Dec. 17, 2014
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CINCINNATI -
San Diego State Postgame Quotes
San Diego State coach Steve Fisher
On forcing overtime after struggling:
"We've got kids that compete and the theme was compete, compete to win, do what's required and we didn't do quite enough. If it doesn't hurt to the point where you say `I have to get better, I have to take what I did positively' and grow that and take what I did whether it be a turnover, a missed shot, a missed box out, and say `I'm not going to let that happen. I'm going to eliminate one or two things on the negative in my game.' And if you do that it will be better off as we move forward with our schedule. But this was a game that we could have won. We played a good team. They're well coached. They're tough. They're long. They make you pay when you give them angles and they made some big plays tonight. We did enough good things to win the game but we didn't win the game."
On Cincinnati in overtime:
"Yeah, we turned the ball over eight out of our last 14 possessions in the first half in a game that we could of, but we weren't. We were ahead by five or six but were down two (at half). And then we came out at the start of the second half and played good basketball, got deflections, turnovers, took the lead. And then to their credit they made some plays. They made some plays when it looked like we may be able to stretch from five to seven and I think we missed a couple free throws in that run. They had to be able to make important plays and they made more than we did."
On Angelo Chol's health:
"I think he's OK. That knee, Tom (Abdenour) calls it `jumper's knee,' he landed on it when he went in and dunked. I think he's OK."
On biggest disappointment:
"We played a team that turns you over but you can't have one turnover effect in a fashion where it leads to another turnover or you become tentative as to how you guard. I thought it did a little bit. Our turnovers came in flurries and they made us pay for them."
On Cincinnati's defense causing the Aztec fits:
"We knew that they were good defensively. We knew that they present problems not just full court but also when you cross midcourt with knocking balls away. This is a well-coached, tough minded basketball team that is long and athletic like we are, and they make you pay. If you look at stats, we had 16 offensive rebounds, and they had 11. I think the difference is they got theirs back and made the basket. We had 16, but we didn't get enough of them back in the hoop for points."
San Diego State junior forward Winston Shepard
On rally in regulation:
"To be honest, I'm lost for words. I just knew going into the overtime that we would pull it out. I thought we played a decent game. I mean these guys were hitting some unbelievable shots. We watched them on film I would have never thought they would have made some of those shots. But we've got to get better on defense. Defense is our staple and we've got to get much better. A lot of people talk about our offense, but we've got to get better on the other end of the floor."
On 11 first-half turnovers:
"That's the way Cincinnati wins. We watched about three or four of their games. We watched the Nebraska game. They might have been down 10 or 12 points in the first half and next thing you know, Nebraska had 12 first-half turnovers and it's a tie game going into halftime. You can't turn the ball over that many times and expect to win. I have to be much better not turning the ball over. We've just got to get better, myself included."
On biggest disappointment on defense:
"Defensive rebounding first and foremost. I think we took Josh Davis for granted. He cleaned that end of the floor up. I have to, myself, get more defensive rebounds. I would think J.J. (O'Brien) has to get more defensive rebounds, (Dwayne) Polee has to get more defensive rebounds. We can talk about as good as a defensive team as we want to be but Coach always talks about defensive rebounds, `That finishes the possession.' We can play 35 seconds of good defense and give up offensive rebounds and it won't matter."
On last 30 seconds of regulation:
"We fought hard. I wouldn't have expected us to have done anything else. But we have to put ourselves in better position so we don't have to fight back like that."
San Diego State senior forward J.J. O'Brien
On overtime:
"They just got a couple of easy looks early. The first play of overtime they called a foul on me. I felt like it was a good play but they called the foul so they got that and they got the easy 3. They just started off faster than us and we couldn't recover."
On poor 3-point shooting:
"That's something that hinders us but we can't use that as an excuse. We've won games before without hitting (3-pointers) and hitting shots so that hindered us but it's not an excuse for why we lost."
On hardest part of the loss:
"It's just the fact we lost. We started off in the first 10 minutes and we were playing great and kind of got away from it. We turned the ball over, missed shots and didn't get stops on defense. The things we were supposed to do, get stops and do those types of things, we didn't do them. That's the hardest part."
On turnovers or defense a bigger disappointment in second half:
"I don't know. It's bad to turn the ball over. It's bad not to play defense."
On losing in overtime:
"I don't know if I've lost in overtime, either. That might be my first. We're usually tough in those and we usually pull those out. But they started off hot and we couldn't recover. It's a learning experience. We'll learn from this. We'll get better from this. The season's not over and we're going to be just fine."
Cincinnati Associate Head Coach Larry Davis Quotes
(UC head coach Mick Cronin was under the weather and unable to attend)
On getting a big win against San Diego State after falling to Nebraska in the last game:
"Well, psychologically, it is a huge win for your guys because they grew up a lot in the Nebraska game in that they showed some great toughness. It was a back-and-forth game, a double overtime game and we didn't always play the smartest down the stretch in that game. So, to come back in this game and to win this kind of a game is huge for us. From an RPI standpoint, obviously, they are a top-20 team and more than likely they are going to go win their conference. NCAA tournament-wise, this was a big win for us."
On what the coaching staff told the players after the loss at Nebraska:
After the game, again, we grew up in that we showed some toughness. We showed some real toughness. But we have to play smart. On the road against a high-level team, it's not good enough to play hard and be tough. You have to be smart, you have to execute, you have to stay with the defensive game plan, you have to know the personnel and you cannot make mistakes. At Nebraska, we played plenty hard enough and plenty tough enough, but we didn't always play smart down the stretch and we did some things that cost us the game. Tonight, we grew up a little bit from that. We still had 15 turnovers which is too many, and we have work to do, but we were much better from playing a little smarter tonight."
