University of Massachusets Athletics
Postgame Quotes: UMass 128, Explorers 59
August 18, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Aug. 18, 2006
Head Coach Travis Ford
On the win:
"It was an exciting way to play. With all things said and done, I was very excited about the accomplishments of our basketball team. I thought James Life passed the ball as well as I have ever seen him, he also made some nice plays attacking the basket. We had a chance to work on a lot of different rotations. When every player came out of the game they were excited for the other players. These are the things we are looking for; not necessarily how many we win by or who or competition is, there are a lot of things we can work on. I was very happy with our execution and unselfishness and the energy and excitement our guys played with. To watch how much fun they had to play with each other, obviously I was satisfied."
On the overall contributions of many players:
"With the style we are trying to play, as we talked about in our team meetings earlier today, the one word we are going to use is pressure on both ends of the court. We want to pressure the other team by bringing the ball up the court quickly and put pressure on their defense. We want to full-court press and do a lot of trapping. Pressure defense against their offense. I thought we were successful doing that which creates easy opportunities for Etienne Brower, Dante Milligan and these guys to make spectacular plays. It spreads the court out so much. Tomorrow is a new day, we don't want to get overly excited or overly confident. We are still and unproven basketball team. But, I enjoyed the atmosphere they played around tonight."
On the heat of the gym and different players playing different positions:
"We played 11 guys, Matt Pennie got to play. I rotated them pretty freely. I tried every combination. You saw Chris Lowe play with Tiki Mayben probably for 15 to 16 minutes, which is probably the minimum they are going to play together. They are going to play a lot more together. Etienne Brower played the four-spot. Gary Forbes played some four. We tried all kinds of combinations. We made shots, we made some 3-pointers, that was good to see. It doesn't matter who you are playing, you still have to put the ball in the hole. Overall, I was very pleased and very fun to watch."
R-Junior Gary Forbes
On the win
"The team we played was pretty good. They had a lot of quick guards so we were just focusing on trying to get a lot of deflections. We were trying to play in this new environment with the international rules."
On playing up-tempo
"That was one of the things that Coach Ford has been stressing. We are trying to get up and down and trying to be a fast-paced team getting up and down the court. This type of tempo really helps us a lot."
On playing so many combinations:
"The good thing about this team at UMass this year is that we have a lot of different line-ups which we can go to and try to get used to each other."
On UMass' overall performance:
"I would give us a B+. Some of the plays we ran, we did not execute them properly. We just have to get used to each other. That is what is perfect about this trip, we can try to get comfortable with each other."
On what adjustments will be made for Saturday's game:
"I think we break down the film and look at the turnovers. We need to execute our plays better and work on our pressure defense."
On the inside play of UMass:
"This was a small team we played against, so it was easy for Stephane and Ray to get easy buckets and rebound against them."
On the heat and humidity on the gym:
"It was not hard for me. I am used to playing in areas and conditions like this, playing in New York, playing the parks there. ... We could have played outside."
