Jan. 12, 2012
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery
Opening statement:
"I thought there were a couple keys that went against us this evening. First, our defense at the beginning of the game put us in the hole, and obviously they were shooting the ball very well. Then I thought there were key spots and possessions in the second half on both ends of the floor where we let fatigue get the best of us. E.J. Singler's second shot dunk really stands out in my mind and I thought some of our late turnovers were a result of us giving into fatigue. Defensively, I don't think we were at our best throughout the game, which is indicative of the fact that they shot 53 percent and we only forced eight turnovers. On the other end, once again, our field goal percentage, and our adjusted field goal percentage, when you weight the three, is extremely positive. (That is) only to be mitigated by the fact that we continued to turn the basketball over. Our 16 turnovers are amplified by the fact that we're not forcing them. The differential is the margin of difference for us and that's no different than it has been for the majority of the season. Taking away some positives I thought, once again, Trent (Lockett) was terrific. We're just asking him to do everything--run the team, score, defend, and never come out of the game. I thought Ruslan (Pateev) made a couple of really nice plays and had a good line tonight with nine points, six rebounds, three for four from the line. He's over 86 percent from the line this season. (He had) three assists and no turnovers. That was a real positive."
On Kyle Cain's return from suspension:
"We're glad to have him back. I thought he gave us some good minutes tonight and made a couple low post moves in the first half down there on the right block."
On failing to get to ball down low in the second half:
"We only took 17 shots in the second half, and we made seven of them. When you take away our turnovers, we're not dealing with a lot of opportunities. We're playing possession basketball and the turnovers almost screech so loudly that it's difficult to hear a lot of other things. Of those 17 shots, there were a few on the last couple possessions that we told our guys based on the time and score that there wasn't time to take two's, but we had to take three's. I'm encouraged with Ruslan's improvement. I think over the course of the last handful of games, he has really showed marked improvement. But we're also trying to get the ball inside to some of our guards. Trent had a nice post up late in the second half. We're getting the ball not just into our posts but also into our guards. We ran an action twice to get the ball inside late. One time we missed two open men, and the other time we got it in and had the ball deflected off of us for a turnover. When guys are open inside, we have to make sure we capitalize at a higher percentage."
On the failure to create turnovers for the opposing team:
"I don't think we're terrifically active right now. We only had ten deflections at the half, six in the second half--a grand total of 16. We need double that. We need 32 deflections. If we have 32 deflections we're going to be in a much better position. Oregon has veteran senior guards. They're not going to help you with that. You're going to have to make some plays. We have to be much more active on defense without sacrificing our positioning."
On Jonathan Lloyd covering Trent Lockett:
"I don't think that necessarily worked to our disadvantage. I think Trent got a number of opportunities on the offensive end of the floor. Down on the other hand, Trent isn't matched up with him per say anyway, so I don't see that being something that worked to our disadvantage at all."
OREGON COACH DANA ALTMAN
On winning a conference game on the road
“Any win right now for every body is good. The margin for error right now goes down because everybody knows each other. It was a good second half and now we just got a quick turn around.”
On the team’s composure
“It’s a group that hasn’t been together very long and I’m really pleased with the way we did that. We really made some plays for each other to get us right back in.”
On their defense and offense
“Defensively the first half we weren’t very good. We made a lot of mistakes. I thought the second half we did a much better job. The field goal percentage went from fifty-eight to forty-one and thirty-five points to twenty-three points so we just did a better job. Offensively, we had seventeen assists on twenty-five baskets, which is a very good stat. We had seventeen assists, eight turnovers and points off turnovers twenty-one and two. So we had a lot of impressive stats that we needed. If we would have rebounded a little better I would have been really pleased.”