Nov. 19, 2008

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Head Coach Brian Gregory
On his 100th career win:
"What an honor it is to be a head coach here. It's a great milestone. I can't say enough about how I feel about this program and University and this community and to get a milestone like your 100th win at a place like this...I'm just very fortunate. I love this place. I love these kids. It's special in a place like this."

"I'm pleased with our progress in the last few days. We did a heck of job in rebounding, not as good in the second half. We gave up seven offensive rebounds in the second which is too many. But we did do a tremendous job."

"The one thing with this team and you have seen it in two exhibition games and two regular season game. It's hard to get on these guys about their effort. We have guys flying all over the place, playing extremely hard. We need to tighten some things up, get a little more poised, execute better. We forced 15 turnovers and 15 steals. We didn't gamble a lot and held a team to 33 percent shooting. That's good defensive effort."

"The guys on the team get along well. When you play that hard and you do that everyday there are some bonds that are beginning to form and that's hard to break. You have to have that for the long season ahead."

"We are constantly getting better defensively. I mentioned that this is going to be a team where you might see some nights like this where multiple guys score six, eight, or 10 points. Our strength is in our numbers. We wear some teams down. We force some turnovers and get some action off of that."

Chris Wright
"In the first half we had 13 offensive rebounds and we wanted to hit the glass. I said what I said because I believe in this team and that we can be one of the best rebounding teams in the nation because we are athletic and have size. If we crash the boards I don't think anyone can stop us on the glass."

"Mickey and I shot free throws together earlier and we were just playing around throwing the ball off the backboard and taking half court shots. We were just joking. Then in the game it actually happened. I guess they say practice makes perfect and were just practicing it earlier in the day."

"Everybody did a good job of running the lane. If you do a good job of that, you open things up for other people. There were times when Marcus (Johnson) was open and Rob (Lowery) passed it off to his other option. If everybody does what they are supposed to do we will be successful."

Chris Johnson
"Once I get going, I just keep scoring. After that two, I got hot with the three-pointers. I also ran the floor better which helped on options as well."

"Just bring my engine to the court, that's what coach said. Defend, rebound and run, that's our big thing."

"I just have to get used to going from high school to college. I'll feel comfortable on the court and play the game of basketball."

"I think in the first game I was thinking too much. This game I just played like myself and played hard."

Rob Lowery
"I think we had a little more poise. I think we showed better poise than last game and our defensive intensity has been crazy. Coach has been stressing defense and that defense wins championships. That's what we are trying to strive on. We get our fast breaks off of defensive intensity."

"In practice coach said we have to cut out. When opposing teams get offensive rebounds, you give them second chances and have to D-up 35 more seconds. It's a tough thing to do. If we box out and rebound that starts everything."