Longwood Quotes
Dec 05, 2005 | General
Head Coach Mike Gilliam
On K-State’s size advantage going into this game...
“It always does for us because we havethe best way to put it islack of size. Now we have very good speed and quickness and we have guys who are very athletic and have a great deal of desire. One of the things we need to do is keep teams up off the offensive glass and be able to push the pace by forcing turnovers a little bit. We took good care of the ball. We don’t have high energy; it’s difficult for us to force the kind of turnovers that we need to . And then they got into a nice little rhythm and what happens is, you get ahead, you make a shot, if you don’t make it, you feel like you get an offensive rebound that misses and still get a chance to score and again, I would just say that we didn’t have the energy to stem the tide there by getting enough stops or by scoring, ourselves to stay right there.”
On the change in momentum starting at the beginning of the second half...
“No, that’s hardyou don’t really watch the other team and what’s going on. They obviously started the second half with a little more urgencyif you want to call it thatthat forced us into some tough shots, and we didn’t really turn the ball over too much to start the second half, I don’t think. But took a few too many tough shotsas a credit to their defensethat’s hard to answer because you don’t really watch the other team, you’re trying to keep an eye on what your own guys are doing.”
On whether his team is looking for “moral victories” in the second year of its transition period...
“In the big picture, maybe but there aren’t any moral victories. Ultimately, that’s not the result we’re looking for. We want to win. And we’ve accomplished that. That’s the first bad half that we’ve really played this year. We’ve been right in every game, right in every half, put ourselves in position to win. And even there, after 20 minutes, we’re in position to do that. We just had a very bad second half. So it’s kind of a yes and no.’ We’re not looking for moral victories right now, the results we’re looking forhopefully experiences like this will prepare us for those down the road.”
Junior Guard Michael Jefferson
On Longwood’s second half performance...
“We played a real competitive first half, but in the second half we came out slow. As a team we didn’t play that competitively. We made some mental mistakes, unforced turnovers, fouls, and our shots were not falling in.”
On the effect of K-State’s second half adjustments...
“They did nothing different from the first half. We just got too comfortable with the score. In he second half we thought we were just going to come out and score on them. They’re a Big 12 team, and they are well coached. They picked it up. I’m sure their coach told them to pick it up during halftime, and that’s what they did.”
