Feb. 18, 2004

Recap| Final Stats| Notes

Head Coach Stan Joplin

Opening comments

"Our lack of experience really showed tonight. Our leading scorer was a freshman and they were running at Keith (Triplett) and double-teaming him and that kind of hurt us. We were really hurt defensively with their transition that led to easy baskets. It looked like we were a step slow. You have to give Western Michigan a lot of credit. They have a very good basketball team and have a lot of veteran players. Hopefully our team can learn from this."

(on whether the team matched Western Michigan's energy at the start of the game)

"I don't think we did but then we got back into the game and we were able to weather the storm. Then they made another run and we didn't respond. We just can't afford to do that and that's been a battle for us all year. You can do that against some teams but not good teams like Western. What we're lacking right now is a lot of senior leadership. Hopefully our players can see that and learn from it."

(on who the team needs to turn to when teams try to take away Triplett and Villegas)

"Our freshmen and that's a lot to ask of them. Tino played well tonight with 14 points and Keonta Howell and Justin Ingram were able to step up a little. But they are inconsistent and they're freshmen but we need them to play hard all the time and not make as many mistakes."