Marshall University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
2/1/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 1, 2012
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Marshall Head Coach Tom Herrion
I'm really happy for my kidsââ'¬Â¦their attitude has been phenomenal in this stretchââ'¬Â¦I think most times you play the way you practice, our practices the days going to Memphis were outstanding, we played well, didn't play well enough to winââ'¬Â¦our practices the last two days - Monday, Tuesday - and our shoot-around today were outstandingââ'¬Â¦I think its reflective of the attitude of our kids, leadership of the older guys and that's what I'm really proud of now.
We kind of got back to our old fabric - defend and rebound.
Defensively, I thought we were really goodââ'¬Â¦they scored a couple of buckets early in transition - we fell down, gave up a dunk early, gave up an open three, and then once we got our defense set - they run so much clock in their offense and we were as patient as we've been defensivelyââ'¬Â¦very few breakdowns. The end of the half was a little sloppy
Offensively, I thought we took good shotsââ'¬Â¦still struggled to make some of themââ'¬Â¦but when you take good shots and you've got guys that rebound the ball like that you usually get good rebounding position and obviously we were dominant on the glass. It was good to see a very balanced effortââ'¬Â¦good contributions from a lot of guysââ'¬Â¦a terrific win for us.
[Shaq] got us goingââ'¬Â¦we were struggling a little bit early offensivelyââ'¬Â¦he hit those three threesââ'¬Â¦he's really shooting the ball wellââ'¬Â¦playing with a good rhythmââ'¬Â¦playing like a senior shouldââ'¬Â¦he's put a lot of time in working on his game and it's reflective in some of his production lately.
On defense turning into offense:
We finally got some easy baskets in transition because we rebounded the ball and obviously got easy baskets on stick-backsââ'¬Â¦got to the foul line in the first halfââ'¬Â¦our defense totally carried usââ'¬Â¦our defense and our rebounding carried us.
We had 17 assists on 23 field goalsââ'¬Â¦that's a really good numberââ'¬Â¦.were sharing the ball betterââ'¬Â¦the ball is movingââ'¬Â¦I thought we ran better offenseââ'¬Â¦we were patient in the second halfââ'¬Â¦we used some clock which was good for us to settle into the gameââ'¬Â¦anytime you hold a team in our league to 44 points, that's an outstanding effort and our kids deserve a lot of credit.
On getting back to winning:
A one-game winning streakââ'¬Â¦it's what we're onââ'¬Â¦it's what we wanted to be on since we got on the bus at midnight in FedExForumââ'¬Â¦pulled in about 8:30, 9 o'clock in the morningââ'¬Â¦we just talked about getting a one-game winning streakââ'¬Â¦as long as that ride was back from Memphis, tough loss, it's all we can doââ'¬Â¦now we've got to get another one-game winning streak on Saturday against the hottest team in the conference in Tulsa.
On playing a "suspenseless" game before Tulsa on Saturday:
We're not exempt from anythingââ'¬Â¦you lose a few in a row - and we did - your confidence is shook and a lot of things are shook, that's human natureââ'¬Â¦but that's my job, our job, we haven't flinched, we haven't blinkedââ'¬Â¦we stick to the plan and these kid have respondedââ'¬Â¦I can't tell you how proud I amââ'¬Â¦I'd be really concerned if I came into practice and we had guys kind of shutting downââ'¬Â¦our guys that didn't play a lot tonight, they're a big reason why we're playing wellââ'¬Â¦they're practicing their brains out for usââ'¬Â¦that other group: Martin and Boykins and Hanner, Yous and Kambola are really helping in practiceââ'¬Â¦hopefully it gives us some confidenceââ'¬Â¦we got to play a lot betterââ'¬Â¦we can still play a lot betterââ'¬Â¦but it's good to see us get back to our identity.
