College Basketball Invitational
March 19, 2008 | Men's Basketball
March 19, 2008
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Head Coach Lorenzo Romar
General Comments:
"I'm obviously very disappointed. I'm grateful that we got a chance to participate, although we had a quick departure. Valparaiso is a heady, veteran team. We did a good job defending their three-point shot for the most part. Down the stretch we certainly had our chances and we didn't capitalize. They took advantage of their opportunities. I don't think it could be any more complicated than that."On Artem Wallace: "Artem has an ACL issue. Until the MRI is done we won't know exactly how serious it is."
On Jon Brockman: "I was hopeful that maybe he wouldn't have to play. He said he was feeling pretty good. When neither team scored too much early we decided to give him an opportunity just to see how he would look. He did a pretty good job. He did far better than I thought he would tonight. He went through our shoot-around with us today and aside from that he hasn't done anything. I thought he did a remarkable job. On a gimpy ankle he had a double-double again. He didn't have his normal spring. Even during timeouts as he walked back out on the floor, I could see as the game progressed his limp became stronger."
On the season: "We were such an up and down team. When we finally did come together we didn't win enough to show that we did. I thought this team showed very good progress from where we were at the beginning of the year. But they bottom line is we couldn't quite make the plays that we needed to make to win games. If we were a decent foul shooting team, I firmly believe, we'd be in the NCAA tournament. When you look at 16-17, it depends on your glass. Half-empty; disaster. Half-full: we did a lot of things good down the stretch. If we can carry over into next season, with additional players coming in that shoot free throws well, we can take the next step and get back to where we need to be."
On how the team felt: "I felt like we had the jitters at the beginning of the game. We couldn't hold on to the ball, but we finally settled down. I thought the last day and a half we were intense. Our first day back I didn't like how we practiced, but after that we were intense."
On Valpo's inside play: "They did a good job. Bouchie in particular did a really good job. They do shoot the three-pointer well. One of the things we've done in the last month where we've made so much progress is we've been able to pack it in tighter and guard some of these bigs. We did a good job against Kevin Love. We accomplished a couple of things. We contained Huff and they didn't go crazy from the three-point, but I think that spread us out and we just had one-on-one coverage. They did what they had to do."
Junior Joel Smith
General Comments:
"It's frustrating. We scrapped and tried get the job done. We just couldn't pull it out in the last couple of minutes."On playing in front of few fans: "This is our home court. It shouldn't be a weird atmosphere at all no matter how many people are there. We still have to bring it to the floor."
On Valpo's inside play: "Coach stressed that they were a great three-point shooting team. He really didn't stress their inside game, but that still isn't an excuse to go out there and play like we did today."
On what the team needs to get better at: "We just need to go in the gym this offseason and work on the things that messed up our season. We definitely were a horrible free-throw shooting team this year and that's one of the keys that we need to focus on this summer as a whole. We pretty much bring it every other time, we just need to bring it together at once."
On the up-and-down season: "Once we come out and throw the first punch and keep hitting we do awesome. I can't put my finger on what is that when we go out there we just can't bring it every game."
Head Coach Homer Drew
General Statement:
"Just very proud of our basketball team and the perseverance that they had to continually come back. I thought our two big guys Urule [Igbavboa] and Bryan [Bouchie] did a really good job inside. We have such a great respect for University of Washington and Coach Romar and what he does. Their bigs are just really good. I was pleased how our guys competed. Brandon [McPherson] and Jarryd [Loyd] got some loose balls at the end and Brandon getting that last one to finish the game off. Just proud of our team. It's a team that plays well together and they have good chemistry and we're just very proud of them."Assistant Coach Luke Gore
General Statement:
"We're extremely excited obviously. We're just proud of the guys - they just fought, fought, fought. Washington's really good. They've had so many tough losses like this all year and we're just happy we stayed in there and fought hard. Our kids have done it all year."On Jon Brockman: "We prepared for him to play the whole game. Obviously we didn't prepare too well because he still had a great game. We had many different ways to defend him and finally at the end it worked a little bit. He's a heck of a player; so strong and physical. He's a hard matchup no matter what you do."
On Urule Igbavboa and Bryan Bouchie: "We go to them all year long and Bryan hit that shot at the top of the key in the first half and he got rolling. Igbavboa has been there for us all year and we expect those two guys to get it."
