple. When you score 44 points against a team like Davidson, you are going to get the best defense from everybody. That 44 woke a lot of people up in this league. He is a marked man on our team and our guys have to step up."
On rebounds tonight:
"I told our guys that I have watched their last couple of games and they really hit the boards pretty hard. They are physical and they get there. I said that we have to be ready for it. We got hurt on the boards tonight. Western [Carolina] hurt us in the first half, but we made up for it in the second half. I am always looking at rebounding margin that is a key for us. You have to give Chattanooga a lot of credit. They have the free throw line boxed out every time, that hurt. They do a good job at pinching there. Those are the little things and we just can't get over the hump when we are not boxing out."
