Miami vs. Kent State Postgame Quotes
1/12/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 12, 2010
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Kent State Head Coach Geno Ford
"I knew they'd play hard. I knew they'd make a run. I knew Kenny Hayes would throw in a shot at the end of regulation. That kid has had an uncanny knack throughout his career of making big shots. If he doesn't make that shot in the final minute of regulation, that's the ballgame. They would probably have had to start fouling and we could have ended it from there."
"I thought they guarded us really well in the post. Our guys down low didn't shoot a high percentage; we didn't finish well compared to how we usually do down there. Year in, year out Miami is probably the best defensive team in this league, but that being said, we couldn't make an open shot to save our lives tonight."
Miami Senior Guard Kenny Hayes
On what was said at halftime: "Rodney (Haddix) sparked us at halftime. We basically talked at halftime about how we were tired of losing and that we weren't playing with heart. Rod kind of cut Coach off and laid into us."
On the second-half turnaround: "I tell Julian all the time that he has the potential to be the best player in this league. Not just in the future, but this year. When he gets it going, there's nobody in this league that can guard him. If he can get a hold of that and stay consistent, I don't think anybody in the league is better than him."
Miami Sophomore Forward/Center Julian Mavunga
On the second-half turnaround: "I'm a young guy so my number one thing is just not getting lost in the game. It's like my body is out there but my head isn't sometimes. Guys like Kenny Hayes and Adam Fletcher really help get me going and let me know that they need me out there."
Junior Guard Rodney Haddix
On the block to send the game to overtime: "I was on the left wing guarding Tyree Evans and I kind of figured they would come to him. They had quit going to him late in the game but (Anthony) Simpson came off the ball screen and I saw him get into the lane so I had to make a decision on whether to leave their best player tonight. Simpson never looked to rotate the ball so I just dove down into the lane. I expected him to dunk it but I guess he didn't pay attention to me or didn't think I could jump, but I went up and got a piece of it."
Head Coach Charlie Coles
"I can't describe what happened in that first half. I wrote 'faith' down on the board before the game and I felt like we hadn't been drawing on that as a team. I wrote it down and emphasized it before the game and got kind of emotional with it because I think that was in short supply before this game."
On Miami's defensive effort: "Kent State shot 33%. That's a good thing for us. That's Miami defense. That's Miami."
On Rodney Haddix's influence on the game: "You always want players to do what the coaches do. It's better if they do it. That's where the good players and good teams come from. On every good team, you know there's a player who is connected with the coach and the team. You hope that there's more than one player. Tonight, Rodney was connected with me and with the team."
"Once I saw the emotion that we played with late in the game, I knew that we had something that we can really build on and teach with. We haven't played that emotionally all year. Not at Kentucky, not at Xavier. To see how happy they were and to see them encouraging each other in the huddle, it's been a long time."
"The crowd helped us tonight. It wasn't big, but they pulled us through."
