Post Game Quotes From NCAA First Round Game – Ohio State vs. Davidson – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/17/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 17, 2006
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Ohio State Head Coach Thad Matta
“I thought we played, obviously, much better in the second half. I didn’t do a very good job of getting these guys ready to go to understand just what it took. We were slow to balls. We were slow to rebounds. The last four points we gave of the first half were tap-back-ins. The challenge at halftime was to pick up our intensity. Offensively, we felt like we had to put the ball in the basket. It had to go in for us. Ron [Lewis] gave us a great boost. Terrance [Dials] down low did a tremendous job. I thought James’ [J.J. Sullinger] activity all over the court was probably the difference. Ian Johnson, as I told Terrance [Dials], I don’t have answers for a twelve-foot jump hook shot that hits nothing but the net every time. He played well. I’m telling you this right now, we beat a tremendous basketball team. I told our players after the game, the greatest words you can hear in college basketball is `Ohio State advances’, and that’s what we’ve done.”
During the first timeout of the second half, was there any point there that you get worried that it was beginning to slip away?
“I felt like our defense was pretty good. When you play against a team like Davidson, high intellect, they execute, they’re well-coached, you’re going to give up some easy baskets. The ones I didn’t like were the transition they got on us. I thought for the most part [in] our half-court defense we were challenging the shots. Like I said, [Ian] Johnson, I don’t know who could have guarded him today and the flow he got in early on in the game. I just felt like if we could get a rhythm going offensively, and Ron [Lewis] really ignited that. I’ve been down 14 in the second half before and came back, and you don’t want the guys to see any panic that you have. I think the biggest thing was trying to get our guys to just keep their composure and just keep going. Once we got going offensively and our spacing was good, we were pretty effective.”
Last week in the Big Ten tournament, it seemed like as the games went on the guys relied more on the three. What might the second half do for the confidence of getting offense without it?
“Hopefully, it will help us. When you play against a team that’s trapping like that and you get the ball out or they’re living so far in the help positioning, you’ve got to get the ball swung. We had a couple of possessions in the first half that I thought were terrific from the ball movement and in drives and the kicks. I hope it gives us a little bit more of getting inside and finishing inside closer to the basket, obviously. Something we felt that we could do was get inside of them. We probably settled a little bit too much in the first half. I felt like we had some terrific looks that didn’t go down for us, but that was the mentality that we wanted was to be a little more aggressive.”
On Terence Dials holding up at half court in the second-half looking tired
“I think he thought we were shooting it from deep. He knew. I think, knock-on-wood, we’ll have Matt [Terwilliger] back on Sunday. The way he was playing at that particular time, I was okay with him. There was a media time out coming and I think it was right around the 7:45 mark, and I knew we were going to get a blow.”
Is there any surprise or shock in a 15 seed pushing a 2 seed these days?
“No. When we left Conseco [Fieldhouse, site of the Big Ten tournament] last Saturday night, we had three tapes of Davidson and watched them on the way home back Columbus. I got off the bus and I said, `My god, why do we have to play Davidson.’ And then I look at the brackets and I’m like, `Who do you want to play?’ I really believe that the parity, the neutral sites, and all that makes for these types of games. One of the hardest jobs there is right now is the seeding and trying to come up with who actually belongs in the tournament.”
On Ron Lewis’ offensive play
“It also generated some defense for us. He got a couple of deflections in that stretch. I’ve got to readjust my thinking. We were just really concerned with our defense going into this game and we were hoping we would make some shots. Ron Lewis is one of the greatest teammates I’ve ever seen. He’s always picking guys up and talking the game and that sort of game. I think guys like to see him do well, and that uplifts us a little bit.”
Concerned that Ian Johnson would get Terence Dials in foul trouble.
“From what we had seen, Sanders was more close to the basket and really needed angles to finish. I really thought he played well today as well. [Ian] Johnson, we’d seen run-off stagger screens. We had seen pick and pop as he did today. We thought Syl [Matt Sylvester] could be more mobile out on the floor.”
Going into Sunday, are there outside shooting concerns?
