University of Richmond Athletics
Men's Basketball Post-Game Quotes
01/02/2006 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 2, 2006
Richmond Head Coach Chris Mooney
On The Win
"I thought we played fairly well. Longwood's game plan was to pressure us, mostly in the half court and we were hoping it wasn't going to bother us, but it did a little bit. For the most part we were able to get easy shots and were able to finally pull away in the second half."
On The Defense & Offense
"Our defense wasn't nearly as good as it has been. The offense was certainly better, we could have even done better."
On Finishing The Non-Conference Schedule 7-6
"I hope we use this as a springboard going into league play. We're pleased to get the win and pleased to win by 14, but I think we could have played even better."
On Richmond's Improvement This Season
"We scrimmaged Howard in early November and if you looked at the tape of that game and a tape of today's game you would see that we are light years ahead of where we were then. The key is, in another month, we want to be light years ahead of where we are now. The potential is there."
On Richmond's Backcourt Play
"Obviously everyone is concerned with our guard play. Peter (Thomas) had nine assists today and the backcourt had 11 assists and two turnovers. Our guard play is pretty good and it keeps getting better. It's going to continue to get tested, but with Duncan (McLean) coming in there and providing some help, that really helps. All in all, we're much improved, but there's still a ways to go. If we continue to work hard, we'll improve."
On Having Only One Day Between Games
"When you play basketball these things happen, the schedule is the schedule. We tell the guys, `prepare for the opponent, compete against yourselves.' As a team and program, you have to be motivated by your own goals, your own effort and your own outcome. We don't want to worry too much about the opponent, we want to worry about what we're doing. For the most part, we've done a good job of that this year."
Richmond Senior Jermaine Bucknor
On Team's Who Play Richmond Man-To-Man
"Our game plan is pretty much the same game in and game out. It all depends on the way teams play us. If teams are going to pressure us - like a lot of teams in the A-10 will - it's going to be very difficult for them to guard us man-to-man. We're doing a lot better job offensively over the course of the season. We just have to keep getting better and better day after day.
On Dealing With Longwood's Half-Court Pressure
"This team pressured us a lot and as you could see, we had all the backdoor cuts and backdoor shots we wanted. Once you get a couple of those it makes it easier to come off a screen and get a 3."
On Dealing With Zone Defenses
"We've been working on our zone offense every day and guys are doing great with that, so we're not too worried about that."
Richmond Junior Peter Thomas
On The Win
"We're glad to be going into the conference season with a winning record. This was a big game for us, and while we didn't play quite as well as well as we would have like, we won."
On The Team Scoring A Season-High 74 Points
"Scoring more points today helps our offensive confidence. We know we could have played better defensively than we did today, but we have to take the confidence we got today in our offense and we'll be alright."
On Having Confidence Heading Into Conference Play
"We've felt confident in what we're doing all year. It's just a matter of being more aggressive offensively. We have to keep our defensive intensity up, we've let it slip the past couple of games. If we're confident we can stop people and we're confident even more after today that we can score, that bodes well for the future."
Longwood Head Coach Mike Gillian
On Richmond's Style Of Play
"That's like hitting the knuckleball, you can't prepare in one day and even in two weeks. You have to be somewhat ready for what they do, but you know you're going to give up something when you play teams that run that as well as they do."
On Getting Beat Backdoor
"You know you're going to give up some backdoor plays. We watched the tape of them playing VCU and they had some spectacular plays in the course of that game yet they only scored 37 points. They had some very nice backdoor plays and dunks, you're going to give up some of them."
On Richmond's Shooting
"They shot 7-of-13 on 3-pointers and hit four in the first four minutes of the second half. We felt like we were in a good position at the half. Part of the game plan was to make some of their guys who were shooting low percentage to shoot some jump shots. They just made them, they deserve credit."
"By trying to change the pace of the game you hope to put guys in position to do things that they are not so good at. Today they were. We didn't contest some of those shots as well as we should have, but they still made the shots."
Longwood's Maurice Sumter
On Giving Up Nine Offensive Rebounds To Richmond
"That hurts your energy level and your morale a little bit to play defense all that time and then they get the ball back. But you have to step up and play the next 35 seconds. If you let it get to you then they'll get that backdoor pass or get another rebound. You can't have them getting two or three rebounds in a possession, you're putting yourself in a losing battle."