Postgame Quotes - Belmont at Middle Tennessee State - Nov. 20, 2011

EA Sports Maui Invitational

Murfreesboro Regional Games

November 20, 2011

Belmont Head Coach Rick Byrd

Opening statement …

“I am really impressed with Middle Tennessee’s basketball team. That makes this a very quality win for us because they are outstanding. You don’t have to look at anything but their results to see how good they are. For us to come in here and pull out a win is huge. Both teams had foul trouble and both teams had to make adjustments in certain areas. We lost several post players which is a critical position to lose players at for us. We had to attempt to guard big guys with medium-sized guys. I was proud of our fight. Though, I was not always proud of our performance, decision making and other aspects. It is good to coach a team where you do not doubt their desire, and Kerron Johnson leads the way in that regard. He is as good of a competitor as I have ever coached.”

On the team’s late-game mentality …

“I think the impressive thing for us is that not only did we lose that lead in regulation, but then we got down by a good margin in overtime. So, we probably got outscored by about 12 or 13 points in a pretty short period of time. That is something that doesn’t go away in your mind. Everything was going their way and the crowd was fired up as they should have been. At that point, I know Kerron Johnson made a couple of very good drives and Ian Clark made a big 3-point shot from the corner. Those are two guards that came into Murfreesboro as freshmen two years ago and had big games. Now they are juniors and they are even better. However, there is no question that with an eight-point lead with a little over a minute left, you have to close out the game. Kerron Johnson made a turnover that he normally doesn’t make in those types of situations. We got a little tentative - which is easy to do in that situation – and we got tentative with the ball and did not attack the basket. I did not do a very good job in a timeout when the game was tied and we had a chance to win the game in regulation. I attempted to describe plays against both a man defense and a zone defense which is hard to do. We were not sure how they were going to attempt to defend us. They played zone defense which is hard to play at the end of the game because you cannot hold players accountable. I have practically never played zone defense in a last-second defensive situation. However, they did and we got a very poor shot. They played great defense.”

On the importance of the game …

“This is Middle Tennessee’s best team since we have been playing them. I suspected this was a pretty big game for both teams. Their players are the ones that have to answer how big of a game it was for them. I expect they think they are pretty good because they are a really good team. I know they thought that was a big test for them to attempt to get a win. Middle Tennessee is just as good of a team as they would be had they won this game by one point. One point here or there does not mean much. It is about execution and effort. Defensively, their numbers were great against us. It is a matter of a free throw here or a 3-pointer there in determining the outcome. I know they are discouraged and disappointed as that is the nature of what we do and you want competitors to feel that way after a loss. However, the truth is that they are just as good of a team as if they had won that game in the first or second overtime. They are simply really good.”

Guard Kerron Johnson

On the team’s 3-point shooting …

“We depend on our 3-point shooting a lot. We have not had a complete game where we have shot well, but we made big shots today. Adam Barnes, J.J. Mann, Ian Clark, Drew Hanlen and Trevor Noack all made shots today. When it is time to make big shots, you trust that those guys are going to make the shot. It doesn’t matter if we are 0-15 from 3-point range, we believe that the next shot is going in.”

On the team’s mentality heading into the first overtime …

“We have got to get better at closing out games. Coach Byrd has talked about that to us. We have to do a better job of holding on to leads in late-game situations. However, we are a resilient team with lots of leaders in Drew Hanlen, Ian Clark, Mick Hedgepeth and Scott Saunders. We just try to stay with it and we trust in each other. No matter what the score is, we always think we are going to win. We just stay with the game plan and our coaches believe in us and consequently we never panic.”