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| Tim Buckley |
| On the stakes being raised after the
Kent win |
| "Anytime anybody beats Kent State
that's the talk of the league. It's one of those things where it's only a
great win if you do something with it. You can't win that game and then not
do anything the rest of the MAC season, so I think it raises the stakes a
little bit in terms of people's awareness when they come to play us and when
you go into their building and play." |
| |
| On whether or not the stakes being
raised is a good thing |
| "It is if you can respond to it and
you're willing to respond to it. Which I think this team will. No, I know
this team will." |
| |
| On Kent's unity chain motivating Ball
State's players |
| "Whatever the cause needs to be. My
whole thing is I think anybody will die for a cause. I really do. If you
have a reason to do something, whatever that is, you know, it became highly
publicized with Michael Jordan when he would always try to conger things up
to motivate himself to go out and perform on a nightly basis. He was great
at it. I think you have to find whatever that thing is every time you go
play." |
| |
| On whether or not something like that
can backfire and actually motivate the other team |
| "I think it's all in what you make
of it. I think it's all irrelevant once they throw the ball up in the air. I
think you're always better when you're hungry. That's what I mean by the
cause thing. When you're hungry and you have a cause, then you have a reason
to go do something. It all goes back to, I think, playing to play and
playing to win." |
| |
| On building on the team's best 40
minute performance of the season |
| "I think you have to continue to be
at that level and keep trying to get better with it. You want the players to
recognize what it was that made them play like that. They made the decision
that they were going to play like that as a team and now each time we play
we have to continue to make that decision. And I think if they do keep
making that decision it keeps making the level of play better." |
| |
| On the expectation of playing like
that on a more consistent basis |
| "I really think that they want to
play like that. A lot of it has to do with everyone feeling that way and
being on the same page. When we aren't like that, are we willing to respond
to the coaches and to each other and say to each other, 'we're not playing
to win right now, we're just playing to play.' If we'll accept that and move
on then we have a chance to be good and if you disagree with it at that
moment then it can confuse what you're trying to get across. I think that's
where all of the trust comes in. We all have to trust each other and there's
no doubt in my mind that we do as players, as coaches, all of that. When
there's trust there when somebody says something to you, you can trust that
they have your best intentions at heart." |
| |
| On Ohio |
| "...An athletically gifted team...A
team that can break you down off the dribble...A team that you can't allow
post depth to. They have a very good freshman post player in Leon Williams
and Teran Harbett played at a high level at Dixie Community College and is a
very forceful power forward for them. Those guys do a great job inside and
they have great quickness on the perimeter." |
| |
| On Ohio being a bit of a mystery |
| "I think they have good players. I also
think they're in a cycle where they're young right now, as some of the other
team are, including ours, in the league. So their guys just haven't been
around for a long time." |
| |
| Peyton Stovall |
| On the team's defense against Kent
|
| "As a whole, I thought our defense
was pretty good. I the first half I didn't think we brought our intensity to
where it should be, but in the second half I thought we stepped up a lot and
showed what we can do on defense and get our offense going as well."
|
| |
| On making plays at key junctures in
games |
| "I feel like anybody who is on the
floor, they have the ability to make the right plays in 'winning time.' You
know, Mike Bennett, he stepped up and made big play, hustle plays - it's not
always offensive plays - it's defensive plays as well. Everybody on the team
yesterday from the bench to the guys on the floor, everybody was together
and that's big for us." |
| |
| On the team buying into the idea of
playing to play versus playing to win |
| "We watched a lot of game film. At
times we felt like we were just playing to play. You know, just playing to
be there. A couple of days ago we changed that as a team. Coach said we're
going to remember this when we're old and gray that Ball State basketball
really changed its demeanor December 30th. We really changed our demeanor
and we're playing to win and we're showing that in practice instead of
playing to play." "Oh, (we) definitely bought into it. Coach talked
to us and we really saw what he was talking about when we watched film.
Coach was talking to us and said that there is no way that you can turn away
from it. Everybody on the team bought in and saw exactly what he was talking
about." |
| |
| On watching film being frustrating
versus being a learning experience |
| "It gets frustrating sometimes,
because you see plays that maybe you could have done better, but you can't
do anything about it now. It's also learning as well, because you don't want
to do that again. Coach, he gets on us in there on the film, but we expect
that from him." |
| |
| On every MAC game being important |
| "We have a goal to have a 20 win
season. If we want to do that we've got to win these games in the MAC. We
need to get ourselves into a good position before the tournament, because we
want to go to the NCAA tournament. We're going to take it one game at a time
and try to get one each time we go out." |
| |
| On Kent's chain |
| "Yeah, we saw it. I saw the chain
laying on our floor out there. It really got to us when we were in the
locker room. We talked about it. We were in there getting fired up. We saw
that they brought something into our house and we didn't necessarily like
it. We came out and tried to defend our home court as best as possible."
"It's good for both of us, but for us, particularly yesterday, that just
really fired us up, got us going. I think we played well." |
| |
| On Skip Mills |
| "Skip Mills played spectacular
defense (Sunday). I love him too, because he's my roommate." |
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