Oregon State Post-Game Quotes
February 24, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 24, 2011
Recap |
Final Stats |
Notes |
AP Photo Gallery 
Stanford at Oregon State
February 24, 2011
Gill Coliseum
Corvallis, Ore.
Head Coach Craig Robinson
On switching to man-to-man defense...
"I'll agree with going to the man was good; I thought the guys did a great job with it. The biggest thing to note is how hard these guys have been able to work after having a tough road and being on the road. We wanted to focus on a few things at practice this week based on how we have been playing in the recent past and plus the first time we played against Stanford. One of those was sharing the ball and playing a little bit unselfishly. When I say selfish I don't mean it in a malicious way. I just think guys were pressing, because they were trying to help each other out by making plays themselves. Today, to see us have 19 assists and not have one guy over three assists, that's a huge statement. And it is also a statement connected to the other thing that we didn't do the last time we played and that is finishing those plays. I think we got the same types of plays we just didn't finish them and we finished them at a high rate this time around and that is a good feeling, because for those guys in the locker room, you want them to be rewarded for their hard work and their diligence and their paying attention to what we're saying."
On the relief of getting a win...
"It's big. No one likes losing. We always want to be moving in the right direction and this win sort of gives us that confidence at least what we're doing as a team can work positively."
On the week of practice that helped the offense...
"What we tried to focus on was making the extra pass. We've been talking about this all week long and what was happening before was we'd make a pass and the next pass the guy would try to score or we would try to make a pass that led directly to a score. I always find that when you try to get an assist you end up turning the ball over or you don't get a good pass to the guy who is finishing. But when you pass the ball around to whoever's open, things kind of open up for everybody and that's what this stat shows. At practice you really focus on it. When they don't make the next pass you point it out, and that's it."
On gaining confidence...
"I always think that the best way to get your confidence back is work your tail off at practice. When we made smart plays, we got more confident. I think the confidence came from the week of smart plays; the week of preparation. More so, what you saw was the result of their hard work during the week."
On guys making plays...
"It was very nice to see. It was really nice to see Calvin (Haynes) make some plays because he has been really hard on himself this year for not making plays. All we've tried to do is say `hey we know you are playing hard for us'. So it was nice to see him make a couple of plays, make a couple of big shots. It was also nice to see Joe (Burton) have a good game because we all know as a team, when Joe plays well, we typically win games. With him getting in foul trouble in the first half and having three turnovers in the first half and ended up with three, that is a heck of a second half."
On playing more man-to-man defense...
"I still think that we have some ways to go before playing full-time man-to-man, but I was really pleased with the way we handled ourselves against those guys. There were some spots where we left some people open and gave them a straight drive to the hoop, but for the most part, I thought we did a really good job and Lathen (Wallace) has always been one of our best on-ball defenders. He made very few mistakes; you know what else he did besides playing great defense, he was a great decoy on offense. There were plenty of times where he could have tried to take his man all the way to the basket and he got in there and kicked it out to a guy for a nice extra pass. "
On outlet passes that led to easy baskets down the stretch...
"That was just heads up play; that was nothing that I am calling. Whoever got the rebound thought `let me look up and throw those balls ahead.' And ironically, this is a day that we shoot 87 percent from the foul line. Had we been getting fouled, who knows what would have happened, but it was nice to sort of have that space to get a layup and not worry about the foul shots."
On being able to breathe easier...
"It's been tough to breathe easier, but especially when we get the violation and don't get the one rebound on the free throw, where I think we could have ended it with like 50 seconds and they get the rebound. These are still young guys. We have young guys out there working their tails off and it's good to see."
On the game going back-and-forth but getting the win...
"It seems as though our defensive pressure bothered them more then when we were up there. I thought that we played a decent defensive game when we played them down there. But what happened was that we turned them over and we didn't convert. If you look at the stat here, our points off turnovers today were 21 and we had five in the first half. So we converted on those turnovers that we normally have done early on in the season that we hadn't been doing over the last four or five games. That was a big thing. The second thing is when we did get fouled, we made our foul shots. That is always a good way to get the other team to slow themselves down. Between the defense and making our foul shots, then we made plays aside from off turnovers. When we were running our half court offense, we made the extra pass and made plays. I think that was the major difference from getting something positive going rather than ending up with a steal and a goose egg."
On making as many three-pointers as he wanted the team to shoot total...
"It's funny, as a player you make your fist three and you feel like you can make two more and that is dangerous when you don't shoot well. But when Ahmad (Starks) hit his first two, and then Roberto hit a couple, and then Angus hit one, it was good to see those guys take and make one and not be tricked into taking more than they should. I thought we took a couple more then we needed to, but that is because we were 5-of-10 in the first half."
