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POSTGAME QUOTES

Baylor head coach Scott Drew

Opening Statement:
"To tell you how good West Virginia is, I thought we did a good job taking care of the basketball and we had 19 turnovers. Their pressure is something that you don't see every day and you can't simulate in practice. When you shoot 54 or 55 percent from 2 and 40 percent from 3, good things are going to happen. We really shot the ball well, and if we hadn't, those misses would have led to shots in transition and this game would have been completely different. I was pleased with how we executed against a team who is extremely difficult to prepare for and Coach Huggins has done a great job with them all year."

On the game plan against the press:
"First of all we didn't want to turn it over, and second we wanted to be able to take advantage of 2on1 breaks and 3on2 breaks. Some of that included making threes, and if you miss them West Virginia gets into transition, and that's hard on our defense. If you make them, it keeps you going. Taking the right shots and making them is very important against the press."

On Rico Gathers:
"Him and Devin (Williams) are two grown men. I don't know if anything hit on the Richter Scale when they collided, but a couple of those collisions were monster collisions. Rico is someone who has actually changed the way we practice with rebounding drills. Too many of our guys were getting injured battling against him, he does an excellent job fighting and he's becoming more and more skilled because he's working on his game. He shot 70 percent from the free throw line and shot well from the field. We're really excited to see his progression.

On Baylor's zone defense against West Virginia's half court offense:
"We caused 16 turnovers, which is very good for us. We caused some deflections also. They were 6 for 23, if they were making those shots then it's a different game. Some nights you make them, some nights you don't. We did a good job contesting those shots.

On Baylor's big men being able to handle the ball:
"It really helps that Royce O'Neale is a senior. It really helps that Kenny (Cherry) is a senior. Players like that don't get as rattled, and again we had 19 turnovers but I thought that we did a good job against the pressure."

West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins

On shooting percentage:
"Baylor shot a high percentage because of the way we were playing. I've said this from the beginning. We have to turn people over, but we can't turn it over. I think turnovers were 1916. When we win they're 198 or something. That's 14 more shots we would get. We were out rebounding our opposition. We out rebounded them by 8. They shot a high percentage because of the way we played."

On turnovers:
"I think most of our turnovers were from our bigs. We don't work on dribbling in the post. We don't ever say catch it, dribble it and put your head down. I wouldn't tell a fifth grade team that. But they did, so consequently there's a huge disparity. It's been happening all year, but we just haven't been throwing to them as much."

Outlook on season:
"We're going to be alright. The most positive guys in the locker room are the freshman. We've been trying to fix the turnover. Think about those teams in the sweet sixteen and final four. They didn't turn the ball over. They rebounded. We started out doing those things and now we got away from them. I think the opposition has stepped up, but that doesn't mean you stop doing what you're doing. We thought our bigs would finish better than what we're finishing. They haven't finished. I firmly believe that our guys were buying into it. Our five aren't better than a lot of people, but our ten are. We don't have the same amount of effort. We don't have the same amount of resolve. I don't know what it is. I saw it coming. It's like kids. You don't want to see them make mistakes you made, but it's hard to stop them. You tell them and tell them, but it hasn't done any good."

On Baylor:
"They're good now. Their two guards are good, they have a lot of guys who can make shots and they have the best rebounder in the country."

On mistakes:
"When you throw the ball off of a guy's ankles, repeatedly, wouldn't you change it? It's hard to finish when you feel like you're fielding grounders. These guys don't see that it's their fault. They ask the other why he doesn't catch it. All of that being said, we have two seniors who didn't play very well today. They've been good for us otherwise. We have seven new guys. I've put a lot on Devin Williams, and he's a sophomore. We have a couple guys who have just been to high school and junior college. It's different here. It's a different pressure and different players.