Chattanooga Basketball Postgame Quotes
Wofford at Chattanooga
McKenzie Arena – Chattanooga, Tenn.
Wednesday – Jan. 22, 2020

Lamont Paris, Head Coach
On the consistent, stellar offensive production at home.
"I'm trying to figure that out. We're not changing anything at all. If we could get a little bit of that on the road, we could potentially have some different outcomes. I was upset with how we performed defensively in the first half, for most of it. Our ball screens weren't that good, we had to change back to things that we didn't necessarily want to change to if we didn't have to. In the second half, we had such a good defensive effort. We held them to 29 in the second half and that's with 11 points scored in the last three minutes with substitutions. We shot the ball well, ran a good offense. Road wins are tough to come by. It's no doubt that we played well in these last three home games."
 
On the team's will to fight through ball screens tonight.
"That's the mentality that I'm trying to impart on these guys. I keep telling them they don't have to be a victim to screens and ball screens. That's what teams do. The play involves setting a screen, our job is to refuse to be screened. We did that a couple times in the second half. I thought we did a really good job of chasing over their screens on some of their good shooters. It made us more discipline. I thought our whole defensive makeup was much better in the second half than the first half. Just how we went about our business as defenders was more like what we want to do."
 
On the team coming out strong in the second half, not allowing The Citadel to get back in the game.
"It's nice to see. I have a tremendous amount of confidence in these guys anyway. It's nice to see...it's a sign of potential growth. Is it real? We don't know that until we do it again. You have to duplicate until you really know you're really doing it. When your baby takes two of his or hers first steps, it doesn't mean they can consistently walk yet. That's where we are. Can we reproduce this again? We have had some days where we did. But are we that team? The team that when we still lead, we continue to do the things that got us there and continue to play well. Not every single game. No team plays a good game every game. It's can you do it most of the time that you're fortunate enough to be in that situation."
 
On the upcoming battle at ETSU on Saturday.
"It'll be an aggressive and good team. An aggressive team. We'll have to come out and match that aggression with aggression. I don't think you can be passive against a team like that. I haven't watched them play a ton, but I knew who they had last year. I know what their record is and it's pretty good. I know the same guy [Steve Forbes] is still coaching them so they'll probably play the same way. They're going to be physical and athletic. You better bring your stuff and be ready to play. You better bring your lunch pail and be ready to compete with another guy. There's no better thing. I keep telling these guys; the opportunity to compete with another team. There's nothing better than that in the world. Maybe there is, but for these guys and their lives right now, they have to cherish that. You don't get that later on in life. It's a good in-state team, it'll be a fun game."

A.J. Caldwell, R-So.-G
On the bench stepping up.
"It's been a really big help for our team whenever we can get guys like Stef [Kenić], Jon [Scott] and myself off the bench, and even Grant [Ledford] and Trey [Doomes] tonight to get some solid minutes. It's big to give guys like Dave [Jean-Baptiste], Matt [Ryan] and Ramon [Vila] a little bit of rest so they can come back in and be fresh."

On the comfort of playing in McKenzie Arena.
"There's definitely more of a comfort level here, anytime you play at home. We practice here every day, so we get a lot of shots up here, so we're comfortable out there and just take the shots that are open. A lot of it is also that we are getting a lot of quality shots and are playing well together, and the guys who are getting open shots are knocking them in."

On preparing for The Citadel's fast offense.
"Yeah, Coach [Paris] told us that coming into the game tonight. They're a team that plays great in and out of transition, they play fast, and they score a lot of points. The game they played against NC State, NC State was up 20 or 25 points, and all of the sudden it was 10 points because they can score so quickly. For us to have that 12 point lead and kind of squash the bug and get up from there was big."

Stefan Kenić, Jr.-F
On the difference between tonight and last game at UNCG.
"We were more concentrated on what we needed to do in order to win this game. We knew that this team shoots a lot of threes, actually the most in the league, and make a lot of them. They score really fast in transition, taking threes in transition, so we knew if we wanted to win today we had to stop them in transition, which we did—in the second half. In the first half we didn't do that. We allowed them to score 40 points, which is a lot. But in the second half they only scored 29. We built a wall in our defense, and it was really hard for them to score in the second half."

On the confidence playing at home.
"It's always easier to play at home. We are familiar with the rims, the court, we have better shooting percentage, which is normal. Like you said, we are 8-1 here, and I think we will be a tough opponent for everyone who comes here."

On tough games on the road.
"Yes, this league is really hard, and getting wins away from home is really hard. We beat Mercer, but that's not enough. The last game we played away against UNCG was really tough, so if we can play away like we play here, especially on defense, I think that will be enough to improve our record."

On gearing up for ETSU on Saturday.
"We are very excited. We have practice tomorrow morning. We only have two days to prepare for a big game. It's obviously a really good opponent. They're first in our league right now, 6-1. They haven't lost a game at home this year, 10-0, it's going to be a great game. We are going to have to prepare well to be the first team to beat them there this year."