“I’m concerned. They asked me right after the game, `Do you have a potion to help the outside shooting.’ If I did, I would have used it a couple of weeks ago. It’s just part of it. Everybody knows that when you get in here, you’ve got to get on a roll and make some shots. Fortunately, we did in the second half to the tune of 54 percent. Hopefully, that will give us a little ignition into it.”
“Yes. We will talk to them [our players] about it. We did lose our composure a little bit there, most definitely. It is a different game.”
Senior Forward/Center Terence Dials
Elaborate on problems [Ian] Johnson gave you
“As far as me guarding him, he was a challenge on the outside. They way they run their offense I had to get some help sometimes. He is a crafty, skilled player. He knows when to pop and how to get open looks. He got me on a few of those threes. He reminds you of European players-the way he moves. He’s a great player.”
What was difference for you personally in second half?
“First half they were double and triple-teaming me. I couldn’t get my shot off real cleanly. I just tried to manufacture some points other ways. I had to hit the offensive glass. Once I did that, then I started to get some clean put backs things started to fall for me-it started to open some things from the outside. Guys got some good shots.”
On team not having much NCAA Tournament experience
“It’s just another game. Tournament or not. You still have to come out and play hard. We know everyone is going to give us their best. We weren’t prepared for the first blow that they gave us. We had to regroup at halftime, and we came out and responded like the number 2 seed that we are.”
Senior Guard J.J. Sullinger
Did the first half make you think about other upsets in the tournament?
“During the course of the game I didn’t really think much about the other games. I was concentrating on Ohio State and what we had to do to get back on top-to get the lead. As far as watching the games in the hotel: I think everybody did. This is tournament time. This is what people live for. This is where dreams come true. We definitely have to come out at the beginning of the game on Sunday with a lot more than we had today.”
JJ on changes at half
“At halftime we talked as a team-we weren’t being as aggressive as we need to be. A lot of the time we were shooting contested shots. They were kind of flying at us. We tried to give them a little shot fake. We had to mix it up a little bit.”
On a scale from 1-10, what was Thad (Matta) at halftime?
“Probably a 13. No, he just told us what needed to be said. We didn’t come all this way to play the way we did in the first half. We were reacting to them instead of making them react to us. We just weren’t playing aggressive. We weren’t playing Ohio State type basketball. That is something that we hang our hat on. Shots aren’t always going to fall, but you’ve got to play with toughness and you’ve got to play with intensity and we just didn’t have it in the first half.”
Davidson Head Coach Bob McKillop
“Congratulations to Thad Matta and the Ohio State Buckeyes. They made some big shots at some big times in the game, that’s why they were Big Ten Champions. I’m extremely proud of the effort that was put forth by our players, I think they represented Davidson College and the Southern Conference very well. I’m particularly proud of the work that the seniors have done in the four years at Davidson. They have really left their mark, their stamp on this program, and they will be sorely missed.”
On coaching his son, Matt, in his final game
“I’m very happy to have seven sons, maybe 16 sons. Matt just happens to be the one that spend a little bit more time with me over the years. Coaching is one of the most powerful professions. It’s one in which you can influence lives. It’s a two-way street though. You have to have receptive students, receptive players who are willing to let go, trust, and be influenced. This was a group of young men who had a significant degree of trust and did anything and everything we asked and without that, Matt was the one who wore it on his heart more than anyone.”
On devoting defensive attention to Terence Dials
“I think [Terence] Dials hurt us, primarily on the offensive glass. That’s where his crushing baskets came. It came as a result from us recovering from a ball screen double, a ball screen hedge and slide, a double off the post and spreading out to a shooter and sprinting back into a box out situation. That’s the defense that we play. We play really comfortable with it. If we were just standing and planting ourselves in the paint and tried to cover him one-on-one, we can’t do that. If we’re to just match up man for man against their perimeter players, we can’t do that. We have to make it a team effort, and I thought that we did an extraordinary job. Lewis hit two jump shots that were really daggers to us because they came off high ball screens, up near the top of the key. They came from about 22 to 24 feet, and we had five different things that we were doing on ball screens, and we had a miscommunication on those two in particular ones, and it somehow gave them confidence, and in giving them confidence it all of a sudden made the crowd a factor. Then I think that the crowd became a key factor for them as they maintained, and as we maybe turned it over once or twice in response to their threes.”
