Feb. 1, 2006
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UD Head Coach Brian Gregory
"I thought our defensive effort was, at least for a forty-minute stretch, as good as all year long. We might have played better in spots this year, but in terms of a total game that was a tremendous effort. Stachitas is a great player and we did a good job on him. You don't really shut him down, you make him take tough shots. Holding them to 6-21 from three was big for us. And what we did was we just kept fighting. We were on the floor today maybe more than we were in maybe the last thirty days combined. It's not like we weren't playing hard before, but I have a different level of that than most people and I think our guys are starting to understand that. So it's a big win for us."
"We want to protect our home court, now we get to go on the road. As I told our guys in there, it's important that we remained focused."
"With the injuries and all that, it's always hardest the second game. The first game you've got guys hurt and now so everybody kind of gets jacked up and playing with adrenaline. That's kind of what happened on Saturday. Then the next game it's like `Oh Sh**. All these guys are out' ya know? We played well. Our guys didn't have that kind of hangover from the second game. Last thing I told them was we need to use this as a springboard and not a sofa. We've got to move on from here and get better, not sit around and sit around and think we did something great. It was a big win, but we've got a big game on Saturday. So now we need to get ready for that."
"You don't have to be a brain surgeon or a great basketball coach to figure out that when your two guards play well then you get more inside baskets too. And Warren played well. I probably should have mentioned him first. He's gone through a lot of crap and a lot of tough times. Give him credit. I'm not sure there's many people in that Arena, myself included, who would have still been out there playing like he's fighting after going through what he's gone through. He understands that's part of growing up. He played a tremendous game for us and ran the floor for us. He had the ball so much, and the bigs took advantage of it. Norman played well, Alvarez had eight rebounds. He doesn't have to make a basket and he knows that. He was a key impact in that win. We got good basketball from a lot of guys."
"Brian (Roberts) is a dynamic scorer and he's very explosive. He can get on a streak and all of those was a good shot. Not one of those was a bad shot, we were in the flow offensively. He'd already be playing at the next level if he played like that all the time. Those are the flashes that he has. His consistency has gotten better. He was dynamite down the stretch and we just kept going to him. Myself, my staff and the players are starting to get a better feel for how we flow offensively."
"In this league if you don't shoot well from the line with all these close games you're in trouble. We shot the ball well, made a couple key ones when it was a six, seven, eight-point game that kind of extended it. Maybe when it was a ten-point game. If you miss a couple of those and then it's going to go down to the wire. We made just enough. I think at one point we missed two in a row then Norman stepped up and made one. The problem is we don't get to the free throw line enough. I think we've been outshot in the seven games prior to this maybe by 55 free throws. I think in the league we're shooting almost 80%. We're a pretty good free throw shooting team. You've got to make free throws in this league down the stretch because so many games are going to be like this, tight all the way through."
"Every shot that he (Roberts) took was a good shot. He made the big shot at the buzzer and it's also my responsibility to get him in a position to score. So right off the bat, first play, we run something for him. He had a lay-up, he missed it. That was a good shot. So he got the message. He's a smart enough player."
"We did a good job. That's a good defensive team. It's not like we're playing against someone that's not guarding them. Brian made some adjustments, we made some adjustments. It only took one to get him going so maybe where he didn't think he was open in the first half, now he shoots it and gets it going. Sometimes those are just the flows of the game. I'm not always sure there's a reason for everything that happens. He's a great player, so all of a sudden he's going to make some great plays. That's kind of what happened. I don't think they did anything wrong, he just made some great plays. At that point his offense was better than their defense."
"Jimmy (Binnie) played very well. I asked him yesterday if he thought he could guard Stachitas, because I told him that I didn't know if he could. He did a heck of a job on him. He did a good job. He did a very good job."
"When we're playing better defense, we get in open-court situations more. We get stops and we rebound the ball, and we can kick it out to Warren. Sometimes in that situation he knows exactly what he's doing and nobody else does, including the coach. But he's been making much better decisions, so we'll let it ride."
