March 10, 2005

Recap |  Box Score |  Notes

Head Coach Stan Joplin

"I think it came down to Buffalo outhustling us. They got more rebounds and came up with more loose balls than we did. We're capable of playing better but we just didn't today. We came up a little bit short. You have to give Buffalo a lot of credit. I think they did a nice job. They had their spurts and we did too but theirs were a little bit longer than ours. When we needed a stop we just couldn't get it and that was probably the big difference."

(on getting behind early and not matching their energy)

"It was an uphill battle because we went through a couple scoring droughts. We get our energy from our offense and that hurt us. We thought they were holding us or bumping us a little bit when we were cutting and trying to throw us off our game. They controlled the boards and it just seemed like we were a step slow. We were reacting instead of dictating. We didn't play well enough to win today and we didn't have enough players play well today."

(on if Buffalo wanted the game more)

"I don't think Buffalo wanted the game more. I just think they came out and hit some shots and got their confidence going. We wanted to win and we had to have something positive to happen. We had some opportunities to score but it just didn't happen. They shot the ball extremely in the first half and we were within striking distance. We played in spurts and you can't afford to do that against a team like Buffalo."

(on the team not fulfilling expectations)

"I think the bottom line is that we earned the No. 2 seed and won the West Division. That's something you can't take away from the players because that was one of our goals. We came up a little short today against a good Buffalo team. I told the players there are no do-overs and that hurts. We were very inconsistent and a lot of players were up and down this season. We were 13th in rebounding in the MAC this year and it's kind of amazing that we were still able to win as many games as we did. We had a lot players returning and most of them didn't have the year that we thought they would."

Sophomore guard Justin Ingram

"We didn't come out to play the way we're capable of playing. Buffalo played an exceptional game and we know we can play better but we just didn't do it tonight."

(on Buffalo controlling the boards)

"They just went harder than we did and came out more energy than we did. Instead of making them match our intensity they forced us to match theirs and we didn't do it."

(on losing the first game after winning the West Division)

"It's hurtful. We worked so hard to win the West Division and to get back where we were supposed to be in the beginning. Then to come out here and basically just lay an egg and lose that hurts a lot."

(on the team's mindset coming into the game)

"We were very confident coming into this game. We knew what we were capable of doing and had a very good mindset coming into this game. They just had got off to a quick start and we turned the ball over too much in the first half."

Senior guard Keith Triplett

(on playing his last game)

"There's no more college basketball for me. It's over. The guys tried to pick me up after the game and told me to keep my head up. They wished me luck in the future and I told them I hope they do well next year."

(on working hard to get shots and being frustrated)

"I wasn't getting frustrated. It was hard to get open but it was just a matter of me cutting hard and making plays."