On building confidence offensively:
"What do they say? They say `winning begets winning and making shots begets making more shots.' If I were a player, I would love to play for Coach Cronin. He always tells our guys, `don't worry about missed shots. If it is a good shot for you and an open shot, then I want you to take it.' He doesn't care if it's one pass, three passes, whatever. Now obviously, time and score are relevant at the end of the game. He tries to give those guys confidence. There is nothing like being in the game and seeing the ball go in to carry over for the next game. You swell up a little and you think `ok, I am going to make the next one.' As you know, teams get on a roll and they get confident, and all of the sudden, you feel like you can beat everybody and you feel like the shot is going to go in."
On the team fighting back in overtime:
"If you are soft and you have no mental toughness then you are sitting there worried about if the official missed a call or it's a bad call, and you are worried about that, then you don't defend, you don't execute and you don't do what you are supposed to do to win the game. That doesn't matter - it's over. It is tied now, we are going to overtime, let's go win the game."
On the play of Octavius Ellis:
Tonight, our game plan was not to get out and really pressure anybody, except No. 10 (Aqeel Quinn), the one real shooter they have, and try to be in the paint. But in general, when you have a guy back there who is going to protect the rim, it gives your other guys confidence in getting up and pressuring the ball some. It is nice to have a guy back there when you make mistakes that he can erase them for you. He is a kid that can be an elite defender because of his second jump ability and because of his timing and his length. He can be one of the elite defenders in the country and we need him to be. We need him to be an elite rebounder and an elite defender. When he plays like that, our defense is really, really good. He makes up for some mistakes that happen and we have to keep him playing at that high level. Tonight, he played more at that level than over the last several games. Even in the Nebraska game, we didn't feel like he played up to the level - part of that was foul trouble in the first half - but he hasn't played up to the level that he really is. He has to do that."
On Gary Clark:
"Gary is a guy, we feel like, even at the age he is right now, that we can throw him the ball and he can get fouled and he can get points. Against Nebraska, he missed some point-blank shots, but he came back tonight and make some tough shots - and made a huge shot when there were six seconds on the shot clock underneath on an inbounds play to put us up five and ultimately saved us to get us into overtime because (SDSU) made some shots. But having him in there, a guy who can score in the box, we haven't had that in there in a while. That helps your perimeter guys have one more step to be open to shoot. When Farad Cobb makes shots, that helps Gary have one more step to be able to score on people and not collapse, they work for each other. Having him with the ability to score in there is huge. With his continued development, if we can get him in double figures every night and he can be the guy to score in the box for us, that not only gets us points, but it opens up the floor for our shooters to have a bit more room and a bit more space because they are going to have to double-him some, they are going to have to collapse on him some."
Cincinnati Player Quotes
Troy Caupain
On what the last few days has been like since the loss to Nebraska:
"It has been good. Practices have been the same but we touched up on little things like what to do late in the game how to handle certain situations when it comes to that predicament. But it's been fun we have been growing everyday together on and off the court and I think it is helping us get better on the court."
On how much tonight's win helped:
"Big time as a team, that's how you stay in the game. We had the lead but they forced overtime. We could have folded, I could have folded individually after missed the free throws. But my teammates were behind me. We had Farad (Cobb) helping us out big time with the big-time buckets which helped us stay in the game together. Our teammates stayed with us, the crowd stayed with us, and it was a good night in Cincinnati."
On how big of a difference it is to have a home crowd as loud as they were:
"It's huge. It kind of gets you going when the game isn't going your way. They give you a lot of intensity. The crowd actually makes you want them to get louder. It makes me want to make a big bucket or a big-time deflections or block that gets them going and, not just you personally, but the whole team going."
On if they were able to use anything in the second half that they learned about them in the first half:
"Yeah Coach had a big time coaching game, they were icing outside picks and the top picks and denying all handouts and it was hard to figure things out. Then he drew something up on the board and we executed well and that kind of got us going and when we executed the new play and it gave us something new to look at instead of the plays that they scouted."
On if he has done anything different in practice since he has been putting on a scoring output:
"No, I'm just letting the game come to me. Whenever I get open I look to attack, I look to dish, I look to do all of that. I wouldn't say it's anything different it's just how the play is arranged and how the game is going."
On if it means a lot to get to 71 points against a quality defensive team like San Diego State:
"We showed that we do have offense, that we do know how to execute, we do know how to get things done and put the ball in the basket. San Diego State is a very good team. Their front five, after their point guard, are 6-foot-7 and if you can score on them, you can score on anybody. I think it helped us out as a team that we can score on anybody now. We don't have to lack confidence when it comes to scoring and move on from there."
Farad Cobb
On the three that gave them a lead from a tied game with two minutes left and if the game felt better off starting at that point:
"Yes sir. The layup that I hit in the second half kind of got me going and I always have confidence. My teammates and the crowd telling me to keep shooting. The defender had his hands down so I just pulled up for the shot and it went in."
On shooting 59 percent in the second half and what changed from the Nebraska game:
"I don't think anything changed some nights the ball just doesn't go in the hole. But we came out and played in a new offense and just executed better tonight as a team."
On what this win can do for this team as they continue their stretch of playing 2014 NCAA tournament teams:
"I think this is a big win tonight since we went to Nebraska and fought tough but lost in double overtime. With the game going into overtime tonight, we should that we grew from the last game to now. This gives us confidence going into the next match against VCU and I think it will carry on from there."
On how making a layup gets him going:
"Just seeing the ball go in the basket. Anytime the ball goes in the hole I feel like my field-goal percentage goes up by 90 percent. I always feel like the next one is going in no matter where I am shooting from."
On his shooting distance beyond the three-point line:
"I don't look at the ground, I just see the goal and raise up. I never look at the ground unless I am inside the three-point line and I want to get back so I can shoot the three-point shot."