OPENING STATEMENT:

“We just came up short against UMass, didn’t finish the game in the 2^nd half. Tulsa is very aggressive on defense, does a really good job. They’ve had a lot of close games this year. We have another tough opportunity as we go on the road and have to play another night game in-conference on the road.”

TEAM HAS GONE THROUGH ADVERSITY, WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN FROM HIM FROM A LEADERSHIP STANDPOINT?:

“David has done a really good job for us. He’s done a good job of running our offense and coming in, in the first year with Coach [John] Dunn and learning the things that we need to do. We wish we had him for another year in the system, but he’s done the things we’ve asked him to do; running and throwing the ball, doing the things to help make our offense as good as we have been. Couldn’t be more happier with how he’s gone about how to improve each and every day. He’s done a really nice job for us.”

HOW HAS THE TEAM RESPONDED TO THE ADVERSITY THIS SEASON AND THE CLOSE GAMES THAT HAVE GONE THE OTHER WAY? HOW HAVE THEY RESPONDED?:

“They’ve worked. We’ve gotten them to the point where we are practicing better. This is a long process here in terms of where we came in. We had a change on offense, went to a different system, but the kids have been good. I’ve been really impressed with all the freshmen. This is all they know. They are the group, this past class, where we had the time to evaluate. They fit everything we are looking for. I’m excited about them. I look at it like the minor leagues. A lot of freshmen, we have a lot of AA ball players there that we need to make better and get them up to the Major League level. That’s what you usually do, you bring them in, you redshirt them, get another year and then you get three good years out of them. We don’t have that luxury, which is why we have to play so many on defense. Then we have some guys that are here that we inherited that are still in Rookie Ball or the New York Penn League that haven’t graduated up to high-Single A or AA. The effort and the attitude, the guys are working. We just need to continue to recruit and get better. I really like the freshmen class in terms of how they are challenging each other, trying to get better and working the things they need to do. It’s just the process we are going through. We are going to do the same things this week to get better, then go out to Tulsa and try to give ourselves the best opportunity to win.”

WHY IS IT SO HARD TO WIN A CONFERENCE GAME AND EVEN HARDER TO WIN ONE ON THE ROAD?:

“Any time you aren’t in your familiar surroundings and you go on the road, with the crowd, there are a lot of different issues you need to deal with, you are out of your comfort zone. The teams that do that, that can win on the road in conference games, it might be because they have better players, but it’s those teams that try to stay in their comfort zone and they block everything out, don’t get frustrated and those sort of things. It’s hard to win on the road because everything is against you. You’re 65-70-players in front of thousands of people that are all against you. You just need to make sure that you execute and do it for 60-minutes because you aren’t going to have a lot of people on your side other than the people with you in between the white lines.”

MATT SCHONVISKY / SITE CREATOR