USF vs. Cincinnati
Postgame Quotes
Feb. 16, 2010
USF Sun Dome
Augustus Gilchrist
On being back on the court…
"I feel great! Especially getting the win tonight, we played well defensively and offensively, it was great."
On his comfort level on the court…
"Just getting into a rhythm, I had my teammates there to back me up, and tell me to just keep on shooting and things will fall. It's more like a family atmosphere, and on the road it's tough to win, so back here I felt a lot more comfortable and with all the fans here, they had a big part in me playing better."
Mike Mercer
On their defense…
"To start the game, we had a defensive mindset. Coach wanted us to heat up the guards. We noticed in our first game against them that they can't really take pressure because sometimes they would turn it over. We just wanted to win across half court, just get up in them, and it really worked out for the best."
On the importance of today's game…
"The BIG EAST is such a tough league that today's game was really important. You have to steal games when you are on the road, so when you're at home you definitely want to get those wins. We feel like it was a really important game to win, and we came out tonight with the mindset that we had to win. Our backs were against the wall and I think that really helped us play well tonight."
Dominique Jones
On getting back on track…
"I think that winning on the road in the BIG EAST is hard, so every time you're on the road you have a feeling like you have to come together as a family and steal one. I feel like us getting the Georgetown game was a very important game, especially when it comes to resume time and tournament time. I think that Marquette and Notre Dame would have been good as well, but those are two really hard places to win at. They had 15,000 or 16,000 fans in there so they are hard places to win at, so we just have to take care of business as home. We are back on track, we are walking around high spirits now. There is just something about me and the whole team, we don't like walking around knowing that we lost the last game. We have to get a win or something to get our spirits back up."
On playing without Famous…
"Coach just told our big guys to stay tall, and stand straight up. I think that Augustus does a good job occupying the big men, so they can't just think about the offensive and defensive rebound, they have to think about what Augustus is going to do. Augustus and Alex did a really great job on defense tonight."
On the new found fan support…
"It's something new. I have been here for two years, and sometimes you'll play a team and the only people you will see in the stands is family. So this is a big step for our program, for our fans and everybody to be buying in. We just have to do our job and keep winning, and I think that the fans coming out to fill up the stands plays a major part in us winning."
Head Coach Stan Heath
Opening Statement...
"I'm not sure how pretty that game looked from the stands, the offense especially in the first half. Both teams - I thought we were a lot better in the second half, and we just had to have a little bit more patience, but I was really pleased with our defensive effort, our defensive intensity. We need to rebound the ball against them. That is a tough team, it is a physical team, a team that is doing very well this season, so it's a big win for us. It was one of those pressure cooker games with both teams, and we feel very fortunate that we were able to pull it out today."
On why this year's team is so different than Heath's first year...
"We have more talent. We have Dominique. He's a little older now and he's better, better than he was his first couple of years, and he was really good at that time. I think that we're better defensively. We're better rebounding. We tend to make more plays out there on the court when things break down, Dominique especially, but other guys as well, so we have just improved. We've aged a little bit and added a little more players."
On if Augustus Gilchrist's performance was the difference between the way they played Cincinnati the last time...
"That is a good question. I don't know. You know Jarrid is missing today, and Jarrid is kind of a double-double guy for us. We were real worried about not having him today, but I did think that second half Toralyn did a jump shot and Augustus hit a three. That was a big momentum swing for us. Augustus, he was a little nervous and I think he was in front of the crowd. He missed some layups and some short shots early on. I think those are plays he'll make as we go on, but his presences out there - I think what he does is he makes the other team conscious that he can shoot threes. He can make plays until, where the defense normally just tilts totally toward Dominique, now there's another tilt that they have to think about with him."
On how the team is adjusting to having him back...
"Oh, I think they like that. We have been so shorthanded just playing with two post guys. So now at least we have rotations in there where we can bring another guy in there. I think at some point in time we will have the whole crew. We did a little bit against Marquette, but you know he's a welcomed addition and I think as time goes on he'll be doing more and more things like he did early in the season."
On Mercer's and Crater's shots made in the first half and how much it helped...
"Oh that's huge. You know when those guys are making shots it's a big lift and they are capable. We've been talking to them about just stepping inside that three point line, just look at the 17 or 15 foot shot. I thought for the most part they did. I think they snuck one in there when I wasn't looking but, for the most part, they kind of stuck with the 15, 17- foot shot which is a better shot form. As you mentioned, just their offensive presence, I think it takes a load off some of the other guys out there on the court especially Dominique."
