Feb. 3, 2005
Rob Evans Quotes ASU vs. Stanford, Tempe, Arizona 2-3-2005
"I thought that our team come out tonight they really executed. One thing you don't want to do is challenge (Ike) him, he will come back like he did tonight. He (Ike) said at the half that he was not going to let us lose the ball game. Ike went out on the second half and followed through on his promise."
"Serge did a pretty good job on the glass, we executed our offense just like we had been in practice, we had two pretty good days of practice, and by in large we did what we had to do on the defense. We struggled rebounding in the first half, but I thought we did a pretty good job in the second half. "
"Tyrone (Jackson) did a fabulous job of executing our offense, and tempo in the game for us. I think those two (Steve Moore, Tyrone Jackson) did a good job."
"Steve (Moore) did a great job, he has been in a slump offensively, but in practice he has been working really hard shooting in practice, he is starting to come around, taking better shots, but really proud of these guys coming back from a difficult loss on Sunday."
"They did a pretty good job of covering Ike in the first half; we have been working on that. They did the same thing in Palo Alto. They have Rob Little, he is a pretty good defensive player, he is a big body and so they do not need to do that, we have pretty good shooters and they want to make sure they stay with the shooters."
"Tyrone is a lot more comfortable, a lot more confident, understanding more, not gambling, but really doing a great job running the ball club; he and Jason did a fabulous job."
The energy wasn't there, and we keep telling our guys, that as poorly and we had played we were still right there. We just needed to turn it up energy wise, I thought we did that right before the half, and coming out of the half, and that was key, they had to play from behind in the most of the second half and it is difficult to play from behind.
Quoting Stanford Head Coach Trent Johnson
On turning the ball over: "I want to say there were too many turnovers which leads to more possessions for them offensively and easy baskets. One of the things we talked about as a group was defending and doing a better job of taking care of the ball and rebounding the basketball. We definitely need to take care of unforced turnovers."
On Ike Diogu: "He's a good player. We wanted to make him work for everything he got."
On double-teaming Ike Diogu with two post players: "Contrary to what everyone seems to think, Arizona State is not a one-man team. The key for the game, from where I was sitting, was when Chris Hernandez who is an All Pac-10 performer got two fouls in the first half and I had to take him out. Nick Robinson, who is the glue to our group, got two fouls and I had to take him out. At the start of the second half Kevin Kruger hit two threes and Steve Moore had a big play. Next thing you know they're up 10 and we're playing from behind. This is a good team. Ike Diogu is one of the best players in the country. It's hard to sit up here and say we want to rotate and double-team with two posts. What they do offensively doesn't allow you to rotate and double-team with two posts."
On giving up unforced turnovers: "With the turnovers we had we gave them more offensive possessions. They had around 29 points at the half. In the second half our turnovers were unforced on our part. We've been playing better than that."
On Stanford: "We've been playing well. We just didn't play well tonight. It's hard for me to sit up and say this group doesn't concentrate. We were ready to go, we just didn't get it done for whatever reason."