Keith Richard Game Quotations

It was one of those games you'd hate to see either team lose. It was a defensive battle. Keeping them off the boards was a major emphasis and we lost the game on an offensive rebound.

I don't know this to be true, but our quickness was just as quick as them, if not quicker, at certain spots. We thought it was bothering them. I don't know if they face our kind of quickness in our league. Maybe they do, I don't know. We pressure everybody pretty much that we play, just like they do. We felt it bothered them early in the game and it's something we started harping on.

I'm very happy that our players have been rewarded for what they've accomplished this season. We won 20 games overall and finished tied for second in the Western Athletic Conference, which is the ninth toughest conference in the country. I'm thrilled that our program and these kids have been rewarded.

Southern Illinois is in the same boat a little bit. When you play defensive battles such as this, every point is at a premium, the game could go either way. I'm not so much happy that we won here, but that we won.

We got 10 minutes into the game before he decided that he better start playing at that energy level. He's got to learn that he's got to bring it every night. I was disappointed in him that first 10 or 12 minutes. I thought they were really taking it to him. Hopefully, it is a learning experience. He got going after that, but it wasn't enough.