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Quotes: Duke 69, George Mason 53
12/9/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Freshman Jon Scheyer
“We came out just being aggressive, and I think the biggest thing was that we didn't turn the ball over as much. And we just played and had fun playing. Our defense was there again, which was big for us too.”
On his three-point shooting in this game
“It was just me playing. My teammates, they still tell me after the game to stop passing up shots. It's great when you have your teammates behind you, supporting you. Today I came out with some confidence, and I didn't even start out shooting the ball that well, but I just stayed with it because the coaches and my teammates have confidence in me.”
On the end of the first half
“Coach always talks about the end of halves, the clock and little game situations like that and how important it is. So that's why right there we had a good lineup on the floor and we were like, ?Let's push it right here. We can really do this against this team.' And we ended up pushing the lead at halftime, which gave us a lot of momentum.
“We have final exams this week, so we have to take our schoolwork seriously. But, at the same time, this could be a big chance for us to really take a huge step forward. Again, we didn't have as much time to practice and really improve as much as we can, so I think this week we'll definitely get our offense going even more and stay in shape and get ready for our next game.”
Sophomore Josh McRoberts
“I'm really comfortable out there. Obviously, I'll get shots to fall eventually and everything else is coming along all right. But I'm excited about how we played today.
“[Getting out in transition] definitely gives us confidence, especially when you get down there, get a few plays at the rim and finish and hit threes in transition. Especially for us, we've got guys who are athletic enough to get out there and run. That really helps.”
On the upcoming break between games
“I think we'll turn it into a good thing. Obviously after any game where you play well you wish you could go out and play tomorrow. But with the coaching staff we have, they're definitely going to make it a positive, and we'll be ready the next time we come out.”
Junior DeMarcus Nelson
“We just have to play 40 minutes. Our emphasis this game was to come out, have a very aggressive mindset, offensively and defensively, mainly offensively though because we felt like that was the area of our game that we needed to develop faster. So wanted to come out here with an aggressive mindset but also share the ball with each other and just take the shots that were given to us.
“We did a really good job of taking care of the ball tonight and sharing the ball. I think our assist-to-turnover ratio was about two to one, and when you take care of the ball and people are taking care of the ball, you're going to get good results.”
On his success this year
“I know right now mentally I'm somewhat stronger than I was in the past. Freshman year, I had the injury on my right hand, so that pretty much threw that off. Then last year, being hurt and coming back and playing a mental game with yourself just kind of stops you from playing well. I feel great, my body is feeling great, and my mind is feeling great. I think the biggest adjustment is just mentally - knowing where I'm supposed to be, knowing what kind of player that I am, and just playing to my strengths.”
George Mason Coach Jim Larranaga
Opening Statement
“I have to say in terms of an environment to play college basketball there's nothing better than coming to Cameron Indoor Stadium. The students are involved from start to finish and quite frankly our inexperience shows almost from the opening tip to the final buzzer. We have so many little things to work on to get good enough to compete at a national level again. We've got some potential but clearly have some work to do to get back where we want to be.”
On freshman forward Louis Birdsong's performance
“If you've looked at us statistically, we've only had three guys score all season. Andre Smith for two games stepped up and helped us at the offensive end and scoring in double figures twice. Now Louis Birdsong scoring nine, maybe that's another guy, that's the longest for him in terms of minutes. I don't know if anybody noticed, but the kid has serious asthma, he can't go long periods of time without getting tired. It's true in practice and in games. Hopefully Andre Smith and Louis Birdsong will start to develop some consistency in their offensive game and will start to take some of the pressure off of Will (Thomas), Folarin (Campbell), and John Vaughan. These guys have to take so many difficult shots at the end of the shot clock, guys can help on them- they throw it to an open man that guy doesn't even look to shoot. We've got a lot of work to do, and we need some guys to step up their offensive performance. We're shooting poorly from three-point range (we were 4-17 today) and most of them it's just challenged shots instead of penetrating and pitching and finding open men. There are a lot of guys who don't have to be guarded. Until we have some balance in our offense, Will, Folarin, and John are going to take some difficult shots. Having Louis step up was a positive sign.”
On looking for a matchup where George Mason had an advantage
“We were looking for it. We have a lot of guys who take things for granted because of the competition they have faced. Our new guys are guilty of this, but even a lot of our veterans who were mostly role players and never really had to score, they take for granted that they're going to be able to catch the ball on the wing easily and face up. When a team like Duke puts a lot of pressure on the ball handler and the pass receiver, everything is more difficult, and so you've got to go harder, and make that passer's job a little easier than it is. And we have a lot of guys who think ?Hey, I'm open, just throw it to me,' and then when the ball comes they're really not open, the guy steals it and they think it's the passer's fault. ?Man, you didn't throw it to me when I was open.' We've got a lot of youthful mistakes, and until we can get our players to raise their level of effort and intensity in terms of doing the simple things well, they're going to have a hard time running any offense. We're just not scoring many points, and we can't make any threes. That's all because we've got some guys who are not scoring, that the opponent's defense doesn't even have to worry about. We just got a lot of work ahead of us.”
On George Mason versus Duke as programs
“There's a major difference between where they are- their program, their history- and where we are. If you just look at schedules-, this is their eighth home game, this is our sixth game away from home. We've just been traveling. We're not the experienced team that we were a year ago with three seniors. How many seniors played for us today? Gabe Norwood, and he scored seven points. Last year's senior class as a group scored 4,000 points. Lamar Butler's the leading three-point shooter in the school's history, and you better guard Jai Lewis and Tony Skin or they can put a hurting on you. We don't have anybody like that right now. We don't have any lights out three-point shooter. John Vaughan could be, but he needs help. We don't have enough help for him, and Will (Thomas) needs that so that people don't just double down on him and force him to play against two guys.”
Players Mentioned
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