University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss vs. Rice Postgame Quotes
1/25/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 25, 2006
Southern Miss Quotes
Head Coach Larry Eustachy
On the play of his team: "We're obviously not there yet. We took a step backwards tonight, as far as starting the game playing hard. It all comes back to me. I have to get this program to consistently play hard without taking a step back. We had it going for four or five games, and then we took a step back."
On Rice: "They had incredible shooting. Even when we did play it right and hard, they made some tremendous shots. We've got to give Rice a ton of credit. Every time we looked like we were going to get over the hump, they put a dagger in us. I don't want to take anything away from them, they're a good team. I told my team that had we beaten Rice, it would have been the best win of the year. I thought that it could have happened, but it didn't and I'm disappointed."
On playing against Rice: "From the start of the game, we felt like that was a team we could beat. I don't think we played hard enough as a team or as individuals. We didn't collectively come together and put enough thought into the game to start the game well or end the game well."
On the difference between the last game against Memphis and this game: "Coach Eustachy tries to get us to understand that you just don't play hard for the Memphis game, when the crowd is into it. You have to come out and play hard for every game and every practice, and we didn't do that today."
On if the team is frustrated with losing close games: "To me, it hurts bad to lose. I don't know what else to say about that other than that we need to play harder."
On how he's becoming more of a leader, vocally, for the team: "We don't have too many leaders on the team, so I'm trying to step up to become one of those leaders."
Rice Quotes
Head Coach Willis Wilson
On their offensive execution: "They (Southern Miss) make it hard for you to get good shots, so in this game we had to be patient in executing to set up the good shots. I thought our guard play was good tonight, especially to be playing on the road with the kind of pressure that they put on us tonight."
On making the adjustment to slow down Southern Miss in the second half: "It wasn't so much an adjustment, as it was us executing better. There were a couple of things that they were doing that we were coming up short against in the first half."
On defending Southern Miss: "They did a nice job of getting the ball to the mid-post and the high-post, and then dumping it down to the baseline. I thought our big guys helped us more by helping our guards by keeping the ball from going down in the post. Our guys were a lot more conscious in the second half of keeping the ball out of the high post."
