Postgame Quotes
March 07, 2010 | Men's Basketball
March 7, 2010
Recap |
Box Score |
Photo Gallery I 
|
Photo Gallery II
ECU Head Coach Mack McCarthy
On the loss
"I thought they had a lot to do with it. We've been running our offense through the four-man and they put Stone on Jamar (Abrams) and then DaQuan (Joyner) and kept us from really getting into the offense and I think we could have done a better job of executing it, but they had a lot to do with that. There is no question that our lack of offense created their offense; either turnovers or bad shots that led to good shots in transition for them and then we didn't have the rebounding margin that we had in the first half even though we were small and in foul trouble; we kind of dominated the glass in the first half.
"We did not get as much production out of DaQuan in the second half and I thought we would get more post touches in general than we did. It was not a good offensive performance, especially in the second half."
On Southern Miss' early shooting
"We knew who the shooters were and they were pretty patient, but I thought we did enough things well defensively in the first half. Despite the fact that they shot 59 percent they were still down one. We were getting more opportunities and we weren't turning the basketball over; in the second half we turned it over gave up a few more second shots, but probably the one thing that doesn't show up in the stat sheet is loose balls. We didn't get to loose balls and they did. They're really athletic, they play really hard. Larry does a good job with them and of course Stone has always been a problem for us."
On heading to the tournament to face Houston
"We've done a lot of things for the first time this year and that would be nice to go to the tournament and win one. The match-up is not great, but I don't know if there is a great match-up. [Houston is] difficult they play man to man; of course (Aubrey) Coleman is a great player, (Kelvin) Lewis is a great shooter. They're a lot different team then when we played them the first time. They're getting a lot of production out of McNeil and Washington, two big thick post players. Not having Chad (Wynn) will be a problem against them, but again we have played pretty well down the stretch."
On the future of the program
"I don't know, I am even more convinced then when I got here and didn't know a thing about the place. It can be a good basketball school. We've got a lot of people coming back, there is a baseline of talent there, but there does need to be few more pieces added and some bump of enthusiasm about the program."
On coaching next year
"I have an opportunity to have a different role with Pirate Basketball in administration particularly to start with building, planning and fundraising of the new practice facility. You know when you're a coach you really don't ever want to stop coaching but it seems like the right time to hand this off and contribute in another way. I really like East Carolina University and I really want the basketball program to be good. Coach Holland and I have talked about what we can do to build on the momentum that we have started and this is what we decided on. I'm hopeful that the staff, who has done a great job would be retained in some way, but I don't have total control over that; they have done a really good job and they have a great relationship with the team. I'm hopeful that they will be a part of this whole thing, moving forward too. It's obviously a concern that I have expressed to Coach Holland and to them. I just now informed the team so I don't have any real reaction to tell you about that.
"We're a fairly close group, when you go through adversity you become even closer, it looks like sometimes you're pulling apart, but really you're pulling together and I'm excited about their future. They all have things they can do better, they all have challenges that they have to meet on and off the court. I am still be a part of that program and will do anything I can to help them and whoever ends up being in charge.
