Below is the transcript of head coach Keith Dambrot's
discussion with the media on this week's Mid-American Conference
teleconference. On the call, Dambrot discussed the upcoming MAC tournament, which gets underway in Cleveland on Wednesday.
Opening Statement:
“(Against Kent State) we competed hard defensively, and offensively we couldn’t make any shots, we were going for the home run and not going for the singles that we needed. We struggled, we hung around defensively, and with our team having 37 bad minutes against their 3 bad minutes that’s when it became a game. Our team has overcome adversity a couple times already this year and with the MAC tournament coming up they are going to have to do it again.”
On the possible sleepers in this week’s MAC tournament:
“I think that Central Michigan has the ability and talent to make it far in this tournament, whether they can win four in a row is a different story, though. Miami has enough to win four in a row as well I think, but the difference is who gets hot at the right time, anyone can win four games if they are hot.”
On his team’s resiliency:
“We focus on overcoming adversity, we were not very good against Kent State and came close to winning the game, even when we have an off night we’re still in the game long enough to have a chance to win it. The problem with us is we play the same against everybody in the league, it is scary as the coach to see that, but know the team will come through in the clutch.”
On a potential opponent for Thursday’s MAC tournament quarterfinals:
“If we are going to win the MAC tournament, we are going to have to beat teams we have losing records against. The law of averages is in our favor at least. We have been pronounced dead on arrival a couple times this year and have rallied the troops to come back to the top. Against both Northern Illinois and Central (Michigan) we have had a tough time against them all year and our worst game all year was against Western (Michigan) (also on UA’s side of the bracket), it happens to all teams though, and everyone goes through it.”
