Post-Game Quotes
December 15, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 15, 2007
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Head Coach Lorenzo Romar:
General Statement:
"I want to give Portland a lot of credit; they executed what they wanted to do to the team today. They did a very, very nice job; they should be applauded for that. I want to commend our guys, this is a game where early, you could see offensively it was as if our legs were dead for whatever reason, we couldn't get a rhythm, and our cadence was off offensively. They hung with us and we continued to grind and continued to fight. In the second half we shot 73% they shot 32% and we battled through something that's going to happen to us more times this year. We kept fighting through and were able to get it done. Our guys did a nice job with that today."On the offense: "Today was uncharacteristic of us; we just couldn't get an offensive focal today. Up to this point we've played some pretty good teams, Texas A&M, Syracuse and we've been able to a have a decent offensive flow, but tonight in the first half we couldn't get that going."
On the lack of first half assists:
"Partly we weren't running good offense, partly we shot terrible, we weren't making outside shots when guys were penetrating, we were taking a lot of quick shots where you dribble and shoot and it doesn't provide the opportunity for an assist there."On defense: "We have been doing a lot of defensive practice and I thought we played a lot better on defense this game. I think we held them to 32% shooting in the 2nd half, we did a good job, we made them run other stuff besides their normal sets."
Portland Head Coach Eric Reveno:
General Comments:
"This is a tough place to play. Despite their recent losses they are a tough team. They had a very impressive winning streak here before that, a great student section and a very athletic team that is well coached. So given that context I am pleased with how our team played. We put ourselves in a position where we had a chance to win late and it came down to a few plays. I am most pleased with our rebounding. Washington is a very good rebounding team and we emphasized that. I'm also pleased with our turnovers and how we took care of the ball in the second half. We turn it over a lot as a general rule and Washington forces teams to do that so I felt like we needed to keep it to 15. We had 17 and that's below our average.On the turnovers: "We can't duplicate what Washington gives us in practice so in the first half there was a little bit of an adjustment and our point guard threw a couple of lazy passes. We turned it over the first two possessions of the second half, but then we scored so that was something positive. I called timeout and I challenged them. I said, `are guys afraid of winning here.' They weren't, but they were hesitant again. And Washington did come out in the second half and pick it up."
On the first two minutes of the second half: "Washington gets you in spurts like that. The have these two minute stretches where it is a turnover and a dunk at the other end, then a turnover and a transition bucket. That kind of stuff can get you."
On Ryan Appleby getting hot: "With a guy like that you know he is going to step it up, so it is a matter of when. It's going to happen so you just worry about the next one and try to stay with him. Then when he catches it if you make a defensive mistake he makes you pay. You have zero margin for error against a shooter like him."
On holding Jon Brockman to 11 points: "We did a nice job. We faced a pretty good guy against Portland State that [Washington] will see next week. The emphasis was a team concept. Guys like him and Appleby and players like that when left alone you can't really guard and if you leave him to post up he can score 50 on most post players in the country. We worked on faking and fading and getting hands in the passing lane. We he does go by you he does it so quickly that you can't help so then I said to double him. When the game was on the line he was going to go [double team]."
On Nik Raivio: "Nik is tough. He's starting to understand our offense and we are understanding how to use him in the offense. With a week to prepare for Washington and moving guys around a little bit they executed and made some plays."
