KENT STATE-WESTERN MICHIGAN QUOTES

Kent State head coach Geno Ford

(On coming back from an early deficit) "The first 10 minutes, we resembled a really bad soccer team. We got a few shots on goal and never scored and they guarded well. I thought they guarded us pretty well in the second half too and I look at the stat sheet and we shot 65 percent. There were a lot of possessions where there were broken plays and we run something, the ball gets stripped and ends up bouncing in a free area and it just always fell into our guys hands. That's the best we've played all year and sometimes you generate your own breaks to a degree, but we were fortunate a lot of balls just bounced to where we were and we were able to make some easy layups off what would have been a nothing trip and they missed a lot of really good looks. Drews is the best shooter in our league, arguably, and he was 0-for-4 and got some pretty good looks. We were fortunate to get a win.

"We just got lucky. The second half was the best we've looked. We haven't even looked that good in practice."

Western Michigan guard David Kool

(On the game) "After the first half we played we felt kind of confident going into the second half because we felt we didn't play that well in the first half. Kind of sluggish offensively, but we played well defensively and that kept us in the game. So we came out second half thinking we were going to start a new game, new attitude and we just didn't come out and play hard. We didn't execute, didn't execute sets, didn't execute defensively and when it comes down to that, you can't do that against a team like Kent State. They're just going to chew you up and that's what they did to us. They did everything right and we did possibly everything we could do wrong and that's what shows in the final score."

(On not building on the early 19-9 lead) "Coach talked about that after the game when we had them up 10 early and didn't deliver the knockout blow, which we've been preaching for weeks now. We've just got to learn how to do that. Against a great team like Kent State, with those guards, they got hot in a hurry. They made a lot of plays and it was just a snowball effect from there on and we couldn't stop them."

(On whether their quickness caused some problems) "Yeah, I think so. When we end up with 17 turnovers ... I don't know the last time we did that. They just did a great job of getting in the passing lanes. We didn't meet the ball and when we did sometimes they just took it right from us. They just came on our court and beat us today."

(On the team's confidence after this game) "I don't think it does much. I think it's a game we're going to have to learn from, honestly, learn from our mistakes, but we're going to have to put it behind us. It's one of those where you can't get it back now and we can't let this affect the next one. We got to go out Wednesday and play hard and we've got to get some back on the road after losing two at home. I think we've got some guys in the locker room who are going to step up and be ready to meet the challenge."

Western Michigan head coach Steve Hawkins

(On the game) "I thought that the big difference here today was the guard play. Their guards just dominated the last 30 minutes of the game with their energy. After they got to playing with confidence we really had problems. We couldn't get ourselves into anything. We wanted to play the game from the inside out, but as we started to drive the basketball I thought they did a good job of not just helping, but attacking the ball and that created a lot of turnovers. Going into the game we were ranked No. 1 in the MAC in fewest turnovers and they were No. 1 in the MAC in forcing turnovers and they won that battle today. 

"They shot 65 percent in the second half, 66 percent from the three-point line and a lot of that had to do with the confidence they were playing with at that point. We had an opportunity with a 10-point lead in the first half to really try and get after them and extend the lead and we couldn't do that. They had a one-point lead at halftime and when they did smell the blood they really came after us and put us away.

"I think the biggest story here was their guards. Their guards really got through all screens, their guards really put a lot of pressure on us, forced us to turn the ball over and when we turned the ball over they turned it into points."

(On the mood at halftime) "I didn't like our energy in the halftime locker room. We addressed it right before they went out on the court. We came out and swung at them and delivered the first blow, but they came back at us and delivered a blow as well and we didn't respond to that well."

(On how they address this game) "I think the thing kids really want, especially good kids, which we have, I think they want answers. You look at the film, you dissect it and go back and show them exactly what went wrong. If you don't, they could make the exact same mistakes again and I wouldn't be doing my job as a coach. 

"There is no time for negativity. This is absolutely no time for negativity, we're in the middle of a race. Ball State won today, so we're right in the middle of race here. You've got to get hungry and go back out on the road and pick up road wins where you picked up a couple of home losses."