Dec. 22, 2008

Recap | Box Score

Postgame Quotes
Loyola vs. SIU-Edwardsville
December 22, 2008

Loyola Head Coach Jim Whitesell
Opening statement
"Having Leon (Young) in there helps a lot because obviously he gives us solid offensive presence and he also gets offensive boards. He gives us a go-to guy down low. We had a really good stretch in the last 10 minutes of the first half and I thought offensively we played much better. I give Edwardsville credit, they were really ready for us and were a team that was fresh and overplayed a lot of things. They kind of disrupted our offense a little bit and then in the second half, we had a little trouble guarding them. Going zone is a change-up, actually our kids suggested. I'm really happy with the way we finished up. It was a little like conference, where we played at Northern Saturday and then come back here Monday afternoon. It was a good scenario for us to have to get ready in the near future for what's coming up because you don't have a lot of recovery time and you have to learn to play like that. It was a nice way to finish up for the holidays."

On getting everyone in
"It was good to get everyone in. Geoff (McCammon) is always on the verge of playing and it's hard to always get him in, but as you can see, he's really an athletic kid. Him and Ryan Sterling are two kids who you always feel bad about not playing when you go home, because they both put out a great effort and they practice hard. I tell them your opportunity will come. But both guys, you can see the way they finished the game handling the press and made some nice, easy plays."

On getting frustrated despite big lead
"We have to execute what we had called and what we did was break-off the play. We did that twice and that's where a few of our timeouts came. Run what we want to run and there's nothing wrong with breakdown offense, but the idea is it's not there without the ball movement. And I think our team is getting better offensively, because they're understanding that if you move the basketball more instead of doing it all by yourself, we're a much better basketball team. We've improved defensively overall and the one thing we talked to the guys right away about is that we had 23 assists. That's winning basketball."

Loyola senior forward Leon Young
On returning and playing consistently
"I'm starting to feel more confident with having the ball in my hands and I'm starting to get my timing back. I didn't do anything for six weeks, before my first game I played in maybe four practices, and this is my third game so I think I'm starting to gel more with the team."

On the post play today
"We always try to emphasize low-post play, because a lot of times it sets up guard play. We executed it pretty well tonight. Boomer (Darrin Williams) had some good in and outs, where if he didn't have the ball, he'd kick it back out, but he also finished well around the rim tonight. Things just kind of clicked for us. Walt (Gibler) is really starting to round into form, I think he's starting to get really confident with his game and it's starting to show, like those little jump shots that maybe he wouldn't have taken in the beginning of the year. They're starting to go down and he's pretty confident shooting them."

On the team's playing during the current winning streak
"I think we're starting to gel a little better and play to our strengths rather than shy away from them or not attack those. Before we would we would kind of go to them and then go off on some other kind of thing and just do whatever. Now, I think we're moving the ball a lot better, the guards are working with the post play and getting us the ball and we're helping them out. The defensive end, we had a couple games where we held teams really low, I think it's all starting to come together. We had a rocky start, so if we're getting it together now right before the Horizon League starts then that's the right time."

Loyola senior forward Darrin Williams
On the inside game
"Throughout the season, coach has had our team focus on penetrating the middle. We just got Leon (Young) back and since he's been back, he's been a force and drawn a lot of attention off me. That's been creating more baskets for myself, as well as Leon. He's a good player. Our guards did an exceptional job of distributing the ball and knocked down some shots and our reserves came in toward the end and did a pretty good job too. It was good to see them out there."

On help from the other post players
"They definitely helped me. If it wasn't for Leon (Young) and Walt (Gibler), I probably wouldn't have gotten some of the baskets that I had. SIUE's defense carried out to them and just left me open some of the time."