Mississippi Valley State vs. New Mexico Game Quotes
Mississippi Valley State vs. New Mexico
December 28,2004
Postgame Quotes
UNM Head Coach Ritchie McKay
“I really like our team’s effort defensively in the second half. I thought we came out with a purposeful effort and thought that first six or seven minutes of the second half, although we were up a bunch of points I really think that broke their spirits.”
Is there anything that you needed to work on?
“Yes, I think there is always things you can work on but this is a good effort coming off the Wake Forest loss. We were motivated to execute offensively but I think we had a couple of bad lapses in the first half defensively but we shored it up in the second half. I got to play a lot of guys, get some freshman some good minutes and hopefully we will be well rested for tomorrow night.”
About Sean Phaler’s play?
“Phaler is going in and getting more confident out there. I like what he did tonight. He is very competitive and that competitiveness helps him sometimes on both ends of the floor but sometimes it hurts them.”
About Troy DeVries’s play?
“Troy is a great shooter and is a career 40 percent shooter and anytime you are over 40 percent from 3-point for your career your effective. I think he got some clean looks, where as against Wake he didn’t get many. I thought his tempo was great tonight and I thought he played really well.”
Senior Forward Danny Granger
On bouncing back after the Wake Forest loss.
“I think it was very important. There was so much hype and expectation going into that game that it was good to come out and play a good Mississippi Valley State team. We were not lackadaisical tonight and we gave a good effort.”
Senior Guard Troy DeVries
On breaking out of a minor slump over the last two games.
“My confidence has not really changed. They played a zone pretty much the whole game and my teammates did a good job of penetrating and finding me open. Shooters can’t have a memory. They can’t remember any of the negative or the bad games. We’ve just got to keep shooting and have confidence that it is going to go in.”