Jan. 12, 2002

Recap| Final Stats| Notes

Head Coach Stan Joplin:

"We're disappointed that we came up a little bit short. I thought the game had a couple of runs and we didn't make the run that we had to. Their upperclassmen stepped up and made some big plays."

"We're going to struggle if we have offensive droughts like we did tonight. We have such a small margin for error. We have to continue to score or we put too much pressure on our defense."

"Theron Smith is one of the best players in the league, if not the best."

Sophomore guard Terry Reynolds:

"You have to give Ball State credit. They're a good team. They had a good non-conference season and they'll be good in the MAC. I think we can build off this game, but I think we should have won this game if we could have made a few plays here or there. We just have to move on and try to start another win streak from here."

"Ball State just made plays at the end and we didn't. We need to get a couple of stops but we didn't. They got on the free throw line and we never really get over the hump that we needed to get over."

On the end of the first half:

"We wanted to be down five, be we had a whole half to make adjustments to come out and make a run ourselves. We never made the run that we needed to get over the hump."

On Patrick Jackson:

"He played pretty good defense, but I was still able to get the shots I needed. I just needed to knock them down. His defense wasn't that much different than what I've seen."

Sophomore center A.J. Shellabarger:

"I just wanted to take what the defense gave me. I thought I could make shots and I did. I just played my game and let it come to me."

"We can measure up with anybody in the league. I know that because Ball State knocked off some big teams earlier in the season and we hung in there until the end."

"I think we have a different mentality than we had before. We get more excited and more emotional and now we know what we need to do to be a good team."

On Theron Smith:

He's tough. He's probably one of the best players in the league. He's going to be a leading candidate for MAC Player of the Year. We tried double-teaming a couple of times and it's hard stopping a player like that."

Head Coach Tim Buckley:

"Anytime in conference play you have to get a big lead so you can hang on for dear life. These games are grinders and there are good teams and coaches in this conference and teams just won't go away. We knew that it was going to be tough at the end and that's why we had to finish it out with the free throws and the defensive stops."

On the end of the first half:

"They really had the momentum going into the end of the first half until Theron (Smith) made a big three that really sparked us."

On Patrick Jackson:

"Patrick Jackson did a tremendous job defensively tonight on Terry Reynolds, who is a guy that can really score. I though his defense was MVP-like. For a guy who we rely on for so much offensively, it would be nice to be able to take a little time off on the defensive end. He never did that and continue to play through it and did a really good job on a very good offensive player."

On Theron Smith:

"We sometime take Theron for granted because he's Mr. Double-Double of late. The reason he is is because he's so consistent in practice and with how he carries himself. He was huge for us, especially with the way he got the defensive rebounds at the end of the game and kind of dominated that backboard."

On Toledo:

"Toledo is definitely a team that can challenge us. We felt Toledo was going to be a good team this year even though they lost some very good players. A.J. Shellabarger got better during his redshirt year and has become a very good force for them inside and they already have the very good perimeter players. Toledo has an excellent basketball team."