Oregon State Post-Game Quotes
December 19, 2012 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 19, 2012
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Oregon State 69, Howard 53
December 19, 2012
Gill Coliseum
Corvallis, Ore.
Head coach Craig Robinson
Opening Comment...
"I have to start by giving kudos to Coach Nickelberry for using a different kind of strategy that we haven't seen and I thought they executed it really well. I was absolutely pleased with the way our guys kind of were taken aback and had to figure it out on the fly and on their own. Howard played some great sagging defense but closed out on our outside shooters and that caused us some problems. Our guys had to work for it and they did and it was really nice to see. While they were working through it, they (Howard) held us to under 40-percent shooting. It was nice to see us make our foul shots because it's always good in a game like this where you have to kind of grind it out, so while it wasn't the prettiest win, it felt like one of those kind of wins where you can see your team making some progress on their own without their help."
On his decision to start Devon Collier...
"This game he looked better as a sixth man than he did as a starter if you look at it that way. But it was time to make a change just to see and to do a comparison. I thought we got out to a fast start which is what I was looking for and then there was a little lull there that I'll have to look closely at the tape but I'm sure it's because they (Howard) changed their defense and were playing that sort of sagging defense. I initially did it because I thought the last game gave me an opportunity to see some things and we got off to those two slow starts, so I thought this would help us get off to a faster start."
On Eric Moreland's performance...
"He has been playing just so consistently and if we can count on his play in conference to be like this, then we're going to go into all of our games extremely confident. He's a player that you cannot practice him because he is long enough to guard a front court player and is smart enough and quick enough to guard a backcourt player and he's a rebounding machine. His rebounding per minute has got to be extraordinary, so we are really happy for him. Funny enough he had the double-double but I think the defense affected him the most. They were sagging off of him and he was trying to figure out what to do and there were times when he was just standing around. Once he started cutting, he started getting some easy baskets."
On Roberto Nelson's career-high seven assists...
"Tonight he passed up a lot of shots that he could have taken, but that's Roberto for you. I am sure he is the only guy in the country who feels guilty about getting 30-something in the game before and I mean that in a good way. He's such a conscientious teammate that he was thinking the way they (Howard) were guarding our guards, which was sort of denying our guards and leaving the front court guys open, that he was going to help those guys get going. I thought he passed up some shots but it's always nice when one of your most prolific scorers doesn't mind not scoring as much and helping others out."
On Ahmad Starks' play vs. Howard...
"I thought that his first three that went in was the loudest the applause were all night long. I think everybody breathed a sigh of relief when he made that one. And then when he came back and made the other two, it was a good feeling, especially the one where he sort of just sized it up at the three and had a bigger guy on him and he was backing up, so he pulled up. That is the Ahmad that we know and we need that especially in a defense that they were playing. You have got to make a couple of shots to make them have to come out and guard you, so that there is not as much sagging."
On his team's progress...
"I think the most progress is coming from the young guys. You look at Jarmal Reid and you look at that line; that does not look like the line of a freshman. He guarded their best player and he got a goose egg, so that was really nice to see. Langston Morris-Walker is also a guy who is going to help us on defense. He did a tremendous job on his guy when he was in there. The guy he was guarding hit a couple of shots before he got in there and when he (Morris-Walker) got in there he didn't even take a shot, so that's good for us. Then I see Olaf Schaftenaar getting more physical in there and he got one rebound and one block that I saw. Even though he didn't make his shots, he is confident enough to take them. We are trying to get Victor Robbins up to speed as well so that we can use his athleticism, but the veteran guys are in a good position and really feel like they haven't played their best game as a team yet, which is good to be 8-2. We haven't had one where every player is playing on all cylinders, so that makes me very confident because we are about due for a game like that."
On the excitement to start Pac-12 play...
"Part of our sluggishness at the start of games is that we are ready to play for some marbles. That is my opinion and I would be ready to start playing Pac-12 right now but I like having three more games where we can try some different things and I can try a couple different line-ups if I want and see how that works out."
On what he wants to see from his team the last three games of non-conference play...
"These three games I want to get out to a fast start and not have a lull, I want to cut down on our turnovers and I want to make sure this foul shooting tonight wasn't an aberration and that we can do that consistently. Then I like how when we are coming out of certain timeouts and we are going for two and three stops in a row. We have been able to do that and I want to continue to do that and be able to do that against a number five ranked Arizona team or the number 25 ranked Oregon team.
On Jarmal Reid's play of late...
"He is now picking and choosing times to be aggressive and I feel like he has not made a mistake offensively. He hasn't tried to do something he can't do. Any of his mistakes have been aggressive on defense. Offensively he knows that discretion is the better part of valor and then to see him make a few foul shots tonight was big. He was three for three from the foul line and is not our best foul shooter, so that is all about maturation, focus and confidence."
