Oregon State Post-Game Quotes
December 08, 2012 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 8, 2012
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Oregon State 85, Grambling State 54
December 8, 2012
Gill Coliseum
Corvallis, Ore.
Head coach Craig Robinson
Opening Comment...
"It is so hard, and you guys have heard me talk about this, to play the first game after exams. And it doesn't matter where you are. I've coached at Ivy League schools, Northwestern University, Oregon State, high school. Whenever guys have that week of exams, the next game is horrid. And we knew that going into this week of practice. We wanted to try to get the guys to focus on that. That's all we talked about is how poorly you play when you come out of exams, so I think the guys embraced that and tried their best to not have a hard game. I don't think they had their best game but they had a good game when you consider they were coming out of exams. I was really happy to see that and looking forward to building some momentum here. We've got a tough game on Wednesday against Portland State at their place so we've got to shore up some of the mistakes we had here. But I'm looking forward to seeing how this team bounces back from this performance."
On having strong perimeter play...
"I think that if we can shoot the ball that way - we shot 45 percent from three, and that's with one of our good three point shooters going 1-for-7 - if you shoot that well, nobody can play you in a zone and our low-post guys can really go to work. We were kind of looking for a shooting night like that from Roberto; it was good to see him have it. When you marry him and Ahmad together, that's one heck of a shooting backcourt. It's going to be hard for folks to guard us in a zone."
On reminding the team of last season's loss after finals week...
"I mentioned it constantly. I know it was a little bit of a different situation because there was a little of the Fred Thompson hangover. It's just that the time you can practice during exam time is so disjointed because you're not practicing at your regular time, you're trying to figure out when everybody can make it, guys are leaving for study groups and have papers to do, and so you're not all there. It's really fluid and there is no routine. It's just hard to play that way. We talked about losing to Idaho last year. We talked about having tough games against teams that we should beat and having the game be six or eight the whole time and winning by 12 and feeling like you lost. We hit ourselves right between the eyes with it and talked about it all week long to prevent that from happening."
On the fast start...
"It was good to have that start, but what was better was our intensity coming out ready to play. When we've had a start like that in the past, you get out to a 12-0 or 12-3 lead, the next thing you know it's 12-11 or 14-11. And that can be demoralizing, so we wanted to prevent that. I thought our defense was terrific. I thought we pressured them. We came out ready to play and our offense fed off our defense."
On Roberto Nelson's offensive performance...
"The technical aspect of Roberto's shot isn't what I was worried about. Roberto's offense wasn't what I was worried about. I think he was better on offense because he spent this week working on his defense. He stopped worrying about his offense and tried to become a better defender. That's number one. Number two, I know that he is in the best position that he's ever been academically since he's been here. He's on track to getting possible all A's and B's for the first time in a long time. I don't know what his grammar school record was. And I've always maintained that when you've got your schoolwork in order, you play better. He had a great week of practice and he was focused on his defense."
On Eric Moreland finishing around the basket...
"I think what you're seeing with Eric is that he is so focused on rebounding the basketball that he is not as focused on finishing right around the basket. The way you fix that is with the more opportunities he gets. I don't want to mess with him because he's a rebounding machine right now. He's extremely passionate about doing that well, so when he can get 14 points and 13 rebounds in 22 minutes, that's pretty darn good. He was 5-for-8 from the field and those three that he missed were probably pretty close situations and ones that he could have made to go 8-for-8. But I want to be encouraging with this team and especially Eric because his maturity level is so different from past years. He doesn't need me to get on him a lot to play hard. Watching him turn a 6-foot point guard back-and-forth in the backcourt makes my knees weak. I just don't think he's as confident (in finishing around the basket) as he is in everything else."
On what he wants to see from the freshmen...
"I'm looking for a couple things, and we did a very good job of it. They didn't turn the ball over and they were trying to execute our offense. I don't mind when the shots don't go in and the foul shots get missed. That's just nerves and freshmen being freshmen. But watching them defend, watching them not turn the ball over and watching them play hard gives me some confidence. If we can go through the rest of these non-conference games with them getting a significant amount of minutes, they're going to be ready to help us in the conference."
On the team's progression from the start of practice to the present...
"The initial thing that comes to mind is how confident they are. They've always been a good team playing together, but they're extremely confident in their abilities to defend from a man-to-man point of view. Last year was really our first year of playing all man-to-man and there were some insecurity there because they hadn't done it much. But this year, with our European trip, last year's experience and the preseason practice, they're really confident that they can stay in front of their men and guard their men effectively as a team. The other thing, I go back to that word again, is maturity. They're making decisions on the court that were sort of 50-50 right and wrong last year. They're more like 80-20 right and wrong this year."
On Angus Brandt's surgery...
"The doctors said everything went well. There's no extra damage so he will icing and rehabbing right away and we figure the average time for an ACL is six months. Some people take three and some take nine. I think with his work ethic and the conditioning he had prior to his injury, we're looking at six months. And that only takes us to June or July and that gives us another two or three months until we have to start working out. It's disappointing we don't have him and Daniel Gomis, but it's nice to see our guys stepping up in their absence."
Junior guard Roberto Nelson
On the game today...
"The whole team was just getting a lot of shots. No shot we had in the game was a shot that we haven't taken before. We tried to get as many reps this week as possible so that in the game it was just like practice."
On his three point shooting...
"I've been kind of hesitant to shoot the three because it hasn't been falling, and guys like Ahmad and Eric have been getting on me to maintain my confidence and try to make every shot go in."
On playing to the opponent's intensity...
"I try to approach every game like it's my last. I have watched a lot of film throughout this whole year and I haven't really been catching the ball right and have just been a little bit off balance with my shots. I've just been trying to go to the gym and fix everything."
On the team's progression in the last year...
"I just think everybody's hungry. Everybody is approaching the season with the same goals. I don't think anybody is going off track with that. We're just working extremely hard in games and in practice to make sure we are achieving the goals we set for ourselves."
On the finals week loss last season...
"We didn't bring it up, but the coaches hinted about it once or twice throughout the course of the week just to make sure we get this win and there's no setback with our plans."
Junior guard Ahmad Starks
On having another big night...
"The shots have just been coming pretty easily. I was just able to knock them down. So we all want to keep that going."
On Roberto being an offensive threat...
"It makes it a lot easier since they have to focus on him a little more. Roberto's a good passer so he knows to not force anything and it opens it up for myself and everybody else."
On goals going into the game...
"Coming into the game, we wanted to go down low to take advantage of the size factor. But Roberto got hot pretty early and it was easy for him to keep it going. Then we started going to the get down low plan."
