Quotes - #8 Monmouth vs. #1 Robert Morris (3/6/08)

Head Coach Mike Rice:  

"I thought we pressed a little bit in the early going, trying to make every play a spectacular one. We lost focus, and with this being my first year, maybe I should have had the team a little more tighter. But if you haven't followed this team, this is what they've done. They've followed the formula, kept the pressure and intensity up and found a way to win."

Rice on RMU's defense being consistent:   

"It kept us in the game. Again, we have, percentage wise, good shooters. We had good shots, they just weren't going down. Dave (Calloway) did a tremendous job getting them prepared to play us. They boxed out and did a good job rebounding and kept us on our heels for the first five to eight minutes. We just never stopped defending. I think we made them tired."

Rice on his concern of the offense:  

"There is always some concern when you shoot 33 percent. We'll go to practice tomorrow and find a way to get better shots, or nail down some shots. We're an offensive team, and we have scorers. We did some silly things with the basketball at times, but in the second half we had only two turnovers. It was a hard fought, first round NEC Tournament game. First round games aren't going to be a thing of beauty, and we grinded one out."

Senior guard Tony Lee:  

"They did a great job defending in the first half. They stopped us from penetrating and making the extra pass. Now it's either win or go home, so I felt it was my job to get other people involved, but I had some open shots tonight and knocked them down to give us a spark."

Sophomore guard Jimmy Langhurst on playing at home:  

"It's always effective. When we had our run everybody was getting into it and we feed off that. When we see a good crowd it gives us energy, and I don't think they realize how much an important part they are."