Oregon State Post-Game Quotes
January 13, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 13, 2011
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Oregon State vs. UCLA
January 13, 2011
Gill Coliseum
Corvallis, Ore.
Head Coach Craig Robinson
On closing out the game ...
"It's just plays. It's those plays that win games. There were a couple of them. There were the layups, there were the foul shots, there were the next layups. You can't beat a team that's picked to be second or third or fourth in our league and not make those plays when you're at home and the momentum is working in your favor. I was really pleased with the way the guys fought back. It was just so admirable. It was the way that we normally play. But I've got to make some changes because I can't get these guys to do it for 40 minutes. We've been doing it for 20 minutes, 27 minutes, 30 minutes, 15 minutes, but not 40 very often. You just can't beat good teams that way. "
On why the team came out slow ...
"I really don't know. If I had the answer to it, I'd fix it immediately. We looked like we saw the name on the uniform and couldn't move. We just looked like we were paralyzed and we looked that way almost the entire first half. We started playing once we came out after halftime. You can't look at the other team like they're any different from any of the other teams you have played. You have to come ready to play and be excited right from the start."
On halftime adjustments ...
"You just have to get them excited about playing because they weren't excited when they went out the first time. We had to play better than we were playing in the first half in order to have any chance of winning this game. It was a great comeback but to lose like this was harder than losing by 30."
On the play of Jared Cunningham ...
"He hasn't had a bad game in a long time and guys have bad games. The terrific part about his bad game, although he was 1-for-9, was that his three might have been one of the biggest shots of the game. He had five assists and six steals with zero turnovers. He had a bad offensive game but the rest of his game was terrific. We have to be able to play through Jared having a tough game."
On the play of Kevin McShane ...
"He comes in and provides us energy. He provides us good play and hustle plays. He came in and got a tip on a ball, an offensive rebound and a foul. What people don't know is that he probably would have played more but he was sick all week with a fever. He had a fever yesterday and the day before and didn't practice all week long. He did exactly what he needed to do."
On losing a close game and coming back ready to play on Saturday ...
"I think what we saw in that second half with that comeback is how we have to play all of the time. If this isn't the wakeup call we needed after the last two games, plus this game, than I should be in a different business. This is very clear cut what needs to be done."
On the half court offense ...
"I thought we got pretty much anything we wanted. When we ran our stuff, we could get to the basket. We missed shots. That happened in the beginning of the game. That happened at the end of the first half. It happened at the beginning of the second half and then it happened right at the end there to cost us the game. It's the easy shots that we missed."
On getting the team to play a full 40 minutes ...
"I can put the guys in who are going to play hard all of the time. That's what I can do. That's what I think of right now at the top of my head. It's not motivational. It's psychological."
Freshman guard Roberto Nelson
On what happened in the last two minutes of the game ...
"It was kind of weird. We played great to come back from a 15-point deficit like that showed a lot of heart that we were able to rally as a team and come back. I think when Lazeric Jones hit that shot at the top of the key, it was just hard, it was like all of the momentum we had they just took it away right there."
One the team battling back from a 17-point deficit ...
"That just shows how hard we work at practice and then translating that to the game. That just shows how much these guys want to win and how much we want to change this around. I think we've made a lot of leaps in the right direction, but there are just little, tiny things that we need to get rid of. We just need to stop holding back and go for it."
On the slow start of the Beavers to start the game ...
"I have to give credit to UCLA. They came out ready to play. That's just how it is. Sometimes teams are more ready to play than you. Today we came out a little lackadaisical but this just shows just how much harder we need to work so at the next game this doesn't happen. We need to come out and jump on them early."
Freshman forward Devon Collier
On the play of UCLA's Josh Smith ...
"Josh Smith is a wide body. We have to prevent him from getting put-backs, which he was getting. We just needed to box him out more instead of leaving him open and getting the offensive rebound and laying them back in. We just need to work on our box out defense more."
On the team coming out strong in the second half ...
"We just started off slowly. We needed to pick up the intensity at the beginning. The team needs to play together so we can pick up the tempo and catch up."
On what the team needs to do when the shots aren't falling ...
"If the shots aren't falling, we need to play defense to pick up our shots. If we play better defense at the beginning, we'll make up for the missing shots. We picked up on defense. When Kevin McShane came in, he brought energy to the team and everybody played harder. He carried us and made everybody else play harder from a defensive standpoint."
