Postgame Quotes
Houston at Cincinnati
Jan. 31, 2018
BB&T Arena
Cincinnati Head Coach Mick Cronin
Opening statement:
"Great college basketball game tonight. Their game plan was excellent; they came out hitting on all cylinders, shocked us early. Give our kids a lot of credit and our home crowd was tremendous tonight; best of the year. We have been spoiling them a little bit; they got a game tonight. They were huge; big 'Sixth Man' from the crowd tonight.
"Whenever you can weather a storm like we did tonight, the shot-making exhibition they were putting on for a while (with) Corey Davis and Armoni Brooks, you have to feel fortunate. But, once we stopped turning the ball over, the game changed. The second half, we held them to 35 percent, but, they were still hard to defend. They were really, really hard to play defense against. The question I have had for this team all year is, 'when the time comes, when the moment of truth comes, are we going to be able to take our game to another level?' and I thought we did that tonight, or we would have gotten beat. For me, as a bystander, coaching them through it, are we going to be able to play better when we need to play better? Are we going to have guys that are going to be able to step up and make the plays and put the ball in the basket, take care of the ball and get the points were are needing to get. We weren't going to win tonight with 65 (points), not against this team and the way they make shots."
On limiting the turnovers and having only one in the second half:
"I think we only had one in the final 30 minutes. Right around the eight-minute mark, we already had eight."
On the change being due to concentration:
"I would tell you this: their defensive physicality and their attacking of the ball shocked us early. We were not prepared for it. Our guys were in definite shock of their aggressiveness and their physicality. The mark of a good team is when the game is being played a certain way… look, they had three guys playing the 'five' spot, they all split minutes and they had 14 fouls between them. So, I think it was a great game plan by them. They were not going to get pushed around. They were going to try to be extremely physical and, it's my opinion, in what I saw, that's what the game plan was. But, give our guys credit. They stepped up and they adjusted to what was going on."
On defending Rob Gray and concentrating on limiting his scoring:
"No doubt. The thing with him is you can't let him get layups and free throws. He is a scorer of the Sean Kilpatrick mold, more than he is a shooter. With him, we do everything we can to not let him get layups and free throws and not let him take the ball on the dribble in low, below the foul line and obviously to the rim, where his pull-up is devastating. We tried to commit to making sure he couldn't do that and probably caused us to give up a few open shots to other guys. When they play him at the point and play (Armoni) Brooks and (Corey) Davis on the wings and they are shooting the ball the way they shoot the ball, and Devin Davis was lighting up as well.
On the play of Kyle Washington and Gary Clark hitting big shots:
"Players win games, buddy. Players win games. What I was talking about earlier: people ask you how good you are and (the answer is) you are only as good as your players. You can only coach them up so much. The players won this game. They had to start putting the ball in the basket, taking care of the ball, dealing with Houston's physicality and sharing the ball. Jarron Cumberland getting fouled and making some tough baskets while going to the basket and Gary and Kyle making some big shots, which there were going to have to make because they were doubling the low post quite a bit, so it was hard for those guys to get anything going in the low post. But great teams have guys that can put the ball in the basket. You have to have it; you have to have answers."
On what he learned about his team tonight:
"I think you are always learning. I said I was going to be interested when we played the four-game stretch – Xavier, Florida, Mississippi State and UCLA – how we were going to handle that. I thought we got better each game. We lost the first two. We played excellent basketball against UCLA and we were never in doubt against Mississippi State and controlled that game. I thought we got better each game. You never know as a coach talking about validation because you just never know. All you can do is try to prepare for the moment and prepare your guys so they don't hesitate, like Trevor Moore did the other game against Memphis when he had to make a big shot. I thought our guys didn't hesitate when it was time to make big shots tonight. That is the mark of a team, but it's only one night. We still have to go back to Houston and I am sure they are going to be ready for us whenever that lovely trip takes place."
#1 Jacob Evans III, G/F
On how UC was able to stabilize itself after Houston's fast start:
"Play harder, that's always our go to. They were making shots. But there was a reason for them making shots. We weren't getting to their shooters fast enough or closing hard enough on them. We just had to play harder. With five minutes left in the half we picked it up a little bit and then we just tried to carry our momentum from there."
On his three-pointer before the half:
"It was big. We already had a little run going at the time. I got the steal and looked up at the clock. There were three seconds. I knew I had a chance to get a good one off. I just shot it and banked it in."
On if they feel they are never out of a game because of their defensive effort:
"It's a long game. We were facing a deficit early. We were just worried about getting stops, getting rebounds and crashing the offensive boards to get us extra possessions. The game is so long. Every team goes on a run. You never feel out of it as long as you can string stops together you should be fine."
#24 Kyle Washington, F
On the difficulty of being able to dig out of an 18-point deficit:
"I think it's kind of difficult. It's an arduous task sometimes. Like I've been saying this whole year this team is probably the closest team I've been on in terms of cohesiveness, staying together, getting through adversity. We all love each other. We're together. It makes it so much easier when we have a situation like that when we're together and we're connected. Because we were in a tough spot. We got to fight through it though. It was a great test for us."
On how he found his rhythm as the game progressed:
"I just think that's the competitor in me. I've been trying to step up and try to be there for my teammates. It was time to step up."
Houston Head Coach Kelvin Sampson
On what happened in the final seven and a half minutes of the first half:
"Well, first of all, it's two good teams. If we are going to give them credit for what happened in the last seven minutes, then let's give us credit for the first 13. What happened in the first 13 is we came out and played well. But, if you're going to play the No. 8 team in the nation two things have to happen: we had our three fives all get in foul trouble. We had one kid go 4-for-4 with four rebounds – he only played eight minutes the first half. We have to keep our guys on the floor. [Breaon] Brady gets three fouls, sits down. Nura [Zanna] gets three fouls, sits down. Fabian [White Jr] gets two fouls, sits down. We had some guys in foul trouble. We have to keep them on the floor. That's a tough deal for us. The other thing is, and let's not lose sight of this, that's a good team. They're very good. You know, all they needed was a break. [Kyle] Washington and [Gary] Clark, the shots that got them back in it was their threes. We are prepared to guard them on the block, but we're not prepared to guard them beyond the three-point line. Let's give them credit. They made some tough shots. When the Kyle Washingtons and Gary Clarks are sitting there making threes, good for Cincinnati. Those are tough shots."
On if Houston's early lead was because of the three-pointers:
"No, 'cause of our defense, too. We guarded them. You don't get separation because one team was making threes. They could be scoring twos and it's a tie ball game. But our defense was outstanding for a long time. And then that's when you just run out of bullets at certain positions. I just wish we could have kept our guys on the floor. Because we had guys on the floor that probably shouldn't have been on the floor. And those are the ones that were hurting us a little bit there. Let's not take anything away from Cincinnati. That's a really, really good team."
On what happened after leading 37-20 with 7:42 left in the first half:
"Two threes and the next thing you know it's 37-26. And then we started putting them on the free throw line. We just had some tough things happen. Some of it was in our control, some of it was out of our control."
Postgame Quotes: Cincinnati vs. Houston
Postgame quotes from Cincinnati's 80-70 win over Houston on Wednesday at BB&T Arena.