POSTGAME INTERVIEW | RECAP | GAME BOOK (PDF)
On playing into overtime for the second consecutive game
"We knew we had viewers across the country and we wanted to give them as much basketball as we could. Two hundred total minutes wasn't enough. We had to give them 225."
Overall thoughts on the game
"What an awesome night. We showed a ton of grit and a ton of toughness. Stuff didn't go right. We didn't play great, but they kept with it. They didn't freak out. They stayed with what we're trying to do and just kept executing and driving. We got big minutes from different people throughout the night. We drew some huge charges. That was a key. And our coaches did a great job with our scout. We hit free throws, especially when it counted. It was a fun night."
On how his team played in key moments
"We were able to get our hands on some balls, showed some composure, held it down and kept the game where we needed it to be. We may not have played pretty, but we played smart down the stretch. We didn't force it or do dumb stuff. We made ourselves go late into the shot clock a lot. We thought that gave us the best opportunity to try and get the best shot. They wanted to play an up-tempo game. We wanted to pace to be slow. We played 45 minutes and both teams were in the 60s. That went to our favor. We wanted to grind it out, make it a really ugly game and really slow it down. Our guys followed the game plan to a tee. We got loose there with about four minutes to go in the first half. We were up 10, took our foot off the gas and took us out of our game plan offensively. We took some bad shots which led to some bad transitions. They came back and made it even going into the half where we should have pulled this thing away in the first half. It was a tough lesson for our guys and it ended up being a much harder game than it needed to be because of it."
On the physical nature of the contest
"The very first play of the game [Makur] Puou gets his tooth knocked out. Weisbrod hit him with an elbow. It was a clean play, but he got a tooth knocked out. You talk about toughness. The guy never missed a beat and never flinched. He put it in a bag of ice, came back and was ready to go in and play. That really set the tone for our team. [Michael] Zeno was huge. He got a huge basket for us and got some key rebounds for us in a home-town game for him. He could have been really, really tight and he came out and played really loose. His team really picked him up and I was so proud of Michael for that."
On Tevin Broyles guarding Lamar leading scorer Colton Weisbrod and drawing a key charge early in overtime
"He asked for the matchup during a timeout and really did a nice job. He wanted the challenge. He went down later on and got another key charge on a defensive play. It was big. There were multiple times where different guys made huge plays. Rosa's 3s in the first half were game changers. They were huge.
A.J. Cheeseman's charge was big. He comes in, was in the right place at the right time. He does a great job. There was a call that didn't go our way and the guys started to get excited. I told them, 'Hey, we don't do that. We have to get focused on the next play, get focused on the game and get ready to play.' I'm very, very proud of their composure, their maturity and how they handled adversity."
On his team's commitment to each other
"These guys are committed. They do everything we've asked of them. Anytime we ask them to give us more effort or a better attitude, they've responded. There's not a lot of pushback. They're really focused on doing something special. They're really focused on doing something that hasn't been done at UNO for 21 years, which is to put a banner up in the most beautiful building in the state. They're really, really focused on doing the right things, play together, play unselfish and play hard. I commend them for that. They're a lot of fun to coach. It's not always easy, but they're a lot of fun to coach. Hopefully we can keep this thing rolling against a very tough opponent on Saturday in a very tough place to play in Incarnate Word."
On being 3-0 in Southland Conference play
"I'm so proud of them. They're buying in. Three of the seniors were here and bought in three years ago when we had no chance to go to the tournament. We weren't tournament eligible. We had a lot of stuff to go through uphill. We've got guys who are coming in to play one minute or 40 minutes, and they're working their tails off. We'll be back in here tomorrow. [Lamar] was gracious enough to let us practice in here tomorrow, so we'll get back out here putting in the work to get ready for a tough game on Saturday."
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