Battle of the Bronx: Manhattan quotes

Head coach Steve Masiello's opening statement:
"Terrific basketball game, one of those games where you wish you could play another and keep going, but I thought it was a very significant Battle of the Bronx, I thought it represented both colleges very well. I thought our administration did an unbelievable job of making this a great environment for college basketball and for the Battle of the Bronx, so kudos to them. Give Nick Honor and Coach Neubauer a lot of credit, Nick made a hell of a shot. He's a terrific young basketball player, so take your hat off to him and give Fordham a lot of credit for coming in here, in a tough crowd and a tough environment, and getting a gritty road win."

On defensive resilience and what encourages him most about it:
"Our offensive numbers aren't where you want them, but I have great faith in the young men, like the new guys we recruited. You look at Cap (Tom Capuano) goes 0-for-3 tonight, you know he's better than that, Tykei (Greene)'s 0-for-4, you know he's better than that, Ebube's 3-for-9. You look at your numbers and what you want to make sure is you're getting good shots. I think the ball's sticking a little too much at times, I don't think we're moving it as fluidly as we want to, and that happens with new players. We'll get it. Their attitude's great, those guys are crushed in that locker room right now, so I'm not gonna go crazy over statistics right now. It's more about getting these guys to regroup and getting ready for the next game."

Pauly Paulicap on his first significant action of the season and how much further along he is since returning from injury:
"I'm still like, enduring the process right now, so I'm just taking my time with it. I'm not trying to rush myself, I'm just getting whatever comes to me."

Masiello following up on playing him 22 minutes:
"There was no script. He could play 40, he's just not in shape right now to play the way he wants to play. It's just really his goal where we're meeting about it after every practice, just talking. It's December 1st. I need him ready for February."

Masiello on Ebube Ebube's improvement and potentially filling Zane Waterman's role:
"He has, by far of anybody in this program, put the most time into his game, and you see tonight he shot 3-for-9 and 0-for-3 from three, but he's up every day at 7 a.m., and you just know good things will happen for him. I think you've seen great strides from him from last year. He's just going to continue to improve. He's a great rebounder, he goes after it, he plays with a high motor, a phenomenal young man. I love coaching him every day, so I'm just really happy for his growth and the progress he's making. He's not where he wants to be or we think he can be -- we think there's a lot more he can give this organization -- but every time he takes on the court, he's a fun guy to coach and I know these guys love playing with him."

On finding an offensive identity:
"Pauly and Warren (Williams), and Ebube, there's just not a lot of guys like that in the MAAC. We have guys that you don't see in the MAAC a lot, and we're fouling out A-10 teams, so I think that says something about our front line. Where we have to be a little more effective and efficient is valuing some of those possessions and finishing around the rim, and you can't have silent turnovers. Warren Williams was, I thought, dominant in the first half per possession, but then he goes to the foul line and he's 0-for-4 with silent turnovers, so those are the things where you've got to make sure -- I think we fouled out three of their bigs, which was our thing -- we want to go inside on them. I thought we'd see a little more zone, I was a little surprised we didn't, so our mentality was until they took that away, we were just going to keep going to it, and if they fronted, we would just throw it over the top to him. If they played behind, we would get to our double-down spots and try to play, but you've just gotta make sure when you're going inside, you're getting something out of it every time down. We had a couple of trips where we were 1-for-2, we had a couple trips that were 0-fers, we got great shots but missed a chippie or missed a free throw. You can't have that. That's not why we lost, but if you want to be a dominant low-post team, we've gotta get something out of it every time we go inside."

On significance of Manhattan's rivalry with Fordham:
"This is a fun college. Manhattan's fun. We work with great people, every game is a party. That's our thing. We want to have a lot of fun. We're going to do the same thing for Stony Brook, we'll do the same thing for Hofstra. Every time we get together and we have meetings, we plan to have fun with our student body, and they come out and they support us, so is this a big game? Absolutely, it's a big game. Now, Stony Brook is the big game, and the next game's a big game. But I have a lot of respect for Fordham and the job they did tonight, give them credit, but I thought we came across as a college looking really good, but just came up one point short."

Paulicap on the crowd atmosphere:
"It felt pretty good, I would say. I just love the vibe, I love the energy. I feed off of the crowd, honestly. It gets me going."

Masiello on similarities between this year's team and those of 2011-12 and 2012-13:
"We outrebounded them because a good friend of mine gave me some tips on block-outs, so we met as a team and we changed some things rebounding-wise, and that helped us outrebound. And that person knows who they are. But this team reminds me a lot. I keep talking to these guys about you've got to understand, and I know I sound like a broken record, we didn't get too up after Coastal (Carolina), we didn't get too down after Northern (Kentucky), we're not going to get too down after this. We played good basketball. We didn't do -- ten plays, there were five plays with four seconds or less -- you don't give them those, you win the game. And that's really where the game came down to. We're going to go back, we're going to watch some film, we're going to get better. We'll watch some film tomorrow night, we'll practice Monday and Tuesday, we'll come back out, and this group has great character, so I'm not worried. We'll be ready to play on Wednesday."