March 2, 2004

Head coach Fran O'Hanlon:

On Saturday's matchup with Colgate:
"Obviously we're not coming into the playoffs on a high note, but I told the team that I think we've had an excellent regular season. We won 18 games and beat some great basketball teams. The last couple of weeks we've hit a stumbling block and haven't played as well as we can. The regular season is finished and we should be proud of what we've done. We have a week to prepare for Colgate, which is a very good basketball team. Looking at the league, I don't think there's anyone that I wanted to play...I just wanted a bye to the final. But we have to play Colgate and they present a number of problems for us. They really hurt us on the boards last time we played and now they're going to be stronger with Howard Blue back. I know our guys will be ready because it's a new season and it's one-and-done."

On Howard Blue's role since returning to the Colgate lineup:
"Blue has been getting a lot of the minutes, but I think it made them stronger that they were able to use Kendall Chones a lot more. Just the last couple of games Blue has had a lot of minutes. Chones is still playing, but not as much as before."

On Colgate forward Andrew Zidar:
"Zidar is somebody who has really improved over the last couple of years. He can step outside and he's also good inside. He's a good basketball player."

Senior forward Mike Farrell:

On the anticipation leading up to this weekend:
"We're only guaranteed one more game so there's no reason not to play hard. This is the last chance we get. This week is going by very slowly."

On the team's struggles the last two weeks:
"Obviously rebounding has been a problem the last two weeks. We also need to make our rotations better on defense."

Senior guard Justin DeBerry:

On keys to a win on Saturday:
"The first time we played them Blue went off and had a great game, but we were still able to win. I think we did a good job on Alvin Reed and Mark Linebaugh. In the second game, Reed had a much better game, Linebaugh had a good game and they just killed us inside. I think it's going to come down to rebounding and we need to get our field goal percentage defense down. American shot the ball very well and we need to do something about that."