Nov. 23, 2014
UCF head coach Donnie Jones
"I sound like a broken record, I know. But it was another grind out game for our team, our young basketball team. Our backcourt is two freshmen and a sophomore and we played against a really well coached team. This team beat Virginia Tech and South Carolina on the road and had Tennessee beat last year. This is a team that has played in some tough environments. They came in here and executed as well as anybody we've played against. So to see our young team grow up this early in the season has been impressive to me. You don't know what to expect with young guys because they haven't been there. I was really happy with the way we responded. We made the adjustments in the second half and just continued to respond to that. The way we defended the last 12 minutes of the game was the difference. We didn't give up one three-point shot, we only sent them to the line six times, and we allowed zero offensive rebounds, second shots in the second half. We won with defense. We made some shots against that zone, got it moving around a little bit more in the second half and were able to pull away."
"Sometimes young kids don't know. They get caught up in the name that's on the jersey. Teams can play. There are all kinds of good teams that have been together for a while. This is a senior team and they came out with a tougher edge than we did. That was the difference in the first half. They got 10 points in transition and 10 points on second chance points. That was 20 points in the first half of their 37 that were on effort. That's what we had to change in the second half, and we did. We flipped the table in response, which is a sign of a team making strides in the right direction."
"It's been the thing we've been able to do the last three games. I think sometimes that can be hard to do with a young team. We've had to be able to make some adjustments. Anytime you have young kids they are always sizing each other up, trying to figure out if this other guy can play or not. When they find out they can play then they start being a little more focused. I think these guys are very coachable and they want to win. We had 21 or 22 assists tonight on I think, 29 field goals. I mean that's terrific. When is the last time we've had that here? I think that's those guys sharing the basketball and not caring who gets the credit."
"I thought B.J. Taylor was in a flow and was scoring. I got him off the ball tonight and put Brandon (Goodwin) as the point guard in that zone. So he could get on the wing and score a little bit more. It took the pressure off him having to think all the time. It gave him the ability to do what I think he can do. I think that was important."
UCF senior Kasey Wilson
"They do things that seniors are doing. I told him (Taylor) the other day that he was probably the best point guard I've ever played with. He can score 25 points, get us six assists and eight rebounds. It's just crazy. He does it all. Playing with him makes the game easy for us because he draws so much attention. All I have to do is wait to get the ball, shoot it and get him an assist if I can. It's just so easy playing with these young guys because they mesh so well and they all have great attitudes. It's been really fun."
UCF freshman B.J. Taylor
"Our team does a great job moving the ball. We just try to get whoever has the hot hand and get them an open shot. Tonight I had the hot hand. Last game A.D. (Adonys Henriquez) had the hot hand. Kasey (Wilson) has it a lot of nights. We have a lot of guys on this team that can shoot, so we just try to move the ball and play for each other."
USC Upstate head coach Eddie Payne
"I didn't think we were quite as good driving and finding people off of penetration. We had too many opportunities where guys got to the rim, but of course there's Staphon Blair down there, blocking shots. We needed to do a little bit more inside-out-drive-kick stuff. It was tie game or two point game and we had three or four bad possessions where we didn't get good looks at the basket. They hit some shots, which I thought they were pretty good from the arc, 50% basically. B.J. Taylor was particularly good. A couple of times the size bothered us. In the second half they really [bumped] us on the glass. We were playing a team that is a lot bigger than us. So we played ok but we didn't execute down the stretch. We didn't come up with the big rebound, or the missed free throw for example. The stuff you have to do to win a game like this on the road."
"Buchanan didn't foul out. We managed his minutes pretty well. Mike was effective. He didn't get that much done the second half, but he played pretty well. He hadn't been able to practice the last couple days. I was pleased with how he played."
"We did have good balance. Mario Blessing had an exceptionally good game tonight. I think the best game of his career, I would say. He didn't miss a shot, had eight assists and two turnovers. It was an exceptional game by him."