Texas Tech University Athletics
Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. Liberty Flames
November 21, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 21, 2010
Texas Tech vs. Liberty Quotes
On the first half struggles "We knew we came out sluggish in the first half, and at half time we held each other accountable and everyone came out the second half ready to play.
On having a close schedule "I like having games close together because if you play a bad game you get to come back quicker and have a better game."
On Liberty's zone defense
"There were a lot of holes in their zone just trying to get exploit them we had our big guy slide to the middle and they were finding me and I was knocking down shots and everybody was knocking down shots and mike was finding a lot of people today and made some good passes."
On Tech's turnovers "We played sloppy tonight. I know I did because I had four turnovers. The press caught us by surprise so we had to be aware of them, and in the second half we did better job of exploiting their press."
On the offensive depth of Tech's team
"That's been our M.O. all year. We have a lot of people who can score. We are better team this year and that's the great thing about us, we have four or five guys who can score. So, if one guy isn't scoring then someone else will step up and score. That's the great thing about this team , we don't have just one person scoring, we have four or five guys that can score points. That's a big time strength of this team."
On his game vs. Liberty
"I'm not going to score twenty points a night and a lot of teams key on me as well as John because we have been here so long. My goal is just to play the game right, if I have a shot take it, and if not, find the open man. I'm going to try my hardest to contribute any way I can so we win and this team gets to where we want to be at the end of the year."
On comparing first and second half performance
"I can't say I'm disappointed with a win. I am disappointed with how we are starting the game. We know we need to start better and play from the beginning, just like the way we came out for the second half."
Texas Tech Head Coach Pat Knight
On the second half run "It was good. We haven't played well in the first half yet. Before this game, we have been coming out slow and we can't do that when we start the Big 12 because it will be too big of a lead to overcome. But that's the good thing about the preseason, and we have to show up and I have to come up with something to get us more ready to play. We had another good second half, but we have to put two halves together."
On Tech's turnovers "I was upset we didn't play with passion until the second half, and we can't play like that. That was the hardest team we have played. They were everywhere, and we have to show up and play with some heart and some passion. We get out there and expect teams to roll over for us. Our guys need to grow up a little bit and go out and be ready to play from the beginning instead of waiting until the second half."
On four guys having double figures "I plan on that for the rest of the year and at any given moment we could have seven guys in double figures. This is the deepest we have been in a long time and that works best for our offense. We have a lot of different ways we can score and that's good because in the past we have pretty much had to rely on John (Roberson) and Mike (Singletary) to score and now they have some guys that can help."
On how John Roberson and David Tairu played "They were great. They woke up and in the second half. John hit his shot, and he had been struggling in the first half and that took a toll on him. But, give him credit, he got it together, got fired up and his effort and performance showed."
On Mike Singletary's game "He was focused on the game. He was competing, and as long as he's competing I'll leave him in, even if he's not scoring. We have players who can score and Mike played solid, and even if he's not scoring he's going to get other guys open."
