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University of Houston Athletics
POSTGAME QUOTES: Houston 73, Wichita State 59
1/20/2018 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
#7/4 WICHITA STATE SHOCKERS (15-4 • 5-2 American)
at HOUSTON COUGARS (15-4 • 5-2 American)
Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018 • Health & PE Arena • Houston
HOUSTON HEAD COACH Kelvin Sampson
Opening Statement
"When we played them the first time we didn't play that well. We had some fresh ideas on how to handle them. When someone beats someone bad there's always assumptions made about the team, is this team that good, or is this team that bad? No team is that good or that bad. Earlier this year, we beat Arkansas by 20 or so points here when we weren't that good and they weren't that bad. Sometimes you start throwing balls in and you look better than you actually are and they look worse than they actually are.
On adjustments they made from the past game
"Once we got back we poured over the film. I just wanted to watch all their made baskets, just the first half. They played great, I also knew we could play a lot better. One area we had to get better in was choking off the three point line. We did a great job of not over helping or dropping today. Now sometimes when you take something away, you're going to give something up and what we gave up were some offensive rebounds that they usually wouldn't get against since we're a good rebounding team. I'd rather give up some offensive rebounds than give Shamet, Frankamp and Reaves those three's, especially open looks. We made a concerted effort. Galen Robinson, Armoni Brooks, Corey Davis, and Rob; those four especially, they really competed. There's a big difference in playing hard and competing. We always play hard, but tonight we really competed. Not many people believed we were going to win this game. We believed we were going to win this game. Our guys kept hearing that Wichita State just lost so there going to come in here mad. What about us, we lost too."
On if today's win is a signature win for the program
"Obviously it is. I saw one of my managers that was here the first year I was here and he told me coach we've come a long way. That was the first time I had really thought about it. That first year, we only had five guys on scholarship. That may have been the most overachieving team I had ever coached. That team won 13 games. I'm still trying to figure out how that team won 13 games. That team should've won five games, but they won 13 games.
We're building a program. We have good players. This is a signature win, but I think there's bigger and better wins down the road for us. That's why today is not a day of celebration. You appreciate the day and I'm happy for our fans. You know all of the fans that came out to see us today, I hope they come back to see the Cougars."
On the effect of the home atmosphere
"We've got a good thing going here at Texas Southern. I'm not sure I want to go to the Fertitta Center next year. We may treat the Fertitta Center like the Toyota Center and play all of our games here. (Joking)
I don't think we would've had the same atmosphere like we had if this game had been played at Toyota Center. That's why I fought to keep it here. After we beat Arkansas I saw what a good crowd could do for our kids."
On the effect of the Wichita State crowd in the first game
"Wichita State has it at their place. You would not believe how electric that place was. I think they had everyone from Dorothy, Toto and the mayor there. It was a coronation for them. It was their first game in the American. They were all celebrating, as they should have. It was an unbelievable crowd. I've been a part of a lot of great crowds. I've seen a lot of great home crowds and Wichita State fans were great. They come out and support their team. They blew the roof off the building that night. You throw in all the threes they made and we didn't know if we were on foot or horseback to start that game.
On the progression of the program
"For us, as we we're building this program and going through our fourth season, I like where we're going. Even if we had lost I would've liked where we're going. I know where we've been and I know where we're headed, but what this does is it lets the casual fan that doesn't pay much attention to us know that we're good. The fans that come out to see us frequently know we're good, but when the average fan sees that the University Of Houston beat Wichita State their ears perk up, and that's a good thing."
On how they limited Landry Shamet in the first half?
"That was the game plan. That's what we worked on and we knew where they going to get their shots from and we knew we had to do a great job of not relaxing. They're very disciplined, they run good stuff, and they hit us in the mouth with it last time. You play somebody twice during the year, not once, so we split. It was no longer that game, it's these two games. The way we guarded them today is the way we've got to guard everybody going forth. Last week we played East Carolina and for 34 minutes, it was the best defense I had a team play since I've been here. Thursday night, I felt sorry for our kids, that game should have been cancelled to be honest with you. Our conference should have stepped in and said you know what it's after four o'clock in the afternoon and Houston is still trying to get here from the airport.
