March 1, 2006

Recap |  Final Stats |  Notes

Toledo Head Coach Stan Joplin

(on the first half)

"I really liked our energy in the first half and how aggressive we played. I thought we shared the basketball and it was the way we would like to play and that's how we can be the most successful."

(on Kashif Payne having 11 assists and no turnovers)

"That's the way I think he should play. In the past he would have three or four assists and three turnovers. That's not good basketball. He has to get us easy jump shots and play fast. He has to be aggressive on both ends of the floor and he pressured the basketball and made them work for everything."

(on how the team is playing at the end of the season)

"I'm never satisfied but I like the fact that we're continuing to improve. We're going to try to finish the season with a win at Central and go into the MAC Tournament with some momentum."

Junior forward Florentino Valencia

(on if the team is playing the best of any team in the MAC)

"Coach keeps telling us we're not playing our best basketball yet but I think we're playing right up there with the top teams. This is a tough league and I think we're playing really hard right now."

(on the WMU game in Kalamazoo)

"We lost a tough one up there. I watched film of it and I was playing behind Joe Reitz too much and I needed to play over the top against him. We wanted to have our offense come from our defense."

(on the change in the team over the past month)

"I think our intensity is greater and we stayed together and always believed in each other. We worked hard in practice and it's come together at the right time."

(on being 8-of-8 from the floor and leading the MAC in field-goal percentage)

"I don't really look at that stuff. I just try to take shots that are in my range and close to the basket. It's easy for me when Kashif and Justin are feeding me the ball for layups."

Senior guard Sammy Villegas

(on the first half being the team's best of the season)

"We played great defense and everybody was helping each other out. We were pushing the ball and making shots."

(on a second straight good shooting game)

"I'm trying to have a good attitude and finish my season with a bang. If you have a good attitude good things are going to happen and that's what I'm trying to do."

(on Kashif Payne having 11 assists and no turnovers)

"That's what a point guard is supposed to do. He made the right decisions and guys knocked shots down. He didn't score a lot of points but an assist is like scoring for him."

WMU Head Coach Steve Hawkins

"I thought Toledo was the hungrier team tonight and they played very inspired basketball. I was concerned coming into the game knowing what we had in front of us this week. I was concerned with our focus with our game coming up against Northern Illinois on Saturday."

WMU senior guard Brian Snider

(on the difference tonight)

"We just came out flat and didn't bring energy and Toledo played with a lot of intensity and played like they wanted it more. They just got out after us and we didn't do the things we needed to do to win the game."

(on having 28 turnovers)

"It was a lack of toughness on our part taking care of the ball. Give them credit too because they worked really hard to take things away from us."