Coach Slessinger Quotes Following Saturday's Win Over Williams Baptist

Overall thoughts on the game
"We went through a stretch there at the end of the first half where we held them to two points in the last eight-plus minutes. That gave us some great momentum going into the second half and we were able to build on that. We weren't extremely efficient offensively but we guarded them pretty well and did a good job with that. We still left a lot of points on the table that we didn't finish – whether it was finishing plays or wide open layups. I can't explain it. We make them in training. We're working on it every day. All we can do is keep grinding and keep working at it as hard as we can to try and get better and try to make strides."
 
On facing a tough challenge for Williams Baptist
"Josh Austin is a great coach. He's a guy I've known for a long time. He can coach his tail off. He's really, really good. We talked about that after the Pensacola Christian game. These guys that we're playing, they've got Xs and Os. They can coach. There were a lot of things tonight that were good for us. It helped us work to get better. UMass is a team that is going to do a lot of trapping. They trap in the half court. They zone trap. This was a great buildup for that game. These things don't happen by accident. You know what guys can do, what they're going to run and what their systems are, and you try to line up one to get ready for the next. It worked out well. Hopefully, we'll have something to go back and grade and fix the things that we need to fix off of it."
 
On the big day by Christavious Gill and the impact of other players in tonight's win
"Christavious was solid tonight in so many areas. He really played a complete game. He had a really solid week of practice and training leading up to tonight so I am not surprised by his performance. We had some really positive contributions from some guys like Matthew Jiles who gave us a real spark and great team play. We knew that [Nate Frye] would accept that challenge well and he really did a good job. It was fun to see him come back and do well out of that. All in all, it was a good team win. It's exciting to see where this goes."
 
On the performance of Erik Thomas
"He does a good job of coming in and giving us a punch. We expected that when we were able to recruit him out of a good BRCC program and we knew his pedigree. We knew that he was going to be able to come in and help us offensively, but he's got to continue to get better defensively and keep making strides. He'll do that. We've been working a lot with him on film and working a lot on trying to get better at some very specific things. He knows those things and we're going to keep grinding on it."
 
On the upcoming game at UMass
"UMass is a great program. You can look at their storied history, whether it be Dr. J or Caliparri and his Final Four run. There's a lot of great history there and we're excited to go up and play. We're excited about the challenge and I'm anxious to see our team go up and compete and figure out a way to fix the things that we don't have right just yet. We also need to keep getting better on the things we're pretty good at. When we're focused, we guard pretty well. We've made great strides defensively in our man-to-man.  There are some things some young guys are getting reps on that we'll clean up and we'll get better at. But for the most part, I feel that we made some good strides."
 
On being back in Lakefront Arena
"It was good to be back home. I don't say that enough. It's hard to believe that we've had two games at home. That's it. We've had a lot of minutes away so it's really nice to be home and to see friendly faces, smiling faces and people you love and care about. It's great to play in an incredible basketball facility like this."
 
On the effort to set a world record for assembly of holiday outfits
"Even though we didn't set a world record, we gave it an incredible effort. It was a lot of fun. There were a lot of laughs, a lot of smiles and a lot of people I didn't expect come who were very excited about it. Hopefully we can keep it going. My hat is off to Coach Austin and Williams Baptist for taking part as well, being good sports about it and having some fun with it. This is a great city and one of the things we do is have some fun. We're serious but we don't take ourselves too seriously. I think that's one of the things that makes this the world's greatest city. This was a great first year and we look forward to attempting to break the record again next year.  I am so thankful for our community, campus and especially the SGA who helped take part in the world-record attempt. We had a good time with it."