Dec. 15, 2008

EASTON, Pa. - Women's Basketball Coach Tammy Smith
On the Leopards' 4-5 start to the season
"We're real excited about where we are right now. To be 4-5 and to pick up five games in the last nine days and win four out of those five, I think that was huge for these guys. They come in everyday and they work hard and practice hard.

"We played Marist at Marist - nobody wants to go there to play, and we gave them a game. If we would have started out a little stronger we could have beat that team. We lost that game by 11. To see these players perform like they have in games like that really gives us a lot of enthusiasm, a great idea of what these players are capable of."

On the team's upcoming games against La Salle and Rutgers and the overall level of competition of this year's schedule
"I would have never raised our level of competition this year if I didn't think these guys were able to handle it. They are mentally tough, they like to compete and I would rather lose to a team that's that good than lose to a team that we should have beaten because we played to their level of competition."

Men's Basketball Coach Fran O'Hanlon
On the Leopards' 2-6 start to the season
"Coming in to the season I was expecting with our inexperience that we may struggle early. We got off to a good start, winning at Wagner and then beat Stony Brook. But as I expected, we were a little inconsistent. We were up against Rider and unfortunately at the end of the game we didn't hold the lead. But I do like how hard we've been working. I know we're going to get better. I said from the start we're going to get better as the season progresses."

On Wednesday's game at home against Robert Morris
"We have a very difficult game coming up in Robert Morris. Robert Morris just took Miami to the wire. They are one of the favorites in that league."