University of Connecticut Athletics
Connecticut 64, DePaul 57
2/6/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 6, 2010
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Connecticut Associate Head Coach George Blaney
"The definition of that game is a pure dentist game. It was grind it out, hang tough. We got behind early, and I thought the last six of seven minutes of the first half I thought we really locked down and play some really good defense. I think we outscored them by 16 to 4 and kind of took control of the game, which we thought, at halftime, we would have pretty good control from that point on."
"In the second half, we just seemed to go in spurts. Fortunately, we got to the foul line 35 times, and that helped us a great deal...So we got a lot of points from the foul line with good hard plays going to the basket."
"I told the team that, after the three losses, I felt sick and I felt bad. Tonight, I still feel a little sick, but I feel good, because W's are better than L's. And it's a BIG EAST win, it's a win that we needed to get ourselves off the deck. And we had to fight for it, and I like the fight."
On foul shots
"We've been a team that has, over the last couple of years, been shooting three, four, almost five-hundred foul shots more than our opponents, so it's not unusual to see a disparity in foul shots. We go to the basket very hard. We generally offensive rebound very hard. So we're going to get fouled. And we're generally pretty big. It's a big part of our game, though. It's not just a big part of this game, it's a big part of our game. The other thing that getting fouled so often does is it puts good players in foul trouble. Sometimes it puts them on the bench, but most of the time it makes them play defense a little bit differently. The value of going to the foul line is multi."
On Ater Majok "Ater Majok after Kemba made the first foul shot and missed the second. He got it, he got it out, and Jerome made the great baseline jump shot, which put us up six, and probably won the game for us...Ater also had five blocked shots and really gave us a good effort...His motor is what makes him so effective. He plays with great energy and enthusiasm."
"Kemba, Jerome and Stanley, all three, were fighting various injuries and sicknesses and cramps. James, our trainer, did more work on the sideline than probably anybody else did, trying to get everybody back in."
On Syracuse
"It appears sometimes that we play to the competition. That's what it's starting to look like. So, hopefully, we'll be jacked up and ready to play against Syracuse...We're going up there with our destiny in our hands rather than in anybody else's hands."
Alex Oriakhi "Foul trouble has been killing me lately. I picked up two fouls, and just tried to stay out of foul trouble as much as possible. I think I did a good job of that."
"I can speak for my teammates when I say we hate losing. It feels good to actually win and we're going to feed off this against Syracuse."
Kemba Walker
"We still have a lot of work to do, but it's a BIG EAST win. We'll just take it and build from this."
After DePaul took a lead in the second half
"We just wanted to stay poised and keep doing what we've been doing in practice. That's what we did. We stuck with it."
Ater Majok
On his confidence after hitting an early shot
"I'm starting to get used to it. Everything is starting to come little by little. Things come out when we really need them. It gets me going too."
"It was a tough game. They played well. [My cousin Mac Koshwal] played well. We just had the upper hand tonight. We've got to come back and beat Syracuse next week."
Jerome Dyson "It seems like we struggled when I was out of the game. I just tried to get back in there and help my team out and do what I could."
On losing the lead in the second half
"We just had to do a better job on defense. We had to get stops and that's what we were doing early."
"In the second half, we had a bit of a letdown. We just had to regroup and get ourselves back together."
DePaul Interim Head Coach Tracy Webster
"Another close one for us. Our guys continue to battle. We got some great looks from our guys who need to get shots. Mike Bizoukas, Will Walker and Mac Koshwal continue to keep looking for them and they have to continue to look to finish plays. We have to do a better job of not turning the ball over."
"I keep talking about 40 minutes, and we can't have 12 turnovers in the first half and try to win on the road against a really good team. We just have to keep working and get better and stay confident."
On Will Walker
"He was moving well without the basketball. Also his teammates were doing a good job of setting screens for him to get him open. He was taking shots in rhythm and we were able to knock some shots down. Six-for-nine from there, that's really good for him."
On the disparity in the number of free throws taken between the two teams
"All I can say is the six that we took, we need to make all six of them. That's what we need to do. Hopefully one day we'll get to the line 40 times."
On Jerome Dyson's and Kemba Walker's ability to penetrate the lane
"They are really good guards. I thought early our guys did a good job of trapping the ball screens and keeping them out of the paint. In the second half we had a couple of breakdowns."
How did you feel up taking the lead with five minutes left?
"Even before taking the lead, our guys were really confident. They never gave up. And they have not been giving up the entire year. We just have top find a way to get over the hump."