I thought the most important thing today was our kid's commitment to the game plan. This is how we're going to guard. When they run these actions, here's the way were going to guard. The best game plan in the world is not going to matter if you don't have committed kids, our kids are committed. I was really proud of our kids, regardless of our individual points. I don't care about that, Robert would be the first one to tell you. I could care less about how many points people score. That was the best defense Rob has played all year and our most valuable player without question today was Corey Davis. He was outstanding on both ends. "
On if he is satisfied with the team's ability to take the charge and respond?
"I think that's because we're a good team. We've had big wins. Playing Wichita State for us - we've already played them - this is our 19th game. We've been there, where we've been up big on someone and they start coming back. When we played Providence in Connecticut in December, we were up by 18 or 19 and all of a sudden they made a run.. It starts with your leadership. I thought Devin Davis was another that was a stud. Our seniors were good. To start the game, Breaon warmed up and could play the start of the game. Boy, when he goes and sits for 20-25 minutes and comes out for the 2nd half, I knew he just couldn't do it. His ankles are nowhere near ready. Obviously, he makes us a better team. He got us a basket inside, which when we get him back, I think we can continue to improve. Nura came off the bench and played tough, that's a good front line. Fabian White, it's just getting better and better. You think about how good that kids going to be. What makes it better is that he has to go against Devin Davis, Breaon Brady, Nura, and Chris every day. Last year in Atascocita, he wasn't breaking a sweat getting 28 and 17, now in practice every day he's going against men. That was a man's game tonight in that paint and those were two good teams battling in that paint tonight. "
HOUSTON SENIOR GUARD Rob Gray
On what he thinks about the win
"Like the coaches say, we will either be remembered or forgotten. We want to hang a banner, compete every day for the city, the fans, and the university and show all the hard work we've put in. When we went to Wichita State, we felt like we embarrassed this program. It was on our minds to play as good of defense as possible."
On the emotions they felt throughout the game
"Shout out to the crowd and student section; it was a very loud environment and that could help more often. We need to work on making that regular. It was timely. We needed that top-five win, so we appreciate them. We played hard and practiced hard for this game. Whenever you get out there and things are going well, you go in a positive direction winning against a top five team. There's a lot of emotion and it was fun. It's hard to explain."
On how they were able to execute defense so well
"We know that three-pointers are a big part of Wichita's defense. We knew that if we could slow them down there, we could slow them down overall. Frankamp and Shamet are very good shooters, we limited them a lot tonight and that was one of the reasons why we had a low point total in the first half. We came here to workout at six. We all trust in Coach Sampson, we woke up this morning ready to compete and it showed in the first half."
On if he thinks Wichita State was more physical today
"We did everything better across the board in this game. At Wichita, we didn't represent Houston basketball culture. They had a very loud crowd, they hit 10 three-pointers in the first 10 minutes and we were battling it out uphill since. Today, we established that were good enough to compete."
On if he thinks this team is worthy of being in the NCAA tournament
"We have to stay humble and continue to fight. We have to keep putting wins under our belt and when it comes to Selection Sunday, no one can take that from us. We have to keep winning games we're supposed to win and ones we're not supposed to. That will be the recipe of getting exactly where we want to be."
On if they discuss being in the tournament frequently
"We're a family and speak to each other about everything. We are very close and practice our culture every day. We discuss these things everyday and during practice we point to the empty spot on the wall and say that that's where we'll hang a banner by the end of 2018."
HOUSTON JUNIOR GUARD COREY DAVIS JR.
On what he thinks about the win
"We knew how big this game was without even saying it. We knew we had to come in and play the type of basketball we knew how to play. There have been many games where we've shown how good we can be, we held ourselves to that high standard and today we exceeded that because we were focused."
On the emotions they felt throughout the game
"Rob and I are very emotional basketball players, so we like to play with our hearts on our sleeves at all times. We love the game so much and being in this environment brings out the emotional basketball players in us."
On how they were able to execute defense so well
"We hold our defense up to a high standard, because we know we can score at any time. In every practice and game, we take pride in our defense and sometimes it shows and sometimes it doesn't."
On if he thinks the team was more physical today
"We knew we had a chip on our shoulder from the last game. We felt the energy through practice that this game was going to be different. We weren't going to let them punch us in the mouth, we were going to fight back."
On what it felt like to take Wichita's best player out of the game
"It makes my heart happy. I'm a team player, and I don't care about doing anything else but my job. Frankamp and Shamet are excellent shooters, so we had to make them uncomfortable and that's what we did."
