University of Massachusets Athletics
Post Game Quotes: UMass 64 BU 45
December 12, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 12, 2005
Quotes: Coach Ford general reaction to the game: Obviously I am very excited. I was concerned coming into the game playing against a BU team that had won their last three games, including a tough win up in Maine. I was glad to see we could make some threes against a very good defensive team. At half time, the players and I had a discussion about our defense and rebounding and they responded well in the second half. We were taking too many quick, bad shots early. Overall, we played well on both ends.
Coach Ford on James Life's performance: The guys did a good job of getting him the ball tonight in a position where he could score. At halftime we talked about setting him up to get him open looks. We give players a lot of freedom on offense, but we had to examine our shot selection in the first half. We ran our offense in the second half and got better looks at the basket.
Ford on the Minutemen defense: I thought we played much better defense in the second half holding them to 16 points. Defense is sometimes a product of offense. When you're taking quick shots, and they aren't falling, you tend to get frustrated and it gets harder to dig in. When you play well offensively and the shots are falling, you feed off that on the defensive end. We've just got to execute.
Jeff Viggiano on the game: "Everybody contributed. The first half was nothing to write home about. In the second half, everyone chipped in. It was important to get such a big win with such a big break coming up."
Viggiano on James Life's shooting: "Once James starts hitting shots, it opens up the floor for everyone else. We got on the fast break, which led to easy shots. It was a fun style of basketball to play."
Chris Lowe on his game-time decision: "I had a cavity in my tooth. The tooth had to come out. The doctor who did the surgery said I could play as long as I wore a mouthpiece and took medicine. I was comfortable out there, but my mouth was soar. I still have numbness."
Coach Dennis Wolff on the game: "We ran out of gas. I won't take anything away from UMass. They wore us down. We made both physical and mental mistakes. UMass kept playing. It was our fourth game since Tuesday of last week. UMass deserved to win. We were fighting ourselves as much as UMass."
Freshman Ben Coblyn on the game: "Coach says you learn as much from losing as winning. We came in to the game expecting to win. We just need to execute better next time out."
