University of Massachusets Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Xavier/UMass A-10 First Round
March 08, 2006 | Men's Basketball
March 8, 2006
Recap | Box Score | Notes
Massachusetts Head Coach Travis Ford
"I want to first congratulate Sean [Miller] and his ball club. They were much more physical than us, much more ready to play than us. When they shoot 51 percent from the field and 56 percent from three and we only outrebound them by one, we did not play to our strengths. You're not going to win games [that way]."
"We had four or five balls with no one around that we just dropped. Turnovers have been a problem for us. We are not going to beat anyone when they shoot 10-of-18 from the three-point line. They were taking us off the dribble. It looked like they were trying to take us one on one and they were successful. We played better in the second half, but they just made big shots."
On his team: "I didn't see them getting tight. Our offense just struggled. When you're not scoring it affects everything you're doing. Your defense feeds off your offense."
"Chris Lowe had a lot of responsibility on his shoulders [this season]. I really enjoyed him being more coachable as the season wore on."
On James Life: "He's a nice basketball player. He competed today."
Massachusetts Senior Jeff Viggiano
"It's depressing. It's not the way you want to go out. [Xavier] had much more energy than us from the start."
Xavier Head Coach Sean Miller
"It was a good win for our team. I thought Brandon Cole's play was really tremendous for our team but also tremendous for him as a person. He's gone through an awful lot with his injury and it's really taken him a long period of time. A lot of kids like him would be in the tank in the second week of March but he found a way to stick with it and it really helped our team. We were in foul trouble and, quite frankly, we're not deep enough to overcome that."
"We made 10 three's tonight. We just played up there on Saturday and I'd like to say we changed a lot and did some things differently. But in that game we were 3-of-15 from three and tonight we made 10. We are a team that's capable of shooting. We have to deliver on that and tonight we did."
"I really believe that between our shooting and Cole's play, that those are the two significant factors that helped us win."
"One win in the postseason and it feels like 10 - everyone will tell you that. And tomorrow if you're at the podium as the loser, you wonder where all the attention and the good feeling went. It changes so drastically."
"I liked the way we looked tonight. But more importantly we played hard and gave great effort even in the first four minutes of the game when UMass came out sharp. We were playing at a high level and that was good to see."
Junior Forward Justin Doellman
On his three-point shot late: "It was a big shot. It took us from [up] five to eight points. And that was big for us when they made their run. It gave us a lot of confidence. They're a great team and we knew they were going to make a run."
Junior Forward Justin Cage
"It's a big win, but it's just a win and now we've got to get ready for tomorrow. It's behind us now, but it was a big win."
On the play of Brandon Cole: "It was real important because Josh [Duncan] got in foul trouble and Cole came in and stepped it up and helped his confidence."
"We had an idea of what we needed to do and we knew if we lose know we're done. I was out for revenge and that was my mindset coming into the game."