Tulsa Postgame Quotes vs. Middle Tennessee
1/23/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 23, 2014
TULSA HEAD COACH Danny Manning
Opening statement
"Tonight was a very exciting game to say the least. James (Woodard) came out and played exceptionally hard. We had some guys who had some good individual performances. We were just fortunate enough to make a couple of shots, make a couple of plays on our home court, with our energy, feeding off the fans and the crowd to get the win. That's a really tough team to beat and we are really fortunate."
On James Woodard's three-pointer at the end of the game
"He got a wide open court, a clean enough look in that situation. It reminded me from the Indiana State shot that he made except that it was on the other side of the court. For James to display the patience that he displayed in the second half was, I was very happy to see that because that was his only field goal in the second half and he continued to stay focused and defend and rebound and do the little things to stay involved in the game. When you do that throughout the course of the game, at the end of the game when you get a chance to make a shot, you are in rhythm. You've got a feel for what's going on. He made a huge shot for us."
On Lew Evans day
"You talk about Lew Evans. Lew gets knocked down shooting a three, nails his three free throws and gets a huge put back on a free throw attempt. He finished the game with 11 rebounds and 12 points. He did an outstanding job. He did a really good job playing defense. We couldn't guard (Shawn) Jones. We double teamed, we fronted him, came off guards. He's a grown man."
On the balanced scoring
"I look at the category and when I look at the stat sheet and study it, it's our bench. We get 20 points from our bench and we hold them to 12. Rashad Ray and Pat (Swilling) continued to play well. Brandon (Swannegan) played very well. He didn't score the ball well, but he gave us good minutes in the post and he rebounded the ball and he altered shots. He only blocked one shot, but he was a presence at the rim for us. Our bench continues to play well."
TULSA GUARD James Woodard
On getting an open shot to take the lead in the final minute
"I saw that Pat (Swilling) has the ball, and his man was pressuring him. He went around him and beat him a little bit. My man went to help him, and I had a clean look. I relocated on the right side, putting it up, and knew it was good."
On how the final shot felt as it left Woodard's hands
"It came off right. The other shots all felt good. That shot just was different. It had a nice touch and a nice arc. I'm really just glad it went in."
On the style of play against Middle Tennessee State
"Middle Tennessee is a very good team. We knew it would be hard fought. They execute everything very well, and that was the key coming into this game. We knew that they moved the ball well and were a good rebounding team. The big key was to outrebound them. They're very good, but we came up with some crucial stops. We made some defensive breakdowns, and we need to tweak those. Otherwise, we played a good game against a good team."
On the importance of winning at home
"Every night is a battle. Like coach says, 'Every game is a tiebreaker,' because we're only playing each team once with the exception of North Texas. We just have to take it one game at a time and take care of the next two games at home. We just have to take it one game at a time and keep building our confidence.
TULSA FORWARD Lew Evans
On Lew Evans' final three free throw attempts of the game
"It was good. I haven't been shooting well from the free throw line at the beginning of the year. I got in the gym with a couple of coaches, and they showed me how to shoot better. I've been kind of hesitant on it, and I need to be more fluid on my free throws. I just got up there, thought they were going to go in, and shot them. All three of them went in."
On the rebound and put back with 1:29 left in the game to give Tulsa the lead
"No. I've been doing that all year. Coach Manning tells us every time how to react to a free throw. He tells me to go to the rim, and the other big guy loops around. It was perfect right in front of the rim, and I just tipped it in."
On Tulsa's performance in Conference USA this season
"We're in Conference USA. Some of the teams in this league are really good. We've shown out really well. Every night is a battle for us. It is going to be tough every single night. Playing at home really helps us. I'd say we're doing pretty well."
MIDDLE TENNESSEE HEAD COACH KERMIT DAVIS
Opening Statement
"I was really proud of our players defensively in the second half. We're trying to get opponents under 39 percent and in the second half we held a really, really good offensive team to 5 for 20. I was proud of our players for their effort. We just didn't have enough guys to ring the bell offensively."
"I'm proud of Shawn Jones. Boy, what an effort. He just played. He didn't make some plays down the stretch, but the biggest plays were we missed four free throws in a row, Jac (Jacquez Rozier) just runs over a guy and then Neiko doesn't block out on a free throw and their guys just lays it in."
"We have to get more guys to make more plays offensively. We had some wide-open looks, but couldn't deliver."
What changes to you make defensively at halftime or was it all from the neck up?
"There were no secrets in the locker room. We just talked about giving up 52-percent and all we worked on the last 4-5 days was guarding, guarding, guarding and we just competed. Shawn Jones was a big part in the back of our defense. We broke down and he saved us. He blocked shots and changed a lot of balls that would normally go in. Give Shawn a lot of credit. He kind of dominated the game."
