November 13, 1997
North Melbourne Coach Brett Brown quotes:
"A&M was very good. They surprised us on their front court pressure causing us to have 20 turnovers in a half where as in some games we haven't even had 20 in a game."
"I believe A&M has a tougher defense than Texas and that they will do well this season. Barone has done a good job with getting them ready to play."
"I loved the crowd tonight. This is the best crowd we have played in front of. They are so religious to the game and I think that is great."
Texas A&M Head Coach Tony Barone Quotes:
"I thought this was a good start to the season. We can work all we want in practice, but we can't dictate game-like situations like we had tonight. This was a good indicator of where we have to go. We got the opportunity to see a lot of kids and also a lot of kids playing a lot of different positions. We didn't execute as well as I would like on offense when we mixed the line-up around. But, this is a starting point."
"They (North Melbourne) got too many easy passes and baskets. Our back-line and press did not do a good job. Our front-line did a great job of stepping up and deflecting passes. I was especially pleased with Larry (Thompson)."
"I think we are an athletic team and we want to take teams out of their game with pressure defense and the press. We played a veteran team tonight who have already played 60 or so games or so. They did a good job of moving the ball with the pass."
Texas A&M's Jerald Brown:
--On finally playing another team:
"It was a great experience to beat up on somebody besides our teammates in practice. I think we are in good physical condition now. It (physical conditioning) is a mental part of the game because you use up most of your energy in the first five minutes of the game."
--On the new offensive style:
"The new offense is definitely more fun. We just have to get used to the new fast paced offense."
--On playing multiple positions:
"I think I can help the team out by playing more positions. It gives the defense trouble because it makes them expand. Shanne (Jones) and I get good match-ups by playing different positions. We can take the big men off the dribble and we can post them up."
Texas A&M's Shanne Jones:
--On having trouble breaking their press:
"They were chunking their passes deep and getting a lot of easy lay-ups and it was hurting us."
--On the new offense:
"We have a lot of room for improvement, but we had 99 points tonight. Last year if we played three halves we would not have had 99 points."