Date Posted: 2/27/2006

The 2006 General Shale Brick Atlantic Sun Championship tips-off on Thursday afternoon when top-seeded Lipscomb faces eighth-seeded Mercer at the Memorial Center. The eight tourney coaches weighed in on their match-ups, players and the season in general as the A-Sun's Championship Week coverage continues on AtlanticSun.com

BELMONT HEAD COACH RICK BYRD

(on building on appearing in consecutive semifinals)

I hope we have increased expectations and that a semifinal performance is not quite good enough. Winning games at this time of year is very tough. We will be playing teams who are performing at their peak.

(on containing Campbell’s top-ranked offense)

We have not guarded Campbell very well in two games so I guess my ideas about slowing their attack have not been very good. In particular, we have to do a better job of guarding Maurice Latham who has had a great year and played a phenomenal game against us last week.

CAMPBELL HEAD COACH ROBBIE LAING

(on the difference between this year and last)

We had a lot of returning people and we supplemented our roster with two key recruits (Ledell Eackles and Eric Smith),who had a significant impact on our back court. Obviously, the commitment of Maurice Latham to improve in the offseason not only improved his performance, but was a big factor in our success as well.

(on how to slow down Belmont reached 100 points in each regular season game)

I'm still working on how to slow the Belmont attack. I hope I can figure it out by Thursday. Belmont is so balanced. They play inside-out. If you take away the inside, they kill you with the 3-ball. If you take away the perimeter, they beat you underneath. They are probably the most difficult team to guard in the league. But we need to be more efficient offensively, and manage the game early to have a chance to compete with them and advance in the tournament.

ETSU HEAD COACH MURRY BARTOW

(on his team heading into the conference tournament)

Obviously I'm not overly optimistic right this second. The optimistic part of me tells me if Ben (Rhoda) is healthy, we have a chance. But to be candid, if Ben was in uniform the last two games, I don't know if we beat Lipscomb and Belmont in the last two games.

(on possible adjustments heading into the tournament)

When you're not a great defensive team, you'd like to slow it down. But we feel we need to push it on the other end to be successful. It's a dilemma.

FLORIDA ATLANTIC HEAD COACH MATT DOHERTY

(on entering the tournament with a four-game win streak)

We are excited to be heading to Johnson City on a four-game winning streak. This is when you want to be playing your best basketball and, hopefully, we are. It's a three-day crapshoot. A lot of things need to go your way to win it, but our goal is to play three games and win the A-Sun Championship.

(on first round game with Stetson)

Stetson beat us soundly in our last match-up with them. They are playing as well as anyone in the league. It'll be a big challenge for us, but we are looking forward to it.

GARDNER-WEBB HEAD COACH RICK SCRUGGS

(on facing the host ETSU in the opening round)

It's a tough task. ETSU plays well everywhere, but they're extremely tough on their own court and have plenty of tournament experience with this group of seniors. This will be our biggest challenge of the year. They have a lot of great players on that roster and you know Tim Smith is going to be super no matter where the game is.

(on GWU’s senior class)

This group of seniors has been great on and off the floor for us. They have set the standard for future teams and great kids. They are mostly honor roll students and have been great role models. We'll miss these guys."

LIPSCOMB HEAD COACH SCOTT SANDERSON

(on the pressure of being the top seed)

In my opinion there is not any added pressure. You’ve got to go over there and win three games like everybody else. Seeds are just seeds in my opinion. Anybody on any given night can get beat if they don’t play well in this league.

(on the difficulty of beating the same team three times)

The mindset of the players is important. You have to make them understand that just because they have beaten a team two times in a row doesn’t mean they are going to beat them again. You still have to execute your game plan and do the things that are necessary to win. Mercer is a good basketball team. They are very capable. They have size inside. They are a good rebounding team. They are very physical. Andrew Brown is playing very, very well for them.

MERCER HEAD COACH MARK SLONAKER

(on playing shorthanded)

I think in some ways it has strengthened us, it has give guys like Shaddean Aaron and Ross Alacqua a chance to play more minutes and gain confidence going into the conference. It also gave Michael Slonaker and A.J. Martin a chance to come off the bench and play some also. We actually have probably had better shot selection and fewer turnovers since the departures and injuries.

(on Mercer’s ingredients for an upset)

We have to have low turnovers, shoot close to 50 percent- which not too many people have done against Lipscomb, and then really challenge them and keep them off the boards. Shoot a high percentage, low turnovers and be equal or slightly above them in rebounding. If we have those three ingredients at the end of the game, we’ll probably have a chance to be in the game. We’d have to make good decisions down the stretch to win it.”

STETSON HEAD COACH DEREK WAUGH

(on the impetus for the team’s turnaround)

The win on the road at ETSU gave us some much needed confidence to win close games. Defensively, we have been much better and we realized that to win, we had to beat people on the boards and we have rebounded the ball much better in the second half. Also, the personnel change of having Gabe McMillen handle our point guard duties has brought a new level of confidence and intensity to the team.

(on his senior backcourt of Gordon and Register)

They have played their best basketball of their careers coming down this final stretch. They have always been excellent scorers, but they have been making great decisions on the floor, playing excellent defense and both rebounding the ball. When they are clicking on all cylinders together, we are much harder to beat.

Related Links:
 • 2006 General Shale Brick A-Sun Championship
 •  Quote Sheet