The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB 66, Louisiana Tech 54
11/29/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 29, 2004
UAB head coach Mike Anderson
On Louisiana Tech:
"Louisiana Tech got down early but then really got physical. The game was much to their liking in terms of the half-court. They went to a zone and we didn't make any shots early. They had a great gameplan coming in. They were probably more in game rhythm than we are. I expected it was going to be a hard fought game, especially at this time of year. I thought both teams played extremely hard."
On the win:
"A lot of things happen when you're the hunted. I'm proud of our guys today. They rallied, they didn't panic. We were down to this team last year. But the game is played in halves and the key is you want momentum at the right time."
UAB guard Squeaky Johnson
On UAB's strategy:
"That's how we dedicate our game on defense. We play hard and let the game come to us and hopefully we pull it out in the end."
On finding his shot and the shooting of Derrick Broom:
"I was telling coach that I put up a lot of extra shots in practice but it seems like I never get any in the game. He told me that they'll come to me. Broom works hard every day in practice just shooting and shooting. It was due time for him and he's going to have a lot more games like that."
UAB guard Donell Taylor
On containing Louisiana Tech's Paul Millsap:
"We were just trying to play defense so they wouldn't get the ball into Millsap, their man guy. But when they did get the ball to him, we tried to keep a man behind him and bring someone from the weak side to force him to take a tougher shot."
Louisiana Tech head coach Keith Richard
On the loss:
"I think overall 25 turnovers is too many. I thought our plan was right. We really wanted to make it a half-court game and it showed in the first half. Early in the second half, we started playing too fast offensively. We had some turnovers early and we showed an inability to score inside."
On UAB's gameplan:
"That's what UAB's philosophy does to teams. They want you playing fast even at the expense of scoring on them. They want your heartbeat racing, so it snowballed on us there in the middle of the second half and the game got away from us."
On playing a fast-paced tempo team like UAB:
"The players do get caught up in it. It takes a very poised team, a team that can dribble and pass to be able to do that. We didn't show a lot of skill there at times there. We played some good minutes and its been a tough stretch for us. We've played four good teams but we've not been quite good enough to win all of them."
