Opening Statement
“I thought it was a tough fought game. We expected those guys really to play a full game in zone, and they did that. (It was) A really good game for us, especially to come away with a win. The level of attention to detail you have to give in practice when you go against a zone, I think now our guys are doing a better job with the zone defense just to duplicate game situations, so it was a good one for us. I didn't think we did a poor job; we did a great job offensive rebounding so we found a way to get a win”
On Ivan Rabb
“I thought he played well. Outside of the fouls, I thought he played really well, rebounded the ball, kept the ball alive, made plays, blocked shots, (and) makes good decisions with the basketball when he is dealt with in the post. I thought he played really well. Again, watching him play I can tell he had a good game without looking at the stats sheet. I can tell he played well. He did a really good job of playing assertive, playing aggressive and then now the biggest key is keeping him out of foul trouble.”
California Senior Tyrone Wallace
On difficulties against the zone
“I think we just didn't move the ball well, and we were really stagnant. You know, there were times when the ball was swinging and they were just holding it for a few seconds instead of getting steady ball movement around the perimeter. We also didn't do a good job of getting the ball to the post and the short corner areas so that way we can make them crowd in the paint, and then they guard that (in the paint) and we get wide open kick-out shots. We just got to do a better job on offense.”
On expectations against ECU
“We definitely don't take any team for granted. We knew they were going to come out and play hard. (They're a) physical team, very athletic, and we knew they were going to attack with the zone. They came out and competed and played well, and it showed when it came all the way down to the end. So hats off to them. They played well, and we need to get better.”
On learning from this game
“I think it's good to learn in early games, (especially) when our shots weren't falling. We faced adversity and didn't do as well as we would have hoped on offense, but never once did we have our head down. We came back on the other side and played defense and we held it to a close game. Those are the things Coach Martin always preaches, that you may have an off nights shooting the ball, but one thing you can always count on is your defense. You can always play well on defense. So, we did a good job in that area, but we turned the ball over too much, and we need to shore that up.”
California Freshman Ivan Rabb
On foul trouble
“No, it (the calling of the game) definitely didn't frustrate me because I believe in my teammates, and someone can always step in and get it done. But at the same time, everyone knows I want to get on the floor, so it's just something I'm going to have to tighten up, keep learning. It's early right now, but I'll figure it out.”
On playing against the zone
“We definitely got the normal shots that we know our teammates can get in. We always believe that we can knock those shots down. We did a good job finding other ways to score the basketball, and that's what we have to do as a team when outside shots aren't falling.”
East Carolina Head Coach Jeff Lebo
On California as a team
“This is a good basketball team. They have some terrific players. We had them in a situation if we had shot it better we might have had a chance tonight because (Cal) shot it so poorly.”
On the Pirates' strong effort
“I'm really proud of our guys. They took care of the ball for the most part. We got good looks against a switching man-to-man, which is hard to play against. And I think we attacked them pretty well. We got the shots we were looking for. We knew against their five-man, we had to get a lot of ball screens. We were going to get mid-range jumpers, which unfortunately in this one we didn't make enough of. We got Prince (Williams) to the mid point. We got B.J. (Tyson), that's his sweet spot. He's been struggling, but offensively we did a lot of nice things. We just didn't shoot it as well as we would have liked. On defense I think our zone bothered them. It got them out of rhythm. They made some adjustments. They had a couple offensive rebounds in the second half that really hurt us. The foul problems really hurt us. I thought we were a little tentative when guys got four fouls, and they're going to have to learn how to play physical and aggressive when they have four fouls. But Mike Zangari was really good. That's how he's going to have to play in order for us to be successful.”
On Cal's rebounding
“Yeah and they got a lot of them in the second half. I thought (Ivan) Rabb got a few put backs or stick backs around the basket. You know they're not a great offensive rebounding team off the first two games, but they shot over 50 percent in those games so there wasn't a lot of offensive rebounds to be had. But we got on the floor and got a couple loose balls at the end of the game but had a couple opportunities that we couldn't chase down. I think if we got one or two of them we might have been able to score on the other end and we would have had maybe a one possession game with one minute to go.”
On not turning the ball over much in the second half
“We knew they were going to switch a lot and that's hard to do offensively. You got to be a mature guy to play against that. We did a lot of slipping off the ball screens. We did a lot of quick hard movements trying to get the five-men involved with the ball screen action because their five men didn't really come out. I mean they've got size. And that (Ivan) Rabb is such an excellent shot blocker that (Mike) Zangari put some pressure on him at times because he had to come out away from the basket. We did a much better job at taking care of the ball. I mean that's number one on my list before every game. I put it up on the wall, T-C-O-B. Take care of the basketball. That's something we've struggled with early in our scrimmages and couple games but we did a much better job today.”
