Nov. 24, 2007

Recap |  Final Stats

NIU Men's Basketball Post Game Quotes vs. Stephen F. Austin 11-24-07

NIU Head Coach, Ricardo Patton: Opening Statement:

"The only way to get better is to continue to work hard. You have to go back and you have to re-evaluate how you are playing. If there is a style of playing that is more suitable for these guys, we may make changes, and that's what we will do."

On what coach is looking for:

"I am just looking for some consistency. I think if you look at what Egan Grafel has done the past few games you will see that he has been a consistent player in the program and that is why he is playing 36 minutes. He has kind of separated himself from the pack with his consistency and we are looking for other players to join him. Shaun Logan is solid but we still need more guys than him to get one rebound. At this point no one has done these things other than Egan."

On the results of the game:

"Overall through the course of the year we have been able to out-rebound our opponents and tonight we did not do that. It is definitely an effort category that we have to fix. You are never as bad as you look after a loss or a win. Winning is no different than your desire to get your education. When a coach is motivating you to play hard, you have to try to follow through on that."

Michael Patton on the difference in the game:

"I just think that we need to get things together and on the same page. We are always playing from behind and sometimes we do get a run together and get the game close and then we always find a way to make a mistake and we lose grasp on the game. We just got to keep going hard and try to give Coach some consistency.

Egan Grafel on the game and how he feels:

"I don't feel really good. It seems like we are not on the same page at all and we continue to struggle. We did come out hard in the second half and we put a run together but then we found a way to blow it and that is not the consistency we are trying to achieve."

Egan Grafel on the comeback run:

"They got quite a few offensive rebounds. Going into the game one of our goals is to try to copy the other team on what they do. They got a lot of second chance opportunities and we tried to imitate that. We were doing fine for a while at the beginning of the second half, but then we just lost focus and ended up losing the game."