Matt Mason Quotations

I didn't mention that to the kids before the game, but I know they were thinking about it.

Freeman is hot right now. He's seeing the ball well. It couldn't have been a better time for him to come to the plate (Friday). He's got a lot of confidence now.

We substituted quite a bit and I tried to keep fresh legs on the floor. I think we had a little bit more in the tank late in the game.

He got a couple big baskets there and it was good to see. He's had some games recently where he's struggled some, but tonight he really shined.

We're pretty physical in the Mississippi Valley (Conference), but we don't have players that are in the 6-6, 6-7 range on many teams. That made quite a bit of difference tonight, and I think we got beat on the backboards.

Our last two pitching performances have been great. The defense is making the plays behind them. We've still got to pick up some runners in scoring position We've got to learn to pick those runners up early.

I thought Chris's penetration tonight for us was really a key. He got to the rim a couple times and made a couple of nice passes. He's playing some really good basketball for us right now.

We really shared the ball well tonight and we had a lot of guys step up and hit big shots. The kids look to Mike quite a bit, but I think he did good job of sharing it, too.

We did hit a rough stretch and I don't think we're still completely over it. But we're starting to hit more shots and one thing that showed throughout the tournament is we've been pretty good defensively.

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When we threw that ball away, it gave them the momentum.

With our talent level, against an Edwardsville we'd have to play a near-perfect game to win. We fit in pretty well with schools our size, but I think our kids understand the importance of playing against really good competition.

The more live pitching we'll see, the better we'll get. That was a big hit Freeman had for us. We had a couple of mental breakdowns and looked kind of sloppy, but we haven't played in four or five days. That happens. Tomorrow we'll see good pitching and a really good baseball team.

This group of kids is used to winning in everything they do. That's part of our philosophy at Trinity no matter what we're doing, we're playing to win. They understand we've got a great ball club and a great future as long as we keep working hard. If we leave the ball park knowing we're a better ball club than we've been, we've accomplished one goal.

The Nigerian problem is driving oil prices ? it's a pure security question.

The Nigerian problem is driving oil prices -- it's a pure security question. If the posturing over Iran continues, then we will see oil prices go the same way again.

I don't really know if anybody's got a realistic shot at winning the conference outside of Mascoutah.

It's an exciting challenge for us. We've got a monumental task in front of us, no doubt. But I think our guys will be ready.

I told them when we went out in the field in the top of the sixth to get three outs and win it in the bottom half.

That's something we talk to the guys about over and over in practice. When you get on a good run, you want to try to extend it as much as you can. We got on a good run there and stayed on it and most of the time our defense was fueling that.

That's pretty uncharacteristic of the way we've played. It's hard to overcome that. When you're not getting shots at the goal at all ... we were lucky to probably be where we were.

They played great defense. I thought we hit the balls that were going to fall. They made some great plays, and that was the difference in the ball game. They had a couple find the holes, and we had a couple that didn't. We're starting to swing the bat a lot better. We're starting to hit the ball solid.

It's a tradeoff that we'll take at this point. We're very happy with our victory and we thought we played pretty well tonight.

They're maturing. Last year it was a lot of freshmen in the field, and we've worked hard on defense. We'll continue to work hard on defense. They've got confidence in themselves now, and they're confident they can make plays.