Reggie Witherspoon
Reggie Witherspoon
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.
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.
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.
great played trying
I just told him he played great. Actually, I think I told him he had a great career. I thought it was over. I was trying to get him out.
five freshmen games played terrific trying year
They've played so many terrific games off the bench. I told them when they were freshmen that we don't have five starters, we don't play that way. What we've been trying to do this year is play like that and it's been a problem.
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.
early turned
We turned it over early and often in the first part of the game.
came george mason people talking
I started to look at George Mason before the selections came out. Just talking to different people from different leagues, some people said to me.
basket couple game great hit knew shots took
The thing that made his game great was that some of the shots he took we were out there on him. We knew that he was going to hit some shots. We said we just don't want him to get anything easy. I don't think he got anything easy, but he still got to the basket a couple of times. That's what made it difficult.
anticipate asking ball bounce game guys hopefully hoping mentally paying sitting start visualize
I've been asking them to visualize and go through the game mentally and anticipate so that you're not just sitting and hoping. If the ball bounces and you didn't think it was going to bounce to you you're probably not going to get it. Hopefully it's paying off for him and I'm hoping some of the other guys are going to start doing that too.
hope mac might open possible spots teams win
We have to hope that as many teams like that as possible win their tournament. That might be able to open some spots for more MAC teams.
advantage embrace energy plays
We need his energy to energize us. If he's able to energize us, we have to embrace that as a team. There's a possibility for us to have an advantage when he plays with that kind of energy.
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.
tough
We weren't tough enough under the basket. That was the difference.