USF Men's Basketball
USF vs. FAU Quotes
Stan Heath, USF Head Coach
Opening Statement
"Augustus had a big second half. I thought Dominique, his shots weren't falling but he played right through it. I thought Chris Howard was really solid out there. Making some big shots, it was good to see that happen for him. He's been working really hard, extra practice. You can see the development in the shots. He's really improved over the last few years.
"A good win for us. You know, I don't think it was necessarily our best performance. They were feisty, they came in here and had some you know, Ray Taylor and Greg Gantt and some of those guys, they came in here to play. They made us a little bit nervous. "
On the Key for Augustus tonight...
"You know what, it just seemed like the light switch went on at some point in the second half. He got, I think a baseline shot, and next thing you know he got in the groove and boy he just made shot after shot after shot. It's a luxury to have a big guy who can play around the basket and also step away from the basket."
On the key to extending the lead...
"It's just defensive intensity. We started getting stops and rebounds. And clean rebounds. Clean rebounds that lead to fast breaks and I thought that was the stretch that really changed the game, cnce we started controlling the back court and getting good outlets and fast breaks.
On Gilchrist's defensive development...
"I think that's one of the underrated areas that he is doing a good job of. He's handling some of those ball screens; he's showing on screens for shooters, just clogging things up in the paint. We've played teams at times where, I remember the Virginia game where he had to guard a three man; he had to play on the perimeter so he's showing even versatility, I think, guarding people away from the basket. That's an improved area. I think his passing has picked up since the beginning of the year, with double teams and things like that. So he's steadily evolving. He's very talented right now and he's still got room for improvement."
On how the team played against the zone...
"I didn't think we started out very well but I thought the in the second half when we started penetrating the zone and getting it inside and playing inside-out we're much better. Early on we were just passing it around the perimeter and jacking up shots and that wasn't working. It didn't look too good."
Chris Howard, USF Guard
On what the key was to the win...
"I just think that coming into this year it's very important that we play team ball and get everybody involved and definitely establish the inside player, Gilchrist and Famous, and I think we've been doing a great job with that the past six games and you know it's definitely showed."
On what was key for him on the offensive end...
"I just thought about how I knew we've been playing a lot of games that people probably have figured South Florida should come here to win you know, and FAU put up a pretty good fight but I just wanted to come out and be aggressive and being a leader I felt that would rub off on my team."
Augustus Gilchrist, USF Forward
On how he played tonight...
"Well I had my typical first half and scored a little, rebounds were okay but the second half, the game was close and I just felt the teammates kept on passing me the ball and I delivered. We played great defensively with a 19 and 0 run so that held us out too tonight."
On if he's gotten comfortable enough to where he feels he can take control of things...
"I don't really see it like that, I mean I guess you can see how that happens. We play together and pass the ball all around, which makes any one of us capable of having a great night, but I guess tonight I felt it."
Mike Jarvis, FAU Head coach
On how tough of a matchup it is with Gilchrist...
"He's probably as big of a player as we will play this year. He's definitely a pro prospect, but he probably won't have as many blocked shots this season as he did tonight so, yes he's good, but you know one guy never beats you. It's not just him that beat us tonight, it was them. They played fairly well, they shot the ball better than they usually do and I think that's what really helped them, with all the threes. You know, normally they don't but tonight they did."
On if he felt the team started off slow...
"There's been nights where we have started off fast, but what we haven't done yet with this young team is we need to be able to play straight through the two halves. On the conditioning level if we get stronger we will eventually get tougher and I think we will eventually get to a point where we're going to be able to play, you know, 40 minutes of basketball. We're not there yet with these kids, but we will get there."
