Head Coach Will Wade's comments from tonight's postgame press conference are available in the video above. For the press Q&A session with sophomores Greg Pryor and Justin Tuoyo see the video below.
Transcripts:
HEAD COACH WILL WADE
On the quick start:
“I thought Rico really got us off to a good start. He drained those shots and got us off to a good start. We were attacking the basket and really getting some good looks. Anytime you score 46 in a half against a division I team is pretty good.”
On the physical play:
“Our guys did a nice job attacking and being physical. We were pretty physical all night…I'll take that. I think the Middle (Tennessee) really helped prepare us.”
On Justin Tuoyo:
“He was great. One of things we talked about with him was offensive rebounding. He had seven of them, 12 total. I would assume there were another three or four that he kept alive. He was tremendous.”
On the team effort:
“I though Greg Pryor was just a warrior. He was awesome. We got some contributions from some other guys too. Marty (Bareika) was good offensively. Tre' McLean hurt his shoulder early on. He came back in and gave us two big stops. I thought everyone we brought in gave us good minutes.”
SOPHOMORE GUARD GREG PRYOR
On the effort tonight:
“For some reason we've been an outstanding first half team. We come out with a lot of enthusiasm. We need to learn to bring it in the second half as hard as we do in the first half.”
On holding off their run in the second half:
“When they made that run, I got my team together and told them we are going to take it possession-by-possession. No stupid mistakes, just take it possession-by-possession and get good baskets and stops on defense.”
SOPHOMORE FORWARD JUSTIN TUOYO
On the Blazers second half run to close to within nine:
“Basketball is a game of runs. They started to get stops and transition points. Like (Greg) said, he got us together after the second 'and-one' and told us to slow down, and we just stuck together after that.”
Good way to start the 5-game home stand:
“You take it one game at a time. It's good to get this first one.”
Overall team effort::
“Everybody on the team contributed. From Chuck (Ester) on defense to Alex (Bran) off the bench…Tre' (McLean) got hurt, but he came back and contributes. Everybody did their part tonight.”
