Oregon State - Arizona Post Game Quotes
January 14, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 14, 2010
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OREGON STATE HEAD COACH Craig Robinson
On the last play…
“I think everybody in the country knows on that kind of play we're going to Calvin (Haynes), and for some reason they brought Lathen's man up on (Calvin) and Lathen was wide open in the corner. Those guys (the Beavers) had every reason not to play well. A lot of things were going against them, missed lay-ups, missed foul shots, things of that nature, and for him to make that shot that was a BIG shot. It dropped through as if he had dropped it from right on top. “
On Lathen Wallace…
“Lathen is a very good shooter, and when we were playing well at the end of last season, he was playing well and shooting the ball well. Historically, we haven't been a very good 3-point shooting team. Last year we had Ricky (Claitt) and Lathen, and Roeland from time to time. I have seen that guy put in the work at practice, so I know the fact that he's not shooting like he was last year has nothing to do with the amount of work he's put in. I think he is just starting to see the benefits of his work. If he'd missed it would have been a good look, and I wouldn't have been as happy as I am now, but I couldn't fault him for taking that shot.”
“This is the Roeland that we expected 15 games ago. I couldn't be happier for that kid. Roeland is a hard guy to be hard on, because he does everything right, he come in and works, he's one of the nicest guys on the team, one of our brightest kids, one of the best students. And for him to be struggling like he did was tough for him, and I'm really happy he had the game he had today.”
On the last sequence when Roeland blocked two shots…
“That's called desperation. In the last four minutes or so there's not a whole lot of coaching going on. It's just the guys making plays. (Schaftenaar) was desperate to stop them from scoring and so he blocked two shots.”
OREGON STATE SENIOR CENTER Roeland Schaftenaar
On his size advantage…
“They're starting lineup is not the biggest. We try to go inside on every team like that. If that doesn't work then we'll go out side and try to get the baskets. It makes it easier too that they were in foul trouble, then we know we can go harder to the basket and they can't contest shots.”
On the difference between the halves…
“I don't think we played bad in the second half, we just missed lay-ups and free throws. When we started to come back we made our free throws, and shots close to the basket.”
OREGON STATE JUNIOR Lathen Wallace
You had all day to think about that shot, sometimes that's even harder than when it's contested…
“Yeah, we ran the pick and roll. We always do that in the last 10 seconds or whatever. Calvin (Haynes) could've taken the layup or kicked it to me. He happened to kick it me and I knocked down the shot.”
So you're the first option on that play?
“No. Calvin is the first option, to finish his layup. I was the second option.”
Where did your defender go?
“I think they all sagged down on Calvin, and Calvin was able to hit me.”
Did you know when it left your fingers?
I was in rhythm and I knocked it down. So yeah, I knew it was going in.
Were you nervous on the shot?
I'm used to defenders rushing at me. I wasn't nervous at all. I was confident and ready to knock it down.
Have you had other game winners like that? Would you call that the biggest shot of your career?
I've hit some game winners but not like that. I would say it was the biggest shot of my career.
ARIZONA HEAD MEN'S BASKETBALL COACH SEAN MILLER
On the Oregon State comeback…
“They really did make a nice comeback. To me, there were five or six ways they did that. Hustle plays, we had trouble blocking out on missed free throws. We had no answer for their big guy, who is an excellent player, a very good offensive player. He wore us out by putting fouls on us and hitting big baskets. You have to keep in mind that we played the most zone we've played all season long. At the end of the day, we went with the defense to win the game, and it's just disappointing to think what could've happened if we would've stayed in man. The improvement on the road, and our inability to be a defensive minded team, has really hurt us.”
On his team's inability to score in the final four minutes…
Well, I thought we did a pretty good job. Other than being tentative and shaky at the start of the game, you could tell we had some freshman out there that were tentative against the 1-3-1. As the game went on, we got some good shots, and there were some times when I thought the offense was really clicking. We had four or five individual plays in the last few minutes that would've won us the game. It had nothing to do with us attacking the zone, it was a 3 on 1, or a 2 on 1 it was a layup or a second shot or third shot. None of them went in for us at the end. Those are game-winning plays. If any of them is made on our end we still win in spite of our ineptness defensively. If we have that in us, we could very easily be sitting at 4-1.
