Dec. 20, 2011
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COACH SENDEK POSTGAME QUOTES FROM ARIZONA STATE-SOUTHERN MISS GAME
OPENING STATEMENT
"I thought our guys played a really good first half on both ends of the floor. I thought they really showed a great deal of character by being in the right frame of mind and ready to play tonight after a very difficult loss two days ago. Starting the second half, I thought we got away from our game plan. I thought we took a couple of bad shots. We had some turnovers. We defended the three in the first half but ultimately that was our undoing in the second half. They hit seven threes including the last one in just the second half. Probably the single biggest factor though was they're (Southern Miss) offensive rebounding. We just had a hard time with their athleticism and size and we didn't come down with enough rebounds. Our field goal percentage defense continues to be outstanding. I don't know how many games you're in the loss column when you shoot 49% and your opponents shoot 34%. I thought Keala did a much better job of taking care of the basketball tonight with only one turnover. I thought that was key for us. Some of the other guys need to do a better job in that area because right now we are playing with a very small margin. Each possession is important so we have to continue to chisel away turnovers and bad shots. Every possession has to count for us. Lastly I thought our guys showed great character coming back from being down by eleven points. They battled but once again we're on the short side of a tough three-point shot at the end of the game."
ON GETTING THE BALL INSIDE
"We had a number of nice possessions inside. We shot 61% in the first half. Tonight we shot 16% each point higher than they did but then there are always either turnovers, or tonight it was the defensive rebounding, or the other day it was our free throw shooting that seems to negate all of the other positives that we have. Sometimes you maybe get a little lucky and they miss that game winner shot."
ON SHOT SELECTION
"I was upset with the shot selection. We had a play called out at half time that we didn't finish and execute. We were quick to abandon our offense and we ended up with poor shots and we don't have that luxury. The first half we were much more discipline. We ran our stuff and we shot 61 percent."
ON LINEUP DECISION AT THE END OF GAME
"We were down so we sized down to try to take advantage of the three-point shot. We tried to get some threes for twos."
ON FRESHMAN Jonathan Gilling
"He keeps getting better and better. I thought for the first time he made some physical plays. He did a good job in the first half of going chest to chest in the post. He took a charge in the second half. I think that was a real breakthrough in terms of his physicality. I think that the style of basketball here is a little different from what he's used to and as he gets more accustom to that, you can certainly see his talent. He's a big kid and he shoots the ball well. He had four assists and no turnovers so there were some real positives on his end."
ON THE ALTERCATION
"I really couldn't see. I didn't see the altercation. As it escalated I was intent on trying to keep our team on the bench because I saw them get up and it appeared to me that the other team had left the bench. I don't understand why there weren't any repercussions for that. It seems to me that everybody I've asked has confirmed that their team left the bench. If you leave the bench, you should be ejected from the game."
ON WHAT HE SAID TO THE TEAM IN THE HUDDLE AFTER THE ALTERCATION
"I took advantage of that delay of play to scream and holler and pop a few blood vessels about our rebounding because at that point it was a massacre on the defensive glass. That's basically what I was doing during that intermission."
ON WHAT NEEDS TO IMPROVE
"I'm going to give them some credit. They're an athletic bunch of guys but we need to be much tougher on the boards. We need to be much more tenacious. We can't have anybody leaking out. We have to get rebounds. We have to pursue the ball with tenacity."
ON DEFENSIVE REBOUNDING
"Its something we've done very well. Our defensive rebounding percentage is about 29 going into this game (meaning that our opponents have only had maybe three out of ten missed shots back), which is very representative. That number, if you withheld it throughout the season, could arguably put you near the top of the conference. Its something that we have done better in the past. We didn't do nearly as well in that tonight. Part of that is our undoing and I think part of it, you have to give them (Southern Miss) credit. As a team they came in averaging fourteen offensive rebounds a game. We just allowed them to play to their strength and then some."
ON GETTING TEAM READY FOR NEXT GAME
"What a great challenge. What a great opportunity for our team. Two bone crushing losses in the span of three days. There are guys crying in the locker room, guys crests falling, you lose your starting center and its just us. Now we play Fresno State on Wednesday, our third game in five days, without our starting center, and having lost two in a row at the buzzer. This is a great opportunity to see what our constitution is."
SOUTHERN MISS HEAD COACH LARRY EUSTACHY
OPENING STATEMENT
"It was a great game. Arizona State showed some great character coming off probably their toughest loss of the year. We knew we'd catch them at their best and I thought that we did.
They made some huge shots. I don't think it was us [making them] as much as it was them. Then it just took a special shot to beat them. What more can you say? It was a great college basketball game."
ON THE SUN DEVILS CLOSING THE DEFICIT IN THE SECOND HALF
"It felt like we had it in hand and they didn't go away. They are such a well-coached basketball team. They're a real extension of their head coach. Herb does a great job. He has young guys and he's already taught them resiliency. They've had some tough games that didn't go their way and they always come back tougher the next time out, so we knew what we were going to get, knew what to expect. We were fortunate to get back in it after trailing in the first half, fortunate enough to get ahead and win it. It was just a matter of withstanding their rush because they didn't give up."
ON THE TEAM'S LONG WEEKEND
"We played a huge game on Saturday with the win over Ole Miss, practiced Sunday morning at 7 a.m., got on a plane to Phoenix, got in here and practiced Sunday night and again this morning. Then we came back and played this game. So this was a huge win for us to be able to come back and win it."
ON DARNELL DODSON
"It was great to see (Dodson) out there tonight and have the game that he had. He had only practiced with our team once prior to today and I just hope he can continue to keep it going like that the rest of the way."
ON THE ALTERCATION IN THE SECOND HALF
"It was just a couple of guys scuffling out there, beneath the rim. I couldn't really tell what happened out there, our guy claimed he was hit first. But I thought that it was well handled by the officials. They just did a great job of keeping it in hand. They got rid of the two guys involved and let the game keep going and move on."