Oregon State Post-Game Quotes

Dec. 16, 2012

Oregon State 87, Chicago State 77
December 16, 2012
Gill Coliseum
Corvallis, Ore.

Opening Comment...
"That was an interesting game. I am so happy we won that game. I don't think we played very well particularly in the first half and I'll take the blame for that. I've got to get our team more ready to play at the beginning of the game. I thought we were a little too careless and a little too lackadaisical at the beginning and a little too laissez-faire. I really liked that second half with the freshmen giving us some really good minutes and some good experience in there."

On Roberto Nelson tying his career high with 34 points...
"It was great that he was able to have a career day and we needed somebody to step up there. Roberto answered the challenge and I know at halftime I really got into the guys about being prepared and stepping up for each other when guys weren't playing well. Roberto came out in that second half and he was just tremendous, and we needed every single point."

On Nelson going 6-for-7 from beyond the arc...
"Our post play has been terrific which is making our inside out stuff easier for the guards. I think what he's doing is instead of trying to dictate the game; he's letting the game come to him. He's a terrific basketball player and the really good players just sort of react to whatever is going on out there, so I don't know if he is more relaxed or if he is just used to playing the way we are playing, but if I had to make a guess it would be that he's just letting the game come to him and he's not trying to force it. When he doesn't force it he gets so much more stuff."

On Chicago State's competitive play early in the first half...
"I thought Chicago State did a terrific job being ready to play a high major team. I thought we didn't do a good job preparing to be that high major team that's getting a team that's a mid-major and coming into town hungry. I think there were a few instances where we thought that this was going to be an easy game and we could show up half the time. Again, I am taking full blame for that but the physicality, I don't think that was it because actually we got them (Chicago State) in foul trouble. We were handling that okay, I just think mentally and emotionally we came out slow."

On Nelson's ability to score...
"I think he's a natural scorer, I will say that first and foremost. There isn't a whole lot you can teach him about scoring. All we try and do is put him in a better position to score and then we try and put him in a state of mind where he doesn't feel like every single time down he has to make something happen. Sometimes the best play is to pass it and cut through and then live to fight another day. I think he is starting to understand that and he is starting to accept it because he always understood it. He has a great basketball mind and he is starting to accept it.

On Devon Collier's play during the past few games...
"I really feel that Devon does better when he can see what kind of game is going on before he gets in, so I think coming off the bench is helping him. He may disagree but when you're as prolific in the low post as Devon is, if he's starting the game from the jump he is double-teamed or triple-teamed. If he is coming off the bench, there have been some other guys who have got going so he doesn't have to go right away. Then he can kind of wait to pick and choose his spots. So I think it has been easier for him to score coming off the bench."

On the play of his freshman against the Cougars...
"All of them did something positive. I was really happy that Jarmal (Reid) was able to get some real good minutes because we start him for defensive purposes and then once we get going it's hard for him to get back out on the court because we have so many guys that are putting the ball in the basket. He was able to get out there and show that he has a high basketball IQ and was playing a lot of minutes in some critical spots and taking the ball out for us, making some really good passes. I thought Langston Morris-Walker made some strides today and is a guy who is able to defend, he has just has to get used to making the right decisions on the offensive end. Olaf (Schaftenaar) is a kid you can put in and when he shoots the ball the way he shoots, he can get on the floor because of his offense. I want him to be able to stay out there because of his defense, so he has to work on that but it was good to be able to get him some minutes. Then there was Victor Robbins who I think has been the slowest to get time, but I think eventually might be the one to thrive the most. It was nice for him to get the amount of minutes that he did and do some positive things, and also have some time to mess up, come out and go back in. You don't get that kind of experience during the conference season, so to get some of that now before we get to the conference season is very important."

Junior guard Roberto Nelson

On if he knew whether or not he was approaching his career high of 34 points...
"I had no idea, I was just trying to go out there and convert on some of the free throws I was shooting and just try to do it on the read. The guys did a great job of penetrating and they had the help on them because we had a lot of threats when we were driving to the basket and I got some wide open shots there."

On Chicago State's play...
"That's a good team out there. You can't really take much away from that team because they came and played hard. We have to give them a lot of credit but we just have to come out from the start and be ready to play because there a lot of teams, especially teams like that, that want to make a name for themselves and beat a Pac-12 school. We have to come out and grind from the beginning because they are coming out to try and get a win."

On his solid play of late...
"It is really the bigs (forwards and centers). The bigs are doing a great job of getting buckets with ease and my guy is having to help out a lot on them and go down and double, so the three-point shots that I am getting are just wide open step into shots that are ones that I shoot when I am just going to the gym. Like I said, they (the bigs) are doing just an awesome job and we're doing a great job of getting them the ball. If the bigs and the guards are doing well then we're going to be good."

On how frustrated he was that he didn't make two more free throws to set a new career high for points in a game...
"It was extremely frustrating because I work on free throws every day and I made my free throws the last game and coach (Robinson) said that I made free throws, so now he is going to go back to practice and say that he can't say anything nice. Really, if I make those free throws the game could have been a lot different, so I just have to go back and focus on that."

Junior forward Devon Collier

On Chicago State's intensity...
"They came out to play because we played them last year and since now they have a better team, they came out to play a good Pac-12 team. Anytime a lower division team comes out to play a Pac-12 team they are going to come out hard and we came out slow, so that is what kept them in the game for the most part. Coach (Robinson) talked to us, got us together and we talked to each other, and we came out in the second half playing hard to extend the lead."

On whether his team was surprised by Chicago State's hard play...
"We weren't surprised because we expected them to. Coach (Robinson) told us they were going to come out playing hard. He always says that he used to coach schools like this, that play good, big major schools and come out hard to play, so we expected it but we just came out soft. We need to come out tougher every game after this."

On what turned the game around for the Beavers...
"We just picked up the intensity. We knew we had to play hard and had to get stops. We were scoring on offense, we just had to get the stops on defense and that's what we started doing."

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