On keeping the momentum going into Saturday's game against California...
"We need to have a good practice tomorrow and we have to keep doing the same things we've been doing; to keep our defense going well, and we have to make the extra pass, and then you get closer to the result you want. It's not rocket science."
On the home crowd...
"I think the crowd helps us a lot. The first two years I was here, it was stressful playing at home because there were expectations of us being better than we were. It was very stressful for the players at home. Now I think that there is a huge comfort level being at home. Because of the weather this is probably one of the smaller Pac 10 crowds we've had. We've had some really great crowds this season. Our crowds get into the way we play defense and that makes us play defense much better. I think the crowd absolutely plays a big part in it."
On working hard all season...
"I just hoped that the guys in the locker room would be rewarded for their hard work. I like the way this team works and I like the way they come to work on a daily basis. And I just hoped they get rewarded for it, because you don't always get what you deserve."
On Jared breaking Gary Payton's sophomore steals record...
"We are a team that really doesn't kind of look at individual goals. But that is one heck of a goal. Gary Payton, my goodness. It's funny because I don't think Jared gets credited with the great defense he does play. He is our marquee player and this was one of the games where he wasn't in foul trouble. To see him get that record given the number of times he has been in foul trouble for us, it's just amazing. But he has what a lot of guys who steals balls has; he has a knack of knowing what's going to happen before it happens. It was great to see Ahmad playing great defense, because that helped him get some of those steals. When Jared sees one of those guys under pressure and his guy is going to be the release player, then that's when he is at his best. He is like a dog looking for a bone. It's been great to have been able to coach a guy like that, because he really makes for a lot of mistakes we make on defense."
On Jared and Gary talking...
"We tried to get Gary to be reconnected with the program. He has done a great job with it. Jared knows him from the Bay area as well. It's really nice that they have that kind of relationship. Before I met Gary I didn't realize how big he was. He is like 6-foot-5; he is taller than Jared is. It's really nice when a guy holds a record and embraces a guy who is trying to break the record. I just think there is a lot of character there. Once you have had the record nobody can ever, I mean somebody can pass you up. But you had the record, so there isn't a lot of ego there. I just love the fact that they stay in touch."
Sophomore guard Jared Cunningham
On getting the home game victory...
"We come to play at home. We try to grind it out every time it's a home game and we don't want to disappoint the fans. That's what we did today and we played an all-around good game together."
On getting dunks at the end of the game to seal the win...
"That was our big guys, Joe (Burton) and Devon (Collier) getting the rebounds, seeing us on the outlets going to the basket and us just finishing with heart. If you have it wide open, it's always good to dunk it if you can."
On the beginning of the game...
"We had a good start. Ahmad (Starks) caught fire in the beginning and knocked down some shots. That's what got us going. They had some wide open 3's that they made and from there on we had to fight back on defense and that's what happened going into the second half."
On breaking Gary Payton's sophomore steals record...
"It feels great. He's a hometown hero and sometimes I talk to him every now and then. I couldn't do it without my team. They help me out a lot. They put me in situations to anticipate passes and get the steals. We got the win tonight and I got the steal record so that feels great."
On carrying over the intensity into Saturday's game against California...
"We have to come to practice tomorrow, do what we've been doing this past week and go hard from the start to the finish. We need to capitalize on the scouting reports for Cal. They have great big men down in the low post so we need to make the guards shoot the ball and play pressure defense."
Senior guard Calvin Haynes
On switching to man-to-man defense...
"I think it helped a lot. It changed the energy of the game and it changed the flow of the game for them. It disrupted their offense. It really put pressure on (Aaron) Bright and (Jarrett) Mann to bring it up the court."
On getting the Pac-10 win...
"It feels good to get a win against a quality team in the Pac-10. It's good for our confidence and good overall going into Saturday and trying to get another win. We just wanted to come out and get a win. We've had close games where we didn't pull it out. This is one of those where we're at home and we feel more comfortable. We know that we can have the crowd behind us and we just want to go out, play hard, and take us to the win."
On Oregon State's hot shooting...
"We had a great week of practice and a great week of shooting in practice. The guards especially worked on a lot of ball screens, coming off and making shot. A lot of ball screens between us, making shots, kicking it to open people, and just constant movement, always trying to find the open man. Tonight it paid off."
On the team getting a lot of assists...
"It's one of the things we didn't do the last couple games. Everybody was trying to do their own thing. When we share the ball it's hard to guard each one of us. We have players that can make plays, so when everybody's not being selfish and we're looking for the open man, somebody's going to get an open shot."