On the meaning of the close result to the program
“We came here to win. We think we are a darn good program that can compete with anyone in the country. Whether a 15-seed or not, we came here with the express purpose to win. We played hard enough to win. We missed some easy shots inside, and we had some turnovers that they capitalized upon, but we battled them toe-to-toe. We laced them up, we rolled our sleeves up, and it just affirms that we do have a very good program.”
On Ohio State making adjustments at halftime
“Thad Matta does a wonderful job adjusting how he is going to attack the ball screen based on how you defend the ball screen; where he positions the ball screen, who takes the ball screen. He has an arsenal of opportunities. [Ron] Lewis had not been taking many ball screens at that point, and all of a sudden he puts [Ron] Lewis out there, which had a three-man of ours guarding a ball screen, and that had not been something we had much experience with in the first half. Was that by design or just by happenstance? I think it was by design. We are still doing the same things that we did: switching the ball screen, trapping the ball screen, hedging and sliding the ball screen, going over the top of the ball screen, going under the ball screen. We had five different looks at it, one of these times they are going to capitalize on it. In the first half they didn’t. In the second half they made the shot. Do you have to go back to the drawing board and say the ball screen defense wasn’t any good? They shot 5-for-22 from three, and it wasn’t a bevy of threes that beat us. I think it was those two, and [Je’Kel] Foster makes one out of the corner and that was out of transition more than anything else. But, then [Terence] Dials hurt us inside. But give us four or five possessions where we turn the ball over down at the other end, give us return baskets in those situations, and we’re right in the game.”
Senior Forward Ian Johnson
Has anyone ever told you that you look like Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, with that beard?
Yes. And I take it as a compliment. We had a tough game in conference season, and that happened to be the weekend the Steelers won the Super Bowl and I’m a Steelers fan, so I thought if Roethlisberger can do it, why not give it a shot. I think it definitely helped.
On defending Terrance Dials
Dials is big, strong player. He’s tough. Our game plan was to double him. I don’t think he was expecting the quick double. I think that flustered him a little bit and allowed us to tighten our defense.
On his Davidson career
“The greatest experience of my life to play with my fellow seniors and with the coaching staff that we have. I’ll remember these memories forever.”
Senior Guard Brendan Winters
On Ohio State’s three-point shooting
“We got confused a couple times on the ball screen and (Lewis) was able to get some open looks and I guess it just happened to be his time. It kind of seems like a lot of teams we play, a guy that we don’t think will step up and knock down threes will do it. It’s kind of weird. But that was just a miscommunication between some of our guys.
“We were very confident coming into the game. We didn’t need a four-point lead to confirm that we were a good team and could play with guys like them. But it did help us a little bit. It’s always nice to go into the halftime especially in the NCAA tournament against a team like Ohio State when you’re the underdog. So it definitely helped (our confidence), but we had a lot coming in, anyway.”
Senior Guard Matt McKillop
On `Chippy Play’ with Jamar Butler
“It was a physical game all around and then at the last minute when we were fouling, me and Kenny Grant were trapping him, trying to get a jump ball and they called a foul. My arms were around him, but I didn’t do anything, and he pushed me away. The ref kind of separated the two of us. I didn’t say anything then, at the end of the game, he blocked my shot and said `that’s right *****-***.’ Which didn’t seem very classy to me.”
On his last game as Davidson Wildcat
“There’s definitely a sense of disappointment, especially since we had the lead in the second half and we let it slip away. But I’m proud to be a member of this team, proud to be a member of the team that fought back today – it seemed like Ohio State had an answer for every basket we made. We just came from the locker room and we were hugging each other and it’s a pretty emotional time, but I’m proud to be a member of the Davidson Wildcats.
On playing last game for father
“I don’t know where to begin. The last four years have been an amazing experience. It hasn’t set in yet that this is it. But it’s something I’ll never forget. Being able to come so far and to be this close is a big disappointment for what we could have done for Davidson Basketball. And being able to do that for my dad.”
