Recap | Final Stats | Notes

Head coach Michael White

Opening statement:

"We were very fortunate to win the game. There were a few things that we could have done better. I thought Charlotte was terrific. Hats off to Ryan Odom and the rest of the staff for holding it together through adversity. Those guys have faced real adversity all year. For them to be playing as hard as they are playing and execute the way they are executing and then to turn us over 16 times with incredible energy defensively in the full court, I thought was really impressive. I thought they were fantastic. We beat a really good team."

On Alex Hamilton:

"Alex is very talented with the basketball in his hands and he seems to thrive more in these types of games against extended defenses whether they are half court or full court. When Alex has a defender really close to him and he is able to get a head of steam, he has a unique ability to use either hand and use his body. He is a big, strong guard who is a terrific playmaker."

On Speedy's game-tying layup to send the game to overtime:

"Alex was in such a good rhythm, we wanted to get it in his hands and run an action where we put Alex and Raheem in a hand-off, two-man action where we had a couple of options. We could not get the ball to Alex so we threw it into Raheem who tipped it to Speedy and when he had his defender behind him in the open floor it was all bets off. He is just terrific at making those split-second decisions and he stepped up and made a huge basket for us. It reminded me of the basket he got for us last year in the NIT versus Iona when he scored at the buzzer to win the game."

On winning in a different way:

"It feels weird, but it does feel good. For us to shoot that well at the foul line and lose the turnover margin which is what we have hung our hat on the last three years, it was different. And then we win the rebounding war. It was an odd game. Normally we are pretty good at defending the three, but those guys were incredible. They were 9-of-15. They were very deserving of winning this game. We were fortunate to get it into overtime and we got off to a good start. Raheem Appleby set the tone in the final five by hitting a floater in those opening seconds."