Chattanooga Basketball Postgame Quotes
Bryan College at Chattanooga
McKenzie Arena – Chattanooga, Tenn.
Friday – December 21, 2018

Lamont Paris, Head Coach
On sense of urgency in last game before holiday break.
"I thought in the second half we were better with that. In the first half, there were some times defensively I didn't think our sense of urgency wasn't where it needed to be. Going into break, sometimes that happens, and I hate to say that, but that's reality especially when you have a bunch of young guys. I thought it was much better in the second half. If we would have actually shot the ball like we're capable of, the second half would have looked even better than what it was. First half, not a great sense of urgency. We challenged the guys before the game and then challenged them again at halftime. They responded well.

On warning the team of urgency coming in.
"I warned them to just try and be mature to our process. Focus on what we needed to do and not who our opponent was. I just wanted to make sure we were being mature in what we were doing, and making sure our shot selection was still good, and that our sense of urgency was there right away. We kind of warned them that a slow sense of urgency can be the norm at this type of year. There was a little bit of that still happened, but overall I thought we di a good job."

On bouncing back after heartbreaking loss at UT Martin.
"I don't know if it affected these guys as much. I continue to be amazed how these guys bounce back from one thing to the next thing. They're on the back of the bus, and I was different when I would play and I would stew over things like that. Not that the guys don't care, but that's the four and a half hour bus ride back and by the time we got back, I felt like they we're ready to go again. We just tried to tell them, much like the Lee game, these guys are local and they're good. They're going to come to play. That's what happened. I think we're better than where we during the Lee game so we were able to correct some stuff earlier and get back to how we wanted to play."

On defensive efforts as a team.
"I think we did a good job. I think we had ten-straight possessions at the end of the first half where they didn't score. Even though I wasn't pleased on some things, we were able to at least do that at the end of the half and that was good. That's great for us. Our defense has been feast or feminine all season as far as just pure points on the board. We've had really good halves and we had halves where we'd like to forget. We've given up 40 and even 50 some points, that's unbelievable to me. It was good to see that we did a good job defensively against a team that can hit some shots and make some plays. It doesn't matter who you play, if you're defending, you're defending. You have to finish it off with rebounds and I think we did a decent job of that. I'm just happy overall.

Thomas Smallwood, Gr.-C
On utilizing post play in today's win.
"In today's game, that was something we had to take advantage especially moving forward. It's important even if we want to perform well from three. We have to be able to get the ball in the post first. It's something the coaches emphasize a lot so it's important moving forward."

On gaining Ramon Vila to the active roster.
"It's great to have him back and we need him in the post. It's a level of experience you gain from him playing internationally and playing at Arizona State for a year while getting good minutes. It's a level of experience we needed and it's done a lot of good for us. He has a lot of unselfishness to him and that's something we try to go for as a whole unit. The more unselfishness guys you can put in, the better it is for everyone."

On trying to share the ball more.
"I like the turnaround we've had the last couple games of sharing the ball. I think we've done a much better job of doing that. I think that's something we really need to focus on moving forward. I think everyone on the team has proven they can go off and have a good game. Moving from that, we just need to trust each other, share the ball, and let the basketball find whoever is hot that night and not force things."

On performing on the defensive end.
"We have a lot of talented guys offensively. It's always a challenge to get each other and the team to perform defensively. It's something we have to work on and it is something we do work on every day. It's stressed every day and it's very important for us moving forward. That's the difference between a good season and a mediocre season because we have showed that no matter what, we can perform on the offensive end. But if we don't defend, it's not going to do us any good."

Ramon Vila, R-So.-F
On inside game working today with 36 points in the paint.
"Today, the clear advantage for our team was to play in the post and we just took advantage of it. It's going to help us raise our confidence and be able to help the team in the future."

On getting adjusted to playing in official games.
"I'm feeling better after every game. After the first game, I was feeling rough, sloppy. That's normal after a year and two months without playing in an official game. I'm feeling better, more confident and I look forward to game days."

On goals for today's game after tough loss on Tuesday.
"We're coming off a really tough loss at UT Martin. We just wanted to play good defense and offense for most of the game. We took the game very seriously and that was the main goal. We wanted to get better and get our confidence back after that tough loss."