University of Richmond Athletics
Men's Basketball Post-Game Quotes
01/11/2006 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 11, 2006
Richmond Head Coach Chris Mooney
On The Defense
"The last four games we hadn't been as good defensively, but tonight, especially in the second half, we made it difficult for them to get shots out of their offense."
"The defense was better tonight than it has been lately, much, much better. In the second half we stopped their offense and then it turned into stopping their individual players, and we did that."
On The 14-2 Run To Start The Second Half
"We were trying to be assertive with our offense. We went on that run at the beginning of the half when we were just being very aggressive. That was the most important part of the game."
On The Pre-Game Approach
"We tried to emphasize that we had to worry about ourselves and our own improvement. We talked about how it was about what we were trying to do and how we rate ourselves."
On Facing A Zone Defense For Most Of The Game
"The zone hasn't given us as much trouble - it's given us trouble, but not as much trouble as I would have thought. If you look at our shooting numbers you would think zone them. But I think our size rebounding on the offensive glass and the fact we move the ball pretty well, help us. Peter (Thomas) is pretty heady out there, Gaston (Moliva) has a very good feel for a zone and (Jermaine) Bucknor is the guy you want taking a lot of shots against a zone. So offensively we're pretty good against the zone, considering we're not that good a shooting team."
On Having Four Players In Double Figures
"We have one guy with nine points and four players in double figures. That's ideally the type of stat sheet we would like to see. Don't get me wrong, we want great players to have great games. But to have a game like this, it means everybody is touching the ball, everybody is involved in the offense and everybody is involved in the game. We seemed to be playing together on defense too. That's a great way to play."
On Oumar Sylla
"What Oumar does is work. He's always working in practice and then when we're done he asks a coach to help him and he puts in more work. If we could erase the one or two turnovers every game, then we would really have a pleasant night. He had 11 rebounds tonight and he's capable of that. What we would like to see instead of 11 rebounds one night and two the next is for him to get six rebounds, five and six consistently. He's a 6-foot-7 guard so rebounds are available to him, he can chase down long rebounds and come up with some in a crowd. It's very positive to see him rebounding."
On Peter Thomas
"Peter's a good player, he knows what we're trying to do, and he's a very tough player."
On Playing Dayton Saturday
"I know Dayton has practiced hard all week and they're going to be as prepared as anyone we played this year. This is a must win for them, they're 0-2 in the league, but that's a great program. We just have to get home some time late tonight, get back to work tomorrow and just keep trying to improve."
Richmond Senior Kevin Steenberge
On Getting A Win On The Road
"We haven't been on the road much this year, so we've been lucky with a young team and learning a new system. All the problems that might have arisen certainly were not for playing on the road. It's actually nice to get on the road, you're isolated from everything and it's a lot easier to focus. This is was an important win for us, especially to get our first Atlantic 10 win."
On The 14-2 Run To Start The Second Half
"We knew we needed to get on a run to start the second half, we couldn't let them hang around. We knew we needed to stop them defensively because offensively we were doing well enough. We knew we had to play better defensively in the second half."
On The Offensive Improvement
"We've been much, much better and that comes from having a comfort level. We've settled down a lot, but we're still a little sketchy sometimes. We're not always able to get the ball where we need to and sometimes we make bad plays - like I know I tried to force a pass to Peter (Thomas) tonight. We're starting to learn when to pass and when to not, and when to be a little patient and when to take the shot."
On Richmond's Defense
"We need to step that back up a bit. We know we played better defense against some of the top teams in the country than we have lately. We can't let the defense slip just because the offense is better."
On Richmond's Fastbreak
"It's good to be able to push the ball because we have so many athletes. Some of the lineups we put out there with Gaston (Moliva) and Jermaine (Bucknor) running the forwards, that's a lot of speed. I know I can get out and run a little bit and beat some people down the court. It felt good to run some tonight, the coaches haven't held us back at all, I think we've just been scared to because we've been so worried about getting the offense working. We haven't just played ball. Today we did and it showed."
