Post-Game Quotes
November 05, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 5, 2007
Washington 86, Seattle Pacific 77 (exhibition)
Bank of America Arena; Seattle, Wash.
Monday, Nov. 5, 2007
Post-Game Quotes
SEATTLE PACIFIC HEAD COACH JEFF HIRONAKA
General Comments: "We were the underdog, but we tried to make it a game, and we played hard. We tried to make them at least earn it. Down the stretch, Brockman carried them. I think we got a little fatigued from Saturday night's game and started cramping a little bit. So I think we finally hit the wall there, but I was proud of the effort - we gave everything we had and they had to work to win the game. It should make us better and hopefully it will make them better."
On Washington: "They're young. It's going to depend on their perimeter guys and how well they can handle the pressure themselves. I know they are trying to put pressure on, but at the same time, they are going to have to handle teams that are way more athletic than us and probably put a little bit more heat on them. I think they are solid with Jon (Brockman) in there, but after him those other guys are pretty young. They are a young squad so who knows; if they get it going they could be fine, but if they don't, it just depends on where their confidence is. At some point if they happen to lose a couple, can they sustain and what can they do."
On stand-out Husky players: "Brockman, obviously, but Venoy (Overton) showed some brilliance there at times, just running the show and not doing too much. Having him and Dentmon there at least will give them another guy to run the point. I think the one thing they are missing is Appleby - they need that three-point shooter. But there is nothing they can do about that; he is hurt."
WASHINGTON JUNIOR FORWARD Jon Brockman
On not being able to play due to foul trouble: That's one of the worst feelings in the world. You feel like an idiot, first of all, for making stupid fouls. And you can't help your team when you want to be out there. It's frustrating. It's nobody's fault but my own. I've just got to be smarter with my fouls. I'm going to get a couple, I know, but I have to try to limit them.
On coming back in with a purpose: We were down a point, and it was a do or die situation. Me, Justin and Quincy all stepped in together and knew we had to get it done.
On preparations for the next game: SPU played awesome tonight, they played a great game. Rob especially. He was phenomenal. We have to play a lot better defense. We forced them into back doors and our lob guy wasn't there. We've got to tighten up our defense everywhere and we've got to do a lot better job at crashing the box. I don't know what the rebound margin was, but with our length and athleticism, it's got to be a lot more than that.
On Venoy Overton: He's a fun player to play with. He sees the floor really well and is always pushing it, he's a competitor. But he's a freshman. He's going to make some mistakes, he's going to turn it over. He's going to be one of those players that we see improving tremendously throughout the year. He's getting better every time we play.
On missing Ryan Appleby: Ryan does so much to a defense, stretching it out. They have to respect the guy - he'll hit a three all the way from half court. We don't have him for six weeks so we've got to suck it up and someone has to step up.
On the turnover situation: Some of that, early on in the season, it happens. But a lot of them were stupid one-handed shovel passes that went right to their players. We've got to treat the ball like it's our prize possession.
On what he liked tonight: I liked getting back on the floor. For an exhibition game, there was a decent turnout. The crowd was into it. You don't really know what you're missing until you get back out there.
WASHINGTON HEAD COACH Lorenzo Romar
Hats off to Coach Hironaka and his staff and his team. They did a nice job. They ran their stuff, they played like it appeared they've been practicing. They did the same thing at Nevada the other night. You've got to give them a lot of credit. Rob Diederichs had a heck of a game. Very efficient. They did a nice job. We wanted to come into this game and cut down on our turnovers; we didn't do a good job at that. We wanted to come out and defend and we obviously didn't do a good job on Diederichs. That's a lot of points to give up to one guy. The last time we did that was to Salim Stoudamire, who was pretty good. Thank goodness for exhibition games. You get to go out and see where you are. I think we were so anxious to play, come out and do a good job that a lot of our guys wanted to do it themselves. We didn't share the ball like we needed to share the ball. We weren't patient. We tried to make the home run play too fast, too early. And that hurt us. Our best basketball tonight was when we shared the ball and moved the ball and went inside to Jon Brockman. It's part of learning what we've got to do to be successful.
On Venoy Overton: He played 33 minutes. And he didn't start. So that would give you some indication of what we thought. He was erratic at times. He's fast with the ball, he's constantly looking to be aggressive and be in the action, which is what we want. I think sometimes the young players, especially in a situation like this, you've got to let them go a little bit so they learn what not to do. Venoy makes things happen with the basketball. He's constantly looking up the floor. Did he make mistakes? Yes. But at the same time he helped us in a lot of ways. I thought he did a good job.
On what he liked tonight: I felt good when we did what we were supposed to do. We did a nice job. We've got to turn that into a forty minute effort. It feels good that we'll be able to show how we're still off the mark and what we need to do to correct it.
On the freshmen: Justin [Holiday] didn't play a lot tonight so it's hard to talk about what he did. Matthew [Bryan-Amaning] has an array of moves. Sometimes he tries to use them all in one possession. The trick is just to get Matthew to slow down and pick his spots because he's very talented. Darnell Gant I thought did a good job while he was in there. He only played six minutes, but he did a nice job. He is as attentive as anyone we have.
