Postgame Quotes: No. 20 Ohio State 77, Illinois 61 – Ohio State Buckeyes
1/3/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 3, 2015
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POSTGAME QUOTES
No. 20 Ohio State (12-3, 1-1) 77, Illinois (10-5, 0-2) 61
January 3, 2014
Value City Arena – Columbus, Ohio
Attendance: 16,028
Thad Matta, Ohio State head coach
On the game
“We felt like we had a good flow out there. I knew we were a little bit tired, but we had a good flow in terms of what we were doing defensively as well as offensively, so we were talking about subbing, but decided to see how long we could ride it out.
“I thought all the guys did a really nice job and were great down the stretch for us. I think our activity was great and we were able to get out and get deflections. We got the ball out in transition, and we did a really nice job rebounding the ball tonight. Then we were able to execute offensively.”
Sam Thompson, senior forward
On defense switching from zone to man-to-man
“It was [Coach Matta’s] decision, it wasn’t any of us, but we trust our head coach. He’s won a lot more games than we have so whatever he says goes. He told us to go man, so that’s what we did. We haven’t really gone over our man-to-man defense the way we have in past years but every day in practice we guard man-to-man in our five man set we practice in. We were able to pressure a little bit more in man. You have to be really disciplined in zone, which we need to do a little bit better.”
On goals for the second half
“Stop my man from scoring. Guarding man-to-man is really easy because you’re not guarding a zone; you’re not pushing cutters through. When my man runs to one side, I run right with him. My job is to play on the defensive end, and I just wanted to do that.”
On the importance of winning
“We knew it was a must win game. Anytime you’re at home, and anytime you’re at home in a conference game, you must win it. You have to win at home, it’s so important to win on your home court, because every time you go out on the road it’s a battle.”
D’Angelo Russell, freshman guard
On his individual team role
“My role on the team is to create for others, make shots and do whatever coach needs me to do. Throughout the previous games I’ve been big on making shots and taking the right shots. I know if I miss one or air ball one I have to get through it, whether it is at the beginning of the game or the end of the game, I just have to make shots.”
On playing college man-to-man defense
“It was exciting, but whoever I’m guarding he puts his jeans on the exact same way I put my jeans on, so I feel like if I put my mind to it, I can guard anybody on the court.”
John Groce, Illinois head coach
On his all-around view of the game outcome
“We were Top 5 in the country for taking care of the ball before we went into this game then had 20 turnovers. I am disappointed that defensively we weren’t able to impose our will at any point of the game. They played the entirety with more energy than our guys.”
On preparation for the Ohio State defense
“We prepared for both man-to-man and zone as we play zone ourselves. They didn’t do anything that we weren’t prepared for. We have no excuses and did not play good enough, particularly in the second half. You can’t turn the ball over 13 times in one half.”
On response to adversity in second half
“We need to respond to adversity better than we are right now and have been, especially in that early 13-0 run. We did not defend for a stretch of the game very well and they executed extremely well and it seemed like they got what they wanted all night long because of that.”
