MIAMI at WESTERN MICHIGAN MEN'S BASKETBALL QUOTES

WMU Head Coach Steve Hawkins

On being tired after playing three games in six days -

"I thought that the other night, Buffalo looked like the tired team. We looked like we were playing on skates and they had on cement blocks. We definitely looked slower tonight, but I don't know that was it. I think physical fatigue may have led to mental fatigue. It's my fault, it's the coach's responsibility to make sure my team's ready to play. Physically we were ready, but we just hit a wall and couldn't get through it. We had two stretches where we had poor shot selections, and that's where the game broke down. In the second half it just wasn't there. It doesn't take much when you lose by two."

On Hayes-

"We have a similar kid. Before that, we drove the ball, and I thought David was fouled. They ended up with the last shot. It came down to that. We tried like heck to get to the free throw line, and we didn't get it. Charlie did a great job, the same thing I would have done. Put the ball in the best players hand and let him make a play. David's an underestimated defensive player. We had our best defensive player on their best offensive player. The problem that you have with Hayes is that he can drive and shoot. If you back him up too far, he'll knock down the shot. At the same time, if you get close you put yourself in a foul situation. We backed off him and he hit the shot. A great shot by a great player."

On David driving on the Broncos' last possession -

"I thought it was a hand check. I don't think I'm being biased. David's game in particular is driving the basketball. He drove a lot and he takes a lot of abuse. Sometimes he gets it and sometimes he doesn't. I think they get tired of calling it. Not to take anything away from Miami, they did a great job defending him. We felt like we did a pretty good job defensively also. We shot 34%. The game came down to our shot selection. We went from up 8, to up 2 or 3, we'd go up 5 or 6, then it was even, and then we'd be down. There were a couple different spots like that."

On the stretch of six MAC crossover games in 14 days -

"It's a crime that a conference race can be decided in a stretch like this. It's nothing but one day preps when you go through this. It's not just that part of things, but all the class time we're missing. These kids are student-athletes. All of this is due to the fact that the season got moved around because of the conference tournament. We're all in this because of the conference tournament and not getting that figured out. It's not fair on level after level after level. It's unfair to the student-athlete as an athlete and it's unfair to the student-athlete as a student. It's unfair to the men's and women's teams that have to play first round games at home because not everybody gets to go to Cleveland. It's all because this couldn't be resolved at the MAC meetings and now we're all in this big stretch.

"Coach Coles talks about and he's been through this league. His wisdom and he's such a gentleman. He's the dean of coaches in this league for a reason. I agree with him (that the crossover schedule is wrong) 100 percent."

On where WMU stands in the MAC race -

"The one thing that I know this point in time that the MAC has proven is that it's on any given night. Anybody can beat anybody on any court. I don't think that the home court means as much as it has in the past. These games are all so close right now. We have been beat at the buzzer in two of our last three games."

On coaching David Kool-

"He's been an incredible privilege to coach. We knew we were getting a very good basketball player when we recruited him, and a very good kid. After having spent the last four years with him, he's a special basketball player. He just broke the schools scoring record, and will probably have it a while. The thing I'm most proud of other than the basketball part is that he's even a better kid. He's somebody that I'll cherish having had the opportunity to coach. There are a lot of things about David that are tough to put into words.

Senior Guard David Kool

On defending the last shot-

"Just try to stay in front of him and make him hit a tough shot, which he did. So we tried to keep him outside, and he just made a great shot."

On being tired playing the third game in six days -

"I don't think so. I don't think that was on our minds. We're a resilient group of guys. We aren't going to make any excuses, we should be able to bounce back. Miami's a great team."

On not hitting shots-

"It was just one of those days, and you're going to have them in the grind of the season. But we can't have these happen anymore. We have to learn from it and correct our mistakes. We have to play our brand of basketball, and I don't feel like we did that tonight."

On the rest of the season-

"We have our backs against the wall, no doubt about it. I think it's going to be a group of young guys who are hungry to play. We need to continue to try and get better, and peak at the right time. If we continue to get better and work hard, the ball is going to bounce the right way for us."

On playing tired-

"Not really so much, playing for a couple years, like Hawk says, it's a let down. We get used to playing long seasons, they came out with the same intensity that Kent State had, and they outplayed us."

On Miami-

"They are just a hard nosed basketball team. They focused on defense, and that's what won it."

On shooting-

"I just came out and played, and the shots fell for me."

On Hayes-

"He's just a good player. He's crafty with the ball. It was a tough match up. If you play him too close he can go past to you. We tried to play him honestly, and he ended up shooting the ball.

On losing-

"It's a tough loss because we had a chance to win the game. We didn't come out with enough intensity, and we were sluggish. We came up short."

Miami Head Coach Charlie Cole

Thoughts on the game-

"Tough ball game for either team to lose. It was just what we thought it would be if we were to win it. We knew it wasn't going to be a cake-walk. We knew it would be a tough game, and it was. I was very truthful with my team, I said 'Hey I don't know if we have it in us.' When I watched Western against Kent State, they all but won the game. When they played Buffalo, that was one of the best games I've seen all year. We beat a good team tonight, one of the conference's best. I don't know if we can beat them again if we play them, but we beat them tonight, and that helps us. We haven't won on the road yet this year."

On playing long stretches of games-

"We could have been. I know we had great legs. Again, I was watching for us so closely just to see. I will say this, I will say that it's not fair to teams. We played 4 games in 7 days, and I didn't like it. I don't think it's a good thing. These kids aren't pros. I know the conference says we have to get the game in. So, it could have been that."

"David's tough to play against because he has that funny body. He gets fouled all the time. He kind of bumps you, and you bump him, and the next thing you know you're arguing with the ref. He has a good scheme going. He shoots a lot of free throws. They're free, so he's going to make them. He probably weighs more than you think he does. He's not fast, but he's quick. He gets down the floor quicker than anybody else. He's a good player and he's always there. He's one of those guys that plays to his ability which a lot of people don't do. I have the ultimate respect for him. He's on my all-league team for sure. He has been since the day he got here."