Dec. 22, 2010

Recap |  Final Stats |  Notes

Cleveland State Head Coach Gary Waters:
(Opening remark) "I thought our guys made a decision in the second half that they were going to play harder. We kept that pressure on and that's what we needed to do. We finally started hitting some shots down the stretch which helps a little bit too."

(On how they got the win) "One of the things I thought we did was I thought we fought and we got loose balls and we got steals, and those made up for all these deficiencies in this game."

(On Tre Harmon) "All I ask him to do is keep the pressure on. Some of his shots looked bad because he thought he was getting a foul. I think he struggled mentally, but he kept the pressure on which is all I ask him to do."

(On Coach Heath's comments after the game) "The coach did comment to me after the game that we had two great guards. And those were his exact words."

(On the win being a team effort) "Norris is going to get his 20 points, but when everybody is contributing, we're going to blow people out. The key is, are we all contributing out on the floor."

(On Aaron Pogue) "The one I thought who didn't score a lot of points but was contributing was Aaron Pogue. I thought they had to deal with Aaron in there. He didn't make a lot of buckets but he kept the pressure on."

Cleveland State's Norris Cole:
(On his play) "I knew I had to get out there. Our role players kept it close and in the second half it was about me coming out and leading and playing my part."

(On the large crowd) "When the crowd support is there we love it and we appreciate it. When the crowd gets into it it makes us pretty hard to beat here at home."

(On rebounding from a loss) "When we approach games we do it one at a time. We did some things against West Virginia that were uncharacteristic and we wanted to come back out against another Big East foe

(On the key to the game) "Our strength is quickness and their strength is size. We always want to win the rebound battle, but we didn't today so we had to make up for it with quickness."

Cleveland State's Luda Ndaye:
(On his performance) "I didn't really think about scoring. I just wanted to help my teammates and I think I practice hard and get better for the next game."

Cleveland State's Jeremy Montgomery: (On his play) "Those shots were pretty big and it was real emotional in that gym, it was pretty rowdy. I just love to knock them down for my team to get the victory"

(On Norris Cole) "Norris is a very good leader. Being a recipient of the knowledge he's given me is big and its helped me throughout this season."

USF Head Coach Stan Heath:
(On Cleveland State) "Thats a good basketball team. The difference was in the second half with Cole on the floor. He's just on another level than anyone we have. That kid could play at any level, any gym, anywhere."

(On the loss) "The key to our game is our guard play, and it just wasn't up to par today. Our guard play really struggled."

(On the turnovers) "The turnover differential was huge. I've never seen a margin that big in my life and they were a big part of it but we were probably a bigger part of it."