Quotes - Robert Morris @ Syracuse (3/18/08)
2008 MasterCard NIT
RMU Head Coach Mike Rice:
"This game is all about heart, and if you don't have heart and give it every ounce you have, then you're not going to do very well. Our guys gave it all they had, laid it on the line and then some. We had our chances, though. Donte Green, Paul Harris, Arinze Onuaku, those guys are going to be in a three-lettered league, and they made big shots when they had to."
Rice on RMU's outside shots:
"We knew we were going to have to take a lot of three's. We just don't have the post players to take up the paint like the guys that Syracuse has. I thought we did a tremendous job of staying active and in motion and moving the ball. I think Jeremy Chappell is a better shooter than what he showed tonight, but you can't ask for much more than what our guys did tonight. To have a chance at the end was important, but we just couldn't get a stop when we needed it late."
Rice on the play of Donte Greene of Syracuse:
"Wow. What a player. He hit some shots that hurt us. Long three-pointers. Our plan was to make him dribble. You just can't get into him enough, and we made two mistakes in the last eight minutes where we let him free and didn't get into him, and he hit those open shots."
Rice on his thoughts of his first year as head coach:
"In pregame I talked a little bit about how this team came together. I think people know a little more about Robert Morris up and down the east coast. But I take pride in how this team came together as a unit, and that warms me the most. All the little things that this team had struggled with in the past, they put all of that aside and everything was a team aspect. From practice to shoot around to games to the way our guys interacted with each other in every possible moment and situation. They were all in it for each other, and it started with our seniors. That's a good thing, because I hope my junior's and my sophomore's and my freshmen learn from this experience in how you go about leading. But overall, the way this team came together is something I'll never forget."
