TULSA POSTGAME QUOTES VS. UCONN
1/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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TULSA HEAD COACH Frank Haith
Opening statement
"First of all, I would like to say thank you to our fans. I thought the atmosphere was outstanding and our student section was outstanding. They helped us win that ball game tonight. I don't know if we do that without their energy that they brought to the building. It was a great win for us. I thought our guys played with tremendous toughness. You play a UConn team you better bring your toughness and your hard hat. I thought our guys competed on both ends of the court, offensively and defensively. I am very proud of their effort throughout the game. I don't think we had any let up. I thought our focus was outstanding."
On if the team is hot or good
"We're developing."
On what allowed the team to be so confident through the whole game
"I just think our guys were ready to play. They were focused, they were prepared. This team is getting better and better. We've still got a long way to go. I don't think we are a finished product by any means. We left a lot of points out there. We missed a lot of layups, we missed some free throws. We're not a finished product, we're a developing team. We have to work hard, for us to have success we have to work hard. We're not that team yet. We've still got a lot of work to do."
On what changed in the team after lacking confidence earlier in the season
"We're playing with confidence right now. We're still getting better. I really go back to Christmas break. Because when you have time with our guys to practice, and there's no limitations in how much you can work, watch tape, spend time with them. I think there's a lot of growth happening in those two to three weeks that we had those guys here."
On if that kind of work over the holiday is normal
"We have to get better. It's not just grinding on the court. There's a lot of mental preparation. There's a lot of comeback and let's shoot some extra free throws, lets get some extra shots up, lets watch some extra tape. I think it's a lot of that."
On if he has learned which buttons to press with which player, situationally
"It's a learning curve. Everything is learning. We have to learn them, they've got to learn us. We've got to trust them, they've got to trust us. You are building all of that and it takes time. I think we are getting close. You can see that obviously our play on the court is better so you can say it's getting better. But there is no question that I don't want us to be complacent or settle where we're at because I think we know we can get better."
On if tonight was fueled by defensive intensity
"I think we have to hang our hat on the defensive end. We're not a great shooting team. So we've got to be on point on that end of the court every night and that gives us a chance. I mean, we shot about 16% the other night at Temple and we still won the game. But that's got to be what we do night in and night out."
On Micah Littlejohn seeing his first playing time of the season
"Well, he has been working hard at practice and we've been bring him along. I think he brings some athleticism and he really wants to do it and his family does too, so that's the reason we did it. It was a short period of time, but we told him it could be like that. He's absolutely working hard in practice and getting better."
On being the only unbeaten team in American play and having three of the next four games on the road
"Yeah, American conference, right? No, it is what it is. We've got a big one in Tampa, we can't get a home game yet on the weekends. We got to get ourselves ready to go down and play a South Florida team that's pretty athletic. I don't know much about them, I haven't watched any tape yet. But I know they're athletic and road games are road games. I had someone tell me that it was a good win to go win at Temple, man it's a good win to go win anywhere. Any road win is good and we've got two in the bank so we've got to get our guys understanding that tonight doesn't mean anything. We have to go get ourselves ready to play again on the road."
On how much of the free throw problem is mental
"It is [mental]. I don't think we have bad form on a lot of our guys. I think we worked out some of those things with our guys over the break. We shot 80% the other night at Temple, or close to it, maybe 82%. We're getting better. I think it's just a work in progress, you just have to spend time with it."
On what it says about the team that Shaquille Harrison can be held to one point for most of the game, yet they lead the majority of the time
"I think our defense held us in check. UConn could never get away from us. I think in the first half we held them around 30% from the floor. And we got timely scoring from James [Woodard] in the first half. We had guys chip in, [D'Andre Wright] made a couple of buckets early. We just have to grow that. Our frontline has to continue to get better. But the guys found a way. And we talked about this with our team: when one guys gets in foul trouble another guy has to step in and make plays and TK [Edogi] got a bucket when he went in there and Brandon [Swannegan] got in there and was physical. So guys are stepping up and doing what they can do."
On extending the conference winning streak to 15
"I'm not going down memory lane. I'm just thinking about this game, this moment, today. I'm focused on Tulsa Basketball today, Jan. 13, 2015."
TULSA JUNIOR GUARD James Woodard
On beating the defending national champions
"It was a great win for us. The defending national champions coming to your home gym, our fans were incredible. It was a very exciting moment and atmosphere. But we stayed focused. It's another conference game for us and we treated it like one. We came out with great preparation and great focus and came out with a win."
