USF Men's Basketball
USF vs. Florida Southern
November 3, 2009
Sun Dome-Media Room

Linc Darner, Head Coach, Florida Southern

Opening statement...

"First off, for how we played, I didn't think we played particularly bad. I thought we played, actually I thought we did well. I thought we did some things; we did some things really well tonight. As I've tried to tell people that, that our style for the Division I is, I would play Florida Southern every year in an exhibition game if I were a Division I team because we're not going to do anything different than the way we play all year. I know a lot of teams that get into these Division I games, they milk the clock, they play zone. They don't do things that they do during the year..."

Stan Heath, Head Coach, USF

Opening statement...

"I thought both teams played real hard. And I thought it was a very entertaining game. I, I liked the fact that Florida Southern played basketball. I mean they were pushing it, they were aggressive. That's a very good basketball team. They're going to have a lot of success this season. They have skilled players and their big guys are a little more deceptive than what you think. A little under size, but 15, he ducks you in and kind of wears you out and knows how to play a little bit. He's a savvy player for a big guy.  Both those guards, 1 and 2, are very good players. And they're missing that Rion kid, number 20, who's a very good guard. So when he gets back, you have another guy that's going to be pretty good for them. Our players pretty much summed it up. The bright spot was early in the season and the way this game was played, up and down, up and down, and we didn't turn that ball over a lot. So that was a huge positive for us. Good guard play, good decision making pretty much, good shot selection, a few quickies here and there but not bad. And obviously if we rebound like that we're going to have a lot of problems when we play against bigger teams, so we are going to have to fix that. I think that is fixable. I just think we were trying to out-jump them. We were not putting bodies on people. We have to change that. Hopefully, as we get more healthy, we can ask some of those different guys to help with rebounding.

On Jarrid Famous...

"I saw more out of him. I have been pleased with him in practice. I think he has done a good job. He has worked pretty hard. I saw a lot more out of him during the game. It seemed like he had another gear when the lights came on. I liked that about him. He seemed very comfortable out there on the court. He made some great passes finding guys in double-teams, and passing out of the post. I think, for the most part he gave us a presence inside that we didn't have before."

On Mike Mercer...

"Mercer played well. He shot some of those rainbow shots up into the air, and it looked like they were teardrops from the three-point line. He played well. I was really pleased with the defensive pressure that he started the game off with. I think he is going to make a difference on our team. Chris [Howard] is a good defender, but he is a better defender off the ball. Mike gives us a quick presence that can really guard the ball and can put some pressure on guys. That will allow Dominique [Jones] and Chris to do more of what they do."

USF Forward Jarrid Famous

On how he felt after his first game...

"I felt good in my first game being out there.  I think we played good as a team being out there for the first time and the first game.  We have a lot of things we need to work on, but for the first game I think we did a good job out there."

On getting used to new teammates...

"Over the summer playing, and in practicing together has really helped us to be able to play together today with all of the new players." 
On what the team needs to work on...

"We just need to go out there and work on playing the rebound and blocking shots, just making it hard the offensive team."

USF Guard Dominique Jones

His thoughts on this exhibition...

"I can only go off this one, you see some bright spots out there then you see some things we need to work on like rebounds and giving up middle drives.  I think that it's everybody getting a feel for the college game.  I think that Jarrid did a good job in his first BIGEAST game, but we do still have a lot of work to do in practice.  So we are going to work hard and we are going to get better at those things."

On who impressed him the most today...

"All of them were doing a really good job at shooting the ball and if you watch them you can tell that they have nice strokes.  When it comes to the team I think that all of them need to work on defense, including myself, and as a matter of fact our whole team needs to work on it.  We know that we can score; we know we have people who can make shots, so we have to just put it in our hearts to lock other people down.  And I think that we can win more games and be more successful that way."

USF Guard Mike Mercer

On his first game back...

"It felt good, one of the things that Coach Hanson told me was to just pace myself and not go out there and do too much.  That's what I did, I just let the game come to me, I didn't take too many bad shots, I didn't make too many bad passes, but it gets better with time.  Next game I hope to be better."

On the potential of the team...

"I really feel like our offensive depth this year was a lot more then the last two years that I have been here.  We have a lot of scorers in the wings, Dominique Jones, Chris Howard, myself, Anthony Crater who is going to be playing in the next couple games.  Jarrid can score in the post Gus Gilchrist also.  So we have a lot of offensive fire power, but we just have to get the defense down, get the offensive rebound and just get them off the board."