Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State vs. Pacific -- Postgame Quotes
12/21/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 21, 2004
Fresno State Head Coach Ray LopesGeneral comments about the loss
"I certainly don't want to take anything away from Pacific. They did a great job. They out-coached us, they out-hustled us, they outplayed us, they out-toughed us, they out-everything us. It was a great win for them."
On Fresno State's performance
"It was a bad loss, bad loss. I'm not so worried about the loss as much as our effort and how we played tonight. We played poor. Very, very poor. We played like an immature basketball team, which we are, and didn't play hard. They played harder than we did. We didn't play focused. They played more focused. We didn't play tough and that's what eats at me the most."
"Win or lose at this time of the year, I don't care. But how we play, the effort we give, is what I care about. And we were a bad basketball team tonight and we deserved to get the loss tonight. And I feel bad for our fans and everyone involved, but we'll get this straightened out. And we'll bounce back because we'll find the right attitudes and find the guys who want to play hard. And that's all that really matters, is playing hard."
On liking to see more balanced scoring
"There are going to be nights where we don't shoot the basketball like we did tonight. But still, we had that game at 41-40 and we just blew it, just blew it because we had the wrong attitude. We had the wrong approach to this basketball game. We took the floor with the wrong attitude. We got outplayed. I don't care about balanced scoring. I care about winning, about playing hard and putting yourself in a position to win."
On Lopes defining the team's lack of effort
"[It was] everything. They beat us to loose balls. They killed us on the boards. I'm getting tired of that. They just played harder. That's the one thing about my basketball teams and our program here. Win or lose, we better play hard. We better play hard and better scrap and better fight. This team hasn't matured to the point where they understand how to prepare itself, how to compete on a daily basis. And that's the next step in the growth process. We have to get more mature, that's the bottom line. We have to get more mature."
On the last two losses
"The last two games we haven't defended that well. We darned sure haven't rebounded well the last four games. We scored enough points to win games but we give up 83 and 88, and that's where we have taken a turn in the wrong direction. We don't defend the rebound like we did in the first six games, but that's also an effort category."
On defending the three-point shot
"We knew that was a strength of theirs. The scouting report was that our big guys had to do a great job of post defense. We knew we had to defend the three-point line, which we didn't. That was the worse we defended the three-point line all year long. We were No. 1 in the conference and one of the top teams in the country defending the three-point line but all relates back to effort. Effort, focus and attitude."
Closing thoughts
"I don't want to overreact in the eighth game of the year, but I am just really sick in my stomach with the effort that we gave tonight. And that's all that really matters to me is that you give me effort, you play hard. When you don't play hard you don't deserve success. The bottom line is we have to improve with our focus, attitude and effort."
