Oregon State - Arizona Post Game Quotes
February 05, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 5, 2009
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
OREGON STATE HEAD COACH Craig Robinson
On the turning point of the game:
"In a close game like this you can pick any of a bunch of different plays. You just want to be in the position we were in right at the end of the game. I thought we played great defense; and, if they missed that shot, we come down with a chance to go ahead. You can pick three or four or five different plays where it could have gone our way or it could have gone the other way. I just want to emphasize that our guys have figured out to play a wide variety of basketball. They know how to play against a wide variety of teams. I am watching this team get better and better."
On the development of this team:
"We are on the verge of having a pretty good basketball team, and you know how guarded I am about putting that kind of pressure on these guys. I am watching these guys go up against the kind of adversity that I could see them having to go up against if they were 0-18. They are still running in to some of the prejudices of a team that loses."
On the improvement from the first game against Arizona:
"There is a level of toughness that you have to have in order to rebound against teams like this (Arizona). I just saw some growth here that I was pretty pleased with. Save for a few plays there in the middle, I thought we played a very good game."
OREGON STATE SENIOR Rickey Claitt
On Arizona's 11-0 run...
"I think we took too many threes. We should have gone to the hoop more and taken more lay-ups. Arizona had a lot of fast break points and the long threes let them get buckets."
Do you feel like you will come back from this...
"Yes, we always come back. We fight down the stretch every game. Coach always says we will fight till the end, till the last minute is up and that is what we do. We are down in some games and come back to win. We have confidence to beat any Pac-10 team and I know we will come back from this."
On Arizona's zone defense...
"We were not surprised they were going to do a zone defense. They did that when we played them in Arizona so we were prepared for them to do that coming here."
On Budinger...
"He is a pro what can I say. We held him in the first half and then in the second half he made that one shot and then nobody could stop him. Good athletes can make that one shot and keep scoring from there."
ARIZONA HEAD COACH RUSS PENNELL
On the play of forward Chase Budinger
"I thought Chase had a real good feel for the game tonight. He found some seams in the zone from time-to-time and attacked the rim. That's what you expect your conference player of the year candidate to do. He is that type of player. He made some really good plays for us tonight. I thought what he did kind of loosened up the other guys by attacking the rim, and he really took some pressure off of Nic (Wise)."
On the second half success of Jamelle Horne:
"When Jamelle is playing like that, especially when he is rebounding like that, we are a different team. He can get some rebounds that other people just can't because of his ability. I thought he helped out with Jordan (Hill) on the glass tonight. They did a really fine job of when Jordan (Hill) shot the basketball. They were putting two bodies on him. It was really tough for him to get to the rim. Defensively, I thought Jamelle came in and really had some great rebounds. So when we have him playing like that we are a different team."
On this being Arizona's first conference road win of the season:
"One of the things I did tell them in the locker room was that they can't say you haven't won on the road anymore. We got that out of the way and we can move on. The big thing is that it's the first of February and this is the stretch run for everyone. Every win is precious. A 56-53 win at Oregon State is worth just as much as a blowout win somewhere else. It is so important and I am really happy for the guys. We are playing out best basketball and that is what we want."
