MEET THE TEAM | SCHEDULE/RESULTS | NEWS | ALMANAC

Jan. 12, 2008

Recap |  Box Score

Dayton guard Brian Roberts
"I'm just proud of the effort we had. We didn't lose our poise and composure at the end and in overtime."

On what changed in overtime... "We kind of felt like we wore them down a little bit. We wanted to keep the pace up and make it a fast tempo game. We just wanted to take advantage of that, and in overtime it worked out for us."

On how he thought SLU would come out... "We didn't know how they were going to come out. We didn't know if they would come out a little down, or if they were going to be fired up. We tried not to focus on how they come out, we wanted to focus on how we came out. They came out aggressive, their offense was clicking. They are a tough defensive team so we knew it wasn't going to be a high scoring game in the first place."

Dayton head coach Brian Gregory
"That's as good of a defensive team that there is. You watch them on film and you just wonder how you are going to score on them. You saw today some flashes in terms of their offensive stuff as well. That is a team that is getting better. I thought they did a lot of really good things tonight and took us out of a lot of our stuff and really hurt us with a lot of their motion. We are very fortunate to leave this building with a win against a team that I really have a lot of respect for. Coach Majerus has these guys on the defensive end playing unbelievably, and they are just going to get better on offense."

On the difference in overtime..."One difference is we finally got a fast-break point. I put on the board at 5-to-1 before the game. Our guys have to be determined enough to sprint their lanes and throw the ball ahead five times to get one good look in transition. It was about 50-to-1 tonight. That (alley oop) was a big play for us.

"We are a man-to-man team, but we slipped into a zone sometimes. Our guys, without us talking about it much, really talked and moved and kept the ball in front. I thought that was effective in calming us down a little bit, because that motion that they run can really get you wound up and get you spaced and stretched. It was out of pure necessity that we switched into a zone.

Saint Louis forward Luke Meyer
If this was a good step... "A loss never feels good. We played hard but at time we didn't play smart. At the end we let up a little it, made a few mental mistakes, and we couldn't recover. They switched to that zone and that really tripped us up a bit."

On GW game... "The team really came together after that game. We just looked at it as another loss. We didn't look into everything too much...we didn't watch TV. Just forgot about it and treated it as just another loss. We had a good practice yesterday, we watched the tape of George Washington to prepare for Dayton. Dayton is a hard team to prepare for. They run different sets at you. They have Brian Roberts, great player in the conference. We came ready to play tonight.

On preparing for Brian Roberts... "They set a ton of ball screens for him. We knew everything was around him. He is a good player and he made tough shots. I know a few of them we felt like we were right there with him, but he made plays.

On overtime..."They made a good move going to that zone. We were flashing to the middle and they were real active so we didn't get the looks that we wanted."

Head coach Rick Majerus
"We went five hours (at practice) yesterday. We got in the night before at 2:30 a.m. I couldn't have asked for a better effort yesterday, both mentally and psychologically. We had 43 hours to put in any kind of a game plan we could put in. The guys did a very good job yesterday. We looked at film, tried to remedy collectively on an individual basis some GW situations. Then we prepared for Dayton, and I thought they did a good job in terms of their commitment. I seek no solace in defeat. I give Dayton a lot of credit; I think Roberts is really good."

On defensive effort..." I thought we defended our butt off. We defend, we rebound, we block out. We lose rebounds because of size and athleticism and depth. That is why I need to get going right now, I need to try to remedy that."

On what was changed offensively from the GW game... "They are wound kind of tight, and that is my fault. They try to please me to a fault so they get kind of apprehensive. Some of the guys are so smart that they try to quantify decisions. Remember, everyone is a freshman out there. This is their first year (playing in this system). I'm trying to get them to be more assertive."

Saint Louis Billikens Men's Basketball

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