Dec. 30, 2006

Recap |  Final Stats |  Notes

Head Coach Stan Joplin

"We're not even close to where we need to be defensively. I didn't think that would be one of our problems. We were playing better defense early in the year and now we're not and that's really disturbing. We definitely have to get that fixed. I have to do a better job getting that message across to the players. We're fouling too much and letting teams shoot too many free throws. We're also getting our energy from our offense and when we don't score we really struggle."

"The players are a little bit down and rightly so. We can't afford to let teams shoot the ball like they have. We have to learn to play through some adversity, especially when our shots aren't falling."

(on turning things around before beginning the MAC season)

"We have to get back to practice and keep working. We're 4-8 going into conference play and I thought if we could be around .500 after our non-conference schedule I would be happy. We've taken care of business at home but we have to win some games on the road. Our effort and how smart we played early in the year is nowhere close to what we're doing now. We have to do a better job of taking more pride in our defense and rebounding and not foul so much. We just aren't playing smart."

Senior guard Justin Ingram

"We just have to regroup and get ready for the MAC season and find a way to win at Ball State. The non-conference season hasn't gone the way we expected it to but now have to get things turned around."

(on being able to learn anything from a loss)

"Losing a game like this shows us how hard we need to play for an entire game. We show flashes at times of how good we can be when we play hard and smart. We have to play better defense because we can't win games giving up 88 points."

(on being outrebounded)

"We just have to use our athletic ability and work harder. We've had games where we've outrebounded teams that were bigger than us. We just have to work as hard as we can to get more rebounds."

(on what the team did to rally at the end of the game)

"I think our mindset changed when we had our backs against the wall. If we can play that way all the time we can be a very good team and that's something have to learn to do."