Bo Ryan post-game quotes versus Coppin State
December 20, 2008 | Men's Basketball
On the play of Coppin State: 'Number one, they got some rest when they went back home. Sometimes as [Coppin State coach Ron 'Fang' Mitchell] will tell you, they''ll be on the road in about the second, third, fourth game. They''re not quite as crisp. They moved really well in their coverage. They weren''t going to foul us if we got something right around the rim. They were going to contest the threes and we had to have a little better release and we needed a streak. The teams that have played [Coppin State] that have opened it up, they hit from outside and we didn''t do that. So we really didn''t get a whole lot of separation. Each possession was contested and that''s good. [Coppin State] shuffled players in and out of there; we played 10 or 11. They were coming off finals too. It was just one of those games that was typical of what you would say is a 'grinder.' I thought the job we did on [Tywain] McKee was a lot better than the job we did in the first half. He''s their man. He can do a lot of things to hurt you. But I don''t think he hit a three in the second half. We forced him to give it up to some other guys. Some other guys hit some shots that, on tape, we hadn' 't seen; that happens. We''ve had some guys do that too. It just so happens that in certain games guys get into a comfort zone. But I liked the way we stuck our noses down and ground it out.'
On UW having 15 assists: 'Marcus [Landry] was like Meadowlark Lemon when they used to feed the post and he''d hit guys going backdoor. And I''m not saying that to be comical. Marcus did a great job of finding guys. I thought we did a good job of that. There was one little spell there where we had four or five possessions in the first where we were really doing some good things on offense and all of a sudden we made some decisions that allowed [Coppin State] to get their confidence back when I thought we had them in a good spot. We shot an airball and had three turnovers in four possessions, so we came up empty on those possessions and it seemed like that was the rest of the game; 10, 12, 15, 9. In a game with not a lot of possessions, that kind of score can be doubled if you got a lot of possessions working.'
On the play of Jon Leuer: '[Coppin State] was pressuring some people and Jon found some seams. It kind of reminded me of the way Mike Wilkinson started to find those gaps and seams, by the time he got to be a sophomore, junior, senior. Remember, he was pretty good at reading what the defense will give you. So [Jon] and Marcus did a pretty good job. Keaton [Nankivil], not a bad job. Keaton got on the offensive boards, he got a couple in the first half. He was active. We touched the post. We had 21 three-point shots, but I don ''t remember a bad three-point shot, except on the one time with the shot-clock going down and the guy had to arch it a little bit. [Coppin State] is going to give you three-point shots and the good part was we weren''t taking them real early. There were only a couple of times where we took a three without touching the post or getting penetration and then kicking it.'
