Rhode Island Quotes
Jerrell Wright
On what changed in the second half:
“I think our defense, going to man and being aggressive and trying not to foul. Contesting the two point shots and going out there and being tough and making sure we grabbed rebounds at the end of each possession.”
On playing the two man game with Steve Zack:
“I think it was very effective. I knew if they doubled down than Steve would be wide open. This whole week in practice we worked on looking for each other. We knew that if guards don’t come down and cut than the bigs have to look for each other.”
On his confidence tonight:
“My teammates kept passing me the ball. Coach G kept telling me to go up and be aggressive. I just felt that every time I got the ball that if I wasn’t doubled I could get a good shot around the rim.”
On the turnovers:
“I thought we hurt ourselves a lot in the first half with the turnovers. It was a one play game, the second half we did a great job on both the defensive and offensive ends. Turnovers, they lose you games.”
Coach G
Opening Statement:
“We are always, as all teams are, very disappointed with a loss. I thought we played very well in the second half, we were better defensively, we didn’t turn it over. We missed free throws, we missed some pretty good looks from three, we were a shot or two away from being able to win the game. I thought our effort was good. For as disappointed as I am I thought that second half was something to build on. I think that we will make a better percentage of our free throws, I think we won’t dig ourselves in a hole in the first half the way we did today. If we can play the way we did in the second half throughout the next two or three weeks I think we can win games. It is something to build on. It is our best half in the last two or three weeks.”
On the defense in the second half:
“It’s both. We didn’t turn it over; we got it into Jerrell [Wright]. We still didn’t rebound, there are two things we didn’t do as well as we could, get the defensive rebounds that we needed and make free throws and maybe an open three pointer here or there. The rim had a rim on it, in terms of effort it wasn’t bad and they’re [Rhode Island] are good.”
On Jordan Price’s off shooting night:
“If you look at their stats they are if not the best team defensively in the A-10, one of the best teams in the A-10. They have some big strong guys. Him [Price] picking up his fourth foul early on didn’t help. It was one of those tough nights for him.”
On Jerrell Wright:
“Jerrell carried us offensively. However you want to phrase it he was very good. He was a huge part in us having a chance to win.”
