Jan. 5, 2008
Coach Herb Sendek
Opening Comments:
"I thought the key this afternoon was our defense. There were some real positive numbers for us, 33 percent field goal shooting, 29 [percent] beyond the arc and forcing 17 turnovers. I thought our guys did a really good of talking, communicating and adjusting to the variety of things that Oregon State presented to us. The thing we didn't do particularly well was rebound the basketball. Offensively, I thought we did an excellent job of going inside, on a night where we weren't ringing them in from 3. Three made field goals from behind the arc is below our average, but we adjusted and did some good things in the paint. In the second half, we did a really good job converting at the foul line. We got really good contributions from a number of guys off the bench. I thought Eric Boateng gave us a real spark, Jamelle McMillan made some terrific passes on our break and Antwi [Atuahene] continues to give us great energy every day in practice, and I thought he did the same thing here this afternoon."
On the meaning of Wednesday's game against Arizona:
"It's our next game. That's our very important way of approaching it. Arizona has a great program. They've clearly dominated this series. They beat us twice last year. We know we're going to have to be at a very high level to be competitive against them. We have a couple of days to get ready."
On if he expects any differences from Arizona with Kevin O'Neill as the Wildcats coach:
"You'd probably be better off asking those kinds of things to people who are there. I know Coach [Lute] Olson is a Hall of Fame coach. I've known Coach O'Neill for many years. He's been successful wherever he's been, and he has Arizona playing excellent basketball this year. Regardless of who is coaching them, [Chase] Budinger is playing for them, and company."
On the key to ASU's defense the last two games:
"Just trying to stop them from scoring, the best we can. We're getting better in that area. We still have a ways to go, but we're improving. We made some progress over the month of December. If you flash back to some of the games we played, we really struggled on that end of the floor. We're getting better. It's a lot of hard work playing that defense."
On James Harden:
"He has a great feel for the game. It's a function of his unselfishness. He never gets caught up in himself, and that's why it always seems like has an IQ for the game, it's why it seems like he has a feel, because he's not consumed or self-absorbed, and he plays with the other guys on the floor. To his credit, he wasn't feeling well. He gutted it out today. A lot of guys in his predicament would have been home with the remote, drinking ginger ale. He found a way to gut it out today."
On the meaning of starting 2-0 in the Pac-10:
"It means a lot. It brings a lot of confidence to us, our young fellas, the veterans, we've never done that before, our program, the fans, everybody in the whole city. There's a little buzz going on around here, and it's nice."
On if he feels this team has the pieces now to compete with Arizona:
"I think we have the pieces to compete with anybody, but it's not really a matter of personnel. It's a matter of heart and desire, just wanting to compete. You just want to play ball, you love it, so you just want to give your all."
On how he would assess the team's defense at this point:
"To be honest, I would give us a C+. We're there, but we still have so much more room to grow. We haven't even peaked yet. Our potential is still way up there. We have a lot of room to grow, and we've still got a lot of ground to cover if we want to be the defensive team that we need to be, that we're capable of being."
On if he is curious about the upcoming rivalry game with Arizona:
"Very curious. There's a lot of talk about the rivalry. Like Coach said, it's not really a rivalry, because they've won [24 of the last 25 games]. We're just trying to change things around, and get prepared for them."
On how he feels about the overall state of the team:
"We're getting there. As time goes, we'll get there. But we've got a long way to go."