Postgame Quotes
3/5/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Graduate Student Forward Tyler Cavanaugh
On closing out his career at home It's incredible to get the best team in the conference on our floor. We came out firing, I mean, we didn't miss. I was happy we could hold on, I just wanted the clock to run to zeros because that's a great team. We knew they were going to fight, so I was happy with our resiliency. So many guys contributed, which is what made it so special. Jaren had an off shooting night but he made five free throws down the stretch, Jair had 12 points and that put back at the end was huge, and Pat was solid, just down the line â€" Matt was big. I'm so proud of our group.
On what is was like scoring on 12 of 13 first possessions Not on my team. It's happened against us, but it was awesome. Just to come out like that with all the emotion, because it can go either way with all that emotion, your shots can not fall. But I couldn't write a better ending in the Smith Center.
On the mentality going into the next games not knowing if it's the last We just don't want it to end with this group. We're hot, we're on a five game win streak, but the bottom line is that doesn't really mean anything. Right now, we're 0-0 just like everyone else in the A-10. We have to come ready to fight. With our seeding or whatever we're going to play teams obviously that we've played, they know us, we know them. I'm excited for the challenge and I'm excited about this group going on to Pittsburgh.
On going through the season with Coach Joseph It was great. Right when we stepped on the floor, when he was given the tag, and two weeks later we stepped on the court and it was business. We said, 'no one is going to feel sorry for us,' and we just went to work. That's what we've done because we have so many young guys that are impressionable and we needed to show them that we were going to go to work and keep normalcy. He's done a great job having a positive energy with us, striving to be great, and continues to push ourselves even when we've been down. That's showing in our resiliency at the end of this season with five straight wins. I couldn't be more proud of what he's done, how he's learned throughout the year with us as a young team.
On having a great shooting week after making the final three free throws to clinch the victory at Fordham and going 6-8 from three tonight This is special, especially on senior night with about 30 family members and friends here. It was very special. And to go through it with Matt, I mean, this started two years ago at 6 a.m. in the gym when the team was on the road and there was no lights, no cameras. We dreamed about this. So I couldn't write a better ending with him.
Redshirt Senior Guard Matt Hart
On closing out his career at home Words can't describe how excited I am, how happy I am, especially for this kid [Tyler] right here. If he's not player of the year in our conference, I don't know who is to be honest with you. The performance he put on tonight was legendary. I can't even fathom it right now.
On preparing for the A-10 tournament I know Tyler and Coach will agree with this, we're not afraid of any team. This is the best team in the league, and we can play with anybody. Honestly, I've never played on a more resilient team. So even if we go down 20, we know that we're going to fight back. I'm excited. We're going to take it one game at a time, every four minute stretch, we're going to take it four minutes at a time.
Interim Head Coach Maurice Joseph
On building up a lead and never giving it up Really impressed. Going into halftime we were up 17. I told the guys that they were going to make a push. They have really tough, talented, experienced players. They're extremely well coached. I knew they were going to make a push. I told them that it was going to come down to us getting stops. We didn't get the stops that we wanted to get, but we made enough plays to withstand their runs time and time again. We have a resilient bunch of guys. We pride ourselves on going to work every day. We don't look down the line and look at our seeding or our record. When we were at 5-8 we were like, let's go out and have good practice. Every game was just geared towards getting better and working and working and working. Our guys did that. When I asked them to trust the process, trust that we were going to get to where we needed to get, they needed to work. Never get too high. Never get too low. That's what our guys have done, and I'm really proud of them for how they responded to our message that I've tried to get across our entire season. It's a great group of guys.
On the five-game streak and reaching their peak at the right time I think we are playing the best basketball of our season. Last few games, whether it be high assists or low turnovers, there's been a couple stats that really stand out that we didn't see earlier in the year. That's a telling sign of a team that's getting better. Every game is like a different statistical category that was eye opening, that was completely night and day from the beginning of the year. That's a product of trusting the process and getting better throughout the year. We are playing the best basketball we have all year. Everybody knows that March is about momentum. The teams that are typically playing well towards the end of the year, those are the teams that go on runs, those are the teams that make special things happen. I think that team has that kind of potential because they've grown together. They've had their growing pains. We've been through some stuff. We've been through some blowout wins, we've been through heart-wrenching losses, coming back from down 18 on the road â€" they've been through it all. When you have a team that's been through all that, they become a little battle tested, rougher around the edges. We took a young team at the beginning of the year and our kids got a little tougher. We're in a good spot going into Pittsburgh.
On senior night for Tyler Cavanaugh and Matt Hart I was fortunate enough as a player to hit my last shot in college on my senior night, to be able to go out on a win and all that kind of stuff; I'll remember that for the rest of my life. I wanted that so desperately for those two guys. There aren't two guys in the country that deserve it more. These two guys, they work tirelessly. I'm talking about when no one's around, they're unbelievable. They've put in so much work; they treated the game the right way. They deserve what just happened upstairs.
On adapting in the second half to maintain the lead The game plan going in was to keep them off balance, switching up our defenses and preventing them from getting into a groove. Coach Miller did a great job of adjusting to our 1-3-1 and getting shots from the slots and making good plays. Their adjustment was going to man and switching things, we changed our ball screen coverage. These were the adjustments we've made all games to kind of alleviate the things that they were doing. Once they went through that wave and we couldn't find our stride, we were a little dazed. But once we kind of settled down a little bit, we got back to where we needed to be.