On the big lead in the second half...
"We were aggressive early in the game too, but we just wanted to stay aggressive, put pressure on the ball and try and make it hard for them to get their touches off the screens. We did a much better job.
"Chris Howard did a phenomenal job on Deonta Vaughn. He got 14, but most of those points were late with the drives. That's the key right there. He had 20 the first time around and really controlled the game for his team. This game I thought we did a much better job of making things harder for them."
On if with the back-to-back losses there was a sense of urgency to stay in the game...
"I felt our team stopped talking. I thought they were more humble and realized that if we were going to win, it's going to be a hungry and humble approach. I thought we got back to that instead of feeling like we've arrived because we haven't."
On what Anthony Crater and what he brings to the team...
"He's one of those guys as we mentioned was the difference. We used to have a lot of problems with point guards getting penetration against us over the last couple of years and it's allowed us now to put Chris Howard more on those shooters and coming off screens where he's really, really good at. Dominique as well. Last year Dominique used to guard the point a lot and so now with Mercer and Crater it gives that quicker player that can neutralize the ball handler. Now it allows two really good defenders to do a good job locking up. You know Stephenson and Vaughn for the most part, I thought we did as good a job as you can on those two players."
On what happened to Jarrid Famous...
"I wish I knew. We were doing some one-on-one drills and he and Alex got tangled up and next thing you know he's 'Ah coach I can't go, I can't go.' So we looked at it, saw he had a limited range of movement and he was really in a lot of pain, so we feel pretty good.
"The doctor looked at him today and they feel pretty good that it's a slight meniscus and something that he should be able to play with on Saturday. He's going to get a full MRI tomorrow just to make sure there is not anything else there."
On if it's the right knee...
"I do not know."
On your impromptu rally cry at the end of the game...
"Well, it's big. We just came off of three road games in a row and to be honest with you, I did think we were a little weary. I felt the crowd was huge for us tonight. It gave us that extra jolt of energy in this building with our team that helped us sustain the level we wanted to play at tonight. We need them to come out on Saturday. It's huge. Saturday is big, big game with St. John's. They're playing terrific basketball, just had a couple of wins, and we would like them to bring a friend and put a few more bodies in those seats. That would be a big thing for us."
Mick Cronin, Cincinnati Head Coach
“Obviously, a tough, hard fought game. Hard to win when you can't score. I was just told we had 33 points with six something left in the game. So we scored 24 points in the last six minutes. You can only play so hard, you have to make some layups, you have to make some free throws, and we struggled. We had 15 offensive rebounds but probably six or less second chance points. Although it's not on this stat sheet, I'm not sure if anybody, any of you guys know that stat. Yeah, we missed a lot of point blank shots. We had our chance. We should have been winning the game at halftime. We were 6 for 13 from the foul line and missed a bunch of bunnies around the rim. Dominique Jones is a great player. He's the best player in the country that the country really doesn't know about. He's arguably the best player in our league. He showed it tonight. I watched him on film single-handedly beat Providence and Georgetown. You get 26 points on 12 shots, you're playing. He played great tonight and we really didn't have anybody step up and match him. Sometimes it's pretty simple, it can be as simple as that. We had the ball point blank, quite a bit around the rim, and didn't get the ball in the basket. When they scored, we weren't able to match them. I thought we could've had a chance to have a lead and get a little bit more settled down. But you've got to give South Florida the credit. They came out and played extremely hard. Stan [Heath] does a great job and they're having a great year.”
On shooting badly and still only being down by one…
“Well part of the shooting, when you say shot, I'm talking about one-footers. Part of the problem is we should have been up six or seven. You know, if you make four or five more free throws out of 13, you miss seven free throws, you miss three or four layups, you're supposed to have a six-eight point lead. In these kind of games, when you're playing well, you're getting layups and free throws, you've got to convert. That's not going to happen every possession.”
On if he was disappointed about not doing more in the post with Jarrid Famous out…
“Again, we got it in there pretty deep.”
On starting the second half with USF's 9-0 run…
“Well, they aced their first two baskets. We had a turnover in front of our bench. Lance had the turnover, and they got a layup. And then we had a loose ball, a deflection and then a loose ball. We didn't dive on and they ended up getting a three point shot on it. But that's what happens. I mean, they're good, they're at home. It's going to be a close game. So, when you're playing well and they were struggling to score, you need to have the lead. So when they do hit a few shots, instead of going down nine, now maybe you're up three because you were up five or six. We can overanalyze it all we want, when you have 33 points with six minutes left in the game, you're in trouble.”
