Postgame Quotes
2/3/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Senior G/F Patricio Garino
On guarding Jack Gibbs: You have to give him credit, he's a great player, has a lot of tools. If you try to [stop a three pointer], he's going to try and get to the basket and vice versa. I think the mentality was not letting him go right so often, which is a challenge we had a couple times. It was just being aggressive with him, and it's just vocalizing and focusing on him and we had Kevin pretty much playing off defense, and I think that was a difference. I think he was ready to play defense today, he helped out several times which made it a challenge for Gibbs to go to the rim.
Senior G Joe McDonald
On regaining momentum at home after losing to Richmond last week: It's great momentum going into a big game at VCU. Especially because of the fact that our defense was a lot better, a lot of credit to Pato and Yuta, I thought they did a great job making it difficult for the other team and I think everyone else kind of did their job - a big team win for us. Going into a game at VCU, which we obviously would love to win, we want to win, I think our momentum is strong right now.
On the offensive glass: That was our coaching staff. They thought that we could dominate the glass. We looked at, in the past, teams that were successful at beating Davidson and they really dominated the glass. We felt, us being a good rebounding team, it could put ourselves in a great position to win the game.
Head Coach Mike Lonergan
On Yuta Watanabe guarding Jack Gibbs: I think Yuta did a great job, he guarded Gibbs for most of the first half, Gibbs was 3-9… he's a heck of a player. When he scored it was when we were falling back or guys on our heels a little bit, we just had to have the confidence with Kevin behind us waiting for them - I thought we should have stayed out of him a little bit more. And they did a great job getting to the free throw line, they shoot threes but they also draw fouls, it was like eight straight points for them on the free throw line. Once we stopped doing that, our defense was a little better and we got some stops.
On the team's form right now: It was really about our team defense, and I think the last six minutes of George Mason, last four and a half/ five and a half minutes at least, it started there. Tonight, I thought for the most part, we were pretty focused defensively - talking more and just trying to help each other out. That's what we should do. We are very experienced, even Alex now and Tyler experienced, the returning three seniors, so that's what our bread and butter has always been - defense and rebounding. We've been rebounding, but this has not been a good defensive team, and it's not individual, it's team defense - clogging the lanes, we don't have shot blockers, we have to be willing to take a charge, get a loose ball and help each other out, and I thought we did that tonight. That's a very tough team to guard, and at half time, they were pretty focused that they only had 33 points - so for us, that was a pretty good defensive effort.
On Yuta finding the rim: I told him that I think he's a really good shooter, but he's not shooting well, not shooting threes well. He's not shooting free throws as well as he should, but he's still a pretty good free throw shooter. And I'm like, "You're almost 6' 9." He can handle the ball, he puts the ball on the ground, he's so long it's really difficult with the way the rules are and the way the game's been called, it's almost impossible to take a charge these days. So I love his aggressiveness, it opens things up for other people. I don't think he gets enough credit, he's a pretty good passer, he doesn't turn the ball over - two assists, zero turnovers. But the biggest thing for me is that he's getting tougher. That's one thing that has really held him back is his lack of toughness, and he's showing some physical toughness but also some mental toughness. Not be afraid to take the ball to the rim and try to dunk on people, make sure at least he's drawing fouls because he's versatile and he just has to show it.
