Quotes to come. Chattanooga Basketball Postgame Quotes
Furman at Chattanooga
McKenzie Arena – Chattanooga, Tenn.
Saturday – March 2, 2019

Head Coach Lamont Paris
Thoughts on adjustments to make heading into the SoCon Tournament:
"Probably, the most important adjustments would be those that involve non-basketball things.  Confidence.  Attitudinal, as far as fighting back from adversity.  Not letting one play dictate how you are going to be the rest of the day.  Or a couple of early fouls or whatever it is, dictate what you do.  I think those are some of the biggest adjustments that we need to make. 

"Play aggressive.  We have to play aggressive.  We have to get out in transition a little bit more.  Get out on the break and get things goings, but not be wild.  Not be wild shooting the ball.  That has never bode well for us.  Just get back to doing, from an offensive standpoint, what we are capable of doing."

On the short bench today:
"We had some injuries.  Even Maurice was injured.  I wasn't sure what he would be able to do.  We had some guys that were nicked up and injured.

Do you expect them back?
"Hopefully, we will see.  Keigan is something that he did before and he was out for a relatively significant amount of time with that one.  It is also the type of thing that may respond in a couple of days.  I am not sure."

On the attitude in the second half:
"Depending on when in the second half.  Any time the second half starts, you have new life.  Once we got down, then there wasn't real, true confidence on some guys' faces that we could come back.  I am not talking about when it was 20, I am talking about when it was 14.  We haven't had a lot of games where we got down 14-15 and did comeback.  We have done it a couple of times this year, in the second half even.  But we haven't had that many where we have done that.

"They need to search for whatever it is that allows them to be confident that they can do that.  That might stem from the number of second halves we have given up more than 40 points.  They don't believe that they can actually get enough stops to do that.  I don't know.  I am not in their heads at that point.

"There were some good stretches.  I thought Jonathan was very energetic a couple of times.  Once the lead had grown, he made a couple of real effort plays.  I thought Dave did some stuff offensively where he was attacking.  That sends a message as to what your mindset is."

On the play of Thomas Smallwood in his one year at UTC:
"We were really excited about the fact that Thomas decided to come here for his last year.  He has meant a lot to the team.  He has been a great role model in a lot of ways.  One is just from a pure time management standpoint and a commitment to pursue academic excellence. 

"His attitude.  We started off the year not sure what Justin was going to be able to do with his back and Ramon wasn't available until the semester break.  Thomas was starting and playing a lot of minutes, then he has had some time where he didn't play much at all.  A lot of it was matchups and the personnel we had.  But his response to that was a good thing for the guys to be able to see. Sometimes it is not all about you and you have to take a pill that you don't want to swallow.  That is a bitter pill, but just deal with it.  He has done that and been ready.  When his number is called he has performed really well. 

"We are very thankful that Thomas came here.  He is a great young man.  He has a really bright future in whatever he decides to do.  We are very fortunate to have him be around us."

On the play of Kevin Easley:
"I don't know that I saw any signs of the ankle, specifically, being limiting to him.  I think, from a cardiovascular standpoint, 27 was probably too much for him.  We had some fouls and matchups that I didn't feel comfortable going to.  We tried to play small, which was not ideal for us against Furman.  His ability to change direction, move laterally, it looked like it was pretty good.  It didn't look like it was limiting him that much."

On Ramon Vila's foul trouble:
"It hurt a ton.  There were a couple of times, specifically in the early part of the game, I wanted to go back to him, and it was hard to do that.  I am not always steadfast that if you have two fouls you are out the rest of the half.  I go by situation, by matchup and by the person.  With all those things taken into consideration, with Raferty as aggressive as he is in the post, it was hard to put him back in the game. 

"I thought it was significant.  It completely got him out of the game.  He never rallied the way that he needed to be a positive force in the game.  I thought his two fouls were significant."

On what it will take to make a run in the SoCon Tournament:
"One, you have to play well overall.  That seems like that is stating the obvious.  Again, we go 6-22 from the three-point line.  You have to play better.  Justin Brown gets the ball in a couple of rolls right around the basket and we don't get anything out of it.  Ramon gets a layup at the end and we get nothing out of it.  This is the second game in a row also I thought we didn't play well.

"Forget relative to who you are going against and the challenges that a team presents based on what their coverages are and how physical this guy is.  Forget those battles, but just actually once we get to a shot, what do you do with it.  Turning the ball over, what are you doing with that.  Playing better."

Jonathan Scott – 1 – Jr. – G
Overall thoughts on the team heading into the SoCon Tournament next weekend:
"I just think that our team needs to learn how to fight better and be more competitive when we are down.  Especially when we get down, we stop competing as we should.  That is where we need to really improve in my opinion."

How do you combat that in the huddle and get people back to competing:
"Just being positive with everyone.  Pointing out the positives in everything and having constructive criticism with everyone."

David Jean-Baptiste – 3 – So. – G
How much did the short-handed bench hurt today?
"It definitely hurt, coming from just having energy standpoint.  I hurt us trying to get more fresh players in there."

Will the short bench hurt next week at the SoCon Tournament?
"It will have some type of affect.  We just have to prepare ourselves, hydrate and take care of our bodies."

What are your overall thoughts on the game today:
"We fought hard in the first half.  In the second half, the energy level just wore down on us.  We have to prepare ourselves for next week in Asheville and play like it is our last game.  If we lose it will be our last one.  We just have to put this one behind us and get ready for next week."

On what it will take to make a run in the SoCon Tournament:
"It will take all of us to come together.  We have to have it within ourselves to say, this is it.  Our back is against the wall.  We have to look ourselves in the mirror."