Drexel coach Bruiser Flint basks in the spotlight after a fifth straight win over Penn

Here are some highlights from the postgame press conferences after Drexel's quite entertaining 61-59 win over Penn at the Palestra on Saturday.

You probably don't have to guess too hard as to which subject got Bruiser Flint the most animated, but I'll give you a little hint. There were 5,608 fans in the house to watch the game. That's more than double the capacity of the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

On whether he felt his team was nervous late in the game, given that Drexel had lost two close games to start the season:

We lost two of our leading scorers. We weren't nervous. One of the things we haven't done in the two losses was we didn't play well late in games... i just didn't think we did the things we needed to do to close them out.

We lost to Illinois State [in overtime] - if we had made two foul shots you all wouldn't even be talking to me about that. It's just that simple. Honestly. We grabbed a guy to lose to Kent State. We grabbed a guy because we didn't know the score. So that's how they beat us. What are you going to do sometimes?

And actually today, we threw the ball away against their pressure. Those were the things we were doing in the other games. We've got to clean them up. It's just that simple - we clean those things up and we'll be fine.

On Daryl McCoy's contributions:

I thought he did a great job on Fran Dougherty in the last 10 minutes of the game. I told Dartaye [Ruffin] that [Dougherty] might have had another 30-point game if I left you on him. In the last 10 minutes of the game, Daryl said "I've got him," and he got him. That was big.

I thought we did a good job on [Dougherty] and Cartwright. That's one reason why we came back and took the lead at the end. I thought we did a great job on those two guys.

And Daryl did what he did because I told him the other day that he's been on the milk carton. I asked him, "Are you the guy from Texas A&M who we've got to call and find out where you are? We're a little nervous."

Because the first two games, I hadn't seen him. So I said to him, "Are you the guy from Texas A&M?" - the wide receiver they couldn't find for two days. I couldn't find Daryl for two games. But today he came and did what Daryl McCoy does - he played good defense and he rebounded the ball, and that gave us a chance to win.

We needed every bit of everybody today, especially when Chris [Fouch] went down [with an ankle injury in the second half]. Because he was the only guy really getting baskets for us. Then Tayvon [Allen] came in and did his thing.

On walking into the press room after the game with his shirt still covered in sweat:

The Palestra's hot. I'll be honest with you. If you ever play or coach in here, you're drenched. It's hot in the locker room before the game starts. It's one of those places. Nobody has ever come into the Palestra and coached and said, "That's a cool place."

On coaching against former Episcopal Academy teammate Jerome Allen:

It lets me know I'm old. He played for me when he was a sixth-, seventh-  and eighth-grader. It lets me know I'm getting old, that's what it means. He always calls me his "old head," and I am his old head, I guess.

Mr. Doc [Longtime former EA coach Dan Dougherty] was here today. Our bloodlines go back a little bit. The EA boys stick together. So I'm just happy that he's doing well. When he first came back when he retired [from playing], he talked to me a lot about getting into coaching. Then the whole thing [at Penn] went down.

I'm just proud of him. He's doing a good job here. Those guys are going to be good, they've got some good young players. They're going to be back sooner than people thing.

On the Penn-Drexel series returning after a one-year hiatus:

We love playing against these guys. I'm going to go back to what I've been saying the 12 years that I've been here. Are you all ready for it? You can say it for me.

[The reply came, of course: that Penn should come to the DAC.]

How about that? I don't even have to say it. Play the game at the DAC. Come on, let's go home-and-home, back-and-forth. It would be great. Give us the chance to have the Penn fans come down to the DAC. Right?

Drexel was thick in here tonight. So maybe that's the case. Do you [at Penn] make money off us from the game? Is that the thing for Penn? Come down to the DAC and hang out. There's nothing wrong with that.

I'll be honest with you, and I'll stop after this. What disappoints me is, that's the way college basketball is played: home-and-home. That's the business of it. Now, I don't know how many we've won in a row, so my people [at Drexel] don't mind it now. But if we lose down here, it's a different situation.

Seriously - you guys can say what you want to say. We've won five in a row [in the series]. So my people walk around with their chests out. But it's not good business. I can't keep coming in the lions' den. You're going to get bitten. That's the bottom line and the way I feel about it.

Opening statement:

I guess for theater, and for you guys, it was a good basketball game. It's always a good basketball game when it comes down to the wire. Obviously I have a lot of respect for coach Flint and the program over there at Drexel. Those guys could very easily be easily 3-0 this season as opposed to 1-2 - they've played a couple close games.

But with that being said, I know how they play. They play hard, they play together, they play disciplined, and I wasn't surprised by their effort tonight.

On whether he designed anything for the game's last possession, when Miles Cartwright lost the ball attempting to drive through the lane to the basket:

The last possession, we put the ball in the hands of one of our better players. I could draw something up, but it's their game. I just tried to get them to make a play.

On the contributions from freshman guard Jamal Lewis, who guarded Drexel star Frantz Massenat:

I thought he did a tremendous job of guarding the basketball, making Massenat work and keeping him out of the paint. I thought that at times, we had pretty decent help when Massenat did try to probe the paint. But all in all, I'm not surprised by his effort, because my expectation is that we defend.

On what he has seen from Fran Dougherty that has made the junior forward evolve into such a potent offensive threat:

He had a great summer. He put in the work, stayed in the gym. I think that's when you get better. He has just been going out and been confident, getting shots, getting rhythm and being confident in his ability. That's it.

On whether he was surprised by Tayvon Allen's performance for Drexel:

We talked about with [Damion] Lee not playing, we respect the game enough to know that it's a 12-man roster and any guy that's not in the normal rotation is capable of coming in and hurting us - whether it's with effort or energy or just overall skill set.

Although he hasn't played a whole lot this far in the year up until tonight, I thought he did a tremendous job of being poised and confident. He made shots and got in the paint and got steals.

It shows you that when student-athletes don't have an opportunity to play, how they spend their time when they're not playing, when they do get the opportunity - he showed tonight that he was ready when his name was called.

On what he intended to do on the final play of the game:

I just wanted to come off the screen and be aggressive, maybe look to throw back to Fran [Dougherty] to see if he had an open three. When I came off the screen, I saw [Daryl] McCoy jump out and hedge really hard, so I tried to cut back. I lost the ball.