Oregon State Post-Game Quotes
February 26, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 26, 2011
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
California at Oregon State
February 26, 2011
Gill Coliseum
Corvallis, Ore.
Head Coach Craig Robinson
On what threw them off offensively in the second half...
"I thought we had a nice rhythm going. We have scored in the last couple of games more, against zones, than we have since I've been here and I think our guys have figured out how to go about solving the zone defense. I thought that in the heat of the battle we went away from that game plan for just enough to get them on a little roll that was too hard for us to come back from."
On if the physical nature of the game rattled the team...
"I guess it did because we were the ones with the most technical fouls. But I thought that our guys were battling for themselves. Typically in those kind of situations, you see that what happens the second time or after the first thing. But it's part of the game. We knew they were a physical team and we were prepared to be physical with them. You have to be able to bounce back from when guys are trying to make the game more or less `chippy', they all it."
On the explanation from the official on the technical fouls...
"On the first one, they said Jared (Cunningham) pushed Harper Kamp and I know Jared; Jared wouldn't push anybody for no reason. They said that all Harper Kamp did was block him out. The second one, the only explanation was that they gave four people four (technical) fouls. I typically don't blame the officiating on our wins or losses. I think if we would have handled our business in the second half, like we did in the first half, we'd be sitting here talking about something altogether different."
On the difference between the first half and second half...
"I thought we went away from the game plan. We were doing a great job of working the ball around, getting drives on the zone, getting kick outs for 3's. In the second half, when the game got physical and they scored a couple baskets, we came down and tried to get the lead back with one shot, even if it's a five-point deficit. There's no five-point shot, but sometimes you feel like you can come right back. I thought we did that and honestly I thought our defense let us down. We had been really playing great defense the last two or three games. In the second half of the game I thought that we got a little heavy-legged and it looked like we were fatigued there."
On the emotions during the game...
"The senior night games are always tough. I'm sure that all of our seniors were a bit emotional, this being their last game in Gill and having the kind of careers they've had. I think that they all had their heads in the right place. I think we started out the way we wanted to start out and at halftime we said we can't let (Allen) Crabbe go 3-for-4 from three again and he went 3-for-4 from three again. The emotional part of the day I don't think was a factor in us winning or losing. I think our guys know that we still have two more winnable games since we beat both of those teams and a Pac-10 Tournament where who knows who we'll play in the first game and it should be another winnable game."
On the thought process at halftime...
"We knew that this team has come back from deficits much larger than that before so we were hoping to be prepared for that. The way the first half went, when we shot five foul shots and they shot like 16, we knew it was going to be physical in the second half and I actually thought that they would try and tighten it up but it didn't seem to go that way. You have to be able to play a lot of different ways. You never know how the feel of the game is going to go. I don't want to take anything away from Cal. They made shots when they had to make shots. They made plays when they had to make plays and we needed to be a little bit better on defense and a little bit better on offense for a short period of time and I think things might have been a little bit closer."
On any frustrations...
"I'm not that frustrated; I'm really not. For the most part, for the second half of the Pac-10 season, we're starting three sophomores and two freshmen and the bulk of our minutes are going to the younger guys, so I'm not as frustrated. I'm frustrated that I didn't manage my expectations for the youth and I would have loved to have played a lot better this year. But when you see what the future holds, it takes some of the pain away. So I'm not as frustrated. I like the fact that we're getting better. Each year you look back at a season, and we're not done yet, but our teams have gotten better from the beginning to the end and this is another one of those seasons. I could look at the glass half-empty but it's not my style, especially this early. We're just getting these young guys ready to play."
Senior forward Omari Johnson
On the struggles in the second half...
"I think we just weren't doing what we were doing in the first 30 minutes of the game. We weren't making good decisions and we didn't box out on defense. After the first half, we knew we couldn't let up. This team though has come back from a few deficits to win games like they did here. We just lost our heads."
On the physicality of the game...
"It got a little physical and when games get physical, people get emotional. They shoved us and we shoved back. We're just the ones who got caught. They'd hit us after the whistle, but we had to just try our hardest to play through it. That's not the reason we lost the game at all."
On second half ball movement...
"We kind of became a little selfish. A few plays where earlier in the game we would have made the extra pass, we didn't make it. The person who didn't pass it would instead, try to help us by making the play himself."
Freshman guard Ahmad Starks
On Cal's second half three-point shooting...
"They played us well in the second half. That was them making shots. (Allen) Crabbe got kind of hot a little bit and we had some defensive lapses as well so that's really the key to that. We made a lot of turnovers. There were some bad decisions by us and they were getting long rebounds so that hurt us."
On gaining confidence with the three-point shot...
"I'm definitely more confident. Just having the opportunity to play, get down on the floor and being able to get into a rhythm helps a lot. My teammates are looking for me when I get open so that gives me confidence to make the shot."
