Dec. 19, 2007

Recap | Final Stats | Notes | AP Gallery

Head Coach Dave Odom

“If there was ever any doubt in anyone’s mind that we were playing an excellent basketball team in Baylor, there shouldn’t be any doubt any longer. They’re a terrific basketball and can score at any position. They have the ability to turn a basketball game defensively, they’re well coached and off to a great start.”

“I thought we played very well the first 15 minutes; maybe as well as we have all year long. I can’t remember the last time one of our teams went as cold offensively and as cold defensively at the same time as we did in the last five minutes of the first half. We took a couple of hurried shots and created turnovers just enough to give them hope.”

“I think we lost our confidence defensively and it had a real affect on how we played offensive. It may have been the other way. Maybe we were not good offensively and that gave the opening for their offense to come alive and we quit playing defense. I don’t know which way it was, but maybe it was one in the same.”

“They went zone and we never found an answer. We downsized sometime around the 11-minute mark to get another shooter in the game. That seemed to help a little bit. I know we were down as much as 15 at one time. We came back within four but just couldn’t close closer than that.”

“It was a difficult game. Now we turn our attention to Charleston Saturday. That game is important to us, but it’s important that we prepare well. We have to get right into preparation tomorrow morning. I have ideas of things we need to do to be a better basketball team. I’ll get to those immediately so that by Saturday morning we can handle whatever they throw at us.”

“It’s a huge disappointment. We played well enough to earn that 20-point lead. I have to reflect on that.”

“It was a zone we didn’t handle well. That surprised me. In the second half I thought we lost confidence. Sam Muldrow had a good first half. It seemed like (Baylor) said, `Let’s give it to him and see how he does physically.'”

“Now we turn our attention to Charleston Saturday. That game is important to us, but it’s important that we prepare well. We have to get right into preparation tomorrow morning. I have ideas of things we need to do to be a better basketball team. I’ll get to those immediately so that by Saturday morning we can handle whatever they throw at us.”

Dominique Archie

“We tried. Our defense collapsed. We took some bad shots, didn’t get rebounds. We made some “grade school” mistakes. Fortunately, we had a lot of 2nd shots in the second half and many loose balls, but we ended up not taking advantage of those opportunities.”

Brandis Raley-Ross

“We’re on a dry spell; missing shots, making turnovers. We lost a good game. We didn’t lose confidence, but they had a different type of energy than we did. We’re sort of in an offensive funk and we’re trying to beat it.”

Zam Fredrick II

“I’ve played in a game like this before where the offense is dry. It’s a part of basketball. They were making tough shots, On offense we weren’t making shots, that’s just how it goes.

“There’s no excuse, we’ve been in close games all season, we know what we have to do, we just couldn’t stop them from making shots.”

Head Coach Scott Drew

“Coach Odom is a class act. Last year he was gracious in victory in the close game, and this year he was good in defeat. It was a game of swings. We were down by 20 and were up by 15 at one point. That’s the type of game it was.”

“We haven’t had too much success on the road. The change goes to the players. They are more experienced and have more confidence than before.”

“We started scoring. That gave us more energy on defense. We played a lot better defensively without fouling. Delbert (Simpson) gave us a lot of energy off the bench. Without him, I don’t know if we would’ve come back.”