ECU, UTEP Quotes
February 07, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 7, 2014
Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery 
East Carolina Head Coach Jeff Lebo
Opening Statement
"It's been more of the same with rebounding again tonight. Their second chance opportunities were the difference in the game. We battled hard, got them to miss the first ones, but the second ones were obviously what doomed us. There were 22 second chance points that they were able to get, and that's a problem for us. That was really the difference in the game."
On Akeem Richmond's performance
"He was efficient; he broke his own school record tonight. He got off to a great start, and they put some more size on him after he made the first three. I don't think he forced many tonight, and I thought he was solid. He's been playing pretty good on the offensive end."
On the defense
"We battled like crazy. We held them to 58 points, and we feel good about that. We played another game were we played zone the whole game. We didn't put them on the foul line. Defensively, when the ball is in the air, that's when we have a problem, because we're so little. The height is one thing, but then you add in the length, and it's a foot and a half difference when the ball is in the air."
On the upcoming game against UTSA
"There's not a lot of secrets this point with how we're going to play. We don't have any secret weapons, or make a lot of changes that we can do in one day. But hopefully we can rebound from this. I did think we did some good things, and we'll build from the good things and try to get some confidence from our third and fourth scorers."
UTEP Head Coach Tim Floyd
Opening Statement
"We feel very fortunate to get the win. We didn't start either half particularly well. They made a great run to start the game, and a great run to start the second half. I thought Cedric Lang coming into the game really affected the game for us. Julian Washburn moving to Akeem [Richmond] helped us in the first half. After three straight 3s, I thought he was going to score 100. We had a really good rebounding effort from all of our guys. John Bohannon was terrific on the glass. We feel really lucky to get the win, because Vince Hunter sat in foul trouble all night long. Overall, I'm very, very pleased with the fact that we were able to go on the road and hold them to 35 percent."
On letting the shot clock run down
"We weren't trying to run the shot clock down, we just couldn't find a gap or a place to go. Washburn got caught with three seconds to go and ball in his hands four times. He just cranked up one, and hoped to hit the rim. He's a better player than that. It's a credit to their defense. We weren't trying to take It under 30 seconds on the clock, it just happened."
On Akeem Richmond
"He's just fabulous. He doesn't need any room. He's quick coming of those screens, loads it up, and get's rid of it. The only way to play him is just to not let him catch it."
Senior Guard Akeem Richmond
On breaking his school record
"Honestly I didn't even think about it. It feels good, but I'd rather have the win."
On being defended by Chris Washburn
"We prepared ourselves really well for that all week by executing our plays. He played pretty good defense. He's 6-foot-8 I'm six feet tall and he did a pretty good job on me."
On the crowd's enthusiasm
"I want to give a shout out to all the fans. We really appreciate all the love and the support. Even though we aren't doing as well as we would like to be doing, they still come out every single night and show us a lot of love. We really appreciate that."
On keeping the team's attitude positive
"We just have to keep working. We can't get down on ourselves; we can't panic and we have to keep working. We just have to stay positive about it. We can't dwell on any losses because we play again on Saturday. It's a quick turnaround, so back to work tomorrow."
Junior Guard Paris Roberts-Campbell
On the difficulty of playing zone when UTEP started making 3s
"It makes it a little bit more difficult because we have to get out to the shooters, and we wanted to pack it in because they were already bigger than us."
On UTEP's offensive and defensive play in the final five minutes
"I think we got the shot we wanted down the stretch, they just didn't fall. They executed pretty well on the offensive end; they took a lot of time off the clock on each possession."
