Coach Slessinger's Quotes Following Wednesday's Loss At Tulane

Overall thoughts on the game
"It was disappointing. This is obviously a victory that our 35,000 alumni that live in the metro area deserve. It's one that we worked out tail off for. I think we grew up a lot tonight. We still have a lot of young, inexperienced guys and we grew up a ton. This game is going to help us in the league and help us win the Southland Conference Tournament. For us, this was a championship environment, we made it that way and it's going to help us. I'm proud of our effort. I'm disappointed in some of our execution and our actions. I made some mistakes. We did some stuff that we'll go back and fix. We're going to get better."
 
On this game being an indication of how much progress the team has made since his arrival five seasons ago
"It's huge. You can look back when I walked in here on June 29 of 2011. We're a lot different of a program and we're in a much different place than we were. Luckily, we've got administration that believes in us. We've got student-athletes that have bought in. Those guys that have been here from 2011 until now, those are the ones that have paved the way. They believed in what we were doing. They believe in what it means to be a student-athlete – the importance of getting a degree from our University, doing things the right way and building something that lasts a lifetime. It's about degrees, relationships and things that are important to us. I'm proud of the way we played and what we did."
 
On going with Cameron Reed on the last shot
"We had a couple of options off of it with Nate [Frye] coming off of the ball screen. We were hoping that Nate could attack, either get to the foul line or get a draw and kick direct where he could catch and shoot. We didn't get it on the back side. He had to take it off the dribble. It just went long. Cameron is a guy – he and Christavious [Gill] – that thinks he's going to make every shot that he shoots.  When you recruit guys, you better recruit guys that think they're going to make shots. Our recruiting has helped create a change. We're not recruiting backups. We're trying to recruit guys that can start and compete to play. Tonight was a good indication of that. Him and Coleman Edwards both came in and played big as freshmen. Michael Zeno is an emerging player and our kids are coming. People have to understand that we have a lot of young guys that are playing heavy minutes and they're going to get a lot better. It's exciting to see them play and exciting to see them do well."
 
On his teams second-half comeback effort
"It was huge. To see them be tough and to see them have resolve to get execution and not get flustered was really, really important. It was big for us confidence wise. When we go back and talk about this game tomorrow morning, we'll talk about what was good and what was bad. We'll cover that and it'll be a big positive for us."
 
On Christavious Gill playing well in the second half after missing most of the first with foul trouble
"Everybody was in foul trouble. It seemed like our entire team had two fouls in the first half. The guys played with composure. They played through a lot of opportunities. We gave away one there at the end of the [first] half where it would have been big to get a stop where they got two points. Every point matters when you go back and look at a game the way it was tonight. I was proud that he kept his composure and played well."