Right now we're a good team, but not great. We're not a special team yet. We think we can get there. This game is going to help us in the long run because we found something that we have to work on.
Joseph's minutes tonight were great minutes. He's just a new dimension when he comes into a game. And Pyle showed in the way he finished plays why he's an All-American.
Defense has been our bread and butter this season. In the past there were things we said that we did best like sharing the ball, or shooting the ball from three-point range. But we play great team defense.
We talked at halftime about playing the best second-half defense we have played all year. And we just clamped down.
We challenged Ben to make his contributions on defense; he was to go at (No.) 52 (Burr). Ben was a big part of that. Making that adjustment was probably the key to the game.
We were a team tonight, in the truest sense of the word, because we have quality people in uniform. We don't have any ego-type players. These guys get out of bed every day trying to figure out ways to help this team.
I think we were mentally prepared for this game. After losing the other night at Florida Memorial, we identified some areas that needed work, and we worked them--especially on the defensive end. Looks like it paid off well tonight.
We are providing Jared with some athletic scholarship monies as a small token of our appreciation and to reward him for all the work he has done.
I'm most proud of him knocking down six of seven free throws. He had been struggling on the line. But Michael's our All-American and he showed it tonight.
We've had more scoring punch in the past and better athletes. I don't think our guys would disagree with that. We had to put more emphasis on defense. I think we have a chip on our shoulder a little bit. We wanted to become the very best defensive team in our history.