On the fans energy level affecting the game
"They impacted the game for us. The energy was crazy. They kept us in the game and kept us more focused. I like how the team didn't let all the hype get to us. We stayed focused and we stayed together and that's how we came out with the win."
On containing Ryan Boatwright
"Boatwright was one of our main focuses for this team. He's a great player and we knew that if he got hot then it would have been a different game. I think we contained him and wore him down, I believe that's what Shaq did tonight. Just wore him down. He got gassed and we contained him. It was a team defensive effort."
On carrying over momentum from last year in Charlotte all the way to this point
"We have to take this game and continue to grow. We still have a lot to work on. I think we had some defensive breakdowns that we can get better at. UConn is a great team, but this win is telling us that we are moving in the right direction. We are going to keep growing and keep preparing, and go hard in practice."
On balance of team with Shaq only having one point at half
"Shaq is a great factor for our team. Even when the stats don't show it, he does everything else. He's one of our best defenders, he's our point guard, and he's our playmaker. He was making plays for D'Andre Wright and Rashad Smith and even for myself. Even though he wasn't scoring, his energy level never came down. He stayed in the game, stayed focused, was talking and his defense was incredible tonight."
On winning 15-straight conference games, longest streak in program history
"You never know what happens game-to-game. We just have to take it one game at a time and I think that's what we are doing this season. We are just focusing on this season."
TULSA JUNIOR GUARD Rashad Smith
On comparing the game against Charlotte a year ago
"Once Charlotte cut the lead last year, I think everybody got wide-eyed and worried. We looked at each other for help. Tonight, when they cut the lead to five, we came together and formed a little circle on the court, I told the team `We've been here before, but tonight it's not going to happen again.' We trusted each other a lot more and that's what happens when you have chemistry with a team.
On winning 15-straight conference games, longest streak in program history
"We put the work in and we trust each other. We don't take any days off in practice. You just have to be very humble. We just stayed focused and we don't let anything shake us. There is a lot of growth from last year. We have to keep pushing."
UCONN HEAD COACH KEVIN OLLIE
Opening Statement
"It's the same story as other games, we started off slow. I credit Tulsa, they came out and played and I thought they played hungrier than us. They beat us in every facet of the game. They beat us in their toughness, they had guys who came out and played and we didn't take the challenge. We are going to have to start taking the challenge better, and it starts with our first five minutes. It seems that we get behind and cannot score. We are not playing together as a group. That is my job, to find some guys who are going to come out and play with some energy and play together, and I will do that."
How much stock do you put in the [UConn] comeback in the last quarter?
"No stock. I like how they came back, but you cannot get down by 15 points and keep building that hole. They played hard, but at the end of the day it is easy for them when we are down by 15, there is no pressure then. We need to start playing hard and playing consistent for 40 minutes, that is how we are going to win games. I thought that we didn't do it tonight, we haven't done it, and we need to start. That is starting at Stanford, I have to find some guys that are going to do it."
On the decision not to foul with 50 seconds remaining
"No, I wanted to give one stop. I knew that I had a time out and then if we came down and scored I would have fouled then."
On potential changes
"I am going to sit back and watch the tape, I have not assessed it yet, but there will be some changes. I keep coming out and seeing the same thing, so we need to do something else. I don't know who the change is going to be. I have to first watch the tape. There may not even be lineup changes; I am going to figure that out with my coaching staff and we are going to go forward."
On Amida's foul trouble limiting his effectiveness
"We cannot rely on Amida all the time. I thought our guards did not do a good job controlling the dribble tonight. Tulsa was running a simple three-down play that we run, too. Woodard was coming off and getting wide-open threes. Our defensive play was not up to our standards. I credit them for making us move our feet, and we just did not respond tonight the way that we have responded on our defensive end. That has been one of our staples because we haven't been shooting the ball particularly well in the game. One thing I can say is that tonight we just did not play defense and Tulsa came out with a good game. Their guys played with more energy, more fight, than us. We cannot have lackluster games like that; we are not talented enough to do it. We have to play at a level five and I thought that tonight was a level three at best."
On Tulsa's team
"They are playing great. Frank has them playing well, there is a great coaching staff here, the players seem like they play all together. They also have two great guards as well as guys coming off the bench and playing hard, so they have a great team. The Bigs understand their roles and are always moving, getting rebounds, getting out on the floor, running the court. If they keep playing with that energy, they are going to win a lot of games."
