Recap | Notes

2016-17 UTA BASKETBALL
UTA at Texas
Nov. 29, 2016
Erwin Center - Austin Texas
Post-Game Quotes

UTA Head Coach Scott Cross

Opening statement ...
"Very, very proud of our guys. We finally put it all together for two halves. We've been through a lot of adversity early on in the season when we weren't playing the way we were capable of. Our guys figured it out that we have to play together and that we have to be great on the boards. We have to take good shots. We have to have player and ball movement. They did those things tonight. I am blessed to have the opportunity to coach this group of guys. These two guys (Drew Charles and Kevin Hervey) are unbelievable players who have 100-percent bought in to doing everything we have asked. This will definitely go down as one of the biggest wins in the history of our basketball program."

On confidence facing UT after taking them to overtime last season ...
"Yes sir. Last year was a tough one. We played, we were on a roll at the time. It didn't go our way for one reason or another. There were lessons to be learned from that game. Our guys did have confidence in this game. They felt pretty good about it. We hadn't been rebounding the ball well. We hadn't been playing defense the way we were capable. We knew it was a matter of time before we figured it all out. This guy right here, Kevin Hervey, he's still coming back off ACL (surgery). We saw glimpses tonight of what he is capable of doing. He's going to continue to get better and better. This is probably one of his best all-around games. His previous best was the game before this one. He's just getting better and better. He's starting to get confidence that his knee is going to hold up when he crashes the boards and rebounds. When we posted him in the short corner, you could see his confidence. He hit a couple of those shots down the stretch that were huge for us."

UTA Student-Athletes

#25, F, Kevin Hervey

On returning to more of his 2015-16, pre-injury form ...
"When I first came back, I was trying to force the issue because of the accomplishments that I had last year. After talking to coach, let the game flow through me and flow through my teammates. I look to play through my teammates. Whenever I make the game easy for my teammates the comes to me. Now, in every game from here on out, and in practice, I look to play through my teammates."

On overcoming adversity from injury ...
"Any injury a person has, there is going to be some mental doubt. That is part of the process which is overcoming the mental adversity. It hits you hard, especially going through it twice. As the days go by and the workouts come, I'm getting better."

On having so many vocal fans in the crowd ...
"It was great to have the fans there rooting for us. It felt like a home game. The shots that we were taking early on in the game, they were good shots but as the half went on we came together even more and we realized that we needed to take great shots instead of good shots. That opened up rebounding a lot for us and helped us get back and play good defense."

On Texas playing lots of young players ...
"They are a young, talented bunch. We were young last year but this year we are able to withstand runs and come together. We know how to survive that better this year."

#4, G, Drew Charles

On winning a game he was looking forward to playing ...
"Well to say the least, I'm ecstatic right now. It's a game that I've been waiting three years to win. We were 0-11 coming into this game but now we are 1-11. This is just going to make the road trip back even better. It's just going to be a good ride back home."