Doc Sadler Playing Quotations

We just kept playing hard and I think our depth helped us wear them down a little in the end. But they played well and it could have gone either way.

It's no bigger than Saturday's game (a win at Tulsa) was. But these are two teams who have played well and who have got a chance to keep themselves one game out of first place. But whether we are playing UAB or East Carolina, it is a big game.

It finally caught up to us. We didn't have any emotion. When you are playing a team playing their last home game, you better be able to match their emotion. This game can't be played unless you are emotionally ready to play. You have to give Central Florida credit. They were ready to play. They did that. They made some shots ... and when you are emotionally ready to play, you make some shots.

That's something they do very well. Besides playing really hard, the best thing they do is rebound.

I think we're still playing OK. We just don't have the depth at this point. But our effort has been tremendous. We competed very hard against Georgetown for 40 minutes when we had a chance to break a time or two.

They are playing a little more man-to-man this year. But they play that zone. We will have to execute and hit shots. They want you to attack the basket, to think you are open. We will get 15-foot shots. We've got to take them and make them.

We played hard early and, unfortunately, looked at the scoreboard and our intensity fell off. When you're only playing seven guys, sometimes you try to conserve energy, and that's my fault. I thought they definitely outplayed us as far as effort in the last 20 minutes.

I think everybody was disappointed Friday. I don't ever want this program to be satisfied playing in the NIT. That is not our goal. But the NIT is a great tournament, the longest running tournament in college basketball. We're excited to be playing in it. There is always a positive in everything and the positive in this is that we get to play at home again.

It doesn't get any easier. We're playing extremely hard, we're just not making the plays we need to make to win close games. We need to keep working hard. It's going to come.