Feb. 27, 2010

Recap | Box Score

Post-Game Quotes
Green Bay 87, Loyola 71
February 27, 2010

Loyola Head Coach Jim Whitesell
On losing back-to-back games
"In this league, you play Thursday and Saturday, and guess what? You're going to lose tough games. That's part of college athletics. On Thursday night, we had a tough game. You could arguably say we had a good opportunity to win that game. We played very well at times. But Saturday's another game, and Green Bay had to bounce back from a tough loss at UIC. The first half was embarrassing. The second half, sure we went out and played well, but this isn't the seventh grade where everyone gets a trophy. You have to stand up and you have to get after it. We played with a lot of effort there - we had to change up and we tried to press and got some things going there. Green Bay beat us to the punch. I know they shot the ball well, but part of that is defensively, you have to rise up and get to the ball. We tried about everything there."

On playing Cleveland State in the Horizon League Championship
"I feel that my team can beat anyone. I feel that way, but I also feel like you have to do 40 minutes of things. There's a learning curve of, `we saw this out of bounds play,' or, `we saw this situation.' That's part of basketball - you learn on the flow there and you get it down. I think we can certainly do very well. But you can't go out there and play the way you did in the first half. I just talked to our team about that. Understanding the game is a big part of it. It's not that we didn't get it done on Thursday or we're tired because of Thursday. That's where I'm disappointed. I thought that was one of our best strengths as a group, our toughness and do all of those team things. Give Green Bay credit - that's a very good basketball team, and those are three of the best guards in our league. They're outstanding."

On potential surprises in the Horizon League Championship
"Obviously Butler certainly has the upper hand because of the way it's set up and because they went undefeated in the League, but if you look at the big picture, they do what champions do. They win one by one. They win on the road and in overtime. One of their best players is injured and he missed some time. Cleveland State from last year is a great example - they had to win four to get there. Last year, that Cleveland State team had great resolve. Their two stars played big time. They were just big time players during that tournament. You have to have your `A' game there."