Dec. 17, 2013

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South Carolina Head Coach Frank Martin
Opening Statement
Probably wasn’t a very good idea to have so many days off between games. I think our guys, just repetitive practice didn’t help us and got us out-of-whack a little bit. But, credit Manhattan. They’ve got the upperclassmen. They’ve got a real good basketball team – I knew that going in. And they took it to us. They beat us on the glass, they beat us on blocked shots, they beat us on steals. Heck, my frontline guys couldn’t get defensive rebounds against 6’1″ guys. Credit them. They’re a good team. They should have been in the NCAA last year. Those kids played without [George] Beamon [last season], who is a really good player. And at the end of the year they played great basketball. And now with his addition, those guys are seasoned. I wish I could tell you I’m surprised with what happened today, but I’m not.

On what changed in South Carolina’s offense…
We couldn’t sustain focus and discipline and effort in practice all week. We went to the bench and the bench didn’t give us any life. You know, your bench has to come in – they can make mistakes – but they have got to give you tremendous life. And our bench gave us no life. I ended up having to play Sindarius [Thornwell] way too many minutes and then he’s got to play tired, but we just have to grow up. There’s no other way around it here. We’ve played a lot better, we know we’re better. We did a really crappy job of playing today though. Hopefully this quick turnaround of playing again, hopefully we’ll come back tomorrow and play a lot better Thursday [versus USC Upstate].

Junior Guard Tyrone Johnson
On Manhattan’s defensive pressure…
They pressured us to play fast. They just made us play not our way, but play their way. First couple of minutes we came out strong doing what we do and then they put the pressure on. Just as a team we shut down and let them get to us. They created turnovers and they made free throws – something that we struggled with. They attacked us; we didn’t attack them.

Freshman Guard Sindarius Thornwell
On what to take away from a game like this…
The biggest thing is that they just played harder than us. We’ve got to come out with energy. We came out with energy, we came out playing hard, but when they hit us we lost energy. We’ve got to take the hits and keep playing with the energy we’ve been playing with from the beginning.

Manhattan Head Coach Steve Masiello
Opening Statement
I have so much respect for the job that Frank Martin is doing with this program and the players that they are bringing in and what they are about. For us to come in here and get a great win today against a very good BCS team in the SEC, whose program is on the rise, I think is just a great opportunity for us and our guys.

On the play of George Beamon…
I think George getting 26 points on 13 shots proves that he was really efficient tonight and I think that Mike Alvarado did a great job getting to the foul line with 11 free throw attempts, which really set the tone for our team. It was a lot of things and was a total team effort. A lot of our guys did good things and I think we are lucky to get out of here with a win.

On playing well on the road…
With this group of guys they are really good when you give them one thing to focus on. When we are on the road it is just us playing basketball, eating and hanging out. Sometimes at home you are getting pulled by family, friends for tickets and school and sometimes home can be more distracting than the road. The road simplifies things for us and, I think that is why we have had so much success. We have more tough road games and we are aware of that, but I think that this was a good step for our program and a great opportunity. I just can’t say enough about the job that Frank (Martin) is doing here and what his brand of basketball is going to do for this university and this state.