The University of Akron Athletics
Keith Dambrot MAC Media Teleconference Quotes
February 14 | Men's Basketball
Below is the transcript of head coach Keith Dambrot's discussion with the media on Monday's Mid-American Conference men's basketball teleconference.
Opening Statement:
"We're just trying to rally our troops and trying to play our best
basketball when it matters. We're a little bit better, but we're
still inconsistent."
Success at Bowling Green:
"We've played a lot of close games and we've won in their place.
We've probably for the most part been a little bit better than
them. That's probably why we've been successful."
Finishing the season strong:
"We need to make toughness plays. We need to be mentally in every
practice, every game and every minute."
Impressions on the league:
"It's about the same as it's been. It's hard to win on the road
unless you're a good team. There are a handful of teams who can win
the tournament and I think everybody is good at home."
On holding serve the rest of the season:
"The one thing that's different this year is we have no margin of
error to not play well right now. We put ourselves in a hole. We've
always rallied ourselves previous to this in the past. We have to
win all the games at home now or else we're in trouble as far as
the seeding goes."
On Akron's possibility of winning the MAC
tournament:
"If I didn't think we were one of those teams, I should hang 'em
up. We feel like we haven't played great to this point. We also
feel like we can beat anybody on a given night. I walk around town
and we're 15-10 and people act like we're 5-15. It's still the
third best record in the league. We still feel like we can play
with anybody."
On Nikola
Cvetinovic:
"He's rebounded all year, but he really concentrated on it since
MAC play started. He really took on the defensive role and I think
he's passing the ball better, which is key for us. I think by far
he is our best player right now."
On bench play and rotation:
"We pretty much know what we are going to get out of Brett
McKnight and Mike
Bardo, but when Alex
Abreu and Quincy
Diggs are good, we are very good. We've had a hard time with
keeping Quincy consistent. If we could get him a little more
consistent athletically, he could really give us a boost. We're
trying like crazy with him. He is basically a freshman for us.
Abreu has been up and down a little bit, but when he's good we're
hard to guard. He just has to learn to not let bad play affect
him."
