Jan. 3, 2008
Coach Herb Sendek
Opening Comments:
"I'm really proud of our guys tonight. I thought they showed tremendous resolve down the home stretch, to get important stops and make plays to win the basketball game. I thought our defense in the second half was really the difference. To limit Oregon to a pair of 3-point shots made, although I know they missed some open ones, is rather remarkable. Offensively, I don't know that we ever found our rhythm. I thought Oregon did a great job of keeping us off balance. Just a hard-fought win over an excellent basketball program."
On getting Jeff Pendergraph the ball more in the second half:
"It's not just in the second half. We want to get him the ball whenever we can, whenever he's open. I don't think I'm giving away any of our secrets by saying that. It's important to us that we get the ball inside. I think it's important for any basketball team to do that to some degree. It was really good that Jeff got going in the second half. We were able to get him an easy one to start the second half, and from there he just took off for us."
On the play of Derek Glasser tonight:
"The one thing that stands out is seven assists and one turnover. Guys who don't turn the ball over are really valuable. We said we wanted to play with 10 or fewer turnovers tonight because each of the teams that had already beaten Oregon had to do that. I think we finished with 12, so we're in the neighborhood. Their transition game is so lethal, that if you're going to cough up the ball, you're really feeding that monster."
On Ty Abbott defensive success while he struggled with his shooting:
"That's a great point. A lot of guys, if the ball's not going on, it's easy to get self-absorbed, it's easy to get self-consumed, and have that carry over to other parts of your game. For a young guy like Ty to not have his best shooting night, and he's really carried us with his shooting early in the season, to still maintain great focus on defense, and he really did, and come up with key rebounds for us, was really a credit to the kind of makeup that he has."
On the defense limiting Oregon's points in the paint in the second half:
"We absolutely changed nothing. We absolutely made no intelligent adjustments. We just did what we talked about doing all week with greater constitution. We just had greater resolve in the second half. We did nothing different in terms of our rotation, in terms of our placement of players. We did what we did all week. We just did it better."
On the confidence they take from this game:
"I think it gives us a lot of confidence, but we know that every Thursday and Saturday, it's a tough game. It's the number one conference in the country. We've got to come out here, prepare tomorrow for Oregon State, who last year swept us. So we've got to be ready to go."
On coming back from several deficits in this game to win:
"I think last year gave us a lot of learning tools. We played from behind a lot last year. A lot of the guys that are back, me, Jeff, Jerren, we know how to keep ourselves in the game, but now you add Ty and James, and they have the ability to get us over the top."
On how he feels about this win:
"It feels pretty good actually. We don't want to boost it too much, but it feels pretty good. It feels really good to beat [Oregon] at home and have the whole crowd into it."
On the key to their defense tonight:
"Just stopping their 3's and making sure they didn't get how they normally get 80 points, transition buckets, limit our turnovers, no bad shots, and just stop their 3's. I think they only had [two] the whole game, so that definitely helps. That was one of the big keys. I think, as a team, we executed very well."