Wofford at Chattanooga
Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021
Chattanooga, Tenn. – McKenzie Arena
Postgame Quotes

Lamont Paris, Head Coach
Overall thoughts after loss to Wofford.
"I'm uninspired by that effort in the second half. And I think that we didn't play that great in the first half, but as far as stuff around the basket, we had a lot of stuff around the basket that we didn't finish. 55 points in the second half, we're not serious about winning. It's easy if things are going great. One team was really aggressive, and one team was passive. Aggression wins. There's being good at basketball and there's being good at competing."
 
On if lack of depth hurt in loss.
"Guys were heavy on minutes, no doubt. There's a cumulative effect to it for sure, that's a fact. You have time to get things back together. When you're going with a 13-point lead at half and come out with the juice for five minutes even, it might be over and it be all she wrote. I'm reluctant to go that. When depth really hurts you is if a guy isn't playing well or is having a tough time getting a stop, you have a difficult time subbing him out. That's when lack of depth hurts you the most."
 
On the team's lack of aggression.
"I think it was passive, but then you realize that you were just passive and think that you have to do something because you should have already. Then the defense has adjusted, and you put your head down and the little window you had is clogged up. Now you're driving into a place where the help is there. I thought we were careless in that area. There were times where it was a delayed reaction instead of an instantaneous reaction to what's in front of you and I think that hurt us."
 
On the improvement of Josh Ayeni inside.
"He has [improved]. Maybe I could have played him more defensively in the second half. Fatigue is also a thing with him. It has to be short spurts for him, but he has done a much better job around the basket and that's a been a thing for us. Maybe we should of kept pounding it in there, and getting our shots off of what happened when we got the ball inside."

Malachi Smith, RS-So., G
Overall thoughts following loss to Wofford.
"I feel like we competed really well in the first half, but in the second half, they took our punch and brought it back. We didn't compete. It wasn't skill or talent. They out-rebounded us by 21 in the second half, that's just competing and playing harder."
 
On what keyed the difference between halves.
"It's playing a full 40 minutes and not getting complacent. When you're down you want to bring the energy and come back, and when you're up, you can't think that the game is over. They are a good team. They competed harder than us and that's really it."
 
On controlling the controllables during the course of the game.
"It's a game of momentum and a game of runs. To stop that, you have to control what you can control. Rebounding, diving on loose balls, that's something we didn't do and it gave them a bunch of extra possessions. That put us in foul trouble and they took advantage of it. Once we saw some shots not falling, we were looking for calls and not playing through it. Everything that went wrong was in our control. Turnovers, rebounds, we didn't handle our business on that side of the floor."