Post-Game Quotesheet
12/20/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Recap |
Box Score |
Notes |
Photo Gallery 
POST-GAME QUOTESHEET
Oakland at Pitt • Petersen Events Center • Pittsburgh, Pa. • December 20, 2014
Pitt 81, Oakland 77 (OT)
Quoting Pitt Head Coach Jamie Dixon
Opening Statement:
“Well, I didn’t feel good about how we performed. I think they are a very good team and they battle, tonight they certainly did that with us. Having played us close two years ago gave them confidence coming in here and fighting. They certainly did that early (by) making shots. Once we got to the overtime, I felt pretty good because we have had great success in overtime. We’ll just continue to execute. We really executed down the stretch well and did a good job of getting the ball to the right guys. (We) used timeouts at the right time when we needed to and executed plays. We had good shots. There were some good things. Obviously we are not satisfied with our defense and our rebounding; they probably go hand and hand. We (have) to get it addressed. I feel like we have a better understanding of what we are trying to do defensively. We are simply not getting it done to the level we need to. We are not reaching our standard, we understand that and we are going to work tonight on it as well. We will go watch this; we’ll get to work early tomorrow and get ready for Holy Cross. I am excited about how we finished, how we played and how we battled back against a team that was hitting shots. (It was a) low turnover game, five turnovers, but the rebounding and defensive needs to be improved. Offense was good, (we) took good shots, (we have to) shoot it better, but we knocked down free throws and finished around the basket at the end of the game, which is something we have to continue to improve upon."
On James Robinson’s execution down the stretch:
“I think it was a number of guys, but he made some big plays. He made the right pass to Cameron on the one play. He got in the lane on some plays ran. Coach Williamson and coach Knight did a good job as far as preparing us. We knocked down the free throws, which is a huge attribute to have for a point guard. He was good. He kind of took over as far as just playing solid, not by scoring, but just making the right plays. I thought he defended well. I feel like we did things right, but when it got down to it we didn’t come up with the loose ball and the rebound. That (has) to be addressed.”
On the rebounding battle against Oakland:
“We felt we had to outrebound them by 10 going into the game. We certainly (were) on the other end of that. We had four pretty good defensive possessions in the overtime and we couldn’t come down with any of the rebounds. We had them take the exact we wanted them to take. You have to come up with those rebounds and that simply didn’t happen. That’s why we are in the situation that we are, but we thought we had some of that in the first half too, where we just didn’t come up with the rebounds. They made some shots in the first half and give them credit. (They) got confidence and got going, but we (have) to do the things necessary. It could be that we are not playing enough guys. I keep going back to that and I think we (have) to get more guys in there. I went into the game thinking, ‘get more minutes for them,’ but I didn’t do it. The responsibility falls on me. More guys playing more minutes would help and that is the explanation that I have right now.”
On the decision not to foul with a three-point lead at the end of overtime:
“We didn’t foul. You are the first guy that’s ever asked when the guy didn’t make the shot. I always find it funny when the guy doesn’t make the shot, no one ever asks that. I always bring that up when no one asks it, so this time I probably would have forgotten to. I think timing is a big part of it. You don’t want to do it too early, because then you have to do it again (and) you are going to have to make two free throws later. If you foul with 15 seconds left, they are going to foul you and you are putting it on your free throw shooter to hit two more free throws again. You don’t want to prolong the game in that area. If you have enough time and they are shooting the shot at six or seven seconds, to me it is about the timing. You don’t want to give a couple extra possessions where they can make up points. At the same time, we had in the first half fouls to give and a different strategy. We wanted to use them and they got a lob on us that we told them they were going to run. Coach Williamson told them they were going to run (that play) coming out of the timeout. We couldn’t even get a chance to foul. You can tell them and you can practice it, sometimes it doesn’t all work out.”
On Cameron Wright returning to form:
“He’s been good. He’s been good in practice and he’s been good in the games now. We are 4-0 with him. That is what I keep telling our guys and that’s important and that matters. I feel like we have a pretty good rotation with our guards. They have to do some other things defensively and rebounding for us. We (have) to value that. We just are not getting it done. Cameron did a good job letting shots come to him. I thought he did a good job defensively. He’s gotten better each day, which is what you hope, and that is what we’ve seen.”
