Oregon State Post-Game Quotes
November 04, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 4, 2011
Oregon State Post-Game Quotes
Oregon State vs. Pacific (Ore.)
Exhibition Game
November 4, 2011
Gil Coliseum
Corvallis, Ore.
Head Coach Craig Robinson
"This was exactly what you saw; it was a dress rehearsal. When you win a game like this, you can say it doesn't mean anything. When you lose a game like this, you can say it doesn't mean anything. But we all know that it means something. Especially when you are trying to change the way you're playing like we are. I would say that I was 65 percent happy with stuff and 35 percent not happy with stuff out there. All in all, it was a good dress rehearsal and it gets us prepared for the remainder of the season."
On the 35 percent Robinson did not like...
"The first five minutes of the second half, when you are not used to having a lead like that, you come out and we sort of just went through the motions for the first four-and-a-half minutes, until we got to the 16-minute timeout. Then we came out of that timeout and started picking up like we have been at the beginning in the game. That is number one. Number two is the turnovers. We had entirely too many turnovers. But I can understand. The first game we had everybody play and had too many guys who hadn't been playing for a while. The third thing was the foul shots. I was completely surprised by it because we chart everything and we have probably been shooting between 72 and 78 percent in practice. When we get out into a game, I am sure it's jitters. But that's got to go up. You fix those three things and you beat a lot of teams this year. You don't fix them, and then you lose a lot of game this year."
On the 65 percent Robinson liked...
"There was a lot of stuff I liked. The thing that sticks out most in my mind when I'm watching this team was number one how hard we played for that period of time when we were playing hard. That is how we want to play all the time. But that has never been a problem for our teams here; they always play hard. It was good to see these guys play hard and handle a game that they are supposed to handle. We've had trouble with that in the past. But most of all, we had 24 baskets on 20 assists. That speaks to a couple of things. It speaks to execution, and it speaks to chemistry, which is really what it speaks to. Thirdly, I liked seeing us play man-to-man for real. We played man-to-man 80 percent of the time. We switched to zone at the end of the first half. I just wanted to give the guys a break our first full game. I was happy to see that, so there are some things there."
On playing creatively and how valuable that is at this point in the season...
"These guys started workouts on September 15, and which you've seen is a result of the work that has gone on up to this point. It's been really hard. We had one scrimmage in there that you can't comment on, other than that they have been going at each other every single day and it gets stale. So it was good that they got a chance to run around out there against other people. That is one of the things about an exhibition that is good; you just get to play against some guys that aren't your teammates and are just different."
On Eric Moreland and Rhys Murphy's play tonight...
"I told Eric in the locker room, not having looked at the stat sheet and just watched him play, that he played a very mature game. I thought he handled himself really well. He didn't take any kind of shots that he shouldn't have been taken. He had one turnover and he played quite a few minutes. He helped us on the boards and didn't miss a shot and played good defense. He's long and fast enough to where I had him guard a wing player. That was pretty interesting to see. So all those things are going to help us this year, especially in our league where you have the wing players who are pretty much the best players on the team. It is really good to have him back as well as Rhys Murphy. It was good to have him back too and see him get that tip dunk because that means his knee is fine."
On Collier's play tonight and possible injury...
"He was just cramping up, so he was fine. He just has to make his foul shots. He could double his production if he makes foul shots. He has a knack of being around the basketball and getting things close to the basket so guys have to foul him. So if he makes his foul shots, that is going to almost double his production."
On how much of the fan in Robinson that makes him want to crazy on plays like Murphy's tip dunk...
"As a fan of the game and former player, but most of all someone who really likes this team, I want to jump out there and slap fives with them; especially for Rhys from a health standpoint. It just makes you happy to see him out there playing. This team is capable of highlights. But what I want to see is highlights on defense. If we can have as many highlights on defense as we do on offense, then that will help us win a lot of games."
Junior guard Jared Cunningham
On his own shooting performance...
"It definitely was a boost of confidence. I took every shot knowing that it was going to go in and just worked on my skill set. My shooting over the summer really helped going into this game."
On the steps ahead for the team after the first win...
"It was great to see the team out there finally back in Gill. It was an exhibition game so it really doesn't count, but it showed a lot of things that we really need to work on and we're going to go to practice every day to work on those things."
On the put-back dunk by Rhys Murphy...
"It was good. We were just joking around in the locker room a couple minutes ago saying he kissed a street light. He didn't touch the sky; he touched a street light. But it was a nice dunk. I'm proud of him and I hope that he has a successful season."
On the 20 assists to 24 baskets produced by the OSU offense...
"That's definitely a good thing. We passed the ball around really well tonight and you are going to see a lot more of that. Going into the next game, we need to focus more on the offensive part of our game and defense is going to come. We were basically just touching on the man-to-man so a little more work and we'll be up there."
Sophomore forward Devon Collier
On the game...
"I just felt like it was a learning experience to see what we needed to work on. Like executing more, since our defense was pretty good. We will work more on the execution on the offense."
On starting the season and playing against somebody else...
"It was good to get this game out of the way to see where we are at so we can work on things that we need to work on."
On Rhys (Murphy)'s dunk...
"It was good to see that dunk to give him more confidence in his game."
