Marquette University Athletics
Marquette University
Dayton
Basketball Coach Tom Crean Post-Game Comments Following Dayton Game
12/8/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 8, 1999
"I didn't stand in here and hear my players talk but I would presume that they are not treating this as a moral victory because I really think that they came into the game to win. They came into the game ready to execute the game plan and for almost the whole time we did. Our players have worked very hard, this was our third game in five days, and we certainly hit the adversity wall with the Oluoma Nnamaka situation (out four weeks with a stress fracture in his left foot) which kind of came as a little bit of a surprise to everyone. We had to readjust but I think that our players did a good job with that. I think that we are going to have to have some players step up and when I look at some of the numbers -- Brian Wardle, who went into the game with five offensive rebounds all year, and he ends up with five tonight, I think that is somebody who stepped up. I thought David Diggs played better and it was good to see Greg Clausen playing with some confidence. Brian Barone made some excellent plays, I haven't seen the deflection chart, but I'm sure that he is either the leader or real close.
We did a good job in the post -- I thought our post defense was better tonight. I thought the job we did on a very good player in Mark Ashman was good. Dayton is a good team. They deserve all the credit for the win. He (Dayton coach Oliver Purnell) coaches extremely well. He coaches hard and aggressive and they play that way. They are going to have a very good basketball team as time goes on in the Atlantic-10. They have already proven that with the wins they have. Now, we just regroup, we learn from it and move on to get ready to play a very tough Baylor team on Saturday."
(On Baylor's 27 free throw attempts compared to Marquette's 10 opportunities from the stripe) "That had an effect. We didn't get to the line enough and they made their free throws. They are a veteran team and veteran teams do that. They were shooting 74 percent going into the game so for them to shoot 78 percent tonight is no surprise. We just didn't get enough attempts and that is something we'll continue to work on."
(On whether there were positives coming from the game) "There are plenty of positives. I just don't think that you come into these games and feel like your mission was accomplished when you don?t win. It doesn't really matter how I feel, it matters how they (the players) feel. A friend of mine told me one time, "it doesn't matter how guys feel after the game about winning or losing, it matters how they feel during the game." And I knew that when we came into timeouts and at halftime, we were in the game to win and that we were doing everything we could possibly do to win. We just fell a little short. I'm proud of the effort, but, if we are to get better this year, we can't look at it and say, wow, we played Dayton close.
(On whether the team's foul trouble towards the end of the game changed the game plan) "Yeah, it did a little bit. Every once in awhile in practice we play the small lineup for late-game situations and things of that nature. Obviously, we did that the other night against Appalachian State to win the game. We had some fouls early in the second half -- Cordell was out a little longer than we wanted, but Brian stepped in and did a good job. We lost a very valuable guy now (Nnamaka) for a few weeks now and it does so many things that show up on the box score and so many things that don't. That's a blow. It's not an excuse, it's just a blow. And I'll say this -- I thought Oluoma did a very good job of talking to the players. We had him up near the front of the bench because he is a valuable guy to me and he is more valuable to our players. "
(On play of David Diggs) "David will have to continue to step up. I know that he can shoot, we would probably like to have him shoot a little bit more at times when he is open. But defense and rebounding are going to be the keys to his minutes -- he knows that -- and he has made improvements the past few weeks. Right now, he is going to get a little bit more baptism under fire. He is going to have to play against bigger people."
