POSTGAME QUOTE SHEET:
WICHITA STATE 73, VCU 63
SATURDAY, DEC. 21, 2019
WICHITA, KAN./ CHARLES KOCH ARENA (10,506)
GREGG MARSHALL, JAMARIUS BURTON, JAIME ECHENIQUE, GRANT SHERFIELD
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Head Coach
GREGG MARSHALL on…
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…Opening Statement
"Wow, what a difference a year makes. We've said that before, now here we are. Last year we were limping to the plane after the debacle in Richmond against the very same team. I'm so proud of the guys. They've been around (a while) now and they experienced that, and now are experiencing this. I thought we played very, very well against a very good team, a well-coached team, a team that's in the top-25 for a reason. It's been a good series. All the games have been really good, other than the game at their place last year. That'll be a good win."
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… Living up to the "Play Angry" mantra:
"We had 30-something deflections at halftime. Our goal (for the game) was 34, so perhaps -- I don't know how many deflections we had for the whole game -- But it was unbelievable how we had our own style of playing angry. Their style is (to create) havoc; ours is 'play angry', and both teams were exhibiting that today. But we certainly didn't take a back seat."
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… Whether he felt the team played a comlete game:
"Maybe. We held them to 63 (points). They shot 38 percent (from the floor) and we out-rebounded them by five. I saw a stat on their last game where they have seven guys on scholarship that are 22 years of age or older, and several of them are 23 and at least two of them are 24 -- so this (VCU team) is a grown-man team, and we've got 10 underclassmen. Now they are not all 18, but we have 10 underclassmen that are 20 (years of age) and below. From an experience standpoint, we were stepping up a weight class or two, but you couldn't tell it. Our guys were so focused and locked in."
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Sophomore guard
JAMARIUS BURTON on…
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…Having an edge:
"The emphasis was for us to be the tougher team. We didn't want them to come in our building and out-tough us, so we just went out there today and tried to play tougher than them."
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Senior center
JAIME ECHENIQUE on...
…the difference between last year's game and Saturday:
"Before the game (today), I was thinking of that game (from last year). I felt like everything started to go down (in that game). It's really different, because the kind of players that we have this year. I really respect what we had last year and I knew we had a chance (in that game too)."
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Freshman guard
GRANT SHERFIELD on…
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…the atmosphere after his and-one
"The fans definitely got into it after that play. They were great all night. I felt like after that play the fans just ignited us to kind of get on a roll and help us get the win."
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