Postgame Quotes
Chattanooga at Wofford
Spartanburg, S.C. - Benjamin Johnson Arena
Jan. 20, 2011
Head Coach John Shulman
On the loss:
"The moons were right tonight for Wofford. It was really kind of the perfect storm to tell you the truth. Wofford's backs were against the wall. They had five days to prepare for us. We got one day to prepare for them and travel. This is our fourth game in eight days. This was a perfect storm coming off a Charleston hangover, everybody's fear. I try to keep us grounded, but they came out and had to have to game. They played like they had to have the game. We got punched in the face, were dazed and never recovered."
On pulling within 11 two minutes before half:
"We gave up a funky basket at the end. One official said it was a three, which was a shock, a surprise. We gave up that one. In my mind, it was a blur. There is no doubt that with 1:56 left we are down 11. There was stop in play or a timeout. I told myself that we are fine. This is what we do. This is who we are. There is a reason why they were picked to win the conference. There is a reason why they have three banners up there from last year's team and they only lost one player. They played a little bored [at times this season], but they did not play bored tonight. Their backs were against the wall and they had to have it. They came out and smacked us in the face. We never recovered, defensively. Here is the problem. We gave up 88 points to Charleston, but we won. We had to take Tuesday off because we had three games in five days. You have to take Tuesday off and everybody is slapping you on the back, but you just gave up 88 points. Everything was fine because you scored 91. We went back to work defensively yesterday, but we won the game, so what is the urgency defensively. We just beat Charleston. Now, the nice thing is that we gave up 88 and 88, but now we got our butts kicked. Now there is urgency and they understand. We are going to spend the first part tomorrow working on Chattanooga. It has been very difficult to work on Chattanooga because we have had absolutely no time. It is not an excuse, but it is reality. We have had no time to work on anything except our preparation. One day preparation for the Citadel. One day preparation for Samford. One day preparation for Charleston. Take a day off and one day preparation for Wofford plus travel. We also got in here last night after 11 p.m. because of traffic. Our preparation today was for Wofford. You have an hour for Wofford and they have four or five days. I want it to sting. I want it to sting hard and bad through practice tomorrow. Once we are done with practice tomorrow, it is over."
On the slow starts:
"That is kind of our mojo. We are really good at starting slow. Sometimes that is a confidence thing. I knew what was waiting on us tonight. After the Charleston game, it should not be about confidence because our kids had enough confidence. What I am baffled about? They don't understand that going inside...I don't know, but our first six or seven shots tonight were threes. It was the same thing at The Citadel, the same thing against Charleston until we got comfortable and threw the ball inside."
On the halftime speech:
"We had to fight, battle. I thought that we got out-toughed, out-hustled and out-everything in the first half. Fight, battle...little by little. We did not talk about...another thing is that I am not just with you win or tie. We are all in this thing on the good nights and we are all going to be in this thing together on the bad nights. Tonight was a bad night. There is no pointing fingers. We are going to stay together as a team and basketball is a crazy game."
Junior Keegan Bell
On the loss:
"It was a tough one to take. I am still frustrated about that. You have to give credit to Wofford. They are the champions last year for a reason. They are a tough team and came in here and took the game. They played well offensively and defensively, but we have to do better."
On the poor starts:
"Definitely, we had a slow start. Defensively, we were just horrendous letting them score every time down the floor. We could not get our offense going because we were taking it out of bounds every play. Tonight, we just did not hit shots. We are not going to hit shots every night. Fortunately, the past few games we have been hitting tough shots. The guys have been going nuts offensively and tonight we weren't. We couldn't hit shots or get going. When that happens, you have to guard. For us to give up 88 points tonight is just unacceptable. Charleston we gave up 88 and were on offensively. Tonight, it just was not our night and it was a tough place to play. They guarded us and we did not help ourselves very much at all. We have to be better defensively, so we have to go back to work."
On cutting the deficit to 11 with two before half:
"When we started the game like that it is just hard to battle back, but we have done it before. We believed ourselves and battled back. To finally catch a few breaks and them hitting that tough shot there at the end. That was a back breaker a little bit. We thought that we were going to come out with confidence and bring it. Obviously, we didn't. Our team has to grow up. We have to stop talking. Sometimes after the game or at halftime, we talk a good game. We want to do this or that, but action shows up on the floor. We have to continue to stay together, not be selfish, and pass the ball around a little bit more. Our offense wasn't flowing tonight. Instead of working to give each other shots, I felt like a lot of us became selfish and that is something that we can't do. We are a team that plays together."
Senior Troy Cage
On the loss:
"We lost a hard ball game, a hard fought game tonight. We just came out too relaxed tonight. They came out and punched us in the mouth early and just never recovered from there."
On the play of Wofford:
"They are defending champions and played like it. They lost one player from last year. Those guys came out rolling tonight and they are one of the best teams in the league. They played like it."
On getting off to a slow start:
"They punched us and kept punching. We did not defend at all tonight. We just could not get stops. We were pretty good in transition, but we were always taking the ball out, so we could not get a lot of points there. Those guys are very physical and we just did not respond to it."
On earning some additional playing time to get into the flow:
"I shot the ball well tonight, but I would rather score zero and win, then score 19 and lose. We just did not come out as a team tonight. We did not fight. One thing about basketball is that there is another game. We have a day of practice tomorrow to recover and get better defensively. We just have to put this one behind us."
