Postgame Quotes
Furman vs. Chattanooga
Chattanooga, Tenn. - The McKenzie Arena
Feb. 21, 2011
Head Coach John Shulman
Opening Statement:
"After the Georgia Tech game, we went back to work defensively in the way I wanted them to play defensively. I am sick of tired of being on our heels defensively and reacting to the other team. Getting those guys to buy in to playing defense in a short amount of time was not easy. Now, we are not where we need to be, but it was much better. That team in black was a different team defensively. They only had 26 points in the first half, which is pretty good. Tonight, we did not react to Furman. We made them react. However, it is time to get ready for Wofford and I think we are on the right track with this win tonight. We could not have won any more games playing defense the way we were playing. We would not have won any games in the tournament either. I have no doubt in my mind that if we continued to play poor defense, we would be cooked. Hopefully, the guys saw what team defense can do and feed off of that.
Are you going to wear Black Wednesday:
"I don't know maybe I will call [Wofford Head Coach] Mike Young. The fans were fantastic. I rarely ask a whole lot to be honest. The problem is when you ask the fans to be a part of something like this, you can lay a huge egg. I am glad we did not though. Hopefully, the fans liked what they saw. We were down 35 vs. Furman the first time and 42 vs Wofford so we need to have the same 5,107 fans come Wednesday. The support will be needed Wednesday again."
On the change in Chris Early:
"I texted Chris Early today and said we need you defensively. 'I told him we need Chris Early back. The defensive Chris Early.' He told me that he would try and get some rebounds. I said, no, I do not care about offense. I said, I need your defense. We have been horrible defensively. So horrible it made me sick. We were horrible when we were winning games defensively as well. We have been just flat out poor. Today, I put up on the board, 'if it aint broke dont fix it.' Well, our defense was BROKE. I dont care if there is two weeks in season, we needed to change our philosophy defensively. If we lose, we will go down fighting defensively. We have been very passive defensively. It made me sick. However, tonight we were the aggressor, and that was big."
On the win and confidence it will bring:
"Hopefully, it does give them confidence. The big question was: 'Can we play with Furman and Wofford?' There would be no reason to even show up in the tournament if we could not play with Furman tonight. Well, we showed we can play with them, and beat them, too. Furman has won 20 games. They beat South Carolina badly. Furman is a good basketball team. I am proud of our kids for fighting. We havent had a lead like that late in a while so I dont know if we knew how to play the clock out like that. I think our largest lead has been five late in the game in recent memory. We have to enjoy the win, but progressively get better in defense. This was the first time we guarded anyone in a long time....Austin Peay might have been the last time. I know, because I just watched the tape.
"We won that game because we guarded. We won tonight because we guarded.
On holding Miller and Saaka to 4 of 23 shooting:
"Well, Saaka missed shots and Miller missed shots. We did the right things defensively and when you do that you
get rewearded. If you dont do the right things defensively, you do not get rewarded. As far as Saaka and Miller - it is not like we had six guys out there. They missed some shots. We did not guard everyhing. The other night we missed a lot of shots versus Georgia Tech, and fell short with the outcome. However, we probably dont change our defensive philosophy if we beat Georgia Tech. We did not win down in Atlanta be because it was not meant to be."
On the team learning how to close a game:
"Our biggest lead has been five points like I said in late game situations. We made enough free throws and got enough stops to close. Again, we have a team coming in Wednesday night in Wofford that beat us badly, and they
wanted to remind us about it afterwards."
Junior Chris Early
On the black uniforms:
"We had the impression that we were going to have the black uniforms, but then they talked about how the uniforms weren't ready. When we came in today, we saw that we had blue uniforms. Then right before the game, we got the black uniforms and everybody got really excited."
On Shulman's challenge:
"I kind of took it as a challenge. I wanted to prove him wrong and play the best I could on defense. By being tense on defense, it helped me be more aggressive on offense."
On defensive play:
"I think that was one of our best defensive games on the year. I thought we were all on the same page, and we can get better doing that."
On second half run:
"I felt that Keegan was feeling it, and just let him go and they were falling. On defense, that helped us on the run.
On Wofford:
"They were very aggressive, and we just stepped back and took it. We can't do that. We have to be the aggressors in the game and be the team that is more confident."
Junior Keegan Bell
On black uniforms:
"They did a good job of faking us out with the blue uniforms. It really worked, and I can't say enough about the crowd being huge for us. When we came out with the black uniforms, that got the crowd excited and gave me goose bumps.
On the two three pointers in the second half:
"Just trying to give our team energy. When we are energized, we are a great team, but on the road we stagnate and don't follow our defensive principals. My job tonight was just to try to get the team energized, but I didn't have to do a lot of that tonight as everybody did a great job.
On Chris Early's play:
"Chris Early was outstanding on the offensive end. On the defensive end he did an incredible job. I am really proud of him."Furman
Head Coach Jeff Jackson
On affect of road trip:
"Tonight, it was our second game in thee days on the road trip. Up at our place, they were playing a fifth game in ten days. It is not just playing against the crowd, but also other factors. I am proud that our team has been as successful as they had been on the road. It is a very challenging thing to do."
On team's play:
"I think we are a like a lot of teams, that if things are not going our way you can press a little bit to much, and we did that tonight."
On Chattanooga's defense:
I thought their defense was good. Even though we only turned it over 10 times we didn't shoot the ball as well as we usually do. There kids played with a lot of energy and purpose."
