Saint Francis University Athletics

NEC Quarterfinals – Saint Francis Quotes
 
Head Coach Rob Krimmel, Sophomore F Josh Nebo, Sophomore G Isaiah Blackmon
 
Krimmel Opening statement: Playoff basketball has been a lot of fun - practicing the past two days, and being able to host a playoff game. I think games like this – with how young of a team we are – we’ve talked about playing with a sense of urgency and of the course of the last month of the season, we’ve played in playoff atmosphere: Wagner here in a overtime game. The Robert Morris game. A couple of road games were we had to make a couple of plays down the stretch, so we wanted the guys to have that experience. Obviously, talking about things after a win. The games that we have played a few weeks ago set us up for an opportunity as a staff to talk these guys about the sense of urgency to play. Defensively, every possession. Offensively, especially for a young team, they like to play offense. The characteristic or trait of a young team is easy to predict. The last two weeks, we have been focused to get stops, not only in games, but in practice. The staff has done a tremendous job to put us in a position to try to take the teams or opponents best players or most used plays away. Excited to play at home, first home playoff game in some time and proud of the way our guys came out with the focus and energy to start the game.
 
Q: Rob, have ever you thought this game might go, whatever they [Bryant] might do, when Josh gets couple of blocks, and is disrupting everything in the first three minutes, and then you see their guys not even try to go in the lane – how much do you think, not only the first three minutes – not only could happen for you, but what they were trying to do?
Krimmel: Josh’s ability to defend has been some thing he has brought to the table for the last two years as a freshmen, obviously now as a sophomore has been a tremendous defender. When you make mistakes defensively, it’s nice to have a guy back there to be able to clean up some of the mistakes we make. He [Nebo] has done a great job at the rim for us. Not only does it impact their offense, but it allows us to get out in transition and get out to play in the open floor. Having him back there, is certainly a asset to one of the things defensively has made us so good down the stretch: having a rim protector.
 
Q: Josh, your award that your won, what does that do for you, for your confidence winning the Defensive Player of the Year Award?
Nebo: It is huge for my confidence. Before the season started, one of my goals that I had in mind was to win the Defensive Player of the Year. I used that as motivation to try to go out and get that. I was happy when I got it.
 
Q: For you guys to come out and make this type of statement; it has been 26 years – I know Rob said that he didn’t talk about it – it has been 26 years since a home playoff game here, do you guys get a feel that your wanted to come out and make a statement for your fans?
Blackmon: Yeah. Nobody has played here – for a playoff game in 26 years, so I mean, we just wanted to make the fans proud; make everyone proud of us. Focus one game at a time and get to the Championship.


NEC Quarterfinals – Bryant Quotes
 
Head Coach Tim O’Shea
 
Opening Statement: We just didn’t have it tonight for whatever reason. One of the things I stressed to our guys afterwards was the importance of home court advantage in this league. When you play at home, we don’t have to make the two-day trip here. I thought they (SFU) had good energy, took advantage of the home court and shot the ball well. We had a very difficult time stopping them tonight, we had a number of shots rim out on us, that certainly didn’t help our cause.
 
Q: Josh Nebo seemed to really effect the game in the first half, altering shots, it seemed like your guys were hesitant to even go inside after that?
O’Shea: I agree with you, I think that made a huge difference. I told my guys afterwards, the fact that he blocked those shots, we became very perimeter oriented because of it. (Dan) Garvin drove hard at him once, I think a couple of others did too, but that is what a good shot blocker can do. It got in guys’ heads about going to the basket, the five blocks are a lot more significant than it sounds. Guys are going to the rim hesitating a bit…I think that’s a big reason why a lot of those rimmed out. That presence in the lane, a guy like Nebo, there’s a big reason why the coaches named him Defensive Player of the Year, nobody else has a guy like him in this conference, his development over the past year is significant. And you’re right, that played a big difference. I think he pinned Kostur once and altered a few more, each one of those blocks has a psychological impact.
 
Q: It was back-and-forth, talk about the big 18-4 SFU run to close the half.”
O’Shea: They started making shots, and again, we became too dependent on jump shots and stopped looking to get to the basket. Nebo had a lot to do with that, it’s an intimidating thing for guys when you are not used to playing someone like that. Again, nobody else in this league has a guy like that, you see that length, length that we only really see in those early season money games that everyone in the league plays. Nebo is one of those big bodies that can wall you off and make it really hard to score. He reminds me a lot like Andy Fall of St. Francis Brooklyn, a guy that graduated last year.