WESTERN MICHIGAN-MIAMI QUOTES

Western Michigan guard David Kool

(On Miami holding him without a field goal) "They did a good job of staying aggressive and staying with me the whole game. They really slanted their defense toward me the whole game. Whenever I got the ball it always seemed like their were two or three more guys jumping out at me. They did a good job. They're a great defensive team and we knew that coming in. They did what they were supposed to do and give the credit to them."

Western Michigan head coach Steve Hawkins

(On the game) "I thought it was a tale of two halves. Obviously, the first half was just a bloodbath. Both teams went at each other hard. Both teams played good defense. Both teams really struggled to get anything going offensively. Neither team was able to get into a rhythm. We were battling foul trouble and we made some really dumb fouls that allowed them to stay in it. I felt like we could have been up 4, 5, 6 points had we not committed as many fouls. Our frustration level increased in the second half. I felt that Miami did a tremendous job of feeding off of that. We showed a lack of patience offensively. When we got down 6, 7, 8 points we really needed to calm down and make a defensive stand and stay with execution offensively. We didn't do that and all of a sudden the lead goes from seven to 12 or 13 and against Miami you might as well be down by 20 because of the way that they play."

(About Miami's defense on Kool) "It was a combination of things. First of all (Pollitz) is a tremendous defensive player. All of their players are. They do a great job defensively, but he really stayed attached to David well. Also, we did not do a great job of setting screens for him. We were trying to pop him open and when we did set good screens for him, David didn't always read them well and you're not going to get that many great looks against Miami. Whenever we did get the ball to David they would slant their defense very strongly in his direction. When he did kick it out, we missed some shots or they were closing out hard at us and we would shot fake, start to drive and turn the ball over. We just got a little careless with the basketball.

"Some other players have to step up. When they do get the ball delivered to them, some other players have to finish. We didn't finish well around the basket. We had a chance to do that. If we had finished around the basket, that would have made their big guys stay a little more honest with our big guys instead of helping as much as they did on David."