Chattanooga Basketball Postgame Quotes
Furman at Chattanooga
McKenzie Arena – Chattanooga, Tenn.
Wednesday – Jan. 8, 2020

Lamont Paris, Head Coach
On the offense during the second half scoring drought.
"We just weren't scoring. I don't want to oversimplify it to you, but it's the game of basketball and you've got to try to find ways to manage a situation like that so it doesn't go quite as long. I watched a Big 10 team that's ranked in the top five in the country right now, and they didn't score their first point in the game until the 12 minute mark in the first half. Sometimes it happens. You don't want it to happen and you do try to make up for it in other ways and obviously I thought we did enough of some other things, that we weren't down 20 points. They're obviously not doing something offensively either otherwise that nine-minute stretch without scoring is enough to make you go down 20 points, and that didn't happen, so we were obviously doing something and getting some stops, getting some rebounds. We hit a dry spell, and I'll have to watch the tape again just to see exactly what we did, where our shots came from and what they looked like. My guess is that they were more perimeter-oriented shots, and we have to develop into a team that in a stretch like that we can get the ball and get to the free throw line somehow someway whether that's off the dribble or throwing it to the post. That's something we need to develop; they exposed that as a weakness to us, so we will have to try to develop that."

On 72% shooting percentage success in the first half but only leading by two at the break.
"I didn't even know that we did that. Here's how I look at the game typically. We're playing in a certain way—good or bad—then something else happens, and can we change our fortunes? Then something else happens. I don't know what their field goal percentage was either; I really don't look at those numbers at that time, but it had to be high. I felt it was high because we cannot play defense the way that we did. We made some basic, basic mistakes on things that we typically don't give up. I don't look at it that way; I look at it as, look what we've done, we did not play, did not perform the way that we needed to from a defensive standpoint, but hey guys, we ended up two. This game we shot 72% in the first half and were up two. There's going to be another game where we shoot 29%, and maybe we go in up two. Up two is up two to me. We have to go on from that point right there. Typically as you look at the numbers as you have the luxury to do that, and you shoot 72%, you probably should be up more than two at half, but it's a good team, they have a good team. Who's the last team that shot 72% against them? I don't know; I'm not going to brag about that to the guys we shot 72% on. I'm not in a position to do that. There were enough pushes here and tugs there, and we ended up battling and scrapping enough to be up two at halftime and I felt good about that. I went in and we talked positively about that and accentuated the fact that we can clean these couple errors up in the second half, we can end up being in a good situation."

On Furman's defensive adjustments and if they did anything entirely different in the second half.
"Not really. They started switching one through five a little bit more and played a couple line ups where they could do that. They just switched one through five a little bit more. They particularly started doing that after Stef [Kenic] went in and made a couple threes. When he was at the five they looked at do they start hugging him on the ball screen first then they started to exchange one through five. I thought we still ended up getting some pretty good looks. Rod [Johnson] had an opportunity at the basket that we didn't convert on. Ramon [Vila] had an opportunity at the rim we didn't convert on. We had two naked threes as we call them. That's how it's going to play out. You're going to make some of those and miss some of those. I thought the real difference ultimately was that we had 15 turnovers, so that's part of the reason you're not scoring the way that you should. Even in the first half, we had nine in the first half. So we're turning the ball over, that's less possessions, you're obviously not scoring on those possessions. At least one or two were pick-six; they ran through one for a dunk on the other end, maybe two of those. So when you turn it over 15 times and you give up eight second-chance points, that's going to make an uphill battle. I don't care what other statistic is out there, you better shoot 72% from field goal if you're going to do those things that'll put you in a bad position."

On encouragement towards the team moving forward and whether this could be a spark.
"Sure. It's encouraging to feel like we have enough. That's encouraging to me. I would not call this our best game. In the game, at the end, 15 lead changes, it's a basketball game. So yes, to answer your question, sure, there are some things that encourage me playing against a good team that is playing really well right now. We didn't catch them on a week off or in a lull; these guys are trying to win the league. That's what they're trying to do. They're good; they're well-coached. Then they come in here and we did enough things to have a chance to win even in light of the mistakes that we made. So sure there are some things that are encouraging about that. Anytime, like I've said this once before, if the Lakers came in here, and I look at the clock and it's three minutes on the clock and it's a four-point game, we're supposed to win that game on that day. Maybe we lose by 40 on another day then. So that's what irritates me the most, that my expectations are that we do enough to win no matter who we are playing, but certainly there were some good things we were able to do, and this team is a team that prides themselves on not giving up a lot of points. They don't give up 75 points, and we didn't; we scored 66, but that's also with 15 opportunities that we didn't get to take a shot on. That's also with some conversions around the basket that were ifs. Ifs are ifs but some high-quality conversions that we didn't make. I felt okay with what we did offensively in terms of what was happening and what we were getting, but we need to perform better and not turn the ball over. That was the biggest thing. That was 15 times that we didn't get a shot."

Stefan Kenic, Jr.-F
On the offense hitting shots in the first half and Furman's defense adjusting.
"It was good in the first half, we were moving the ball really well. They were helping a lot so I was able to pick-and-pop and make some shots. In the second half they adjusted a little bit and started switching on me so I had to roll more. We just have to make more shots next time."

On playing a tough Furman team.
"Furman is ranked number one in our league and we saw tonight that we can play against the best in the league. The difference today was that we had too many turnovers but we still had a chance. We emphasized that they were going to be physical and aggressive team. They force teams into a lot of turnovers and get into transition to shoot quick threes. They have some good shooters off the dribble and they were making shots. It was really hard to win tonight, but I think if we take better care of the ball we can win next time."
 
On second half scoring drought.
"In the second half we went almost eight minutes without scoring and that was a big stretch. We missed a couple wide-open threes. We missed five free throws tonight which is a lot because we only shot 12. When you add up all those missed points, we should have won this game."
 
Rod Johnson, R-Jr.-F
On playing into the opposition's strengths. 
"Not really. We just kind of played into their defense and that's really what got us in the second half. They're a good defensive team and playing into their defense hurt us. They're really solid, have good defenders and know how to jump and switch on the ball. When you're not hitting shots against them it makes it really hard on us."
 
On scoring drought and effect on the team. 
"When we went eight minutes without scoring, and you see the scoreboard not change, it shows. They were going on runs, hitting tough shots. We weren't hitting shots, not scoring, not playing great defense, turning the ball over. It hurt us, especially in the second half."
 
On what to take from this game. 
"It's definitely a learning lesson. It's middle of the season so we'll hit bumps in the road and it's up to us to come back to keep working, keep believing and keep pushing."

On wanting to win on your home floor.
"Especially when we have a crowd like that behind us. We really want to win at home. We just played into their defense and turned the ball over a bit. We appreciate the crowd support and we tried to pull it off. It just didn't happen."