Western Michigan Head Coach Steve Hawkins

Opening statement:

Obviously, for us, it was a tough one to lose. Any time you have the opportunity to win a road game in this league...when you don't get it, it can hurt you down the road. This is a place where Ball State obviously plays very well. If you can pick up the win here, it's like picking up more than one game, because a lot of folks will lose here. So it was an opportunity lost for us, but at the same time, it's just the first game of 16 [in MAC play]. There's a lot of basketball left.

On Stainbrook in early foul trouble:

That didn't really impact us. With Flenard coming back, we have a little more depth inside than we did in the last several games. I was very comfortable sitting Matt with the two fouls if we could keep it reasonable. We did not play well; we turned the ball over on five of our first six possessions. We only had eight turnovers, and I say "only eight," but that was after the five to begin the half. They're transition game was mainly our bad shots and turnovers. We were very fortunate to be down by seven at halftime, with Stainbrook in foul trouble and having played poorly.

Where did it get away:

We just still did not play well. There was a bad flow to the game, it was a very chopped up game, and each team took away the other team's best options for what feels like most of the game. When it came time for the other players to step up, they didn't do it as well as they had in the past. I don't know how much it had to do with today's game, but our line-up is so jumbled right now. We didn't know how much Mike Douglas or Flenard would be able to play until literally during pregame warm-ups. In our streak here, everyone has stepped up, and everything we've put in has worked out. Today it didn't.