Charlie is always entertaining. I thought everyone might enjoy some of his post-game comments. I don't have everything , but here is most of what he said:
Opening comments
“It’s good to be here despite what happened. As always, the best environment in the MAC to play basketball and it made it fun. ... We did most of the stuff we needed to do to win. Cooper hitting the 3-pointer was big. We should have had a big guy help.”
What he remembers about Gary Trent
“Very strong physically and then if he had stayed another year, it would have been amazing to imagine. There’s two guys that came out early that I can remember that did that and I’m not talking about somebody who caught smoking weed and got thrown out of school. Two guys, Chris Kaman and Gary Trent. You have to wonder how good Gary Trent would have been. He would have averaged 30 points and 20 rebounds. ... I just remember him being awesome, just awesome. I was a little surprised he wasn’t a better pro than he was. I thought despite his size being in between – I know he was good – I thought he would be phenomenal. He and Chris Kaman, I wish they would have stayed, with just how much it would mean to our league. … I can’t blame him for going. All the respect in the world for Gary Trent.”
On Sullivan's play
“I love Sully. He’s going to get better. He’s playing and he ain’t near about what I want him to be. I get on him about his mental and physical toughness. I’ve driven that kid crazy. What he don’t know is I think the world of him. I think he likes going into foreign gyms. He was pretty good today. His shooting percentage would have been better. … Can somebody go and set a good screen for him like they do for Cooper? Ohio sets 1,000 screens for Cooper. … He played well. He’s not going to be as consistent as I like him to be, but one out of every two or three games, he’s going to be good. If you had to rank one of the top three or four players on the floor today, he was one of them. ... Smart beats strong any day and I love him. By the way, he gets good grades. By the way, I don’t have to check on him.”
On how most schools have a guy or two they have to constantly watch to make sure they're doing the right things. Coles took a different approach:
“Who’s our top three guys? Let’s follow them around, bring them in the office and just celebrate all the good things they did. Like, ‘Hey, you got to class five minutes early. Give me five, my man.” Instead of fooling with these clowns. I still have a clown on the team. I’m not going to tell you who it is. I’ve had more fun coaching this year than I have in the last eight or nine years because you know why? I think I’m making a difference. The record 5-12 doesn’t reflect that, but I think we play pretty good basketball sometimes.”
When asked about losing three players this season
“He announced he was going to get surgery but he didn’t announce it to me. He disappears for about three weeks and then he shows up for a game. Whoa, that’s a no-no, but like my wife says, who cares? You play basketball. They’re not going to put down in the records that you lost three guys.”
On the crowd and atmosphere
“Coming to Athens is a thrill for me every single year. I mean that with all of my heart. This is where it’s at. We all need to pay attention to what you do with your crowds, what you do with your people because it was fun playing today, even in a loss, boy. It’s fun to have people shouting at you, calling you names. I thought of my dad. He said, if I aint’ calling you names, I don’t love you.”