Dec. 19, 2009
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DRAKE VS. IOWA, Dec. 19, 2009
POST-GAME QUOTES
Iowa Head Coach Todd Lickliter
Opening remarks…
“I like Drake a lot. I said earlier that I can’t imagine a state where you have this competition and you play each other every year home-and-home. Drake’s been tough to play against the last two years and they were tough to play against tonight. I like Josh Young a lot. They do good things and put you in tough spots where if you over help, they make you pay for it and that’s what good teams do. I thought it was a good win for us because we had contributions from a lot of people. We did a lot of good things down the stretch but they came back on us and we were able to maintain our poise. Eric hit some big free throws and we made some good plays. The plays were there to be made and we made them. It’s something to build on without question and it’s good for these guys. They work hard, without questions, and it feels good for them to be rewarded. We need to realize what helps us play well and gravitate to those things. I’m appreciative of this win.”
Improvement in Matt Gatens’ game…
“I think what Matt has done is make a real asserted effort to concentrate on things that may not necessarily go into the stat book; things that are technically vital. From a coaching standpoint, you can look and see that he’s done a lot of things on the stat sheet too, but I’m glad to see he’s embraced those things that we think are crucial to playing good basketball.”
Drake Head Coach Mark Phelps
“It was a good basketball game for our team to play. First of all, I’d like to say that it was really good to see Coach Lickliter out there on the sideline. I think we can all tell he’s on the way back, he doesn’t quite have all of his energy, but it was good to see him doing something he really has a passion for. We didn’t play as well on the offensive end as we have been playing the past few games, and that ended up being our undoing. Certainly, their defense had a lot to do with it. They’re a Big Ten basketball team, a very physical team, and we’re not as strong of a basketball team as we will be.
We know that we’re not a great defensive team, but our offense has been doing enough to overcome that. Tonight, we weren’t terrific on the defensive end, Iowa shot way too well from the three-point line. We needed either a couple more stops, or a couple more baskets, and in our last three games we had done it on the offensive end. We just came up short in a good basketball game. I’m very proud of our guys. They really battled out there and were able to trim the lead from double digits and we had our chances.”
On shooting 2-11 from three in the second half:
“From the sideline, I would say that there wasn’t a lot done differently from the first half [by Iowa’s defense]. We missed a lot of shots. It didn’t look like we had too many shots that were wide open, the only one that comes to mind is Adam Templeton in the left corner late; he typically will knock that down. It wasn’t anything drastic from the first half to the second half. We were 2-11 versus 9-17 (in the first half). Had we had a couple more of those, that’s where we have typically overcome our deficiencies on defense.”
On Seth VanDeest and team identity
“He’s a really good player at any level. We need that from Seth. I’m very much encouraged moving forward because guys are stepping up. We had Reece Uhlenhopp who came off the bench and hit two big three-pointers for us. I see improvement in our basketball team and especially out of the new guys. I think it’s fair to say, I’ll go out on a limb, Seth will be a big part of why we have success this year. He’s a guy that you can throw the ball into in the low post and completely trust him. Tonight, no turnovers, two assists, he was 5-8; I’m very much encouraged of what I see out of Seth.”