Oregon State Post-Game Quotes
March 14, 2012 | Men's Basketball
March 14, 2012
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Oregon State 80, Western Illinois 59
2012 CBI presented by ZEBRA PEN - FIRST ROUND
March 14, 2012
Gill Coliseum
Corvallis, Ore.
Head coach Craig Robinson
Opening Comment...
"It is very hard to play a team like that when you jump out to a lead the way we did. I was worried our guys would take this game lightly and we jumped out on them just like I wanted to. And then it looked like we got, I don't want to use the term bored, but it looked like we sort of got content with letting them hang around. And then to watch them refocus in the second half and come out and play as hard as they did on defense really showed some progress for our program and it is nice for those guys in that locker room to be able to keep playing and at a high level. Everybody on the team contributed and it just really feels good to keep playing with this group. I told them before the game I couldn't be more excited about playing a postseason game with this group, because they are so fun to coach and such hard workers."
On the tempo of the game...
"It was interesting because we were prepared for these guys to play deliberately. We thought that if we could just get a few baskets in transition off our defense then we can speed the game up a little bit and make them take shots quicker. Because once you are behind, you have to start taking some shots and that is exactly what happened. We got out to a big lead right at the beginning, so that forced the tempo of the game to be in our favor. I really think if you had asked me before the game if we would score 80 points I would have said `no.' I would have thought we would've won the game having 65, 68 points."
On having 20 wins this season...
"It hasn't sunk in yet because we are just so focused on one game at a time. It's really a cool milestone and something that this team and program should really be proud of. Twenty wins is a milestone no matter where you are, but in a place that hasn't done it since 1989-90, that is really something special. I am happy for Beaver Nation that they are excited about it, I am happy for the OSU community, I'm happy for the team, and I am really happy for my staff. Those guys put in a lot of time and work for us to get to 20 wins. It's an important milestone."
On what he told the team at halftime...
"What I told them at halftime was that I wanted them to change their mindset on defense without having to give them a Knute Rockne speech. I didn't word it that way, but it was a little more colorful the way I worded it. I didn't want them to play better because I was upset. We are past that. They know exactly what they needed to do. I think I was probably about this calm when I said it. I said `this is the kind of game where you show yourselves your progress; you go out there and shut them down and not let them think they can be back in the game.' And they went out and did that. I was really pleased with that because I treated them like adults and they responded like adults."
On if WIU head coach Jim Molinari threw any surprises at the Beavers today...
"It was pretty straight forward. I know that they like to play deliberately, so they want the tempo to be a slower game. I also know that they are a great man-to-man defending team; they led their conference in team defense. We knew they were going to play man-to-man. I thought for awhile there when they got in foul trouble they might switch to zone, but they were consistent as they were all year and they did not switch to zone defense. My fellow Mount Carmel grad, Don McAvoy, was the guy who ended up killing us. He was a little bit of a surprise for us because we hadn't seen him play and wasn't in the stats very much."
On the Pac-12 Tournament helping the team going into the CBI...
"Originally, I didn't know if it was going to be a help or a hindrance since the guys were so down after that Arizona game, because by that time they were thinking they were going to win the Pac-12 Championship, which is the right way to feel. But then, after once we got a few days past it and realized that we can still keep playing, I think the excitement of potentially winning 20 games, potentially playing longer and the excitement of the competition in the Zebra Pen CBI Tournament got them back up again. By half you saw the start that you had. You are watching the other tournaments and you see the early games and how some teams aren't quite into it. I was really pleased with the way we came ready to play."
On scoring down low being a focus going into the game...
"We thought we had the height advantage, we thought that we could exploit that so we wanted to go down low. Then I looked up at half time and neither Eric nor Devon had a shot. Not just in the paint but a shot period and I am wondering to myself how the heck did that happen. But Angus and Joe sort of picked up the slack and then we had Jared getting to the basket. That was a focus of ours before the game."
On Western Illinois being prepared to play Oregon State...
