University of Richmond Athletics
Men's Basketball Post-Game Quotes
02/03/2007 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 3, 2007
Richmond Head Coach Chris Mooney
On The Game
"I thought we were good, they closed the gap, but we had the lead going into halftime. I thought we played well, we only had two turnovers at the half and finished the game with six. That's an impressive number, especially on the road. To be honest we were able to get what we wanted on offense. There was pressure and they were physical, but we were still able to get what we wanted on offense. I think that's a very good sign for us. We were able to dictate the game (in the first half)."
On The Second Half
"It's hard, we went through a stretch there where we couldn't score. Seems to me we had some make-able shots there, but it is hard because you are worried about (Stephane) Lasme or concerned with one thing or another. But we had make-able shots."
On Richmond's Defense
"Our defense is not strong enough to hold on for us if we go through a scoring drought. But I don't think they busted it open at any point."
On Richmond's Limited Number Of Turnovers
"If you only turn the ball over six times it means you are getting a ton of opportunities to score the basketball. I didn't think there were any forced shots or anything, just think we need to score the ball a little better."
On Richmond's Shooting
"We have to make more shots, especially free throws. It's very difficult to play well with five freshmen logging so many minutes. I think we have players capable of being good college basketball players, but right now we need so many things to go right to win."
On The Beginning Of The Second Half
"We hit that bad stretch at the beginning of the second half, but other than that I thought we competed."
On Rebounding
"We have young guys who are not quite as physical. We can't lose 39-13 on the boards, but we only gave up eight offensive rebounds, which is what we look at. That wasn't what lost the game."
On Preventing Rashaun Freeman and Stephane Lasme From Being Dominate
"We did a really good job, our guys really dug in there, we didn't let those guys dominate the backboard or dominate the game. What happens is we concentrate on that and then (Chris) Lowe had a very good game because it's hard for us to contain his penetration. (Gary) Forbes had a good game, he was able to get in the middle and throw some great passes. We need to be good enough to defend and really pay attention to what they do best, but also be good enough and solid enough that it's difficult for all of their guys to score."
On Fouling Too Much
"We need to be able to play defense without fouling better. We're going to call them in practice and play defense without fouling the other. If we had done that, certainly we would have given ourselves a much better chance"
On Playing Physical
"We were physical, we didn't let those guys just shove us around or let those guys dominate us. We had more trouble containing penetration seemed like when we did contain it we did it by fouling. We were aggressive, it just made it difficult for us with all the foul shots they were shooting."
On Richmond's Freshmen Guards
"That's three freshmen right there really doing a good job. Six turnovers on the road that's very impressive, what that leads to for us is shots that we need to make. I did think we were able to really control the ball, attack, not rely on 3-point shooting, but so many of our shots didn't find the bottom of the basket."
Richmond Freshman Brian Morris
On Handling The UMass Pressure
"It's a lot better because earlier in the season I think a lot of people could tell that pressure was causing us to get out of sync and causing us to get out of our offense. Today we handled it well, we were able to come up and run our sets."
On Richmond's Offense
"The openings were kind of there, they're playing on certain guys and the beautiful thing about this offense is that any guy can score at any time. Every game a different guy can step up."
On Starting Halves Slow
"I don't think it's something we think about, we just need to control it, rather than think it's a big deal. The first four minutes of the basketball game and the start of the second should be the same way, should be intense, we should be ready to play. (In the second half) we got off to a slow start, which shouldn't happen, and allowed them to take control."
On The Physical Play Of UMass
"It was pretty physical, and I don't want to blame it on this, but the weirdest part is that we were trying to play just as physical, but kind of weren't allowed to. Obviously it's a complete 180 from high school, we're not used to it, but I think every player is tough, we are doing a great job of it. We just need to do a little bit better."
On Giving UMass A Game
"We were up nine, playing well. I think they kind of realized that we were a team they could lose to at home. Sometimes our record doesn't show how good we are. If we play the right way, the way we know how to play, I think we can beat anybody. It hasn't shown up for us yet. Hopefully it will."
UMass Head Coach Travis Ford
On Not Using The Bench Much
"I wanted to play guys like Ricky and Luke more but it's hard to guard that style of play if you are in and out of the game all the time. I had to stick with the same guys for most of the game."