Post Game Quotes From Ohio State vs. Iowa – Ohio State Buckeyes
1/5/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 5, 2002
Recap| Box Score| Notes
Iowa Head Coach Steve Alford
“We have to give OSU a lot of credit. You can’t get down 20-2 in this league and expect to win. It makes it very hard. We had no answer down the stretch. I think the difference was points in the paint and turnovers.
“We didn’t give a very good effort at the start of either half. They attacked us and we didn’t attack them. In big games you have to take care of the basketball. They had too many points off turnovers and that was the difference tonight.
Reggie Evans
“It was a normal Big Ten game, it was what you expect. We aren’t going to make any excuses. They did a great job. They kicked our butt.
“They were hot at the beginning, not missing anything. (Zach) Williams started down low with two baskets and they were just hot after that.”
Luke Recker
“Once you get down on the road in the Big Ten it is almost impossible to come back. We did come back and got up by three and we’re happy about that, but they played a strong second half.
“This shows everybody how tough it is to win on the road in the Big Ten.”
Ohio State Head Coach Jim O’Brien
“I thought we came out very tough tonight and that was the key element. They are a very tough team to play against because of the problems they present.
“We don’t spend a lot of time talking about rankings, we talk more about earning respect. If you want respect, you have to beat someone good.
“Our crowd was terrific. I wish we could get that going every home game. The crowd really helped us in the first 10 minutes of the game and throughout.
“After our 20-2 run I knew it was going to get harder and it did. We didn’t panic and we stayed within our game plan.”
Zach Williams
“We didn’t get too high. We knew they were going to make a run, so we had to tough it out to get the lead back.
“We did a tremendous job chasing him (Luke Recker). We wanted to make other guys like (Glen) Worley step up. We wanted to take away their one-two punch.”
Boban Savovic
“Iowa is a great team and we knew they would make a comeback. We kept our composure at the end of the game.”
Brian Brown
“It was definitely a dream start for us. They confused us with a smokescreen kind of zone that was actually a man-to-man defense. Coach (O’Brien) showed us at halftime what they were doing and we picked it apart in the second half.
“I knew I had to do something. I got some open looks in transitions and I wanted to try to help the team in anyway possible.”
Brent Darby
“It is a long Big Ten season, we can’t get too high right now but it is a good start.”
