Postgame Quotes
Game 3 – vs. Bellarmine
November 14, 2023 – McKenzie Arena
Chattanooga, Tenn.
 
Dan Earl, Head Coach
Opening statement after 72-64 win over Bellarmine.
"I don't know who that one was fun for, because it was definitely not fun for myself and the coaching staff. If I could just take a second and give Bellarmine a ton of credit. They play a great brand of basketball; tough kids, [they] move the ball without dribbling it all over the place. So, I can't tell you how impressed I am with Coach Davenport's team and what he's done over the years. We were fortunate to win the game, there's a lot of things to work on, but on a positive note, we found a way to win. Three guys were 1-17 from three and we figured out a way to win. We didn't take care of the ball, we didn't do a lot of things on the stat sheet that we'd like to do, but we found a way to win."

On being able to win without making many three-pointers.
"Usually, we're shooting a bunch of threes, Bellarmine knew that, and they tried to take it away. I can't tell you how impressed I am, they were super physical at trying to make us put the ball on the floor, so to not make threes and still get the win was awesome. Randy Brady had nine rebounds, Sam Alexis had some huge rebounds, especially late [and] Demetrius Davis had two huge offensive rebounds. Often times, young people play, they're thinking [about scoring], but that's the game right there. He grabbed an offensive rebound and got us an extra possession once or twice. When we can collectively grind out a win that isn't 'pretty basketball', I think that says a lot about our character."

On Myles Che's confidence.
"He plays with a swagger, and he's not afraid, and he's on that spectrum where it can get a little too much at times... and I'm trying to calm him down. There's an art to that. You don't want to take away who he is, because we do trust him a lot. The ball was in his hands; he made a big shot and some other really good plays against Louisville. I have not seen that a lot from a freshman, so we want to harness the good."

Myles Che, Fr.-G
On where he'd rank that last shot her made all-time in his career.
"Top three I guess. I feel like this is just the start of my college career. It's a big shot but it's just the start of the season. We move on from this and just have to get focused for the next one."

On what it says about his teammates' trust in him to let him be the one to shoot in the clutch.
"I shows a lot of trust from my teammates. You try to come in and lead, and I feel like now they trust me with the ball at the end of games to make a shot like that. It was just me today, but it could've been anybody else taking that shot. Props to them but my teammates played a great game and our coaches did a great job."

On how they adapted to Bellarmine's style of play.
"I wouldn't say we adapted too well, we struggled a little bit, but at the end of the game we knew it was going to come down to a game of runs. We knew they were going to make their run and we had to make our's, so that's exactly what we did. We locked down, we got stops and made some big shots those last three or four minutes. That's what carried us through this game."

On how he's able to keep his confidence even after miscues.
"I think it's just the trust my coaches have in me. I know that they're going to get on me, but they're supposed to do that. That just comes with the expectations that we have. I'm honestly just appreciative. If they're yelling it means I've got something to learn and something to look forward to."

Sam Alexis, So.-F
On what's allowed him to make such a big jump from last season to this season.
"Just the coaches believing in me this summer and telling me I was going to have a big role next year. They made sure I was attacking the summer every day and if I was slacking in practice they were telling me come on, we need you this year. Just the coaches encouraging me everyday helped me get here."

On how much fun it is to play in a game like this where the fans are getting into it.
"It was super exciting. I played 28 minutes tonight and last year I wasn't playing 28 minutes at all. It felt so good to be out there with the crowd cheering."

On if he finds it difficult to balance being a leader for the team while still only being an underclassman.
"I do find it tough to be a leader for the team. I be thinking like, I'm still a sophomore, and there are older guys on the team, but I'm a returner but I need to be making sure that the older guys know the plays since I've been here longer than them. It definitely has been a challenge for me."

On how important guys like Demetrius Davis and Randy Brady will be to the success of this team.
"Those guys are going to be really important for us this year. Demetrius, he's tough. He went in there and he wasn't scoring, but he still kept his head up and got the boards we needed. He went up and got two clutch offensive rebounds we needed. Also Randy getting that last defensive rebound when we needed it too was huge. Those guys are gonna be really important to us."