Feb. 13, 2010

Recap |  Final Stats |  Notes

Cleveland State Head Coach Gary Waters:
"Butler played extremely well, they are playing great basketball right now. We had our best players sitting on the bench because of foul trouble and our bench just isn't quite to that level yet where they can step up. But we fought until the end and kept going strong."

"I don't think they beat us, I think we beat ourselves. It is hard to play that team without our best players on the floor, which we probably played half of the game with our best players on the bench. Aaron is the only that we had to offset Howard on the inside and he wasn't able to stay in the game and be a presence."

"We didn't hit our open shots, especially from long range. Butler is an excellent defensive team and you have to be tough enough to step up and hit the shot when you need to."

"I thought they handled our press pretty well, they use Hayward to beat the press and that works for them. We couldn't run our zone press on them, and that is usually what gets teams in trouble against us."

"Butler has a couple of go-to guys on the floor and they can almost always hit shots when they need them. With some of our defenders on them today it was a little harder for them and that is something that we will work on."

"We didn't rebound well and we didn't shoot free throws well today and that isn't how we usually play. We need to get back to doing our thing on the court and play to our strengths."

Cleveland State's Norris Cole:
"We knew what they were capable of, but it's disappointing with how we didn't respond to what they were doing because we knew it was coming."

"As a young team that is something that we need to understand, after a good play we need to get back on defense right away and stay focused to complete the play."

"We will bounce back from this, we won't let this affect us. We are capable of winning on the road and we will go back to practice and get focused for the Milwaukee trip."

"Butler is very good at what they do, all of their players know what they are good at and they capitalize on those things and we just couldn't stop them today."

Cleveland State's D'Aundray Brown:
"Gordon is a great player, and I'm sure it doesn't matter who was on the floor, he was going to make that play no matter if I was out there or not"

"I personally could have rebounded better, and giving them the second chance shots that really hurt us tonight because they kept getting shots at the basket."

"I tried to pressure a lot and use my quickness as an advantage since Gordon is a bigger player, but he just had a great game today no matter what we did."

Butler Head Coach Brad Stevens:
"Our focus today was to defend as well as we could. With only one day of practice between games it was a concern, but we did a good job of handling it. We did a great job on the defensive rebounds especially during the second half."

"They are really aggressive at extending the ball and Pogue is a great presence in the post and we were really going to try to attack the rim and see what we could do and during the second half that worked out for us."

"The turnovers are something that we need to work on the remainder of the season, and Cleveland State pressured us into more turnovers than I would have liked today, so we will need to focus on that in practice going forward."

Butler's Matt Howard:
"I'm starting to get a feel for where Gordon is on the floor, and we have always had good chemistry, but we are starting to learn where everyone plays on the floor and how to put things together during the game."

"I need to make sure that I come out every game ready to play and focused and it seems like usually that carries over to the team and how they do on the court."