University of Richmond Athletics
Men's Basketball Postgame Quotes
11/26/2005 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 26, 2005
RICHMOND HEAD COACH Chris Mooney
On The Bench Stepping Up
"The guys coming off the bench today gave us a huge lift, we wouldn't have won the game without them. Drew (Crank), Duncan (McLean), Monty (Sanders) and Gaston (Moliva) all gave us solid minutes. Drew is gaining confidence and is continuing to get a better understanding off the offense. He's going to be a very good player. Duncan is probably the best basketball player on the team in terms of having an understanding of the game and knowing what to do. Gaston helps us a lot inside and is a strong rebounder. We're really looking to get him more involved and get him more minutes."
"Everybody's role is to play as hard as they can, care about their teammates and do the best they can to improve. Starting new, nothing is predetermined. We play the players who we think give us the best chance to win."
On Protecting the Basketball
"Only had 12 turnovers today. Anytime you go through a game with only 12 turnovers you're giving yourself a pretty good chance to win."
On McNeese State Playing Box-And-1 On Jermaine Bucknor
"I congratulated Jermaine, I thought he did a great job handling that. He did not force anything, but he was still able to make things happen. We were still able to run our offense, but we just did some different things like dipping into holes in the defense. We were unprepared for the box-and-one, but we hung in there and got open shots."
On Thursday's Game Against Seton Hall
"Thursday is a huge game for us. It's very important that we play well and feel good about what we're doing, so that will give us confidence. We have to zero in, have three good practices and just keep getting better and better."
Peter Thomas
On The Game
"They threw a different defense at us with that box-and-one, but we were able to adjust and make tough plays. We made a lot of hustle plays on both offense and defense and we hit a couple of really big shots."
On Scoring A Career-High 13 Points
"The first two games I passed up some open shots and the coaches started telling me to take the shot. When the coaches are telling you to take the shot it gives you a lot more confidence."
Jermaine Bucknor
On Being The Focus Of A Box-And-One
"It was unexpected, now I know what guys like (former Spider) Mike Skrocki felt like. That's the first time that's happened to me since high school. It was a little difficult at first and took a little while to adjust to, but the coaches did a good job reminding me when I would run by the bench that I could do other things, like get to the glass and cut harder to get other guys open."
On His Teammates Stepping Up
"We hit a lot of big time shots, Peter and Drew hit some 3-pointers and Monty Sanders also hit some clutch shots."
Drew Crank
On Two 3-Pointers
"We've been working on the outside shot all off-season. I had never shot a 3-pointer in a game until (Tuesday) against UVA. Coach has given me a lot of confidence. If I'm open he says take the shot. Today I felt confident, I had a couple open looks, my teammates ran the offense to get me the ball and I made the shots."
On Playing Out On The Perimiter
"It's an adjustment going from playing with your back to the basket to facing up and handling the ball more. I'm really starting to feel like I'm getting into a grove."
On The Team's Improvement Through The First Three-Games
"We've shown huge improvement. We're trying to improve on our half court offense, our defense has been strong, but we've been working on running the offense all the way through to get open looks for everybody. Today we really pushed it all the way through and got a lot of open looks.
