Men's Basketball Post-Game Quotes
12/23/2005 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 22, 2005
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Richmond Head Coach Chris Mooney
"I thought that our effort was tremendous, with the exception of the beginning of the game. We were a little sluggish, and for some reason, there just wasn't as much energy as there needed to be. Later in the first half and after that, I thought our intensity and energy picked up. Our defense has been a constant and has been very good and necessary for us. Our offensive struggles continued in the first half and our defense kept us around so that we could really make a game of it. But, I'm very pleased with our effort; that was one of the best teams in the country that came in and I thought we played well. We just didn't play well enough or energized enough early and I think that proved a little too much to overcome."
On Richmond's Shooting
"We are not a great shooting team, that's no secret. But there are shots there that we need to make; we need to shoot a little bit better and I think the way to do that is to move a little harder and be a little more aggressive on offense. The more aggressive you are and the harder you move, the more open the shots are and the more times you'll get open shots. So I think that we need to put ourselves in better position to get even better shots, because we struggle a little with shooting."
On Richmond's Intensity
"I certainly hope that how hard we play becomes a staple of Richmond, especially in how important we take each defensive possession. It seems to be very difficult for the other team to score, so I'm happy with that."
On Richmond's Offensive Style
"I think we learned a little bit tonight. There is nothing passive about playing this way, and we have to be more aggressive and attack more on offense. And you have to be more aggressive with the ball and without the ball. I hope that over time, the fans of Richmond can kind of see that. As of right now, it's difficult for us to generate that offense because of some ball handling and shooting limitations. All in all, I am impressed with the guys and their effort and concentration and their ability to zero in on what we are good at and trying to improve on what we need to improve on. So, I feel good with the effort and the team in general."
On Playing Wake Forest
"I thought that with only having one day to prepare for an ACC team that we did a very good job defensively. There didn't seem to be too many totally free shots in the lane or around on the wing.
Richmond Junior Peter Thomas
On Getting Back Into The Game After A Big Deficit
"It's tough getting down 20-4 to start the game off and we had four points with less than eight minutes to go in the first half. When you look up at the scoreboard, it looks like a big deficit, but you have to stay patient and know that you're not going to get it all back at once. We had a tip in here, a bucket there, and then all of a sudden, it's 20-10 and it doesn't look so bad. And then you get another few buckets and it's 21-14 at half, and that's much more reasonable than 20-4, which was the deficit we were looking at. You just have to know that you're not going to get it back with two or three big shots, and that you are just going to have to keep playing defense like we were. And that's what has been keeping us in a lot of games (our defense), so we told ourselves to just keep playing defense and a couple shots are going to fall."
On The Offensive Swings From Game To Game
"I wish I could explain the swings. If I could explain the swings, I don't think we would have them. We're still getting used to this offense, and I know it's only an excuse for so long. We're starting to learn it better; we pretty much know where to go. We just need to be a little more aggressive and look for our offense more. We're a little passive at times and if we are a little more aggressive and take some more looks, hopefully they'll fall and we won't have so many swings."
On Where Richmond Is Right Now In The Season
"We've been in some tough games. We've proven that we can play with some of the best teams in the country. We feel good about ourselves. We're 5-5, obviously we would like to have a better record. It's not exactly where we want to be, but we definitely have confidence that we are going to keep improving and just build off of games like these."
Richmond Senior Jermaine Bucknor
On Richmond's Shooting
"We got plenty of open looks - the shots that we practice everyday in practice and at shoot around - we got those looks today. Myself included, we just didn't knock them down. Time and time again, I got the look that I was looking for, but I just didn't knock them down when we needed it. Defensively, they did do a great job guarding us, but at the same time, we just didn't hit the shots."
On Where Richmond Is Right Now In The Season
"Being 5-5 is not exactly where we want to be. I think we are a better team than that. I think that we could easily have seven wins right now. We played a couple games where we let the game slip away at crucial points; we had a couple games where we just didn't hit a couple big shots at the big moments, which can completely change the game like tonight. But altogether, being 5-5, we have a couple games coming up after Christmas before conference play where we can string out a couple wins and go into the conference really confident with a really nice record."
Wake Forest Head Coach Skip Prosser
On The Win
"That was a beautiful win. Some wins are better than others, but we are pleased to get out of Richmond with a W. I think Coach Mooney is doing a terrific job with the kids and they battled and battled."
On What Gave Wake Forest The Most Trouble
"The long shots and I think that so many of our wounds were self inflicted. Not to take anything away from Richmond, but when we got the ball close to the basket we couldn't finish. In the first half, they had four points for 16-17 minutes and we couldn't put them away. We fouled them at the end and put them on the line and next thing you know, it's a basketball game. And to their credit, they nailed it."
On Richmond's Defense
"Usually, we have the ability to score points, and to their credit, we weren't able to do that tonight."
On Richmond
"I think Louisville is a pretty good team and Richmond was up 10 on them at UL. I think that we knew we were in for a dogfight tonight."
On Playing Princeton Before Richmond
"My assistants did a great job of scouting Princeton and I think it helped us against Richmond. We had almost a week of preparation; since last Wednesday, we've been guarding those cuts. And while Princeton runs it well, Richmond runs it well with better guys. That's why we accepted Princeton to play before this game because we knew how hard this game was going to be."