Nov. 26, 2002
Men's Basketball Weekly Press Conference Quotes Nov. 26, 2002
Quoting Head Coach Steve Fisher: "My thought of the day for our team (we have one for every day) is go ahead and do it... it's easier to succeed than explain why you didn't. I've gone through this scenario everyday since the game 'With three minutes to go, we're ten ahead with the ball, that's what cost us the game. In the next eight minutes, we gave them (Eastern Washington) the belief that they could win.'
"Our goal is to go to Portland and compete like crazy and win. And that's the mission that we're heading on here shortly."
On the Eastern Washington game: "I think to some measure some of the guys used too much energy before the game. I think some of them got too excited before the game to play that game. I think that was a little bit of the focus. If you go back and look at our tape against Eastern Washington, with three minutes to go in the first half we had played very good basketball. And had, in my mind, complete control of the flow of the game. We gave that away with five turnovers in six possessions which led to eight straight points for Eastern Washington. We fought to come back but couldn't come back and win it."
"They were a good team. We knew that. They won 17 games. We knew that. And we were well aware that even though they weren't big on the wings, they were very athletic. They did a nice job."
"Basketball is a game of runs more than any other sport. We didn't have a fourth quarter collapse. We had a synapse at the end of the first, start of the second half. We talk about when you're in a run, maximize it and when the flip of that is on, you need to sense that and realize it and find a way to stop the bleeding and we didn't do that."
On Portland: "This will be a big game for us and I think for them also. I believe they only won six games last year- one was against Oregon, which was a pretty good team, another one was to Eastern Washington, a pretty good team. I think I need to say no more than that to our team. So we need to make sure we're ready to play. I think this will be a pretty good game."
"We need to know that we can win, believe that we are going to win, but most importantly have ourselves prepared when we start, and then be able to fight through some frustration and adversity, and that's what we need to make sure we do. Not feel sorry for ourselves when we get a bad call or miss a shot or give up something, but to fight all the harder when you are not throwing the ball in the basket."
Quoting senior center Mike Mackell:
On younger players: "It's tough playing the young guys because they haven't played in the college atmosphere and haven't been around players that are as physical and as big as college players are. They're used to playing against much smaller guys. It's going to be tough right now, but they are coming along and are willing to work and they show signs of that in practice. We just need them to carry that over when it comes to game time."
On frustration of losing the opening game: "We were frustrated that we didn't get that victory on opening night, but it was a learning experience for the younger guys and also for the seniors (Mackell, Moore, Bland). We know that we have to come out and set the tone. If we don't set the tone, other guys won't follow. It was good to get the loss early in the year and get the wrinkles out right now. We are looking forward to these two road games and the opportunity to pick up two wins and come back home and try to pick up two more wins. We're taking each game one at a time."
On the team's shooting percentage against Eastern Washington: "We are very good shooters, but it was just one of those nights. Good teams have to find other ways to win if you're not shooting well. You have to be able to defend and try to not let the other team shoot better than you. When the shots weren't falling, we had to try to pick it up on defense, but we didn't."