ECU, Tulane Postgame Quotes
January 23, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 23, 2014
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East Carolina Head Coach Jeff Lebo
Opening Statement
"It was a tough night. We had our chances the last few minutes of the game, but we couldn't make the plays. So give them credit. They made them. Hook makes three 3s; he hadn't made one all night and then he makes three really timely ones. Defensively we did all we could. Offensively we just didn't have enough fire power tonight. We didn't shoot it very well, obviously. Our confidence offensively is not there. For us right now, we don't have anywhere else to go but a couple of guys. Untimely turnovers at times, too, when we wanted to run. We had a couple of odd turnovers on the break that hurt us, kept our momentum from getting going."
On the Pirates' defensive performance
"We did that great. We had to change, obviously, and do some different things that worked good tonight. We held somebody in the 50's; that's pretty good for us."
On his team's confidence
"It's tough. But they're pretty positive. You worry about them getting down; it's just a natural thing. Our job (as coaches) is just to get them up and get them ready to go. We've got practice tomorrow - try to figure out a way to get their confidence going offensively. You can't play this game without confidence offensively. You can't give it to them as a coach. You can pat them on the back, you can tell them they're doing great, you can tell them to shoot the ball when they're open but that's false confidence. The players know when they're playing well. They know when they're confident. The only way to me to get it, is to perform well in a game situation. That's how you get confidence. That's the real confidence. We've got to have some guys get it going in the game offensively. See that ball going in the basket and it'll be amazing how they'll feel and how they'll play when they have it. Some of them just don't have it. We don't have enough firepower to have a couple of them not have it offensively."
On Francis Edosomwan's game
"He was great. There's not a guy who works harder every day than him. He's in the gym late, he's working on his game, he wants to be good. But his effort is what's contagious out there. Offensive rebounding and just doing the little things that make winning plays. Those little things were big. And I thought that energy he gave us, particularly in that first half, was big for us to have that first half lead."
Tulane Head Coach Ed Conroy
Opening Statement
"Two years in a row we've had a down to the wire basketball game here. I'm proud of my guys; I see them growing up all the time. Our young guys are out and you know, obviously Jay Hook hit the big shot at the end and he was a guy that didn't get much time when he came in here a year ago. But he's really risen up. I thought our freshmen were very good throughout the game tonight. I will credit East Carolina; I thought they made things extremely hard for us. They kept us out of rhythm offensively several times. We had some really dysfunctional possessions where we just couldn't get organized. And with the different line-ups that that coach is playing with them there, and the things he threw at us and was able to get his guys to do, I credit them for making things very tough. And I thought in the second half we finally found a little bit of a rhythm offensively, but it was hard. That's why I'm so proud of my guys, because we had several young guys out there and I was glad they kept battling through it until we could find some rhythm."
On Hook's 3-point shots
"Some of the movement was. We were trying to free him up and circle around and get them a little confused in their coverages and maybe lose him. I thought there was times tonight we did a decent job passing and finding guys when we did that. That was where we kind of found our rhythm at the end; to try to find him. I think one was on a post feeding back out and another was where he slid off in a gap, and those were good movements. The one that he hit at the end was just a big-time shot."
Freshman Forward Caleb White
On his role as a scorer
"With guidance from the coaches, I always want to stay aggressive and be in attack mode. Sometimes I tend to get a little lackadaisical out there, but yeah I'd say I'm pretty comfortable with it."
On the level of frustration of losing close games
"A lot of people are playing out of position, but you can't complain, you just have to roll with the punches and you have to give your all every night, and that's what we've been doing. Down the stretch these games just haven't bounced our way."
Sophomore Forward Michael Zangari
On the close losses
"It's frustrating, but we're hanging in there and we'll get over the hump. We're down guys, so the longer the game is the harder it is on us. At halftime we're ok, but as the game goes on we start to drag. We've got to get in better shape I guess, and Brandon (Stith) will be back soon so that will help."
On picking up quick fouls in the second half
"It was frustrating; I thought there were some tough calls. I picked them up early too, and then I had to sit down on the bench for a while. Then to come in and pick up a fourth right away. It was defiantly something I was thinking about. It's just tough to play through."