"What I think it is, especially in this day of age with Internet capabilities, we can all see everybody's games. There are really no more secrets. I can tell they knew a lot about what we did. Another thing to remember coach Molinari was good friends with coach Carmody and when I was at Northwestern, and he was in between jobs, he would come to our practices and see what we do. He knew the stuff we were running. I think our guys came the way we did because we wanted to win that game. Our guys really wanted to win the game and we kept trying to remind them that it is teams like this when these kinds of games are very meaningful to them. If you give them any glimmer of hope, they feel like they can stay in the game and the next thing you know you are in an eight point game and they hit a couple of three's and you are in trouble. Again, I was very pleased with the mature nature of how we handled this game."
On what they can take from this game and improve on...
"You never want to have a big lead and give it up. But this day in age, we like playing fast so guys are going to get runs and you're going to lose your man here and there. I would want to not have runs go for more than six points when you have a little bit of the lead, so we can stem the tide a bit on our own without me calling timeouts. I kind of let them do that. The other thing is you can't get careless when you're winning a game and have more turnovers than you need to have. Any game that is close and you have 23 turnovers, that's going to cost you the game. It's rare that you have 23 turnovers and you win by 20."
On the possibility of his team getting disinterested a little bit...
"It is learned behavior. You have to count this game as one that you stepped on their throat though. It would be different if we ended up winning by eight, but we regrouped and decided `okay, let's just put them away' and we did. We're getting better at it, but it is something that you have to learn. You have to be really disciplined and confident at the same time to make it work."
On looking ahead to playing TCU...
"Very good team. TCU, very good team. They are in a conference with UNLV and San Diego State, both of which are NCAA teams. Both of which are or have been ranked this season, and they beat both of them. This is a very good team that we are going to match up against. They are extremely athletic; they're bigger than this team we just played. They are more like a BCS-type team."
Junior guard Jared Cunningham
On becoming disinterested after the big lead...
"I don't think so. I think we just tried to make spectacular plays that weren't there. We did a great job in the second half of keeping the lead and extending it."
On any letdown of playing in the CBI...
"Once we were told that we could come back out on the floor and play basketball, we went at it hard. Everyone's mindset is to win it, and I thought we did a great job of coming out hard today. We kept it going in the second half and that really helped us."
On setting the tempo...
"Starting off early on we got into their guards and played tough defense in the full court. We caused some steals and got easy baskets and it got us going. Once we get a couple dunks and steals, it gives us momentum and we get moving."
On Western Illinois making a comeback...
"We had to refocus. A couple of their shooters got open and knocked down some shots, so we had to come down and make our shots and play great defense."
On the game being like playing a non-conference opponent...
"We haven't played a team like this since the non-conference games. Most of the teams in our league like to run the ball and play at a fast pace, but today they slowed the ball down and played every possession. It was different, but we were successful on defense and we locked down and played hard."
On carrying momentum from the Pac-12 Tournament run...
"We are a young and great team and everyone wants to play. We have to stay excited as we go on to our next game against TCU, which will be a tough one. We know that when we play on our home court we can be very successful. We will have to play hard and come out ready."
On the 20-win season...
"It is a great achievement. I don't think I was even born the last time that happened. It is great that we can get 20 wins, and we have to keep on pushing from here. There may be a lot more games left and we can get close to 25 wins, which would be a great outcome for this season."
Sophomore guard Ahmad Starks
On the emotions of the game and the second half...
"It's like the same thing that happened in the Pac-12 Tournament. We would be solid at first and then they would come back and make a run. In the second half we just wanted to kind of limit that; limit their run, because that hurt us in the tournament. We were able to do that tonight and if we keep doing that, we'll be in great shape."
On the CBI Tournament and desire to win it all...
"Of course, we want to go far. We're playing in it so we want to win it all and we don't want to get out early. We want to make a run just like we did in the Pac-12 Tournament."
On facing a team outside the Pac-12 for the first time since the non-conference...
"It's a little different. Most of the teams in the league play similar styles, but this team was running through their sets, slowing up the pace, and trying things like that. We just had to stay on our `P's and Q's' and not have mental lapses on defense with them slowing the pace down. But yeah, it was a totally different feel."
On facing a team from his home state of Illinois...
"It was fun. I played with Don McAvoy and he had a pretty good game tonight. I played with him a little bit in AAU and Ceola Clark, he played with Jeffrey Jordan (son of Michael Jordan) on his AAU team. So I know those guys from a while back and it was fun going against them. But it was business on the court and we had to get the win."
