Jan. 19, 2008

Recap |  Final Stats |  Notes

Cleveland State Head Coach Gary Waters:
"This was a strange game the way we executed and the different things that occured on the floor. I have to give them credit. They never backed down. Our young men went out and took care of business on the defensive end and when they had to on the offensive end, they did that to. We didn't shoot as well in the first half, but I thought our mindset was right. And when you have your mindset right, good things happen."

"The only thing that can let us down is if we don't play well defensively. I thought we did a good job of where we wanted to get the ball to. We knew that when we isolated them that we could drive on them. That was our goal in this game. We could have worked the ball around, but that's what they want to do."

"The key is that we continue to get better. I told you to judge us in January because they had to learn and grow together as a bunch of players playing together. They are starting to understand that, but we are not close to our potential. They are starting to believe in themselves."

"Defensively, I thought we played better tonight. Against Butler, I thought we missed some assignments. Today, I don't think we missed assignments. We were there and contested their shots. We try to take away the other team's strengths and let their weakness beat us. The problem we had in this game were the matchups and that's why we had to go smaller."

"The positive thing happening with our team is that we can go small, but we can also play big. That's what I feel good about. We try to get position offensive plays. We don't have great shooters and what I try to do with this team is get them in the best position to take shots. They key is for the players to execute and our kids are doing that."

"This is still a long season. We have held serve. We still have to go to Butler and Valparaiso and have four straight games on the road. We have to step it up and take on some challenges."

Cleveland State's Chris Moore:
"I got a couple nice open looks, they helped off and Ced delivered a good pass. I stepped up and shot it."

Cleveland State's J'Nathan Bullock:
"My teammates congratulated me (on his 1,000th point) in the locker room and that's when I found out. It's a good feeling."

"Coach came in after the Butler win and said that Valpo has more shooters. It was a focus to shut their shooters down from day one."

Cleveland State's Breyohn Watson:
"They said that this was a trap game. After we got a big win against Butler, we tend to relax, but we were just never content."

"Every game I play, I take personally. I consider myself one of the best defensive guards on the team and I give 100 percent effort when I am on the floor. My goal is to apply a lot of pressure and I get a lot of help from my teammates on defense."

Valparaiso Head Coach Homer Drew:
"I think you have to complement Cleveland State. Their defense is tremendous with their quickness. The kids play hard and nine different guys scored. They keep that pressure on you and they took us out of some of our offensive sets. They are a tremendous offensive rebounding team, athletic and quick. Their defense was really, really good. Coach Waters has done a great job with this program in a short time."

"What makes the Horizon League so special is that its a very balanced league. There is so much good basketball and there is no easy game. It is very intense and you have to have a very good mental toughness on the road."

"Their perimeter defense was very good tonight. Our strength is our three-point shooting and we didn't have many good looks. They are very athletic and active and did a great job at slowing us down behind the arc."