March 13, 2008

Game 4 - Charlotte 75, Rhode Island 73

Charlotte Head Coach Bobby Lutz

On the game and the quality of the Atlantic 10:
"What a great game. I've said this a lot, including after some losses in the league this year, it's just incredible, the balance, the parity, the number of excellent teams we have. Look at what Rhode Island did against the Big East this year and the talent that they have and how well-coached they are."

On Leemire Goldwire:
"This league is so good and there are so many good players and I think it has to be for this guy to be a Third Team All-League player. I'm not going to lie to you. He's better than that. There are other good players in this league, but he's better than Third Team All-League, and he showed it today, just like he's shown it his whole career."

On Ian Andersen's impact:
"He came in and made two huge shots when we were struggling to score...he's a high-energy guy and with Lee, it's hard to play them together unless we move Lee to the point and...we don't like doing that much. But when they went zone, it was definitely the time to do it. Ian brings tremendous energy, and he doesn't play that much because he plays behind Lee...we have a lot of good 'team guys' and he's the best 'team guy' on our team. He's unbelievable, and always ready to take a big shot, which is hard to do when you don't play much. I thought he definitely had a big impact on the game in a very limited time."

Leemire Goldwire

On making three consecutive three-pointers near the end of the game:
"I didn't want to lose, and I felt the whole game I got pretty good shots. It just so happened the last three shots, they were really good looks and I capitalized on them."

On the team's attitude in the huddle:
"Every time we went back to the huddle, everybody was being positive. We thought the game was right there. Sometimes we got close, then they went back up by nine, and then we got it back down again. So we just wanted to stay positive and we did."

Michael Gerrity

On the last play of the game:
"Coach drew up the play for me to come off the ball screen and then he said, 'make a play,' whether it was 'get to the basket' or 'find a shooter,' and I told Lee before I came out there, I said 'if I get in the lane, and they commit, I'm going to give it to you,' because he'd been hot all game. But they stayed on him and I saw a lane and just kind of went for it."

On Thursday's matchup with Massachusetts:
"I just think that it's going to be a fun game, because I remember last time we went there it was really up-and-down and both teams really like to run the floor, so it should be a lot of fun and probably a lot of points."

Rhode Island Head Coach Jim Baron

On the closing seconds of the game:
"I was very disappointed for our kids because I thought it was a terrific game. It went back and forth. Our guys hit some monster shots, they hit some monster shots. We called a timeout specifically to set up a play that we had run a number of times and there was no issue, no problem. Once it's done, the possession goes from us to them and all of a sudden, the foul that was called down there, it was physical too. It was just totally taken away from us."

On what he told his team in the locker room:
I couldn't be more proud of these guys and I told them that. I told them, do not hang your head one bit. They showed a tremendous amount of resiliency and togetherness, they came together. That's the tough thing, you know, what goes on when you play a game, when you're in the hotel room and when you're eating meals and when you're together, there's so much of a chemistry and a bonding that goes on. That's the tough thing, these guys were really focused.

On the officiating:
"You could have called a foul every time he (Jimmy Baron) was coming off of the screen; they were grabbing him and holding him. But again, that's a part of the game and we know that. That's why we tell our guys to play above and beyond the whistle and they do a great job."

On the Rhode Island defense:
"We did a heck of a job on Lamont Mack. That's why it's a tough way to go down because our guys did a great job, we held him to one point, he had 18 against us last time. Goldwire had 34 against us last time, he had 23. Our guys did a great job of really minimizing those guys."