Reggie Witherspoon
Reggie Witherspoon
believe game gave harder kept played playing
We kept playing harder as the game went on, that's something you have to do. You have to believe you're going to come back. We weren't necessarily playing well but we played harder and that gave us a chance.
akron complement hard higher level played pressed shots together work
Akron played on a higher level tonight. They play well together and complement each other well. They got out and pressed us. They work really hard on defense. They make shots very difficult.
amount certainly chance deal energy great hard level playing tremendous work
If we can come out with enough energy, we will certainly have a chance to succeed. They are playing with a great deal of energy, just a tremendous amount of energy, and we're going to have to work hard to come up with that level of energy to give us a chance.
ability background building care caring component easier hard kid kids looks matter might relate relating relationships time until
If you have a hard time caring about a kid that looks different than you, then they will have a hard time relating to you. I think the first component to building relationships is the ability to care. Most kids don't care how much you know until you show them how much you care. The first thing for me is I care about kids, and I think they see that so it makes it easier for me to relate to them no matter what they look like or what their background might be.
tough
We weren't tough enough under the basket. That was the difference.
ability embrace knew mature notion struggled
We knew Calvin had the ability. Where he struggled was his maturity. He had to embrace the notion that he had to mature more. I told him once he did, the sky's the limit.
best game goes great guys patch together
We were doing the best we can to patch it all together when the game started, when he had no fouls. When he goes out . . . it's difficult. It's great to get those (other) guys some experience, but it's not a stress-free experience.
early turned
We turned it over early and often in the first part of the game.
best certainly given gives player sure
On a given day you're not sure who their best player is, and they probably don't know. It certainly gives us a challenge.
class freshman game guys help last played rarely seniors three year
Last year's class was great, but they did have the help of those guys, those three guys who are here and seniors now. And what made it really challenging for these three is . . . we had to play a lot of freshman and a lot of new guys. And last year we rarely played a freshman in a game like this. We didn't have to go that deep.
caught easy tried work
We tried a lot of things. We tried zone, we tried man, we tried to really make him work to get it so if he caught it, they wouldn't be easy catches.
best effort game gave history near tough tremendous
We really gave it a tremendous effort on the backboard. It's a tough place to play, there's a lot of history in this building. We did our best to try to give them the game near the end.
anybody eight exhaustion guy influence less minutes played playing rebound rebounds standpoint
Parnell's fatigued. He's been out a long time. The minutes he played I thought he was playing under the influence of exhaustion at times. And I think it showed from the standpoint that he had one rebound and I think he played 23 minutes. We didn't play anybody that had less rebounds than him. We had one guy who played eight minutes and he had a rebound.
cloud good last minds ohio time
We don't have time to think about last season. They're good now. We can't cloud our guys' minds too much with last season. We have to play well because Ohio is good this season.