TULSA POSTGAME QUOTES VS. USF
1/31/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
TULSA HEAD COACH Frank Haith
Opening statement
"Great game. It was a great win for us. Give South Florida a lot of credit. Those guys played their butts off. Their guards were outstanding. We struggled guarding the ball and they took advantage of that. You have to give our guys a lot of credit too. Being in a game like that, we found a way. Smith and Swannegan were terrific. We've gotten after our guys about rebounding and offensive rebounding. Brandon was terrific and obviously Smith has been staying late working on his game, shooting the ball. He makes two big threes. We had a lot of guys step up and make big plays. I thought Brandon kept us in the game with his energy, blocking shots, getting timely rebounds, getting up second shots, and scoring. But all in all it was a great win. I'm really proud of our guys and how we stayed true to the task and finishing the game off."
On USF this time around
"They made shots. Corey Allen, I don't think he even scored (when we played them) down there. He was terrific today. He shot the ball great. They made some tough shots. Collins was terrific. He got in the paint on us, and we didn't guard the dribbler very well at all tonight. We have to get better at that. Give them credit - they made shots. Their guards were really good and they took over the game."
On team's energy
"You never know until you get into the game. We prepared. You caution your guys against coming out slow all the time, but it's part of the game. It happens. I think the thing that was really good is how we bowed our backs and kept going. Winning is hard, so I look at the positives out of this. I told our team after the game, we need to have two really good practices next week going into Houston. That's important for us."
On other players contributing
"We're growing as a team. When we won the other day at Tulane, James I think had five points. I don't know that we could have won a game early in the year with James only scoring five points. I think other guys are stepping up or getting better. Their confidence is better and guys are making plays. We've got different guys contributing. Brandon - it's good to see another guy come off the bench. It helps our depth."
On the message going into overtime
"We talked about playing with confidence. When you get open, you've got to knock it down and believe that you're going to knock it down. You can't go up there and try to place it in. You've got to shoot it with confidence. We did talk about that, and I thought our guys believed. The crowd was great. Our fans were terrific. The energy in the building, I think, spurned our guys on, too. But we had great focus in knowing, we're going into overtime, let's take over the game."
On the team's approach to shooting threes
"Just stay true to who you are, play to your strengths. If we've great ball movement and we've got our feet underneath us, we've got to take those shots. But everybody needs to understand their role and who they are as a player. That's very defined for our guys. I don't think we sit back and talk about how we're 0-for-12, let's stop shooting, because when you have to make a shot you can't make it."
On Rashad Smith's shooting
"He's got to work at it. We play spread pick-and-roll, so we're four out and one in. It was important for him to really learn how to play on the perimeter and grow. That's one of the things he had to work on at the beginning of the year to where he's at now. He makes enough (in practice) where he's continuing to work on it and he's getting more confidence. As well as his free-throw shooting, I know his numbers don't say it, but he's getting better. As coaches, we look at the flight of the ball and now we can tell he's getting better. I don't know the numbers, but the numbers have improved. But he had a big hole to dig out of, from a free-throw shooting standpoint."
On defining the current win streak
"I think guys are just getting better. We're just working hard. We've got tough-minded kids. Hearing them talk about discipline, they're sponges. They are allowing us to coach them, but they're doing the work, so they deserve a lot of the credit."
On playing teams again in conference
"There are good coaches in this league, great coaches in this league. We've got a Hall of Famer, coaches that have coached in the Final Four, coaches who have won national championships. There are great coaches in this league and Orlando is a great coach. He's been with (John) Calipari and Jamie Dixon, who I have a tremendous amount of respect for, and he's been around winning. Don't take anything for granted. I think we've got to be good at our craft and we've got to be on our game, too. You're going to play against guys who are going to prepare and understand what you did against them the first time and try to take that away. You have to be able to adjust and prepare, and that's the cat and mouse."
On the role players emerging
"I think we've had that a little bit, growing into that. We've had games where there have been a bunch of guys making plays, and now adding Brandon to that is great. I don't know that Brandon had a game like this (before), obviously. But I think we're getting better confidence-wise and being able to throw guys out there in tough opponents."
On intensity heading into overtime
"(I told them) we have to defend. We have to guard. Let's play tough. That's who we are. We've hung our hat on that end of the court all year and we're not guarding right now. We changed defenses a little bit. We kind of tried to show man and go zone, show zone and go man, try to confuse as much as we could because they had a great rhythm going."
TULSA JUNIOR GUARD Rashad Smith
On what prompted him to shoot the threes in the overtime period
"The guards did a great job penetrating. We work on it in practice. If we are open, take a shot and shoot it with confidence. That's what I tried to do today."
On whether the 3-point shot is something he's worked on
"Yes. Every day. I know in past games it really hasn't shown, but we just kept staying after practice and during practice. All of the guys are shooting after practice. We put up hundreds of shots a day. Today showed that it's paying off."
On whether the confidence is at an all-time high right now
"Yes, I believe so. That, and just staying with the same mindset. If you slack off, things like that can happen and you can take a loss. Every team in this conference is good. You have to bring your `A' game every single game, no matter what the records look like. USF is a great team. Their record doesn't show it, but that is a great team. Today, if we don't bring the mindset, we could've easily lost. We just have to stay on each other and stick with the discipline."
TULSA JUNIOR FORWARD Brandon Swannegan
On whether he knew he could have a game like this
"I believe I could have. I think Coach Haith and the coaching staff has been staying on me, telling me I can reach a higher level. They have helped me prepare for games and I just paid them back today."
On how he was able to be consistent on both sides of the court for the entire game
"It was a really good game. If it wasn't for Rashad Ray and Shaq and Juice, I wouldn't have been able to do what I did. They give me the ball and I just want to pay them back and give them assists. On the defensive end I always tell them I got their back. If you bring them to me I will do my best to block the shot."
On whether the confidence is at an all-time high right now
"We practice for this. USF is a good team, they came in and proved that today. It was just a good game."
USF HEAD COACH ORLANDO ANTIGUA
On strong defense keeping down shots from the outside
"That was the game plan, until overtime. In the overtime they couldn't miss a shot. I just have to say how proud I am of our guys. They continue to battle and deal with adversity without making excuses. We have guys stepping in and filling some roles, but we were obviously missing some pieces."
On the changes since the last time these teams faced off
"Their team is really good, they haven't lost yet. Swannegan obviously was incredible on the boards and Smith made threes. We were okay with him making the elbow shots and the contested twos, but he started seeing the ball go in the basket and then he was hitting threes in overtime. They made the plays down the stretch and we have to give them credit. Frank has got them playing in a really good rhythm. You aren't undefeated in conference by one, not having really good players and two, not playing really well."
