Oregon State Post-Game Quotes
February 05, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 5, 2011
Oregon State vs. Washington State
February 5, 2011
Gill Coliseum
Corvallis, Ore.
Head Coach Craig Robinson
On struggling offensively...
"We took too many 3's, because we were having success getting the ball to the basket and throwing it down low. It really is hard to resist shooting those 3's when you're wide open. You never think you're going to go 11 percent, because we're a 30 percent three-point shooting team. If you just shoot your average, you win the game. If you make your foul shots, you probably win the game. You can play this game and not make shots, but you can't win this game and not make shots."
On struggling at the free-throw line...
"Free throws are a very personal skill to work on. That's not something we spend any extra time in practice, other than when we're doing our scrimmages. In order to get the ball back, if you've gotten fouled, you have to make your foul shots. That's not a real way to practice, that's a way to mimic pressure. The only way you can remedy shooting foul shots is to shoot a lot of them and make a lot of them. You can't just shoot a lot of them and miss a lot of them. It sounds like it's obvious, but you have to shoot a lot and make a lot, and if you're not making a lot you have to shoot more until you make a lot. I don't think it's game pressure. I think it's a personal accountability issue. You have to work on it and you have to find time to work on it if you're not a good foul shooter. There's no way to spend time at practice doing it. I can say `shoot more foul shots' or I could dedicate two hours of practice to shooting foul shots, but that doesn't happen."
On the offensive rhythm at the start of the second half...
"We think that we can score in a number of ways that do not include taking three-point shots and that includes getting to the basket, posting up in transition and all of that stuff was working. For that period of time we resisted taking a whole bunch of 3's."
On how missing three-pointers affects the offense...
"It felt like we were throwing the ball down, getting it in there, either scoring or getting fouled or both, and driving to the basket. I thought our offense was only stagnant when we settled for long shots."
On Devon Collier and Jared Cunningham accounting for more than half of the team's points...
"That happens sometimes. That doesn't make me feel better or worse. What makes me feel good is that there are aspects of our game plan that we executed perfectly. We kept Klay Thompson under his average and under double figures; that's huge. We played hard for the entire 40 minutes; that's one of those. The negative things, the things that I find challenging and that we need to work on, still were that we didn't rebound like we did on Thursday. You can't go through a game and take 17 3's and only make two. You can't go 48 percent from the foul line when you're a 60-plus percent team. You can play hard and still lose, and this was a very good example of that."
On getting off to a slow start...
"You have to look at the starts differently now that you're starting three sophomores and two freshmen. A slow start when you start veterans is one thing. We have to get the younger guys used to coming out with that fire. The slow start wasn't the reason why we lost. It's hard for me to get too worked up about that. I was very happy that we played a lot of defenses well today. We played man-to-man, we played some 2-3 zone, we pressed a little bit and we played 1-3-1. It's the little things, like key offensive rebounds, foul shots, key turnovers. This is one of those games where you're thinking the whole time, `we can pull it out, we can pull it out.' It's a little bit debilitating, but there is a lot of good stuff to pull out of this."
On Devon Collier's performance...
"He's one of our best low-post scorers. I always feel that if you can score in the low-post against a zone, it makes it hard to play a zone. It was nice to see him do well. I know he wishes we had won the game, so it takes a little bit away from his good feelings. It was nice to see him come back to making those chippies around the basket, because he had a couple of games there when it seemed like he had a lid on the basket. I really liked how he attacked the rim. Instead of just worrying about getting fouled, he just tried to dunk it. The other really nice thing for Devon that a lot of people don't notice, the reason he got a double-double, is that he is a very good rebounder out of his area. You'll notice that he'll be on one side of the zone or help-side, and the ball will come off way away from him, but he has a nose for where that ball is going to be and where to be to get that ball."
On what carried over from the game against Washington...
"Our big issue has been sustained effort. These are two games in a row where we had sustained effort. I don't think we didn't have sustained effort; we lost the game. Our effort was there the entire time. That carried over. Twelve turnovers for us is high, but the taking care of the ball carried over. I thought scoring in the paint carried over. What didn't carry over was rebounding. I thought our intensity on defense carried over. They made shots and we didn't. You want to win every single game you play, but this isn't a devastating loss, because you only played half the game."
Sophomore guard Jared Cunningham
On the offensive struggles ...
"We just missed too many free throws. The main thing that happened was free throws. The ball was just not going in for us when we were pushing it and stuff."
On why the team struggled from the line ...
"I don't know. It's just a mental thing. We just need to get up to the line, relax, and shoot. We shoot them every day in practice. I don't see why we are missing them in the games. We just need to focus in a little more and concentrate on the free throw."
On the thoughts of the 4-7 Pac-10 record ...
"We have to pick it up. I mean, we have the second half of basketball, and we are 1-1 in the second half. So we will go hard at the L.A. teams, go hard out there, and just focus on coming away with a couple of wins or split on the road."
On the reason for the slow starts ...
"I think that basically when they win the tip, they get the first basket and we get a little discouraged. But we can't go out and do that. We just have to come out and be ready to play and hit them first before they hit us. And we are going to continue with our confidence and keep it going. This is just another game that we just lost, so we have to put it out of our mind and go in hard this weekend and be prepared for the L.A. teams."
Freshman forward Devon Collier
On shutting down Klay Thompson ...
"I think we played good defensively. We were just cooking on defense. I think the thing that got us down was the slow start. And the slow start had us playing down the whole game. So it was hard for the team to catch up. I think that was a big issue. With Klay Thompson we denied him, and always saw where he was at, and just prevented him from taking shots. We just took it at him to get him into foul trouble."
On practices after the win over Washington ...
"It was nothing to do with practice. We just are going hard in practice. We couldn't transition it into the game. I think that was our downfall there."
On the frustrations of starting out slow in games ...
"Yeah, it is frustrating. We have to learn how to come out harder. We cannot just keep coming out slow because it will really hurt us in the long run. In the games we have come out hard from the start, we end up being successful. So I guess we need to start by doing that."
On getting better every game and recording a double-double ...
"I'm feeling more confident. I just wanted to help the team. I was just playing aggressive and playing hard. I can be a dominant post player. I'm just playing hard all of the time. I think I can pick it up there."
