University of Connecticut Athletics
Post Game Quotes
11/8/2018 10:19:00 PM | Men's Basketball
UConn 80, Morehead State 70
Dan Hurley
UConn Head Coach
Opening Statement
"Obviously thrilled to get the first win of the season. Probably one of the most nerve racking days for me as a head coach, tied with my first game with Wagner and my first game with URI. When you are coaching a new team with a lot of guys you didn't recruit, you are never sure what they will do. I want to thank the crowd; the crowd was great. As we are building this we need fans and a crowd like that every game. As we restore this program to an elite level we need that element, it gives us an obvious edge. It helps us with optics as well to bring in recruits. Morehead was a team we were quietly nervous about. I thought we lacked a bit of a killer instinct. There were pockets when we had a chance to put them away, and we want to develop that instinct of letting it hanging around as a 10-point game. Overall, I thought the first night was great, we got some jitters out and got the win."
On Josh Carlton's performance
"Josh has real talent. We need him as a sophomore and still young player to perform. His performance will have a big impact on our success. He is a guy that if his motor and activity are up he has the chance to be a really great starting player on a great UConn team."
On playing with Jaylen Adams in foul trouble
"That was good for us. Jaylen put in 22 minutes and an easy 16 points. It was a good experience for us to go through with him not playing as much in the first half. To win some of our bigger challenges on the schedule we are going to need him out there for 32 minutes. We saw a lot of good things from the players stepping in while he wasn't in."
On Tarin Smith's performance
"We actually played him 5 minutes over his minute's limit because we needed him. He is a winning player. I watched him at St. Anthony and he played excellent. He does so much for you, he is athletic can get in the paint spread the ball around and finish at the rim. This is the first time this group has played together and I see the cohesion and flow getting even better."
UConn Forward Josh Carlton
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On his thoughts following the game
"Great energy starting the season. Everybody is excited for the season around here. Good win, getting settled in really. Knowing what we need to learn and improve on for next game. It was a great win, but we've got a lot of things to learn from."
On what it was like seeing Coach Hurley there to pick him up after diving for a loose ball
"It doesn't surprise me, that's Coach Hurley for you. Just seeing him is really crazy for a player, seeing coach has your back like that. That really got me energized."
On the sold-out crowd and support
"A sold-out crowd is always good, especially for a team that's not Cincinnati or anybody like that. It's just great energy. Hopefully we gave them a good game, and hopefully we'll be able to give them a show for the rest of the season."
UConn Guard Jalen Adams
On how the team played
"I don't think we put them away when we had the chance. At times, I think they were tougher than us. They were getting loose balls that we should have had. Stuff like that turns into points for them. We were turning the ball over and just being lazy, so we just have to tighten ourselves up."
On having a crowd this big for the first time in a while
"Probably since my freshman year, it hasn't been sold out in a while. It's great to have the fans out here supporting us."
UConn Guard Alterique Gilbert
On his ability to penetrate
"I think my penetration helps a lot. I think I have to do a better job of getting my teammates involved. Sometimes I get too deep into the paint."
On guys trying to do too much by themselves and over dribbling
"That's something coach emphasized, too many dribbles to get off the ball. We need to spread the ball around and create opportunities for each other."
Morehead State Head Coach
Preston Spradlin
On team's resilience
We take something from every game, wins or losses, or play well or play bad. Our kids, they fought, they played hard, literally through the final horn. We were chasing down offensive rebounds with 20 seconds to go and Lamontray Harris is diving for loose balls and we were down 8 or 10 at that point. Those are the things that you take away and are really proud of with your guys and you learn from them and try to push them going forward into the next competition.
On emphasis on rebounding
We want to be a better offensive rebounding team, we did that tonight. I thought it was really good that we were challenging them on the glass, and we did a good job keeping them off the glass for the most part. They outrebounded us in the end but they didn't murder us on there. Our guys have to be really technique-driven, we're not going to out-jump people or size isn't going to overwhelm them, especially playing a team like UConn. I'm really pleased that our guys were locked in to finishing possessions.
On impressions of UConn
They're a tough team to prepare for. They're not going to let you run a whole lot of offense and they're going to play extremely fast on both ends, they're going to try to take you out of what you want to do and make you take tough shots. They're going to push it on every possession. They play really fast, they have a lot of skilled players, they shot it well tonight, and the big kid inside was terrific. So the way I think [Hurley]'s going to play with them he's got the right personnel to see a lot of success.
