Chattanooga Basketball - Postgame Notes
Chattanooga at UNC Greensboro
Greensboro Coliseum - Greensboro, N.C.
Saturday - Jan. 8, 2011
Head Coach John Shulman
On the 70-65 victory:
"What a great start that we got off to down 8-0. We made it pretty easy on ourselves after that because we defended. We had a great stretch defensively. I thought that we did a nice job of building a wall and rebounding. We did a nice job defensively. We got up one point up, 26-12. That is a 26-4 run. In league play, that is a pretty good run. I felt okay at half. Let's see if we can throw a punch to start the second half. We did offensively. I thought we came out and threw a punch offensively. I thought that we never got in our comfort zone defensively in the second half. We got in foul trouble. This shows me that we need to get back. There are going to be times that we have to get back and double the post. We got dominated in the post...not him scoring the ball, but dominated in fouling in the post. When you don't double, it becomes a one-on-one in the post and it is really hard to stay out of foul trouble. What that did was it took our inside presence away because we never had an inside guy to go to. Big D [DeAntre Jefferson] did not score. He did not even attempt a shot. How you win with nothing at the five is pretty amazing. What we did out there was battled and battled and battled and found a way to win."
On UNCG getting into the bonus with 13:17 to play:
"I was dying to play zone at that moment, but you have [Kyle] Van Dussen out there. Every time I look up he is out there and he makes me uncomfortable playing zone. He made me uncomfortable. I wanted to play zone, dying to play zone, but did not have the guts at that point to play it. We played some zone late in maybe a possession or two, but we have long ways to go defensively. I thought that we took a step forward today from Monday night at Austin Peay. There is not a greater time to learn after a W, so let's go back to work. We know what we have to do and I think our kids believe in it. I think that we are now 8-0, when we keep people to less than 69 points. Once again, we had good field goal percentage defense and won by 14 on the glass. We just have to continually get better. I don't think that we had two road wins last year in the conference. We will take those two and keep on working."
On winning the rebound battle by 14:
"I thought Keegan [Bell] did a nice job in the first half. I thought Ricky Taylor had a couple of big defensive rebounds in the second half, late in the second half. When all of the sudden you look and it was Sam [Watson] and Chris [Early] out there. I was looking for anybody to defend. I got crazy and put Jahmal [Burroughs] in at the five to put somebody smaller on him with better feet to see if he can keep him in front. Jahmal played a total of 14 seconds and fouled out. We had three bigs foul out and Chris had four, so he was lucky to stay in the game. I will give our guys this. We battled and battled and Chris have not done a thing all game. We went to him on that last play and he makes a big shot for us. We got enough stops at the end."
On the game coming down to the wire:
"You knew when they did not fold or die, when we went up 15, then they got into the bonus early in the second half. We did not have any bigs to go to. Our best inside presence was Omar and he was throwing stuff up behind his head. We were up eight with the ball going into full-court and they get a steal on that inbounds play. We had a chances to knock them out at that time, but give them credit for battling, which we knew. I am just thrilled to be getting out of here with a W. I told you before the game and knew it was going to be a tight one. If we can get out of here winning by a half of a point, then I would have been happy. That is what we did."
Junior Jahmal Burroughs
On playing a tough game against a winless UNCG team:
"Every road game in conference is going to be a tough game and nothing is going to be easy. We found that out tonight. We just have to play through the foul situation. Three of our big players fouled out and people have to step up. We have to pull the games out that we are supposed to win in conference."
On three players fouling out:
"That is a little bit rare, but there is not much you can do about it. You can't blame it on anyone. We pulled it out at the end."
On playing his game:
"I have a lot of confidence on the defensive end...box out, get rebounds when needed...that is what I am here to do...whatever the teams needs to win."
On being 4-0 in the league:
"It is definitely where we want to be, but we have to keep working and keep getting better every day. We want to keep this streak going as long as possible."
On getting more comfortable as the season goes on.
"Of course, it takes some time to get used to a new place and a new style of play. I feel that I have done that and I am able to help the team now."
On winning the rebound battle by +14:
"We have had defensive practices all this week, so I knew we were going to come out good on the defensive end."
Junior Ricky Taylor
On being under the weather for the game:
"I had food poisoning yesterday and I was throwing up last night. I have to put that on the side and when I step on the court I have to risk everything and sacrifice my body because we want to go far in this league. I just have to everything I can to help this team win."
On attacking the basket more tonight:
"I just felt like I was a stand-still shooter, but in order to be an effective scorer, I had to add something to my game. First of all, I had to get into the weight room in order to feel confident enough to the hole. I feel like it is opening up my game and allowing me to get more aggressive and helping this team."
On getting behind 8-0 early in the game:
"Coach (Shulman) told us to just keep playing defense. Finally, we went on a big run and we just need to believe in everything Coach Shulman says. He gave us a great game-plan tonight. I thank him for that."
Junior Omar Wattad
On the close game:
"Today we had to grind it out in a tough environment. I was happy with how we did it with three players fouling out. We came together and held on to the lead and got the W, 4-0."
On the play of Ricky Taylor and Keegan Bell:
"Ricky was great. He was actually throwing up about three hours before the game. He was pretty sick. He gutted it out, rebounded well and attacked the basket. He made really big plays, penetrating. Keegan was our offense early. We were struggling and he has knocking down everything. It was a great team effort. I am happy."
On getting down early:
"It didn't bother me. Jahmal played 14 minutes and grabbed eight rebounds, guys stepped up. It was a great team effort and now we are 4-0. That's how we have to keep going and keep winning."
