Gottfried and Jemison Talk About Saturday Night's Basketball Game
11/30/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Following are quotes from University of Alabama head basketball coach Mark Gottfried and starting sophomore forward Demetrius Jemison for use in stories previewing Alabama’s game against Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday, December 1 at 6:00 p.m. CT in Coleman Coliseum.
Head Coach Mark Gottfried:
“I think the first thing is we’ve got to get back on track, coming back from Texas with some things, I think, that hurt us in that game (at No. 9 Texas A&M on Wednesday). Whether it’s defensive rebounding that still has been an issue for us at times or sustaining our defense or not turning the ball over at key times or shot selection at key times, those things have hurt us some. So, more than anything, that’s where our concentration is.
“I think this team, Southeastern Louisiana, is very good. They’re 5-1. They’ve won four in a row. They’ve got a couple of very, very good athletic players, and, again, I think it’s a team that will end up being among the top echelon of their conference. So we understand that.”
Demetrius Jemison, 6-7, Sophomore, Forward, Birmingham, 8.4 ppg/4.8 rpg:
On Alabama’s play going into this game:
“Right now we’re playing pretty good ball. A couple of games haven’t gone our way but we’re still playing good ball, so I think we’re going to go out and have a good performance against this next team, Southeastern Louisiana. And if we execute and do everything we’re supposed to, we should have a good chance to win it. We’re just having key turnovers at key times, and we need to execute our offense a little bit better. Other than that, we’re playing well.”
On his own experience so far this season, how he feels about his performance and the first five starts of his collegiate career:
“I’m feeling pretty comfortable with how I’m playing right now. I need to do a little bit better at a couple of things, but I feel like we’re still learning. I’m still learning for sure. I’m still asking Richard Hendrix lots of questions and getting a lot of advice from him, learning as much as I can.
“As far as the other night, at Texas A&M, it was a really big game, a really great atmosphere, the type of games you come to this university to play. So it was a great experience. We lost unfortunately, but we’re going to learn from it and move on and prepare ourselves for the rest of the season using what we learned.”
