Recap | Box Score | Notes | USATSI Photo Gallery

BAYLOR POSTGAME QUOTES

Baylor Head Coach Scott Drew

Opening statement...
"This was one of those games where we knew coming in as a staff that it was going to be high-risk, high-reward. What I mean by that is that Florida Gulf Coast won by 31 in the first round of the tournament, down one to North Carolina at the half ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" a team that's used to winning and arguably their best player Brandon Goodwin was sitting out last year so we knew when we scheduled this game that it was going to be hard-fought, tough game. But at the same time it's a great win RPI-wise, if you win it, because they're going to win 20, 30 games this year. I think this was really good for our team. We needed a close game before we went to Atlantis. Not that I wanted to have one but it's good because you're going to have a lot of close games and you're going to need some earlier in the season to get used to some things because I'd expect in Atlantis to have some close games. I would have liked to have seen us extend the lead coming out of the locker room, that's twice in a row we've come out with 10-point leads and seen those evaporate. Defensively, we thought we were sluggish against Oregon coming out in the zone so we said let's come out in man and get them going. I think they made their first seven, so that didn't really work either, so I don't really know what defense we'll come out with next time. I thought we really locked in and the crowd was great the last four minutes of the game and that's when we played really good defense. The guards made them use the ball screens, which is what they're taught and we had really great help from the bigs during that time. I thought we just guarded at a completely different level of intensity, especially in the last four minutes. The crowd helped with that, and our upperclassmen and the leadership out there helped too."

On defense tonight...
"Well, I think first of all, they made shots. Some of them were tough, late in the clock. They really worked the ball around and shot the ball in the last 10 seconds, so it made us play 20 seconds of defense. Those are back-breakers when people hit threes after you've been guarding for 20 seconds and then you start to feel the pressure because you're expected to win, or you think you should be up more, so then you start to press on the offensive end, which led to some turnovers in the second half."

On teams going inside against Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. and his shot blocking ability...
"We feel good with them going inside right now as long as Jo is there. I think with some of our ball screen defense we didn't get to where we needed to early enough, but again, coming into this game we knew how tough of a game this was going to be for us. Especially early in the season, it was good to see how some of these guys could play in a close game for the first time, like Jo, Manu (Lecomte), Chuck Mitchell."

Junior Al Freeman

On what was expected of FGCU...
"We expected a dog fight for sure. They've been in dog fights before. They have experienced guys and they weren't going to come in here and back down. We definitely can play better ourselves. We didn't shoot the three well today but you can't rely on outside shots to fall. It's a learning experience early in the season for both teams."

On the last few minutes of the game...
"Just stay aggressive. As I said earlier, we knew they are a good team and that it was going to be a dog fight. We didn't come into this game thinking we have to beat this team by 30. We knew it would be possession by possession, so when they went ahead we didn't panic and get down on each other or ourselves. We just stayed with it and said let's keep playing how we're playing ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" keep driving the ball, keep creating things for each other, and get the ball down to the post. Jo, (Johnathan Motley), (Terry Maston), (Ishmail Wainright) were all down there. We have great interior guys when we throw it down there and we have guys who can shoot really well on the outside so we just tried to play our game."

Junior Manu Lecomte

On potential hangover from the Oregon game...
"I don't think so. I thought we came prepared. We knew that this team was going to play hard the whole game. They win 25 games every year, they're always in the tournament. They shot the ball very well today but I thought we struggled a little bit in the second half and missed shots. I thought overall we came back pretty well."

On late second half adjustmentsà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"We were in a zone. They got hot, especially (Christian Terrell). He hit three shots in a row, but it happens. We knew he could get hot so we started playing man defense."

FLORIDA GULF COAST POSTGAME QUOTES

Florida Gulf Coast Head Coach Joe Dooley

Opening statement...
"I thought Baylor did a good job, especially in the first half, of throwing the ball inside and putting us on our heels a little bit. I thought a lot of those buckets they got, and the reason they shot such a high percentage, is because if you turn it over in too many live ball situations ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" it puts our defense in jeopardy. We gave up too many layups. We had too many careless ball handling errors that put us in harm's way, and I thought they did a good job of both throwing the ball inside and getting to the free throw line, which they took advantage of. I thought we regrouped a little bit in the second half and got our defense a little more situated and got into a little bit of a better offensive flow, but at the end they made some plays. Obviously there was a big three, and a couple of loose balls around the basket that they picked up and scored on."

On if they attacked Baylor's zone with three-point shooting...
"We talked to our guys about taking what they give us. They pushed and they sort of crowded the inside a little bit. I thought the guys did a good job of penetrating and passing. We had 17 assists today on our 26 field goals, which I think is a pretty good percentage, but I thought we sort of took what they gave us."

On offensive struggles to close game....
"On our last 12 possessions, the last 12 shots, we got fouled, and we had 12 rim shots and made five of them. I think some of that is a tribute to their length. We had some shots that we could've gone back and shot a little higher. We also had drive-and-kick situations that we might have gotten another three off of, but I think that's all part of, on the road, you have to make sure to let your offense work for you. I think Brandon (Goodwin), Christian (Terrell), and Zach (Johnson) did a good job of doing that."

Junior Christian Terrell

On his hot start...
"I think my teammates and my coaches put me in a good position for threes, and I just took the open shots and they went in."

Junior Brandon Goodwin

On if he was able to find his range inside the three-point line...
"I was just trying to take what the defense gave us and attack the basket and get a little balance of threes and twos, so it was just trying to see where we work the best at. We kind of had a little balance of both."

On perimeter defenseà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"I feel like we were playing pretty good defense. They started killing us in the post with pretty much the same play. Like coach said, they're pretty athletic and long, bigger than we are, so it was much more of a challenge than versus another team that's not as big as them, so that's a big challenge for us coming up in the next game."