Coppin State head coach Ron "Fang" Mitchell post-game quotes
December 20, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Coppin State
Dec. 20, 2008
Coppin State Head Coach Ron '"Fang'" Mitchell
Opening Statement:
'Well, when we came in here, we knew it was going to be a physical game and I worried about how our kids would play after finals this week. We really didn''t get a lot of time in, reps in. They played hard today, those kids always play hard. We worried about executing and we got hurt on the offensive rebounds and second shots. I thought we did a pretty good job initially of making stops but they pounded the glass pretty hard against us.'
On the difficulty of playing so many games on the road combined with finals:
'Well, when I put the schedule together, I made it to a point where they wouldn' 't miss class time and basically yesterday, we left on Friday, was only like a half a day that we missed previously during the year so it''s difficult on them. I ''ve dealt with coach John Cheaney, my mentor, and he''s always said to try and play as tough a schedule as you can, it will get your kids ready. We lost five out of our top six players from last year''s team that went to the tournament. We knew we had a long way to go so I felt, let''s just put them out there and let them get beat up. Let them feel a little adversity in their lives and it will be worth it to us in the long run. As we''ve been going along, we''ve been playing better and better. We are nowhere near I feel that we are capable of playing, but the fact that they' 're playing better is important.'
On the physicality of the game:
'We had prepared our guys for the fact that it was going to be a physical game. A lot of things that they might think are fouls aren''t fouls in Big Ten Country. So we just have to recognize that factor and just go out there and play. The reality is, by playing the schools that we''ve played, it makes us aware of the fact of what they might call and what they won''t call. We weren''t surprised about the way the game was called; to be honest with you, we were looking forward to it.'
On Jon Leuer's performance:
'We weren''t looking for him to hurt us. He came in off the bench and did a real good job of scoring for them. He''s a nice player and that''s a luxury to have with someone like him coming off the bench. He did a pretty good job on us. '
