MAC Tournament Quarterfinals Post Game Quotes
3/9/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Kent State Quotes
Kent State Head Coach Jim Christian (opening comment): "It was a game in which I thought both teams played extremely hard. I'm proud of our team, we got down five and then we battled and found a way to get back in the game. You just have to find ways to get big stops and have poise of the offensive end."
(on the play of the bench) "I was proud of them. We had some guys give us some minutes tonight that don't always have to give us minutes. To win this tournament, guys have to play. It's had to win three games in three days, especially with the intensity level that everyone is playing with. So everyone has to give us good, solid minutes."
Senior guard Omni Smith (on answering Western Michigan's run): "Well Jordan Mincy and Mike Scott just kept us together. Then Chris (Singletary) and Rod (Rodriquez Sherman) hit big shots and we got big stops on defense."
Freshman guard Chris Singletary (on offensive rebounding): "Just being really aggressive, going to the glass. Coach talked about how in the first half Western (Michigan) was always going to the glass and getting rebounds, and how we had to stop them from getting rebounds and at the same time go in and get the rebounds ourselves."
Freshman guard Rodriquez Sherman (on the expected atmosphere for tomorrow's semifinal v. Akron): "I really don't know. I can't wait to see it though. It's probably going to be crazy though because they are our rival but we are just going to go out their and play."
Western Michigan Quotes
Western Michigan Head Coach Steve Hawkins (opening comment): "Kent State played a terrific ball game and deserved to win. They beat us on the glass and that was the concern for us coming into the game. They drove the ball at us. For a while there, we were able to get it stopped to make a run at them, but they were able to get to the rack a lot more in the second half and we went dry. All and all, it was just a little bit too much of them and not quite enough of us. We just seemed to be fighting an uphill battle the whole game."
Freshman guard David Kool: (on not getting great three-point looks): "When you shoot like we did, you've got to give credit to the other team's defense. They did a good job of not letting us get off some good looks. Sometimes that happens to shooters. Unfortunately, it happened in a game like this (going cold), but you've got to give credit to their defense tonight."
Junior center Joe Reitz (on Kent State's rebounding): "Obviously, offensive rebounding was a big key. We talked about it before the game, but we didn't do a good job of boxing out and sometimes we were stepping over our big guys. Kent State really came out and crashed the boards tonight. That was the key."
