Ray Lopes Postgame Quotes vs. Sacramento State
12/11/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 11, 2004
General thoughts on the win
"Well, it's good to go into finals week with a win. I'm happy about that."
Lopes' thoughts on the first half (Fresno State trailed 30-23 at the break)
"We didn't play well the first half. We played really, really poor. Our poorest half of the year. We only shot 29 percent and we were our own worst enemy. Credit Sacramento State as they came out ready to play like I knew they would. They played tough and played hard. They were the better team in the first half."
On the team's performance in the second half
"We did respond in the second half. [We] played a lot smarter, took a lot better care of the basketball, executed our offense better and got higher percentage shots. That helped. I think we held them scoreless for almost 10 minutes. It was just good to get out of here with a win."
On the upcoming game vs. Oregon
"We have a big game coming up against Oregon. We'll be ready to play. We obviously have to play way, way, way better than we did tonight to have a chance to beat them. A very good Oregon team that lost to No. 1 team in the country big today, but there are a lot of teams in the country that are going to lose like that to Illinois. Illinois is just very, very good. [Oregon] will be the best team we've faced. We'll get ready for that challenge. Like I've said, we've got to play a lot better."
Most disturbing thing about the first half
"Very low energy level and very, very poor decisions. I think our first five possessions we had three turnovers. We just weren't focused, [which is] not surprising. A young group like this, being 5-0 and coming off a road win at USC, I sort of expected this. No matter what was said as a coaching staff, we just showed some immaturity coming out of the game tonight. The whole first half was just a bad half, our worst half of the year."
What does 6-0 mean?
"It probably, honestly, is better than I thought we would be at this point. We're really happy to have this record. Up until tonight's first half this team has gotten better and improved. This is a big home stretch for us and the competition gets thicker. It's great to be out to a 6-0 start but that's behind us and the next game is on to Oregon and we've got to get ready for that."
