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POST GAME QUOTES: Houston 75, UConn 70
2/22/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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HOUSTON HEAD COACH Kelvin Sampson
Opening Statement
"Obviously UConn did a good job of punching us in the first half. I didn't think we responded well. In the second half, there was no raised voices, no panicking. If we are the better team, then we are going to win, and we felt like we were.
We came out and made some adjustments to our zone. Our zone was a better force in this game coming in because of Jalen Adams' ability to get in the paint. He's really good in the pick and roll so we made a couple adjustments in our zone.
We started competing harder. It really comes down to what you say or do at halftime. Simple adjustment of the zone and staying with it. These two guys, Kyle Meyer and Damyean Dotson are playing like seniors. Kyle Meyer played his best game since he's been here. Dotson got back on the boards. For people to say that Dotson is just a scorer are losing sight of what he is really good at. Last couple games he hasn't, but Dotson is only one of two guys that is ranked in the top 10 in scoring and rebounding in this league. Look at the position he plays, that is pretty special.
We played smart but we did not shoot the ball well. Rob (Gray), Galen (Robinson) and Wes (VanBeck) were 3-22. Digest that for a minute, two of them are outstanding shooters. Rob 3-10, Wes 0-4 and Galen 1-8. Our back court was 3-22 and we won the game. It's because we defended and rebounded.
Look at their (UConn's) size, how big they are. We won the boards. If Dotson didn't get 9 and Kyle didn't get 11 we aren't going to win the boards. The combination of Devin (Davis) and Danrad (Knowles) was really well tonight. Devin and Danrad did some good things. Collectively, they were pretty good.
It's good to get to 19 wins. It's good to get to third place and get to our 10th conference win. It is that time of year, as soon as the game is over, it's almost like that bus just left. We have to catch the next bus and that is to Memphis on Sunday."
On defense
"Our effort and toughness was there. Our culture took over in the second half. There are a lot of schools that have good teams and when they are not hitting shots they cannot win. You have a good culture then you have a good program. That means you can win games without making shots. This speaks volumes about the kids we have and the kind of culture we have established here in three years."
On Rob Gray's shot to take the lead
"It was a big play when Danrad Knowles tipped that ball in. Danrad tipped the ball in and cut the lead to 10. That means that we could come out and get a stop to start the second half, go score and be down eight. If Danrad didn't tip the ball in then it would have been a 12 point game. They could come out and score and we start the second half down 14. It's a six-point swing there.
Knowing that we could come out and got into the single digits. We never got an offensive rhythm. Wes VanBeck is a very good shooter. He couldn't hit water if he fell out of the boat tonight. Wes just could not make a shot. Our defense and our rebounding was good. Kyle Meyer made that three pointer and to say he was due, is an understatement."
On keeping Kyle Meyer in the game
"I almost put Bertrand Nkali in the middle of the game because he is our best big man free-throw shooter, but Kyle (Meyer) made two in a row tonight and the first time all year, maybe in his career. Since he made a three I felt like it was his night. Usually we are on the other end of free throw shooting. Rob Gray would have been 10 for 10 if he had not missed that last free throw.
A lot of times when you are locked in and you lose yourself in the competition of the game. We had a poor offensive night, but UConn is a good defensive team. I hate it when other coaches say 'we just couldn't make a shot' as if the other team didn't have something to do with it. I like the fact that we won with our defense and our effort. Our toughness and how hard we played the second half was real gratifying for me."
On the maturity of the senior during this stretch
"I love the way Kyle (Meyer) is playing. He is kind of moving up with Dotson on helping us with leadership. You know Dotson's been here all year and Kyle has been up and down all year with his play and Kyle is human and when you are not playing well it's hard to lead, it really is. But Kyle is by far our best five man, he just makes us click. Not just offensively, when he is rebounding like he did tonight and if he can rebound against that front line, and they have been rebounding their tail off, then it makes me excited about what he can do going forward.
Another thing that isn't talked about a lot is that we lead this conference in fewest turnovers. You know when you turn the ball over 14, 15, or 16 times a game that means you are playing against two teams, you are playing against the other team and you are playing against yourself. It's hard to beat one team, it's impossible to beat two. We are averaging less 10 turnovers a game, or right at 10 and tonight we only had five in 40 minutes and that's a testament to our discipline and our guys' execution. I'm proud of the fact that we took care of the basketball; we are a good shooting team obviously. We are a good offensive team we just didn't shoot the ball very well tonight."
On the goal for the remainder of the season being finishing third for the conference
"UConn still has to play SMU and Cincinnati. Memphis has to play Cincinnati tomorrow night. We've played all these people. At the end of the day you don't ever look at where you are today. I look at everybody's schedule and we aren't the only team left with a tough schedule. But winning tonight means that we swept UConn. I don't know when the last time Houston swept UConn but that means if we end up tied with them then we have the tie breaker. That's the only reason why that's significant for me."
SENIOR GUARD Damyean Dotson
On how the team came back from a deficit
"We just stayed together and believed in each other, and did what we had to do to overcome that adversity. At halftime coach preached maturity and that had to come from our seniors. If we stay together, we can overcome anything."
SENIOR CENTER Kyle Meyer
On what this performance tonight meant for his career
"I want to leave a mark on this school. This school deserves to be in the tournament. They deserve a fabulous culture. I want to be one of the leaders of the team that can leave the program with a culture where someone can look back and say 'this is what he did and this is what it takes to win.' That's all I'm really looking for."
On his made three-pointer
"It wasn't drawn up that way at all, I just happened to be open. I want to thank Rob (Gray) for believing in me. I put a lot of work into the shot, and I finally got one to fall."
UCONN HEAD COACH KEVIN OLLIE
On the how the team played
"In the first half, I liked the ball movement. I liked everything that we did. We shared the ball, switched defenses and we played unselfishly.
In the second half, we went back to playing D-League level basketball. There were turnovers and people taking ill-advised shots. That's not UConn basketball. That's not what's been getting us victories on the road and at home. When we play good teams like this we need to step up. It was my fault with the technical foul, but at the end of the day, the referees weren't giving us anything."
On Houston's defensive adjustment in the second half
"They played the zone. They played a little bit of it in the first half, but in the second half they just went strictly zone."
On Damyean Dotson
"Rob Gray and Damyean Dotson were hitting shots. That's what happened. We just needed to come up with the necessary stops. They also missed a lot of shots; look at the stats. They shot around 31 percent, but we give up 46 points in a half and a majority of them were off offensive rebounds. That's bad. You can't do that against a team like this."
