Feb. 21, 2006

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Dayton head coach Brian Gregory "This is a great rivalry and a great game for both schools. I thought the first game we played a few weeks ago was a hard-fought tremendous game and this one didn't disappoint either. Both teams have gone through some tough times and some losses and some players. I think you saw two teams that played with a lot of heart and character out there. Xavier should be commended on that. Sean's doing a tremendous job with....you base half your offense around getting the ball inside, and now he's got to change it. I think he's doing a great job. They're going to be fine. On our end, an unbelievable effort. We've had some obstacles and troubled times occur but we fought through it and we stayed on course and today was kind of a reward for that. Sometimes in a season like that you don't always get the rewards. The kids have a tendency to maybe fall by the wayside or splinter. We haven't done that and because of that it showed in this fourth to last game in a big game, that it was a character win for us. We made the hustle plays, we rebounded. We played extremely well and made big play after big play and had to match them. Our guys just willed it to happen and that's a great feeling."

"Jimmy is doing fine. He's had the surgery, six screws were put in his finger. You kind of sit back and say, "Where's the next brick coming from?" because we're getting hit all the time and you're looking over your shoulder for the next one flying at you. But our guys didn't think that way, and they knew some other people had to step up. Jimmy was tremendous today during the timeouts encouraging his teammates. He's a big part of that win. That's what it takes to be successful. Proud of our guys, great unbelievable atmosphere. Fans obviously did a tremendous job at the end. Fantastic day all the way around. Great for our program to show the effort that we played with on national TV. was good. Now we need to continue that."

"We weren't cutting very hard in the first couple of sets so I just isolated Norman and send him long. He wasn't open originally but he kind of spaced and got open. It was a great pass by Marques. We had to have Marques take a step off the line so he could have a little more distance between him and the guy guarding him. That was a big play, great catch and great read by Marques. And the reason he was open was because the other guys cut much harder than before. Sometimes those seconds are going off and you're counting them and you're at two or three but you think you're at four or five. We have to do a better job than that. We haven't had the lead and had to get it inbounds at the end very often in the last few weeks. But we executed well down the stretch after those two or three times we didn't do a good job."

Dayton Sophomore Brian Roberts

"We wanted to work from the outside in, because we knew they have great guards. Lucke is one of the best centers in the league, so we wanted to get after them early."

"I just want to be out there and have the ball in my hands and make the shot, and not worry about what happens when I don't make it."

"They play so well defensively and they make you make tough shots, and we knew that coming in."

Dayton Sophomore Norman Plummer

On the inbounds: "I think they wanted me to get the ball, they were playing behind me the whole time."

"This is a great feeling. Being from Cincinnati... knowing that I had something to do with the game, my team won."

"We knew we had to win the game on the defensive end."

"We try to get better every day. Now we have to go to UMass and get a big road win."

Dayton Freshman Charles Little

"I was being kind of passive in the first half. I just tried to go toward the goal like I always do."

Xavier Head Coach Sean Miller "I give Dayton all the credit in the world for the win tonight. They did a great job rebounding the ball. They did it by not one player, but three or four. That was the difference in the game: Their second shots, 16, versus our second shots, five. That trumps all other stats. You look and say 'why did they shoot 42 percent against you?' Because they got 16 second-chance shots. Period. That's the difference. We have to rebound by committee. I'm not going to use Brian Thornton as an excuse, he's gone. He's not coming back. We have a new team, and as a team, we have to find a way to get the job done."

"There were four instances where Dayton missed a free throw, and got the rebound. Those kill you. Especially in an environment like this. What a great crowd, great environment. Their team can really feed off the crowd. For Xavier to come up to UD Arena and win, you've got to have warriors and play a great game. Because it's not going to be an easy game for your team to win."

"I'm not going to accuse my team of a lack of effort. I thought we played really hard. I thought if you were a fan in that game a guy like Justin Cage gave his heart and soul. Brian Roberts made some tough shots. I thought we played a hard-fought game, as did Dayton. They had a better rebounding team than us tonight and that was the difference."

"If we had made 80 percent of those 27 free throws, we might have won the game. 70 percent just wasn't good enough tonight."

On the long pass to Norman Plummer off an inbound with 21 seconds left: "Never saw a play like that. Ever. We had him at a four-count, and B.J, young player, left his man to come up and just opened up the home run. And in no way did he lose the game, at all. Just a bizarre play that was so meaningful because we almost had them in a turnover situation."