March 7, 2005
Quoting Arizona State Forward Ike Diogu "That was a hard fought game and we had a solid week of practice. We really needed this one and I wanted to get it for the seniors, but we just didn't do it. It was Jason (Braxton) and Steve (Moore's) last game and I wanted to send them out on a winning note."
On ASU's slow start: "We just weren't executing really. There was nothing that they were doing other than playing solid defense. Once we settled down and got in the flow of the game, we were just right there with them. We all just had a refuse to lose attitude. Nobody thought we stood a chance against them and we wanted to prove everybody wrong."
On the 3-pointers: "I just shot the ball with confidence. I am capable of shooting those kind of shots and you have to step up in big games. I just felt that every time I touched the ball, it was going in.
On this game as a reflection of the whole season: "We deserved to win this one, but we let it slip away. We have some more basketball to play next week and we have a nice challenge in front of us. We need to forget about it and move on."
Quoting ASU Head Coach Rob Evans:
On the game: "I thought it was a great basketball game by two really good teams that really battled that played tremendously hard for 40 minutes. I thought it was a tremendous game offensively and defensively. A lot of guys made big plays. It was a tremendous ballgame."
On the scoring runs each team made: "The game is 40 minutes for me. They had early runs and we had late runs. I thought our guys came out pretty focused. They made some good plays and hit some good shots. Maybe it's not so much of what we did, but what they did. They played pretty well early."
On Ike Diogu: "I think Ike wants every game he plays. I've never seen him where he didn't want to win a game. He's emotional every game. Sometimes he doesn't show it as much. But he's a very emotional person, especially in the locker room. He's a very composed person out on the court so you don't see that a lot of times. He was probably a little more emotional today than he has been. He's a very emotional kid."
On Allen Morill: "He played very well. Allen really played tough. He played with some toughness and got some tough rebounds. I thought he really gave us a lift."
On Jason Braxton: "Jason played very well. Jason has really done a great job of leading this basketball team all year long. I thought he was playing extremely hard today."
On Jason Braxton's defense against Salim Stoudamire on the last play of the game: "You can't play any better defense than that. He did exactly what you want him to do which is make him (Salim Stoudamire) make a shot over him. It's a little bit like our whole season. We come down to one or two plays and we're in the NCAA Tournament already."
On whether the team was distracted on the news of Gene Smith leaving: "This team is not very easily distracted. If they were, they would have been distracted all year long. They have a purpose and they know what they're purpose is and nothing bothers these kids. I've taught them that from day one. They know who they are and I don't let anybody define them."
On Gene Smith going to Ohio State: "I guess my reaction is generally when something like that happens, a guy like Gene that's been in the business a long time and put a lot of thought into it and felt like it was a great thing for him and his family, in this business you have to do what's best for you and your family."
Quoting University of Arizona Head Coach Lute Olson
On the Pac-10 record: "I was thinking what I have been all along. Because of my relationship with Coach Wooden, this is really sort of bittersweet. I've said all along that there should be an asterisk by his name because there really should be no one that ever passes him because what he accomplished, no one else ever will again.
"The scene of college basketball has changed. I never thought that when I started in high school way back and coached there for 13 years, that I would be in this situation. We've had a lot of great, young people that have played at Arizona abnd made it possible for us to be able to accomplish this. It is a great feeling to have it happen on the same day that we won the Pac-10 trophy. That's really the thing that is great about today. Our players were very excited in the lockerroom because they knew before the game that Washington had lost and we wanted the win to win the title outright.
"We are the team that usually gets out on the runs and we did, but ASU did a great job of answering us and going on big runs of their own. This is a game that could have gone either way. I thought that the energy and enthusiasm of both teams was outstanding. This was a great college basketball game and a great college basketball environment.
On what the record means: "It means that I have been here a long time. But the whole accomplishment, I have not won one game and that's what you have to remember. There have been a lot of guys who have put their blood, sweat, and tears into this program and if you had told me 22 years ago when I took over at Arizona that this would happen, I don't think you would have had a lot of believers. Our staffs have worked hard and our players have worked hard.
On the team's resiliency: "This group has really had a lot of resiliency. They are winners. The pressure gets on and when we need the big shots or the big rebounds, we come up with them. I thought that the baseline drive by Mustafa (Shakur) was just great. I didn't think he could jump that high. It wasn't that ASU didn't do a good job on defense on that, it was just a great play.
"I felt that Rob (Evan's) guys played very hard and really well. Ike (Diogu) is a tremendous competitor and what I like about him is that you never see his expression change. He just goes out and he plays. He's outstanding; he hit some threes on us that we defensively forced him to do, but he knocked down some big time shots.