Chattanooga Basketball Postgame Quotes
Chattanooga at Mercer
Hawkins Arena – Macon, Ga.
Wednesday – Feb. 23, 2021

Head Coach Lamont Paris
Opening Statement:
"Disappointing loss. Anytime you go on the road and get to an overtime and you don't come out on top and your guys played hard, it's just disappointing. To have to finish the season, the regular season, as it is, on a loss … there were a lot of things for us to play for to win.

"Just disappointed, disappointed. It shouldn't have gotten to overtime probably, but it did. And then we didn't execute on the out of bounds play and I'll take the heat. We did some different than what we normally do based on some of the things we saw in scouting."

On the game-tying three in regulation:
"We were trying to foul.  We were trying to foul when there were seven point some seconds on the clock. We talked about playing in a way that there's no way that we can (give up a three). Sometimes you wonder how effective words are and how effectively you're communicating.

"That's something that I have to go back, I evaluate every aspect of everything that we do, I'm very critical of myself, and there's a there's … I have to be able to communicate better. I don't know what the words are, but we talked about playing in a way that a three could not get off … switching everything. And if it did come in inside the two that we would foul, or to anyone that we would foul immediately.

"However long the timeout is how long we talked about that. That's not what we did and so l have evaluate how the communication is coming across in that scenario, in that game, the data, who's processing the information, that's the other thing. Maybe it's a personnel deal.  We don't have a lot of options, but it's the personnel deal at that point in terms of who's processing information."
 
On the long layoff until the next game to think about this loss. 
"It'll stew. I wanted to win just to have that win seven out of your last eight games, four out of your last five road games.  They feel really good about that and you're rocking and rolling and going into the tournament.

"You still can, there's no doubt, we still won a lot of games. But with these guys at their age, that's a thing, sometimes that's it, they need that little extra deal, to feel better about what they're doing as they go as they go into a tournament. That was that was the value of winning a game like this and finishing in a better place.

"As you're, as you're developing, growing and building your program, every win definitely matters in terms of how you're finishing, what the expectations are for the next group, relative to the last group. I think that those should always be higher. I want our expectations to be higher this year than last year and next year, higher than they are this year. That's why stuff like this matters.

"Other than that it doesn't matter. We're going to go to the tournament, we're not going to win the regular season conference championship. We're going to we're going to be the four or the five and play the other thing that was also already going to be the four of the five, so there's a lot.  So much riding on a game that doesn't really mean that much in terms of you know, standings or tournament ramifications or anything like that."

On his satisfaction of the way the team performed in the regular season and where the team is going into the SoCon Tournament. 
"They're were a lot of things that happened this year, and for a lot of people, they can say the same thing. It did, at one point had the makings of one of those really, really special seasons, from a record standpoint, it just did.

"And then a lot of things happened. We were able to recover from some of them, not fully.  We played a couple games, with a roster that we would have preferred not to in terms of the depth and who was out there available. It didn't turn into that season, but it was a it was a really good season.  It was a really good regular season.  I'm happy with the things that we've accomplished and where we're at and what we've done and how some guys have played and performed.  There's a lot to be happy about and proud. I'm proud of these guys.

"I'm proud of the feeling that I have going into the tournament. I really like that feeling. I've had that feeling before. It's a similar feeling to teams that have finished first place in the conference, and then we go into the conference tournament. That's how I feel about us, based on what our what our really good looks like.

"The question will be on those three days, will we have that, and you can have that for three days. We've grinded it out and manufactured it for nine games at one point and for six games at another point. That's not with playing great basketball during that stretch. Can you have that for three or three days? That will be it … but yeah, I'm really happy with what with where we finished, with what we've done and where the progress has been."

On the impact of not having senior Josh Ayeni tonight:
"We had to play some guys. I thought Jaden did a pretty good job, particularly in the first stretch that he went out there. We put him in some bad situations in that second stretch. We tried to throw him in places where he's not ready to touch the ball. Josh was a physical body that we could have thrown out there a little bit more.  A guy who at times can score around the basket.  It was it was some really heavy minutes for some guys."

Malachi Smith – Sr.-G
On turning the page and focusing on the SoCon Tournament:
"You want to go into the tournament kind of hot. With 11 days off, you want to build a goal for the win, but at the end of the day, it's another season.  Just how non-conference and conference are two different seasons, what happened in conference doesn't really matter now, because anyone can be beat on any given night. It's win or go home. It doesn't matter how many losses you have, you have you got to play."

How is the team heading into Asheville:
"I feel like we are in a good spot. We don't have to play an extra game. We could have obviously been better. We had a lot of chances out there to be one of the top two seeds, but you can dwell on the past.  All you can do now is look forward and see what happens.

On the play that led to the three-pointer that led to overtime:
"We're supposed to foul, but it didn't happen. Miscommunication. It was really just miscommunication. I was on the block, so I couldn't really see but I just know, we knew that play was coming. There's just miscommunication. We just have to be sharper on those type of situations. He made a good shot, but we have to be better those type of situations because you don't want to leave it up to a shot."

David Jean-Baptiste – Sr.-G
On wanting to end the regular season on a win:
"We definitely wanted to end on a win … last seven of eight would be a good way to go out.  All of our games have been the same, coming down to the wire, the last possession and a key offensive rebound.   It is going to make the tournament more fun.  It just goes to show you that every possession counts.  Can't take any team or any possession lightly." 

On scoring 24 points in the second half and overtime:
"The last couple of games I've been having self-doubt within myself.  Coach Paris has done a great job keeping their confidence with me and telling me to stay aggressive and get to rim.  I think these last couple games I've been been shying away from it. I think today had to put my foot on the gas and keep being aggressive, put pressure on the defense and attack the rim.  That's one this I haven't done the last couple of games.  Today I came to be aggressive and then see what happens.

On the end of a crazy regular season where the team is headed into the SoCon Tournament:
"I feel great. I feel good about this team. Every game is coming down to the wire.  Overtime this game, getting down and coming back to fight.  This team has some fight in it.  It is going to be exciting to see.