Alabama Men's Basketball vs. Faulkner Postgame Quotes
11/6/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Alabama Head Coach "I thought in the first half, that's how we needed to play, with great ball pressure. I thought in the second half it was still good, they played hard the whole time but I thought the first half we had great ball pressure. We had active hands and active feet. That was good. Our defense created a lot of offense for us which is something I think this team needs to do. I think that needs to be a trait of our team. I thought Faulkner did a great job. They came out in the second half and they didn't phone it in. They played hard. That's a credit to Jim Sanderson and their coaching staff. I think they are going to have a good year. They are going to do very well. I liked our defensive intensity and that's something we need to maintain."Mark Gottfried
On : "He sprained his ankle in the Crimson and White game. He probably could have played a little bit but it wasn't worth it to us to put him out there. We'll hold him and give him another day or two where he can get all the way 100 percent."Andrew Steele
On ability to get in lane defensively: "I tell you, he has quick feet and quick hands. I like how he played tonight, honestly. Every player could get better. JaMychal did a nice job in there. I thought Yamene came in and played well. Justin got a little confidence in there later in the game. That was nice as well. All those guys played well in there. Demetrius didn't score a lot of points but I liked his defensive intensity as well. All four of those inside guys did some nice things."`JaMychal Green's
Alabama Senior Guard On what can be gained by playing a NAIA team: "The effort that we gave I thought was good. Obviously we gave up too many points. I felt like we didn't play consistently defensively. It was good to give everybody an opportunity to get out on the court. We got a chance to play everybody so that was good."Ronald Steele
On getting season started: "It felt good being out there. Obviously I have a long way to go. We didn't make many shots. We feel like we can get better. We felt like we played hard as a team. We did a good job with having a lot of intensity so that was good."
On shot selection: "Obviously you want to get the ball inside when you have a size advantage but they played zone. We had a lot of open looks. I think if we would have made a few more we could have blown the game open more. All of them were good shots so we had to take them."
Alabama Senior Guard On how Alabama played defensively: "I thought we were very aggressive on the defensive end. I think that's what got us going, just playing aggressive on the defensive end. Just getting out there and being aggressive, that's what got us going the whole game."Alonzo Gee
On his ball handling skills: "My teammates trust me and my coaches trust me with the ball. They give me confidence and make me feel like I can handle the ball better."
On being comfortable in the four spot: "I'm pretty comfortable. We worked on it the whole summer. I was playing in the post spot so I'm pretty comfortable in it."
On the play of newcomers: "I think they played really well. They still have a lot to learn and they are just going to get better day by day. They played really well tonight."
Faulkner Head Coach, Jim Sanderson
Opening statement: "We've got 12 new faces; seven of them are freshmen, so they got kind of thrown to the sharks so to speak tonight. I told them at halftime, we're not playing Alabama for the conference championship or anything like that. It was good for our young guys to be able to play in a big coliseum like that, and it might be the only time for some of them to play in a facility like this, so you have to put your pride to the side and let your kids enjoy the experience and it was a good old fashion woodshed whipping. Still I think it was good for us to come and play an Alabama type team."
On whether or not he knew his team would be young when he scheduled UA: "I knew for the most part we would be (young) but I didn't know who all we had coming in yet. I tried to schedule Alabama a few years ago when we were a little bit better, I knew we wouldn't beat Alabama, but at least we could have gotten something similar to a game, but we were not ever able to get it scheduled. So we finally got the opportunity to schedule it, I took the opportunity and we just went ahead and played them."
UA's athleticism on the perimeter: "I'm no expert on the SEC, but I was around it for a long time here years ago--I cut my teeth here in this building--and I tell you what, Alabama, with the athleticism they have, they can do some great things on both the offensive and defensive end. They can be stifling if they set their minds to it. I think they've got a good lineup where they can play nine or ten people, just from what I saw tonight; of course it's a little skewed because they were playing against us, obviously. I think they have inside and outside punch, guys who can really get out in transition and players who can really get into the basketball defensively and create a lot of problems."
