Coach Slessinger's Quotes Following Saturday's 60-52 Win At Southeastern Louisiana

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Overall thoughts on the game
"What a crazy night. It was by far our worst shooting night of the year, but we played so hard on both ends of the floor. We weren't missing shots on purpose. My old boss used to say, 'you can't get mad when they miss a shot because they didn't miss it on purpose,' and he's 100 percent right. [Southeastern Louisiana] was pretty good defensively. People can sit here and say, 'you guys missed layup after layup, but this team is pretty good defensively. Southeastern is very, very tough here. They've very good defensively here. I'll take it. I'm not going to overcomplicate things. We figured out a way to win on a tough night in a tough environment. There were some technical issues with mechanical stuff here that wasn't anyone's fault, and our guys kept their focus. They kept locked in on what was going on. They stuck with the game plan and they kept their energy up. That was the biggest thing. Through all of those starts and stops, they kept their energy up and did a tremendous job."
 
On the defense holding Southeastern Louisiana scoreless for over eight minutes in the second half
"In a 48-hour turnaround, going from a tough road game on Thursday and coming into tough turnaround, our staff did a tremendous job of getting them ready. Our scout was spot on. They played with such energy, they wanted to be precise and accurate defensively, and be in the right places. That was a big point of pride for us today, to be in the right spot and do the right things."
 
On the game turning around after Erik Thomas' alley-oop dunk
"That was an unbelievable play. If that's not a SportsCenter Top 10 play, I don't know what is. It was crazy how we pulled that off. It led to us getting things rolling. We were really unselfish during that stretch. We passed up a couple of good shots for great shots. Guys gave up some shots that they could have pulled to get their teammate an even better one. We were in attack mode, either trying to get a basket or trying to get to the free throw line."
 
On Christavious Gill bursting out of a shooting slump with three big 3-pointers in the second half
"I had a few choice words for him [at halftime]. I've known that kid since he was in the eighth grade, so I can coach him a little differently than I coach some other guys. I've got eight years of my life invested in him. He's special and he wants the challenge. He needed to be challenged and he answered it. He came up big. Mike Zeno came up big. Jorge Rosa came up big. Tevin Broyles got in some foul trouble but he was able to come in and close the game out for us. Every single guy that did it was special today."
 
On how big going 2-0 on a road swing is, especially when chasing after a conference championship
"It's awesome. I'm so excited for our guys. Men's basketball [at UNO] is in first place, but more importantly, our University is in first place. Our faculty and staff are in first place. Our students and our alumni are in first place. And our city is in first place. Every one of them deserve it. We wouldn't be here without all of those people pushing us and helping us, and this being a team effort. This is what the whole thing is about."