Feb. 18, 2004
Winston-Salem State 65 - North Carolina Central 97 Post Game Quotes From Head Coach Philip Stitt
Coach, what happened tonight. Were they just that good, or were you guys just that bad? "We didn't have any effort tonight, and that's pretty evident...and as a coach, I guess that is my fault...I am supposed to get these guys ready to play, and from the performance out there on the court, we were not ready to play...and now I have to try to get this team ready to play Longwood...Tonight, it's on me."
They shot amazing tonight, and got a lot of easy ones. It's hard to try to win games when a team shoots that well. "We were never in the ball game...We turned into a straight kjump shooting team, and we miss, and I have never seen so many layups...I mean, they shot 63 percent...We just gave it to them after a while...we never led, the game was never tied...we never even got ready to play."
Do you think that the players stopped listening after a while? Did that happen tonight? "That's what happens when you get down...players start to think that they are going to do it their way, and we just aren't that talented a basketball team where we can do that...we have to outwork teams, and in this conference the talent level is high, so we have to earn wins with our effort and our talent...we can't just rely on our talen level being so high that we can just cruise through games...we won't win like that."
Coach, midway through the season you said the chemistry on this team was the best you had seen in a long time. Is that fading now? Is it changing? "No I don't think so. The chemistry is still there, and the guys are getting along well, but I think that may be part of it...that we are getting along too well...when that happens people can get complacent, and get too 'buddy-buddy' and the work ethic and effort starts to fade, and when that happens, losses start to pile up."
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Can you turn it around now? This late in the season? "You hope so, and thankfully everyone starts with a clean slate at the tournament. That is good. Sometimes you just need to put it behind you and try to move forward, and that is what we are going to do. I have just got to get us ready to play."
NCCU Head Coach Phil Spence Is this the best that this team has played since you got here [in 2000]? "Yeah, I would have to say so. I mean, we shot 63% and got a ton of open looks. We just came out hungry and motivated."
You guys can still win the West, did that help to motivate the players? "Yeah, I showed them the Western Division championship plaque to help get them focused. They know we had to take three steps and beat three teams to do it, and we beat a very good WSSU team tonight...now we have to get JCSU and St. Paul's to accomplish our goal. But no one wants to play that Ram team in the tournament. They got us already this year, so they are a good team. We just played hard, and got a very important win, at home, tonight."
