Chattanooga Basketball Postgame Quotes
Chattanooga at East Tennessee State
Freedom Hall – Johnson City, Tenn.
Saturday – Jan. 10, 2015

Head Coach Will Wade
Opening thoughts on the game:
“I really wanted this for our guys.  Rico's played 85 minutes in three days, being a rivalry game, renewing the rivalry up here.  Just a great, great win and I wanted it really bad for our guys.  They prepared unbelievably well.  They were locked in with the scout, they were locked in on what we were doing. Once you get in a close game like that you want to find a way to get it done.  I was just thrilled that we were able to find a way. 

“We made some critical plays down the stretch.  Obviously Casey's shot was huge, but we don't get the shot if we don't fly in there and get the offensive rebound. That was even bigger.  Everybody who played today really, really contributed. 

“Chuck and Duke played as much as they have played against a Division I team.  Duke had eight (points) and four (rebounds) and did a nice job at the foul line.  Chuck made an unbelievable defensive time in overtime, squaring up Devin Harris when we were able to force a miss.  Tuoyo got us going.  Marty was what we needed him to be.  Rico carried us in the first half.  Eric, what can you say.  Every time the thing leaves his hand you think it is going in.  Casey in the last huddle said get me the ball, I want the ball.  Tre' McLean did a nice job defensively on some of their guys.  He provided some length, which really, really helped us.  It was a total team effort and everybody contributed. 

“I am really, really proud of our guys.  That was a win based on our culture.  How we do things in the summer.  How tough things are.  They took the lead a couple of times on threes and we responded right back.  We stared them right down and said, 'We are not going anywhere.  We are going to be here all night and we are going to keep coming.'  I am just really, really proud of our players and everybody who contributed to this. 

“We need a couple of days to rest up and we will get back after it next Thursday.”

On Casey Jones' game-winning shot:
“It was a ball-screen play that we had run a bunch of times and gotten the corner three.  Eric had hit two corner threes off of it and Marty had hit a corner three off of it.  We'd gotten it a bunch of times, they were playing the back-side action of it.  They were rotating through on the back-side action.  So the action was to go forward and we had Marty … I thought he was going to throw it ahead to Marty.  We had Marty forward for a three … I trust him.  Marty had a great characteristic to him and I don't say this in a mean way.  He just doesn't care.  That's one of the best things about him.  He doesn't let a bad play bother him.  Nothing really matters to him.  He just moves on.  I felt really confident.  I thought they would give some attention to Casey like they had been doing on the drives.  We kicked it out to Rico a couple of times.  We inverted the play and we had Marty over there and I thought we were going to kick it to him.  They bottled it up, forced us back and Casey just rose up and hit a big shot.”    

On getting the win without Casey Jones or Justin Tuoyo in double-figures:
“We out shot them, we got 63 shots.  We were close on the boards and we made more threes than them.  That was huge.  We made 14 threes and I think that was our high on the season.  The bigger part was holding them to 8-20.  Even on the 8-20 a couple of their kids – Petey McClain I think had made just one or two going into the game – even the guys who were making the, Bradford and McClain, they counted for four of their eight.  Those are not their guys.  Wilson only got off two attempts.  Renford got off five attempts.  We made Riley work.  He was 1-7.  I think our length bothered him a little bit.  We made those guys work.  We out shot them by six from the 3-point line and that really helped us.”

On Tuoyo's block late in the game:
“We were switching.  We were thinking they were going to shoot pull-ups.  They are a jump-shooting team.  We felt confident switching with Justin and making them shoot a tough two over his length.  I thought that was a good block by just and we dug out the rebound which was nice.”

On the toughness displayed in tonight's win:
“It is a lot tougher to not go away on the road.  That is a big-time credit to our guys and the way we do things.  We did get the last shot, but there were a lot of little plays that we made during the game that led to that last shot for us.  I am just proud of the guys for making those plays and finding a way.”

On the FT shooting:
“That certainly helps.  I thought Tuoyo's four to start the overtime really got us kick-started and got us going.  Two of those were front-ends of one-and-ones.  I thought the first half, Duke and Marty missed the front ends of a one-and-one when we had a five point lead and a two point lead.  I thought those would have allowed us to have a little bit more separation going into halftime if we would have hit those one-and-ones, which we didn't do.”

Senior Casey Jones
On the intense rivalry:
“This is what you like when you go on the road.  Vicious crowd, but knowing that it is all fun and games.  I saw the student section laughing, joking and talking about us.  It is all fun and games. 

“Rivalries are fueled on hate, but even though they are fueled on hate, we went into the game talking about playing for our brothers and loving each other.  This was Rico and Marty's last game here … Greg and Lance couldn't play.  Even though the rivalry is fueled on hate, we went into the game focusing on the love we have for each other.”

Thoughts on the final play:
“I looked ahead and saw Marty.  Obviously, that would have been a better option than me shooting the three.  I saw E-Rob and Rico on the other side and that was a better option than me shooting the three.  They played it pretty well at the end, but they didn't account for a non-shooter shooting a three at the end.  I guess we played hard and Coach always says 'Chance favors the aggressor.'  We had a better chance of that ball going in because we played so hard. 

“Coach Casey made a joke after the game.  He said I used to laugh at him when he made me shoot those shots during the summer.  I put up shots every day.  I still shoot threes every day, even though I don't shoot them in the game.  You never know when it is going to come in handy.  I shot those shots all summer and it was open for me today.  I knocked it down and I know my coaches had faith in my work ethic.”