Coach Eaves on the Aggies getting out-rebounded
“They started hitting there shots more and became more comfortable and it’s usually that way. When you’re down or up it’s easier to hit shots. But 46 to 29 on the rebounds – 18 offensive rebounds – and I am just lucky as can be to win this game. We just spoke in the locker room about what our goals are and what we are trying to accomplish. We just can’t have that kind of discrepancy on the boards and win any kind of ball games. So we are going to have to make sure that we dig in and start to have block out drills and do all the things we must do because when someone out rebounds you 46 to 29 you’re not supposed to win. Thank God for the lead and thank God for the press because we did not finish the game like we would have wanted to.”

Coach Eaves on S.C. State’s Jessie Burton and the Aggies second half play
“(Jessie Burton) played well – 8 of 14 and 4 of 6 from the three – They had no one else shooting that well from the three. Those things happen when you let a team get life and start to feel good about themselves. They have nothing to lose and then in the second half we were flat as we were for Winston Salem. This is Division I basketball and we had more then 48 hours to recover from an afternoon game on Saturday to a night game on Monday. There is no excuse. You have to have to come with more energy and play better at home.”

Coach Eaves on his rotation on Monday night
“My second subbing did an excellent job of getting after them. The bottom line is my starters are going to have to understand and we spoke about it – it starts with Steve (Rush) and Jason (Wills) that we must press teams those first five minutes so when the second team comes in it’s like a tidal wave. My starters would hit a shot and we would get back up to halfcourt and want to play with our talent and not within the system. We’re not big enough to beat teams and physical enough to play people that way and predicate winning on hitting jump shots. We player smaller because we want to make teams play our style.”

Coach Eaves on Austin Ewing’s play
“I have been saying all the time when he starts to hit shots he is such a tremendous shooter just like Steve Rush. So when Austin hits shots it does not surprise me. He can do that.  It’s just he wont become relaxed and comfortable and shoot to his level all the time because he can really shoot well.”

Coach Eaves on what he wants from his offense
“We are talented. We have offensive weapons that can score the ball. Nick Wilson is coming along. We have more people that can put the ball in the basket. It’s not about how many threes you make; it is about the layups and free throws you make. People have a misconception. Threes are the icing on the cake. We missed so many layups the last two games that neither game should have been close. Until we concentrate and put our egg in the basket on a consistent rate, it’s always going to be hard for us to be a consistent scoring team.”

Coach Eaves on being on a five-game winning streak
“I don’t think about winning streaks or losing streaks either way. We are going to prepare for Howard.  It’s the biggest game of the year. We are going to go out and try to execute our offense and defense and see if we can come out on top. Since I have been here we try to play harder and smarter and if we can do that 85-90 percent of the time the wins will come. We don’t concentrate on the wins. We concentrate on the ABC’s.”

Coach Eaves on improving the Aggies rebounding
“We are more physical than what we showed today. We were flat. Against Winston-Salem, it was a huge game and my guys were up. When you play a game of such high magnitude, there is tendency to come out flat the next game. I knew we would play all of the players. I knew I would have to play all 12 but we still must execute in the second half to finish off teams better than we did tonight. If we don’t box they will jump over us because we don’t have the kind of athletes and we’re not that kind of team.”

Coach Eaves on forcing 16 first-half turnovers
“It’s how we play. I have been pressing all my life. If you can hit layups and hit free throws you have a great chance to win games without ever hitting a jump shot. We have been pressing since I’ve been here. It’s just good to see that the second seven came in and did a tremendous job and it was what we wanted. In the second half we came in turning the ball over and trying to force balls in cracks, not playing smart basketball.”