Post Game Quotes From Ohio State vs. Illinois – Ohio State Buckeyes
1/29/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 29, 2002
Recap| Box Score| Notes
Illinois Head Coach Bill Self
“We didn’t play that great tonight. I thought in the second half we fought hard and played our tails off. Our offense was very bad in the first half, it’s not that we weren’t trying, we just didn’t make our shots.
“They executed well, found the open man and made shots. We didn’t guard them well. We let Darby get to the free throw line too many times, he did a good job getting to the basket.
“They are quicker that we are, Brown and Darby are really fast. They both can shoot and take you off the dribble. Savovic is a solid player as well.”
Ohio State Head Coach Jim O’Brien
“The clock seemed like it took forever in the end. Our guys deserve a lot of credit. They fought very, very hard and this was a tough win. I told our guys before the game that we were going to have to be tougher than them to win.
“They have too many guys that can score. At the end Frank Williams took it upon himself to take the ball to the basket. They started to go inside to Archibald and were having success. They aren’t an easy team to guard.
“Brent felt he didn’t play very well on Saturday, he felt in a way he let us down. Tonight he stepped up his game and came back strong.”
Brent Darby
“I made sure that I was focused. I tried to cut down in the mental mistakes. I was disappointed with myself after the Minnesota loss, I made a lot of mistakes and I felt like I lost the game for us. Tonight, I was trying to be more aggressive going to the basket.
On playing against Cory Bradford
“I felt I could get past him. I gave him a hesitation dribble and tried to get around him, but he backed off so much, I thought ‘I have to take this shot’. Defensively, I tried to make him penetrate. He is a great spot-up shooter, so I just tried to make him go inside.
“I got into a rhythm for the line. I told myself I am going to make it. Sometimes you go the free throw line and think you are not going to make it.”
Brian Brown
“It was a battle. It is a war in the Big Ten and we were able to pull it out. We knew they would be hungry to prove that they were a better team than they showed. We lost a tough game at Minnesota, so we were hungry to go against them.
“If it wasn’t for the first half, who knows how this game would have turned out The first half carried us through.
“Our Achilles heel is at the free throw line. If we stepped up and made our free throws, the score would have been a lot different.
On playing against Frank Williams
“We were guarding them so well, that their offense started breaking down. He, being the great player that he is, tried to take the game over on his own. We took away a lot of their easy shots and forced him to take difficult shots.”
