Nov. 16, 2009
Recap |
Box Score
Head Coach Ed DeChellis
There were so many questions outside the program about what would happen if Talor [Battle] couldn't score. He doesn't have a great scoring night, but you guys get so many points from other places. What does that mean to these young guys to be able to step it up?
I think it gives them some confidence. Talor is a very good player; he is one of the best players in our league. There are nights where he'll have to do other things for us other than put the ball in the basket. He will have to be a distributor of the ball. People will get into him and try to take him out, so we need other guys to step up and make some basketball plays. I thought we had some guys do that tonight. It was nice to see
Tim Frazier get on track. [Chris] Babb made some shots. I thought everybody played well in the second half. We really needed to play well in the second half. We weren't doing much in the first half. The second half, we came out and played to win. I thought in the first half, we were just out there playing to play.
How does Frazier's outside shooting open up the rest of his game?
I just think his athleticism, speed and quickness helps other guys, too. He's a hard guy to contain. If he starts making perimeter shots, then we're that much better. We've seen him where he can make shots in practice and do pretty well. We just needed to get him some confidence and get him into the flow. He wasn't feeling very good since our game with Penn last Friday. He didn't think he played very well, didn't think he contributed. He was struggling over the weekend, but I thought he came out, played and played the way we think he can. I think he's a good player, who will get some confidence and continue to play well.
What about Babb and the ability to get on a little roll?
He got two fouls and never got into the flow against Penn the first half. In the second half, he did. We play Talor, Chris and Tim together and now we can get up the floor and spot up Babb a little more. He made a couple corner jump shots to open things up, but that's because we had two guys who could push the ball in (Talor and Tim). Those two guys could push the ball. Now, we're a little faster getting up the floor. That was good for us.
Were you expecting this team to come out of the locker room at the half as well as they did and as fast as they did with that run?
Robert Morris is a good team. They've got guys back from last year; they went to the NCAA Tournament. They were a team that was going to come in here, play hard and compete. At halftime, we said that we have to play to win. Play to win and go "take a swing". I thought we came out in the first five minutes and tried to make a statement. That's what basketball team should do. Hopefully, we'll end up being a good team and good teams have to come out and try to "throw a punch" every once in a while and get back into the thing and I thought we did that in the second half.
How big was the momentum of Chris Babb's three-pointers?
You get into a rhythm, you get into a flow. He is a rhythm shooter. I'm glad for him, I'm glad for our team. [When] he's wide open, he's supposed to shoot. He's got the green light to shoot it when he's open. He's a good shooter and we need him to make perimeter shots. As you saw, those things open really quickly. When you can spot up in transition and get open threes and you can knock them down, then shooting covers a multitude of sins.
How important is this week for this team with all the basketball you have?
We've got three games in four days against very good teams. It's very important. It will be the best team we play on Thursday. Wilmington is a little bit long and athletic. They've got guys who can score, so we'll have to play our best game. We can't waltz around and play a half and expect to win. We'll have to play, so hopefully we'll get that message across. They'll see some tape tomorrow and they'll see who we're going to play. They've got a big post kid inside, who's very good. They've got a couple perimeter guys who are good. They play 13, so we'll have to be focused because different guys do different things. They run a lot of things. It will be a good first-round game, then after that, who knows. We play Thursday, Friday and Sunday and it's three games. We were able to get Talor a lot of rest tonight. We sat him the last eight minutes. I thought the game was under control, so we could do that. We rested some guys, so we should have some good energy.
#24 Tim Frazier
Fr., Guard
It looked like you were really trying to be more aggressive with your shot tonight. Was that your intention?
It just kind of happened. I just put it on my teammates. My teammates found me an open shot. They were good shots and I was in rhythm, so the ball went up.
Even though Talor wasn't scoring, what about his ability to get the ball to other guys who were hot?
That just shows how much of a tremendous player he is. Even when his shot is not falling or he's not able to get his shot off, he's able to create for other players in wide open situations.
Do you feel like the game is coming to you a little bit and you're getting a better feel of how to run the point?
Definitely. Being able to run the team in practice and take reps over and over again [was beneficial]. Especially the first game last Friday was a good wakeup call and I was able to get all the jitters out. I was ready this game to come in and contribute.
How important is it to get a lot of minutes so you can get into a flow?
I don't know if more minutes would help me out or not. It's just being able to cherish the moments. Sometimes, if there's a close game and I'm not having a good game, If I need to be in the last minutes and be able to contribute, then I have to be ready. It doesn't really depend on how many minutes I get.
#10 Chris Babb
So., Guard
What was the attitude of the team coming out of the locker room at the half?
We were just more focused. The first half, we weren't really knocking down shots, weren't really executing on defense or offense. Coach told us in the second half to get them out of it the first couple minutes. You can't let teams like that hang around for too long because those are teams that you can get an easy loss too if you're not ready to play and we came out in the second half ready to play.
There were so many questions outside the program about what would happen if Talor [Battle] couldn't score. He doesn't have a great scoring night, but you guys get so many points from other places. How much do you guys feel good about being able to do that given those questions?
It's a great feeling that we're not just a one-man team. Talor is a great player, but everybody has off nights. Whenever he does do that, other players on the team can step up and knock down shots.
What was going through your head when you hit those consecutive three-pointers?
You've just got to get the crowd in the game. We were kind of sluggish in the first half. The crowd wasn't really into it. When we started making big plays, you have to get the crowd involved, too. That's a big part of the home-court advantage.
Has Tim [Frazier] had [shooting] performances like that in practice?
He's a great player. Everybody still has a lot of work to do. You can't settle with having one good game. You've still got to stay hungry and be ready to play the next game. We've still got a lot of ball to play. It's the first month of our games. No matter how many good games you have, you still have to be ready for the next one. You can't settle just for one game.
