Wake Forest Athletics
Postgame Quotes
11/23/2018 5:47:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Wake Forest Head Coach Danny Manning
Opening Statement:
"All losses are tough, there's no question about it, and then this one definitely stings. Houston Baptist just continued to fight. We played the game and for 40 minutes of game time we had the lead and they led for a minute, but they lead for the most important minute of the competition. They continued to battle, you have to give them credit. I think for us we had far too many turnovers which hurt us and we gave up way a lot of offensive rebounds which hurt us as well. Then there was a critical stage late in the ball game where we weren't able to (1) get stops but (2) step up to the free throw line and knock down a free throw. I think we were one of six at one point during the critical stage of the game. You have to give them credit, they just continued to battle and battle and chip away and came away with a win."
On what they could have done to close out the game in regulation:
"Take care of the ball, rebound the ball better, not give them second chance opportunities. They had 16 offensive rebounds – that's something we don't want to happen and then they forced us into 22 turnovers. We just have to be better defensively and in all of those situations we were in tonight, understanding those situations and being where we are supposed to be or should have been in terms of when guys made shots."
On fouling during the last possession up three:
"I did but I didn't think we were rebounding well enough. We were one of six in that critical stage in the second half but yeah it was brought up and I decided not to do it."
On what they were looking for on the last possession in overtime:
"We just wanted to spread the floor. We didn't know defensively what they were going to come out in and for us it's just ball movement and being able to attack. We were a little stagnant, didn't move the ball and didn't get a paint touch. They wanted us to shoot long jump shots and we settled too many times. They shot 28 threes and we shot 18. We shot at a good percentage but we need to do more inside-out play."
Houston Baptist Head Coach Ron Cottrell
Opening Statement:
"Obviously I'm as proud as I can be for our team. I thought our guys really laid it on the line at every turn. Every time we needed a critical stop we got one. Every time we needed a big time basket we got one. I thought our guys really played for each other. We talk about that a lot with our guys, playing for each other. Let's love on each other and play for each other and I thought our guys did a great job of that tonight. I couldn't be more proud for our North Carolina guys. Obviously we have such a strong connection to the state with so many guys on our roster so it was great to see them enjoy and celebrate this victory in the locker room after the game. I thought our guys really played hard and well tonight."
On what made this game different from the other two Power Five games they have played this year:
"I thought we built on some of the confidence we got from those games. I think anytime you play an Arizona or a Wisconsin – and we got a win against a Fordham team that's really good – that's there only loss so far is to us – so I thought we were kind of building toward this and certainly we have another game on Monday to get ready for now. Wake is so long and so bouncy and so athletic and we knew they presented a different challenge than what Wisconsin did. They were really more like Arizona in a lot of ways with their length and athleticism. I thought our guys handled that really well. We had to make some adjustments in what we did with our ball screen offense because of their length and so we ran some different sets out of that. We had to switch up our defense a little bit. I thought [Brandon] Childress really got in a flow and really got going so we had to do some things to get him out of flow. I'll tell you what, when they started the second half and we kept getting to media timeouts and they were still 100 percent from the field, I was starting to question if we would have the gas to pull this off."
Opening Statement:
"All losses are tough, there's no question about it, and then this one definitely stings. Houston Baptist just continued to fight. We played the game and for 40 minutes of game time we had the lead and they led for a minute, but they lead for the most important minute of the competition. They continued to battle, you have to give them credit. I think for us we had far too many turnovers which hurt us and we gave up way a lot of offensive rebounds which hurt us as well. Then there was a critical stage late in the ball game where we weren't able to (1) get stops but (2) step up to the free throw line and knock down a free throw. I think we were one of six at one point during the critical stage of the game. You have to give them credit, they just continued to battle and battle and chip away and came away with a win."
On what they could have done to close out the game in regulation:
"Take care of the ball, rebound the ball better, not give them second chance opportunities. They had 16 offensive rebounds – that's something we don't want to happen and then they forced us into 22 turnovers. We just have to be better defensively and in all of those situations we were in tonight, understanding those situations and being where we are supposed to be or should have been in terms of when guys made shots."
On fouling during the last possession up three:
"I did but I didn't think we were rebounding well enough. We were one of six in that critical stage in the second half but yeah it was brought up and I decided not to do it."
On what they were looking for on the last possession in overtime:
"We just wanted to spread the floor. We didn't know defensively what they were going to come out in and for us it's just ball movement and being able to attack. We were a little stagnant, didn't move the ball and didn't get a paint touch. They wanted us to shoot long jump shots and we settled too many times. They shot 28 threes and we shot 18. We shot at a good percentage but we need to do more inside-out play."
Houston Baptist Head Coach Ron Cottrell
Opening Statement:
"Obviously I'm as proud as I can be for our team. I thought our guys really laid it on the line at every turn. Every time we needed a critical stop we got one. Every time we needed a big time basket we got one. I thought our guys really played for each other. We talk about that a lot with our guys, playing for each other. Let's love on each other and play for each other and I thought our guys did a great job of that tonight. I couldn't be more proud for our North Carolina guys. Obviously we have such a strong connection to the state with so many guys on our roster so it was great to see them enjoy and celebrate this victory in the locker room after the game. I thought our guys really played hard and well tonight."
On what made this game different from the other two Power Five games they have played this year:
"I thought we built on some of the confidence we got from those games. I think anytime you play an Arizona or a Wisconsin – and we got a win against a Fordham team that's really good – that's there only loss so far is to us – so I thought we were kind of building toward this and certainly we have another game on Monday to get ready for now. Wake is so long and so bouncy and so athletic and we knew they presented a different challenge than what Wisconsin did. They were really more like Arizona in a lot of ways with their length and athleticism. I thought our guys handled that really well. We had to make some adjustments in what we did with our ball screen offense because of their length and so we ran some different sets out of that. We had to switch up our defense a little bit. I thought [Brandon] Childress really got in a flow and really got going so we had to do some things to get him out of flow. I'll tell you what, when they started the second half and we kept getting to media timeouts and they were still 100 percent from the field, I was starting to question if we would have the gas to pull this off."
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