"Our defense was very active tonight. We forced 12 turnovers, and got five steals which may be a record in my time here. Our effort was tremendous."
Saint Joseph's is a good team. You don't beat Kansas if you're not a good team. You don't win the games that they have if you're not a good team. They're going to keep winning games. They have good senior leadership. At the end of the A-10 season that team is going to be right in the mix. Mark it down."
Saint Joseph's Head Coach Phil Martelli
On the loss of Dave Mallon to injury in the first half
"He's a senior and when you're on the road you certainly need a senior in that situation. But, you deal with the hand that you have. It shortens your bench and it puts us in a situation where we have to play some younger guys who aren't really great together. Ahmad (Nivins) and Alvin (Mofunanya) are freshman. They don't really want to play well together yet. Dave is a great defensive anchor for us."
On Saint Joseph's second half defense
"We got out-physicaled by a young team. They are dribbling the ball to the basket and we aren't even able to stop and contest a layup at times. To me that's disappointing. I think the game was won by the team that was more physical in nature. That shouldn't be when you have six seniors on the court for you. Guys who have played a lot of minutes, but are sophomores. We got moved around. Not our hearts, not our minds, but our bodies were moved around."
On Dayton's attacking offense in the second half
"There is some decision making that you would like to have back. We were trading baskets, but that's not our nature to trade baskets. It's just too many points. They scored 77 by the end. After you throw out some of the junk at the end...we are not equipped to score 70 or 71 points."
On the play of Saint Joseph's starting backcourt
"They had eight turnovers, so I wouldn't say it was a good game. I don't judge the game by how many points are scored. I judge it by how it was played. Eight turnovers for your starting backcourt is way too much."
On the difference in Saint Joseph's defense from the first half to the second half
"There was some real misses in our switches in the second half. We gave up a three and then he (Brian Roberts) got rolling a little bit with a dribble drive. I think our communication was off a bit. On the road in particular you have to be really good in your communication. That loss of Dave Mallon hurts you because he is our best communicator."
UD Sophomore Forward Norman Plummer
"We look at every game as an important game to get where we want go. In the conference its wide-open right now....Besides GW I think everyone has at least two loses so we just need to get things done and make a run."
"Warren played real well tonight, I think he played his best game of the year, he didn't turn the ball over much and he got the ball where it needed to go and controlled the team. If he plays like that every game then we will win a lot more games."
UD Sophomore Brian Roberts
"We had a lot of team effort out there tonight and Warren played a great game. Coach has been on him a little bit lately but he brought us back everyday and came out tonight and played hard so it was a good game for Warren."
On being more consistent
"I feeling pretty good and confident with myself and my teammates right now and just helping things out and we had a big game here at home tonight."
"This was a very big win for us....first game of four big ones coming up home and away so we are taking it game at a time."
"Good win for us at this point of the season and we are trying to get this train rolling the right direction and tonight was a big step for us."
"I wasn't as aggressive in the first half as I should have so I just tried to make it happen and come out in the second half picking it up a little bit. [Abdulai] Jalloh was out there playing well and I wanted to come out in the second half and play a little better than him."
UD Sophomore Forward Chris Alvarez
"I had some good open look and wasn't able to convert but I wasn't going to let that take away from my defensive rebounding and mainly what we talked about doing with the big guys was help out our guards by clogging the inside and I think we did a pretty good job of that. "
On Playing without Monty
"Monty brings a lot to the table but we can't use that as an excuse. We have to go out there and play our hardest no matter who we are without."
UD Senior Guard Warren Williams
"I felt like I was in the flow more because I was in the frame longer and I got open shots and got to the line a lot."
"Defensively we were trying to talk a lot because they were setting a lot of screens and so if you get hit you have to call a switch or footstep every screen and stay with them."
