Opening Statement
Yeah. If you guys are going to put me up against those two guys, I’d like a booster suit. Just, you guys, so many guys contribute to this win, and you heard the humility from those guys, that they obviously played a starting role tonight and they made play after play, but they’re also appreciative of the screens and the cutting and the plays that their teammates make, the shooters being threats where the change is facing, but what a great college basketball game. Ohio State made play after play, and obviously, Royal was phenomenal, and then Mobley and Horton, they gave us everything that we asked for, everything that we wanted. They were good. I mean, for us to win the shot battle, to have a manageable amount of turnovers, and even our turnovers tonight, it’s been our Achilles heel, but I thought several of them when we played good basketball and maybe got it all stripped into paint, and so those are the ones that will live with dumps or layups, so we didn’t have very many unforced turnovers tonight, and it was a physical game. It was, I think, Ohio State’s, without a doubt, NCAA tournament team, so it’s two heavyweights battling it out, going hit for hit, round for round, and fortunately, we made the plays when we needed to.
On getting contributions from everybody
No question. I thought all the guys, you know, Rubinn Jones’ stat line, eight points, 100% from the field. I thought his defense was physical. He was aggressive. Roddy had eight rebounds. Namari made one of the biggest shots of the game, I think, in the four minute time, I’m sorry, between eight and four minutes. Trey didn’t have one of his better games, but he’s the one that got the win. When we were weathering a storm in the second half, he was the one that was getting down, no good pressure on the rim, so obviously, they’re all not going to be at their best, and then L.J. Cason on the offensive side brought a real boost, and then Will Cheddar did what he does almost every game, so I could go down, we’re winning these games because it’s a complete team effort, and the bond and relationship that our guys have in the locker room carries over into the games.
On whether the last play for designed for Roddy Gayle
That was option one. We felt like we’d been riding Danny, and just as if we’re coming out of timeouts anticipating what we might see, we felt like they were going to do something, whether it was trap Danny or whatever the case, they were going to do something out of a timeout to take away what had been our bread and butter, and so yeah, we tried to create an advantage for Roddy getting down the hill, and he made a big time play. He made a big time play.
On LJ Cason
Same thing. I mean, he’s a freshman, and for a freshman to do what we’re always doing in this league is incredibly impressive. For L.J. to stay ready and stay composed on the offensive side of the ball, he’s an impactful player every time he checks in, because he can get where he needs to get to, he can shoot the basketball, and he can really get to loose basketball. As one of our coaches on our staff says, he’s a retriever. He gets the ball. We don’t win this game without the contributions of everyone who checked in.
On teams adapting to four or five-man screens and Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin adapting to it
Every team has a different personnel that can allow and force certain things to happen. Purdue can’t do certain things that Ohio State can do, and Ohio State can’t do certain things that Michigan State can do. We can’t do certain things that Wisconsin can do. There’s a lot of factors. I’d rather not give my opinion of why it was tonight, other than just great personnel awareness and selflessness by our group of players.
On the potential of a new era in the rivalry
Well, I’d anticipate every single game being like this, hard fought to the very end with great support from the fans, with great interest throughout college basketball. It’s a big game, and I don’t want to speak for Coach Diva because we haven’t talked about it since our Big Ten meetings, but he came up last year when we were in California, Big Ten country, for our Big Ten meetings, and he said, hey, are you good with, let’s try to do this where we play home and home every year. Going forward that way, obviously it’s hard because it’s two rivalry games versus one, but it’s what’s good for the game. It’s what’s good for the sport. It’s what’s good for our players. It’s less travel. It’s big for TV. It’s big for our fan bases, so we both agreed that even though it might not be as fun as it could be, it’s a gut-wrenching preparation and anticipation for the game because of how much it means, but we both agreed that going forward we’d like for that to happen. I don’t know if we can do a quick flip next year if it happens the year after that, but yeah, we both request that from the league, so it was a lot of fun competing against those guys because we have a lot of respect. Like us, they played an incredibly difficult schedule which has prepared them for Big Ten play, and they’re a much better team now than they were six weeks ago. Much, much better basketball team. I looked at a couple texts from coaches that have played them earlier and they said, wow, they’ve improved, so that’s probably the most difficult thing to do in today’s climate is to keep a team together, fighting like crazy together, and then have them improve as you go through this long, grueling season of college basketball, especially in the Big Ten Conference.
On the team chanting Roddy Gayle’s name in the locker room
You know, it’s obviously tough. You know, if you step in that arena now as a modern athlete, there’s certain things that come with it. As a coach, there’s certain things that just, it’s part of it, and it’s more difficult on people that are great human beings, like Roddy Gale, and he’s a basketball player, he’s a son, he’s a brother, I mean, he’s a lot of things other than just a Michigan or Ohio State basketball player, so obviously, it’s tough at that age, but it’s part of it, and he handled this situation with grace, with dignity, with class, and he played a really good basketball game in a tough environment, and he’ll be better for this, because he powered through it.
