USF Coach Stan Heath

I seriously thought about going home at halftime and taking my team, because we were pretty bad. It didn't look like we had the energy level, and we weren't competing the way that we needed too. But I thought we were a different team in the second half.

Fortunately, we dug ourselves a hole and found our way out of it, but it wasn't enough. Both teams, it was two against one, they had (Da'Sean) Butler and (Alex) Ruoff, and we had Jones.

It was just not enough; we needed some more guys to step up for us. I don't think it was the prettiest game. It was exciting in a way, because it came down to the wire. They made a couple more plays down the stretch than we did.

Butler played a terrific game for them, and I thought Ruoff made timely shots during the game.

We are improving, but we have to find a way to win some games, when we are in the position to do it. We just didn't do it today.

I still don't think that we have the talent that other teams have, but it is good to see our guys fighting. We still have to take that next step and steal a game on the road.

I think I was just watching the Ole Miss tape, when he (John Flowers) made that shot and I said “he can make that shot”, and I looked at the stats and that is the first one he made, and he made his third against us. You have to give the kid credit to take it, knowing that it is not his strength and what he has been successful at during the year, but he stepped up and made it. If I had to pick my poison, I would certainly let him take it.

West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins

Opening

Down the stretch, we made some defensive plays, and John Flowers made some. He got his hands on some balls. When you work as hard as we do on defense, you are supposed to make some plays. We finally did at the end of the game.

On Dominique Jones

We had him under control in the first half, and we just stopped playing. We got comfortable.

Struggles in second half

We're young, and I think sometimes it's hard to handle some success. Why did we stop passing the ball, I don't know. Why did we come down four out of five times and shoot it on the first pass, I have no idea. We were passing the ball and playing pretty good, stepping into shots, and then we stopped doing that. I do not have the answers to that. The only thing I can tell you is that over the years and being in athletics, I've learned people have a hard time handling success and some prosperity. I think that's human nature.

Flowers 3-pointer

That's the second time we've run that play for John. We ran it in the Ole Miss game. We knew they wouldn't guard him, and he's made it both times.

On freshmen

It's hard when you have freshmen. I'm not big on making excuses, but we ask Truck (Bryant) to do a lot of things, and he plays a lot of minutes. When he doesn't respond as well as he has at other times, it makes it difficult. That's what good players are, they're dependable, and they're not going to shoot it great everyday, but they're going to play everyday. They're going to come in and play like crazy every day and do what you ask them to do. That's why people want to coach juniors and seniors and not freshmen and sophomores. It's like Al McGuire said, ?best thing about a freshman is he becomes a sophomore.' That's the only redeeming quality Al can find.