2023-24 Chattanooga Mocs Men's Basketball
Game 17 – vs. UNCG
January 13 – McKenzie Arena – Chattanooga, Tenn.
Postgame Quotes
 
Dan Earl, Head Coach
Overall thoughts on 70-54 loss against UNCG.
"So obviously a super tough night. A ton of credit to UNCG, they played extremely well as you could see. That was kind of a grown man's game and they play with a tremendous toughness. I did not think we were nearly tough enough, both rebounding loose balls defensively but also when adversity hit. We shot, aside from Trey Bonham, 1-for-22 from three and we kind of let that effect us. Again, a ton of credit to UNCG. They just put it on us and we have a lot to learn and grow from."

On the offense struggling to find good looks outside of Trey Bonham.
"It's one of those things where we like to move the ball quite a bit, but then their guards, the Langley brothers, as you know are very good and they pride themselves on defense. When you're being pressured like that, you have to go north-south and be aggressive as well and then make the right decision once you get by them. I thought we were a little too much east-west, and we just didn't make shots sometimes, but we had 13 turnovers and about four or five late shot clocks going down where we're just hoisting the ball at the rim. Those are like turnovers as well. UNCG played really physical and tough and we're going to kinda have to look in the mirror and figure out how to respond."

On how you can match that level of physicality.
"I think a large part of it is just understanding that that is the college game of basketball and just having some pride. We set some screens as well, and they kind of just blew up those screens and went right through them. They screen us and we just run into the screen somehow. We have to just take more pride and just be physically tougher. I gotta do a better job at making them understand how tough college basketball is and how physically tough and mature you have to be. We'll work at that, certainly. A decent amount of it is just individual pride."
 
Trey Bonham, Sr.-G
On his personal competition with the Langley brothers.
"It's been kind of a rivalry even my first two years at VMI. They gave me problems my first couple years so this was definitely circled on the schedule. I think we're kind of opposites where they're both defensively scrappy while me and Honor (Huff) are more offensive-minded. It's something I definitely look forward to, playing them. We were talking throughout the game where we were talking trash, but we respect each other at the same time. It's a good match up for sure."

On how good he felt during the opening 10 minutes of play tonight.
"It felt good. I had a lot of open shots where my teammates were looking for me so I feel like I should knock them down."

On improving the team's physicality moving forward.
"It starts within. It's not looking at others and saying it was his fault that I did this. It start with looking in the mirror and saying, how can I get better? What did I do wrong? I think that's a big thing, just looking in the mirror first and just noticing what your critiques are and then fixing them."