Quoting Pitt guard James Robinson
On free throw shooting:
“We were real confident on the line and made some big free throws tonight. It is something that we work on in practice and it is good to see it translate to the game.”
On making plays down the stretch:
“Staying confident in what we are doing as a team on offense and defense. We didn’t play as well as we wanted to tonight, but that is a really good team we went up against. It was good to come out with a win. Down the stretch, we just stay together, play poised, and kept running our plays.”
On guarding Kahlil Felder:
“We stuck to our defensive principles. He [Felder] played a lot of minutes. Eventually, he wore down a bit and he started to become a little more passive. We did a good job of playing team defense on him, especially late in the second half.”
On the last play of regulation:
“I was just trying to get in the lane, if my shot was there I was going to take it. If not, somebody was going to be open. I figured the defense was going to rotate towards me. I think Jamel [Artis] might have been open too, but I hit Cam [Wright]. That is a shot he has been making all game and all game versus Manhattan. We got a good look, it just didn’t go down for us.”
On coming back after being down 7 points:
“We just kept fighting. We knew we would be able to get back into the game. We threw a press at them and that helped us out a lot. I think the play of the game was Mike’s [Young] charge. That really swung the momentum in our favor.”
Quoting Pitt guard Chris Jones
On getting shots off over Oakland’s guards:
“Early in the game, we did a good job of getting the ball into Mike [Young] and Mike was doing a good job of passing it out. Cam [Wright] and I were able to get open shots.”
On his good shooting game:
“It is just something that happened during the game. I didn’t feel that I shot the ball that well against Manhattan. I just wanted to stay confident and keep shooting when I have open shots.”
Quoting Pitt forward Michael Young
On holding Oakland’s Corey Petros to eight points:
“I can’t take all the credit. We were doubling him almost the whole game. There were a few possessions down the stretch I went one on one and he didn’t score. Jamel [Artis] did a real good job on help and making him pass out of the post.”
On the charge at the end of the game:
“We were pressing and they got it in to [Kahlil] Felder. Then he threw a lob over our primary defense. It was a two on one against me. It was two forwards and I know forwards aren’t usually confident handling the ball. I wanted to try and fake out the defender. If I could get him to leave his feet to go for a layup, I would have a chance to take a charge. Once he committed to the layup, I put myself in position to take the charge and get the turnover.”
Quoting Oakland Head Coach Greg Kampe
Opening Statement:
“I guess we’ve seen this movie before. Three times we’ve come in here and led at halftime and we haven’t been able to finish. I am hoping that it propels our season because I have a really young basketball team. I think we’re a very good team that doesn’t know how to win. Coming off three games in a week against top teams in the country, we got spanked the other night because we weren’t ready to play. Today we came in and controlled tempo and played our game, we executed extremely well at both ends of the floor, but we didn’t finish.”
On Pitt shutting down Corey Petros:
“It took three guys and because of that, a freshman (Hayes) had 16 points for us. We did not lose the game because of that. We lost the game because we turned the ball over in the last three minutes. We had a five-point lead with three minutes left to go. Our points per possession were very high; we just limited the amount of possessions in this game.
On what makes James Robinson so good:
“He’s crafty with the ball and has great penetration. Pitt shot 82 percent from the free throw line. Our team has to learn how to win and they (Pitt) did what they had to do to win. Down the stretch, he (Robinson) made some big shots and dunk passes. He’s really good and he was as a freshman two years ago too. I think he won the game for them against us then.”
Quoting Oakland guard Kahlil Felder
On playing well in the first half:
“Pitt started switching their defenders on me. They were doing it the whole game. I was just being aggressive, playing through our offense, and knocking down shots or getting the layup when we needed it.”
On their response from the feeling in the locker room:
“I have confidence we will be able to respond next game. The team will get together tonight and will talk. I think we have a chance to beat Clemson. The way we came out tonight, I believe we can do it again.”
