Feb. 11, 2004

Recap| Final Stats| Notes

Toledo Head Coach Stan Joplin

Opening comments:

"I don't know if I've seen a first half of basketball any worse than what we played tonight. It seemed like we didn't even want to be here. We were slow. We didn't check anybody and gave them open jump shots. It was just a pathetic display of basketball. I don't think the players respected Northern as much as we tried to tell them. The second half we came out with a lot more energy, made some shots, picked up the pressure defensively and got some rebounds. We're just so inconsistent and we were fortunate to win tonight."

(on committing 10 turnovers in the first half)

"I thought most of our turnovers were caused by poor decisions that led to easy layups on the other end. It was just a poor display of basketball. We were very fortunate to play this game at home. If we were on the road, we wouldn't have won the game."

(on getting out in transition more in the second half)

Transition is good for our team because we have some guys who can make plays in the open court. Keith Triplett sets the tone for our team and he did that in the second half. If we can get him the ball in transition that makes us a lot better. In the first half, he had only two shots and that's mind boggling. That's not good coaching on my part and the players have to realize that we have one of the better players in the league with only two shots and something's wrong. Some of that was Keith's fault but the other half is the players' fault."

(on what he was thinking before going on a 25-0 run)

"I was just hoping for a spark or some kind of a break or something. There was no energy out there. It was more mental than anything for us."

Senior guard Keith Triplett

(on the team's struggles in the first half)

"I take the blame for the first half because I didn't come out to play and we didn't do too well. When I pick it up I think everybody follows."

(on being frustrated offensively in the first half)

I don't think Northern was frustrating us in the first half. I only took two shots in the first half and I just wasn't shooting. We just didn't play good defense and gave them too many open threes. The second half we played good defense and that was the difference. We started getting some easy layups and taking the ball inside and our big men started to hit their shots."

Freshman forward Florentino Valencia

(on bringing energy to the team at the start of the game)

"I always try to be the person who tries to bring a lot of energy to the floor. I also try to come in and do the dirty work. I don't really look to score because I just get garbage points and try to get loose balls and rebounds."

(on coming out and falling behind in the first half)

"We came out too relaxed tonight. It's not the coaches' fault. It's the team's fault. We picked it up in the second half after coach

(on being able to turn the game around when trailing by a lot of points)

"It's not that easy. When you come out to play the game isn't like a faucet where you can turn it on and off. We were able to turn it on today when we needed to. We just wanted to come and focus on defense in the second half and that's what got us the win."