2011-12 Chattanooga Mocs Basketball
UTC vs. Savannah State - Hoosier Classic Chattanooga Bracket
November 10, 2011
Head Coach John Shulman
On the last minutes of the game:
"It's nice to gut out a win that maybe you shouldn't have won and figure out the way to win. To figure all that stuff out...to get stops at the end of the game and have to make free throws and that stuff helps in the long run."
On Keegan's (Bell) performance:
"Keegan's a really good shooter. He got good looks early and they just didn't go in and his bad looks later went in. He's a really good shooter and I have a lot of confidence in him shooting the ball. Same thing with Omar (Wattad). Keegan bailed us out tonight."
On Chris Early's performance:
"It's no secret we need Chris Early to be successful. We need Ricky Taylor to be successful. But Chris was in his comfort zone tonight."
Other thoughts:
"If you would have told me we'd win this game with Omar scoring six points and Ricky just two points, I'd have called you a liar. So there's a lot of positives to this. We just need to get everyone on the right page."
"I told everybody before the game that Savannah State could be in the mix in our conference...that was like a league game out there. I thought we learned something about ourselves tonight defensively. But trust me, we have a long way to go. You're going to see at the end of the year that this is a really good win."
Senior Chris Early
On the tough start to the season and the scoring output tonight:
"The first couple of games, coach has been trying to get me to work out in the post and just be a threat down on the block. I was having difficulties scoring the ball. The last few days of practice he has been taking me aside and telling me to just play my game...pick and pop, screen and roll and stuff like that. I am a little more comfortable doing that."
On the early season struggles:
I kind of felt like I was letting my teammates down and not doing all I could. I have been injured the last three games and I have been trying to battle with that. I needed to wake up and do the best I could to give them some support.
Thoughts on the game:
"It was a tough game. We just had to keep battling and battling. They were going to make their shots and we were going to make ours. We just had to keep answering."
On playing well with Drazen Zlovaric:
"In practice, I know where he is going to be. When I am driving I know he is going to be right there in front of the basket. We practice it every day - when someone drives the bigs go to the front of the basket and that is where he is going to be every time. I drove, he was there and he finished the play."
Senior Keegan Bell
On hitting a three at the end of halftime:
I was happy it went in, but going into the locker room was not a pleasant feeling. We were fortunate to only be down 10. I felt like we should have been down 20 or more. We played really poor in the first half. But that is how basketball is. It is a game full of runs and we came back and played great in the second half. We didn't start off very pretty, but we just kept chipping at it and fight back. We we are down we are usually down and out, so to have that fight was good.
On gutting out a win:
"I think that we are a good basketball team, we are a talented basketball and we are together. When things don't go right and you don't have shots go in and you don't get rebounds you just have to find a way to win. When you care about people and you are together as a team you can find ways to win. We did some good things. We definitely have some things to work on, but I am proud of us for fighting back."
