Postgame Quotes
2/23/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Graduate Forward Tyler Cavanaugh
On what was working offensively
I mean, give the ball to Pat and get out of the way. He was really good in the post. I always say that he's very patient and I can learn from that, personally. But he was great, when they brought the double, when they didn't. He was taking his time and getting to the line to get those free throws, but also finding guys. He found me or Jordan for a three, who was playing off the bench with what we need from him. If he's capable of that every night, and when he's focused, he's a heck of a talent, and we need that from him consistently.
On getting these two wins and preparing for the A-10 Tournament
That's huge. Duquesne on the road, no games on the road are easy, getting that one. Then beating a UMass team that has beaten Dayton, and beaten St. Joe's twice in our league. I mean these were two big wins. Now we got George Mason in our house to try and get back to 500. That's all we can ask for.
Graduate Forward Patrick Steeves
On having a career-high 26 points
I wasn't overthinking anything. I was just working in the post, wheeling and dealing if they doubled, kicking out, trying to find open guys. Not trying to make any play anything that it wasn't.
On having an injury earlier this season to hitting his stride
I think it was a very good time to kind of start jelling as a team. Obviously I dealt with some injuries this season and I'm lucky to have guys like Tyler and great teammates that kind of pushed me to get back on the court, telling me that they needed me.
On leading the team in assists and his alley-oop to Yuta Credit to Yuta, that was a terrible pass. But he climbed the ladder and used his extendable arms and caught it and put it home. I think that everyone made an adjustment to converge on me in the post, so it was easy to find open guys. Credit to the guys who made some shots, Jordan, Tyler, and Yuta.
Interim Head Coach Maurice Joseph
On the change between the first and second half
Well we changed our ball screen coverage, defensively. I thought that kind of stalled them some. Lewis was getting busy in the first half, getting 16 points, and we weren't aggressive enough to contain him, even with our ball screen defense. That really caused a lot of problems for us. He was hitting shots over guys and once he had that confidence, he felt like he could get in anywhere he wanted to. So once we adjusted that in the second half, we did a much better job defensively. Obviously we were still fronting Holloway, so I think we just did a much better job at being more active. You can't fall flat for whatever reason. We can't accomplish the things we think we can accomplish and come out flat at home, when we need a win. Credit to our guys, obviously credit to these guys for having monster games, we picked it up in the second half. We also had foul trouble with Tyler in the first half, and whenever he's in foul trouble we seem to get a little funky. Pat Steeves was ready to go the entire game. He was fired up. He was a man possessed out there.
On improving the team's field goal percentage
We've changed up our secondary offense, so basically our framework offensively. We went to a spread offense instead of more flex stuff. Speaking in technical terms here, but we spread ball screen motion type offense where we're able to open the port up a little more and let guys play with more space. That resulted in us playing inside-out more. Guys, especially talented post players, who are willing and talented passers as well, now have even gotten better shots on the perimeter. So it's a combination of things. Our guys understanding where they need to be, passing up good shots for great shots â€" it's a combination of things, and I think by overall changing the framework of our offense was a big part of that. Our guys did a really good job of picking it up, and we're still learning how to be sharp at times when we're overdoing dribbles. We're still getting better at it, but it has really helped us spread the court and play to each other, move the ball, have a lot more motion, and all that kind of stuff.
On having a strong offensive night
We got warriors. We got warriors, guys that are willing to battle. Tyler had 13 rebounds on his own, and four on the offensive glass. Guys like Pat had five, Yuta had six in the zone. We knew we had to gang rebound against this team because we were fronting the post on the big fella. We knew we would be a little off balance based on how we were guarding with our ball screen coverage and stuff like that, out of defensive rebound position, so we knew we had to gang rebound. That was part of the game plan and we did a good job executing that. We got some key rebounds on the backside when we were fronting Holloway. We just followed the game plan.
On what the message was when the team was down eight in the first half
I said we needed to pick it up, to say the least. We were just flat, and once we switched some ball screens and picked up our level of intensity and energy, our body language. We were flat â€" for whatever reason. Sometimes, especially for a young team, you can just be flat. But I credit Pat, he was fired up. In the huddle I would sometimes just let him run the timeout. 'What do you want to run, Pat? How do you feel,' and all of that. He called a couple plays, like that play where we had a big-to-big ball screen. We ran that twice and got a layup off of it and actually got a turnover off the second. But that was Pat's call. When he's playing like that and feeling it â€" he's a willing passer, he's a smart player, he's almost like a savant, he just knows where guys are. I call him the YMCA Canadian. He can't jump over a phone book, he has long arms, but he knows how to play. It's like playing against your older brother. He's just a hell of a competitor, a hell of a talent, and I'm glad he had a game where he could have fun. He deserved it. He's been through some stuff, to have a night like this when he's all fired up and sticking his tongue out at the fans and all that kind of stuff, it brought joy to me seeing him having so much fun playing the game because it has been stripped from him for three years with injuries. So I'm very happy for him.
