Nov. 15, 2010

Recap |  Final Stats

Head Coach John Groce

Opening statement

They (Oakland) had tremendous toughness. Overall I thought they were the better basketball team tonight. That hasn't happened very many times in three years in our building but my hat is off to them. They came in and they were ready to play. I thought they showed great toughness--mental and physical. We didn't play really well, but I think they certainly had something to do with it. I'm not trying to take away from them and pin that all on our poor play.

We're going to use this as a learning tool. We'll take a look at the film tomorrow. They're a good basketball team that's going to win a lot of games. I knew we were going to find a lot out about our team tonight. In some respects, I don't like what I saw, but sometimes, especially with a young basketball team, you have to take a step or two backwards and get hit in the mouth to get guys' attention. Hopefully with our captains and our older players we'll be able to do that.

On an uncharacteristic evening of play

We didn't shoot free throws very well tonight. We've shot them very well in my time here and I fully expect us to get better here and make those.

We're trying to control the things that we can control, and tonight I just don't think we did a very good job of that. We got a little over anxious at times and just didn't stay with what we were trying to do from a game plan perspective. I thought they set the rules in the game. My hats off to them; they played a lot tougher than we did tonight.

On the interior play this evening

I was disappointed in that because I thought we had made a step in the right direction there. I thought early on--and obviously (Keith) Benson is a terrific player--we gave him too much respect early. We started out shooting jump shot after jump shot and I thought he put us in a situation where we needed to be a little bit more aggressive than we were.

Tommy Freeman

On the slow start offensively

We started out 6-6 and from there on they went on a 14-0 run without us really responding. I think we got a little anxious and started pressing too much, making some uncharacteristic plays. I just think that once they hit us in the mouth we didn't respond very well to that, in the first half, especially.

DeVaughn Washington

On being anxious to play

I wouldn't say I was anxious, but I was ready to play. I wanted to get back out there.

On the tempo of the game

It did seem like an up-and-down game. I think that was due to both sides trying to run. We turned the ball over some, which kind of brought us down some times. They came back running at us, so I think that was a factor with the tempo.

Oakland Head Coach Greg Kampe

On overall play and victory
I'm very pleased with this. It showed our overall depth, experience, and ability to defend. It showed we are a veteran team and we can do a lot of different things. This is an outstanding win for us. I don't know how many games this team (Ohio) is going to lose, especially in this building this year. We feel really good.

On rebounding after loss in opener
We have a gauntlet in front of us so we have to compete. In our mind this was a huge game. We know who Ohio is and what they've done. We had a total effort from all nine players.

Oakland Guard Reggie Hamilton (Cousin of Ohio Guard D.J. Cooper)

On game plan to defend Cooper
We know he runs the show. We wanted to take him out of his element a little. He still hurt us on a few plays, being the good player that he is but overall we did a good job of containing him.

On scoring without Keith Benson on the floor
We have the depth to do it. We have great players but it's still early in the season. We had a couple mishaps but all in all we came together and got the win.