ECU-USC Upstate Postgame Quotes
December 04, 2015 | Men's Basketball
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East Carolina Head Coach Jeff Lebo
Opening statement
"Not often as a coach do you come out with a W when the other team shoots 13 of 27 from the three. So give them credit. They really attacked the zone and made shots against it. I'm really proud of my group to understand our game plan, which was to take the ball to the rim. We did that very well. We scored the ball very well. We got to the free throw line on those drives or finished at the rim and that allowed us to pull out a W against a team that really, really played well."
On changing it up knowing teams are going to attack the zone
"The thing about the zone too, they make some 3s in it, but you look at the fouls, and we did not foul. We shot almost 14 more foul shots than they did. That's one of the things you kind of give up a little bit in hopes that they shoot the perimeter shot a little bit. A couple of them were open, but some of them were contested. They had a great night, they threw one in backwards."
On B.J. Tyson's career-high night
"Well he did a good job of not settling. Again, our game plan was pretty to similar to what we wanted to do against Florida Atlantic; not settle for perimeter shots against their zone. He's excellent at driving the ball. They didn't have a big shot blocker. They had a big guy, but not a shot blocker, and he was able to get in there and finish. He got to the free-throw line: 8 of 8. His shooting percentage has sky-rocketed from the basement to pretty good in about the last four games, so that's good to see."
On competing against former ECU Head Coach Eddie Payne
"Coach Payne is just a terrific guy, terrific coach. He was excited to come back, excited to be back here, it's been a long time. I told him I dug that 1993 ball, that I found over in Scales [Field House] in the old trophy room to put it in that trophy case. I was digging through it, took me half a day, and found that ball back in there. We're going to take it and show it to him, he hasn't seen it yet. We put it in that trophy case. It's always nice to have guys back that are a part of your history and a part of your tradition here. He's a lifer in this game. He's done a terrific job at [University of South Carolina] Upstate. I didn't realize he had been there for so long, but I think they won 24 games last year. He's an excellent coach. [Coach Payne is] good for this game, and good for kids. It was nice to have him back."
USC Upstate Head Coach Eddie Payne
Opening statement
Coach Eddie Payne Quotes "We got a young team. Most of those guys didn't play much or play at all [last season]. We had a good four-year run but now were starting over and we're just trying to get better. Tonight I'd say we did get a little bit better, but we didn't manage positions late. All in all I have to be patient and look at what we're doing to try to get better because we're not good enough to win right now. We've got some kids that can do some things. Holmes and Cunningham, both those kids are freshmen, Span's a freshman, Phillip Whittington's a freshman; it's just one of those things where we're trying to get better and keep them focused on getting better so they don't keep looking at this record because this record's ugly. We've come a long way already this year so we've just got to keep going. Credit to East Carolina, they drove the ball well and we don't guard the drive very well. Consequently they got to the line 32 times so that was the big stat of the game."
On returning to Greenville
"Me and my family had probably the best professional experience we've ever had here. But it's also a personal experience. We had great friends, really a terrific group of people. [Dave] Hart went to Florida State and there was really a leadership void at that point in time so I did what I did. If Dave had been here I probably wouldn't have done it but I got nervous. I try not to look back and think about it, second guess things, but that's in a nutshell the process for why I made that decision."
Sophomore B.J. Tyson
On the hoop getting bigger
"I don't think of it like that anymore, I just come in and play my game like Coach [Lebo] said, 'Keep attacking. Keep attacking.' As you can tell, if you look at the game, I didn't take one [jump] shot, except for the three. All he harped on was me attacking the rim, because he thinks that's what I'm great at."
On quick first steps
"I looked back at the games and was just seeing how easy it was getting to the rim, and how strong I was taking it, so I decided to do the same thing this game."
