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Tulsa Postgame Quotes vs. Southern Miss
1/12/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 12, 2014
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TULSA HEAD COACH Danny Manning
Opening statement
"We played a great game tonight on the defensive side of the ball and executed when it counted. Both teams really put everything into the game. There was a high level of intensity and a lot of effort. At the end of the day, I thought it was a pretty fun game."
On Pat Swilling's hot shooting
"Pat has a short memory. That is the way all good shooters are. They just can't remember their misses. Pat has that mentality. Every shot is a new experience. He takes tough shots, and that is just part of his MO. We always want him to be aggressive, and he certainly was today."
On the outlook of Conference USA this season
"There are a lot of teams in the league. I haven't even studied all of them yet. I just go in and get ready for the next home stand and then the next road stand. I haven't gotten close to breaking down every team yet. It is crazy. We only play every team once with the exception of North Texas, who we play twice. It is like our non-conference schedule. We played every team once except for TCU, who we played two different times."
On the importance of winning the turnover battle and capitalizing on turnovers
"Turnovers were important in this game, but there are a few other areas that I noticed after the game. You look at points in the paint. We did a great job of getting points off of turnovers. The bench came up big. Rashad Ray was forced to play the whole first half because Shaq (Harrison) picks up two early fouls and sits most of the half. He played a great game and really controlled a great floor game for the team."
On beating a sound, defensive-minded Southern Miss team
"We went into the game knowing that this was going to be a defensive battle. It was going to be a grind. Southern Miss is physical and plays great defense and to beat them is big. We go out to win every game. You have to find ways to stay in the game. You want to keep it close and pull it out down the stretch. We put ourselves in a great position tonight and made the free throws necessary and the smart plays to close it out."
TULSA SENIOR GUARD Pat Swilling Jr.
On beating a top 30 team in the RPI and where it ranks among wins the last two years
"We had a tough schedule to start the season off, and we didn't start it off how we wanted to or up to our expectations, not by a long shot. But just coming back off Christmas break, go to Maryland and play them tough, get two key wins at home and then get this win against Southern Miss who is arguably the best team in our league, it just feels good. It's one of the top wins that we've had as a program in these last two years."
On the expectations for this team at this point in the year
"We always broke on "Conference USA Champs." That's what we're striving to be."
TULSA SOPHOMORE GUARD James Woodard
On closing out the game with free throws
"Free throws were a huge key to this win, that's what we started working on in practice everyday, too."
On the momentum the team has after a tough start in November and December
"We looked at this Conference play as a second season... we just need to move forward and that's what we've been doing as a team, especially in practice."
SOUTHERN MISS HEAD COACH DONNIE TYNDALL
Opening Statement
"It was a physical game and we knew it would be. Tulsa's a hard playing, well-coached team. The biggest thing is that we needed to win the rebound battle by 5 to 8. We won it by 1, which really wasn't good enough. The other biggest thing is that we put them on the foul line too much. We'd make them miss and then we wouldn't box out and finish the possession with two-handed rebounds. Then we ended up fouling and they'd get another possession. It's tough to win on the road when you don't finish possessions with rebounds. I thought that at the start of the second half we got beat off of the dribble on the perimeter. They got inside and got layups against us. We have to continue to work hard. It's a tough place to play and they're a good team. I know the record people probably think `How good can they really be?' but, amongst those nine losses are like six BCS type schools...They have a good team. I thought it was a tough environment today. I thought both teams competed and our kids never quit; but it just wasn't enough."
On Tulsa guard Pat Swilling
"Well, he's a great shooter. You know, we talked for about 72 straight hours about what we call `a pulled three is a made three for him', if he gets one off it's like a make for him, even if he misses it. We don't want him to even be able to snap a ball off from the beyond the arc and yet we let him get 12 off. He goes 4-for-12. We had a nice possession to end the half, but we don't rebound it. We (tried to) rebound it with one hand instead of two. It goes out of bounds and was their ball. With seconds to go he puts a three up and beats the buzzer. What I tell my team in every single film session is literally one play can be the difference between winning and losing the game. If we rebound that ball at the half and Swilling doesn't make a three we win the game. It's that simple."
Down 4 at halftime, did you change anything at halftime?
"The biggest thing we talked about was that we just had to drive the ball. To start the game in the first half we had too many jump shots, so we started 3-4 straight set plays where we threw the ball around the rim. We got some buckets to start the second half, but we just couldn't stop them. Again, when we did make them miss it seemed like they rebounded every ball and laid it in or drew a foul and were shooting free throws."
Down 13 in the second half, then you get some big buckets to get you back in the game
Our team is pretty resilient. I don't think there's much quit in our team. We're down 13 and we just continued to plug away and put us in a position where if they just miss one or two more free throws, we have a chance to tie or win the game at the end, but they made their free throws. Our team played extremely hard. I thought both teams played very, very hard. We just have to play with a little more detail, particularly on the road. It's tough to win on the road. Give Tulsa credit, they played well."
