Men’s Basketball Pregame Quotes – Ohio State Buckeyes
11/16/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 16, 1999
Jim O’Brien Quotes
On his back
“I am off the injured reserve and will be on the bench tomorrow. I was in a lot of pain and probably at a 90 percent right now, but much better than last week.”
On the team
“We know the expectations to win in every game this season, but we have preached over and over again that we are going to respect every team that we go up against. The team knows this and really adheres to it. Instead of talking about last season, they talk about accomplishing more this season. That is a big part of this team and their reputation. They don’t have big heads.”
“We saw our weaknesses in the exhibition game against Marathon, mostly being that we couldn’t contain them. We have talked to the team and we know that against Notre Dame our defense has to be there.”
On Notre Dame
“This is for real now. The exhibition games were great for getting the new guys ready, however now everything counts. We have to be ready. We are not going to listen to the hype over this being a pushover game for us. Notre Dame is a very good team and we have to be prepared for them.
“They get the job done. They really like to shoot three-pointers and are able to make a lot of them. We will have to guard them well against the perimeter.”
On Notre Dame’s Troy Murphy
“Troy Murphy is one of the greatest players in the Big East conference right now. He is 6-9 and able to move in and out from under the basket.
“He can hurt you with three-pointers or go inside. That is the biggest problem for us, because we don’t have a guy that matches up against him. Ken Johnson can guard him from the inside, but then would have trouble guarding against Murphy’s three-pointers. He is a big part of their team and we are going to have to find a gimmick that works defensively.”
Michael Redd
“We are very happy to be playing in the first round of the NIT. This is huge for us and very exciting to be playing in this tournament.”
“Notre Dame is a very good ball team and with a new coach, they are getting better and better. We have watched some tape on them and know we will have to be prepared to contain their shooters.”
“This is very new to us and very different from last season being ranked preseason and competing in the NIT. However, we know we can’t get overwhelmed and have to play one game at a time.”
“We were really hungry last season to prove that we were a good team. But this season we want to accomplish so much more that the hunger is back. We know what we have to do to win this season and it all starts tomorrow.”
