Postgame Quotes: No. 20 Ohio state 92, UMass-Lowell 55 – Ohio State Buckeyes
11/14/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 14, 2014
POSTGAME QUOTES
No. 20 Ohio State 92 (1-0), Massachusetts-Lowell 55 (0-1)
November 14, 2014
Value City Arena – Columbus, Ohio
Attendance: 13,256
Thad Matta, Ohio State head coach
On the play of Sam Thompson
“Sam has been playing very well. He has a little bit of a different demeanor about him, which I love. He’s really done a nice job taking care of the younger guys in terms of getting them to understand what their role is and what they need to do.”
On the play of the Buckeye newcomers
“I thought the young guys did a pretty good job tonight. They relaxed a little bit and were a lot more effective.”
On second chance opportunities
“We definitely have to make the free throws. We were stuck there and we missed four straight free throws. We’ve spent a lot of time working on them in practice this season so hopefully we will continue to shoot those well in the second half.”
D’Angelo Russell, freshman guard
On the scoring distribution tonight
“Tonight there were five guys who got into double figures, but it could be any five guys. We have a great group of guys who can score the ball, it just happened to be that five tonight. I don’t think any of the newcomers were nervous. I think we’re past that stage, and now it’s just about getting the job done.”
Sam Thompson, senior forward
On how the newcomers played tonight
“I think the newcomers did a great job. We wanted to play fast, and have our defense transition into early offense, and I think we did a great job doing that. Anthony did his thing on the offensive boards and finishing around the basket, and D’Angelo pushed the ball up the court and made plays for himself and others. It’s early in the season, and we have a lot of room to improve, but I’m happy where we are.”
On the effectiveness of the zone defense
“We have so much length and athleticism this year that even though we aren’t playing the typical man-to-man, we can still speed the game up and control the game on the defensive end. That can lead to transition plays, and good things happen.”
On controlling the game on defense
“I think we did a much better job of controlling the ball in the first half. In the second half, we let them get into the middle of our zone, and that’s not good for us. They put some points on the board in the second half, and we need to do a better job of controlling the ball and dictating what the other team is doing on offense.”
Anthony Lee, senior forward
On the battle for minutes in the front court
“My mindset is just to make an immediate impact, no matter how long I’m out there. I just want to control the boards, and I need to do a better job with that. I just want to continue to take advantage of my minutes.”
Pat Duquette, Massachusetts-Lowell head coach
On Ohio State’s efforts against Massachusetts-Lowell
“Ohio State played better than I had expected. I thought with graduating some of the guys in the backcourt and losing Ross early it would take them some time to bring it together, but they are a good team. They are well coached and play well together.”
On halftime adjustments
“Despite the score I think we settled down in the second half and did some great things. I thought we had some good success getting the ball to the back of the zone and tried to attack the corner.”
On Ohio State’s newcomers
“Even the freshmen played extremely well. Russell is just as good of a freshman as I have ever seen after coaching in the ACC and the Big East.”
