University of Massachusets Athletics
Post Game Quotes
February 24, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 24, 2007
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UMass Head Coach Travis Ford
On tonight's win:
"Well, it wasn't a pretty game, but I'm just excited we won. Saint Louis came in and they had a great game plan. They took away our posts and some of our driving lanes. We needed to be a little more patient but we weren't patient enough. Obviously we didn't shoot the ball well, which you need to when they're playing that well on defense. We had opportunities to score but we just couldn't put the ball down. We never really got comfortable playing against their defense but again we're just glad we won the game plain and simple."
On the similarities to last year's game:
"The defense was good most of the night. It was very, very good. We got in foul trouble with Stephane [Lasme] and Rashaun [Freeman] again. It was very eerie to last year's game. The game was almost identical to last year's loss at Saint Louis, except for the score. I mean if you weren't there that game, then this was a carbon copy."
On James Life's play:
"He had a look on his face the last couple minutes like "I haven't done much the last few minutes, but I'm going to do something here" and he went out and did it.
UMass junior forward Gary Forbes
On the team's preparation for Saint Louis:
"Coach [Travis] Ford kept telling us that Saint Louis had beaten the top four teams in the league, aside from us and that they would be coming in here to try to steal one from us. They're a really good team at home and on the road so it's definitely a good win for us."
UMass senior forward Stephane Lasme
On the team's play:
"We were just trying to figure out how to win the game. We showed that we're still a team and we stick together no matter what. I'm proud of my team. I'm just happy we won that game, after that tough loss last year."
On playing against Saint Louis' big men:
"It was kind of tough in the beginning but I got used to it. We should be ready for them after playing against Pittsburgh center Aaron Gray."
UMass senior guard James Life
On hitting the go-ahead three pointer:
"We weren't hitting shots. We were really struggling and so I came into the huddle and said, `I'm tired of this. I'm about to start hitting shots.' And so I went out and hit it."
"It felt good to hit that three pointer. I'm due for it. I'm about 0-50 in my last five games. It's a lot of pressure shooting at the end of the game but it felt good."
Saint Louis Head Coach Brad Soderberg
On Saint Louis' game plan:
"We had our game plan and executed it really well. If someone had said to be before the game that the game would have the amount of points tonight, I would have been happy and would have liked our chances."
On UMass' season:
"I have a lot of respect for what Travis Ford has done. It's been a remarkable turnaround in the time since last year's game."
On UMass forward Stephane Lasme and center Rashaun Freeman:
"Stephane and Ray are incredible around the basket. I had our big guys sag off them to give us better position to get rebounds. Our game plan was fine, I was just disappointed in how the game turned out."
