|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
PAC-12 MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2018Wayne TinkleDrew EubanksStephen Thompson Jr.Las Vegas, Nevada Oregon State - 69, Washington - 66 (OT) WAYNE TINKLE: Really proud of the guys. That was a heck of a gut check. That wasn't a thing of beauty. We didn't obviously shoot it very well. Some of our main guys didn't have their best offensive performances, but they just wouldn't relent. Defensively we kept getting key stops, even though there were a couple of breakdowns. We gave up two threes to Thybulle. He's a stud, and hit big shots. The neat thing was our guys never dropped their chin there. We went with a group that we were just going to roll with and we made plays down the stretch. Proud of the guys for the way they hung together. Q. Coach, we saw Tres helped off the floor at the end of the game. What happened, and what you do you expect from him tomorrow? WAYNE TINKLE: I think he tweaked his ankle early in the game and hurt it a little bit worse later. I think the one where he came down on somebody's foot there on the contact and we went through the free-throw line, and he knocked down four after that. But proud of him for that. We'll see. I haven't had a chance to talk to him. I had a brief conversation with our doc. But he's got no choice, he's got to play tomorrow. That comes from Mom; not me. Q. Wayne, a lot of close games this season haven't gone your way. How good did this one feel to come out with the victory? WAYNE TINKLE: It felt great. We were just talking in the past when maybe we give up a three in transition because we weren't matched up. Our guys would drop their chin and "here we go again" kind of deal. Tonight they wouldn't. They really stayed together. We said at halftime: Guys, when we make mistakes and we coach you and get after you, you can't drop your chins. That's part of developing toughness and maturity. And I thought the second half we really did that. That was the difference. And we have multiple, multiple opportunities. Wide-open threes, free throws, and they didn't get discouraged. They just kept coming back and played through it, showed a lot of resiliency. Q. Drew, you had mentioned on Monday that you were obviously keyed in with your match-up and how it was going to be one of the X factors of this game with Noah, fouled out late. Describe the intensity of that match-up late in the game when both of you were critical pieces? DREW EUBANKS: He's just a great player. His teammates do a good job of finding him when he's open. He got First Team All-Conference for a reason. So I just wanted to keep it out of his hands as much as possible. The coaches did a good job of really hammering it home on film these past couple days of what I needed to do to do that. Q. The Oregon State fans were fired up there, especially at the end of regulation, and certainly into OT. I know you had Gary Payton out here supporting you tonight. Can you talk about the support from the fans and how that helped you get the W? STEPHEN THOMPSON JR.: I think that played a key role in our victory tonight. We really fed off the energy. We were able to hear them out there, and there were a lot of them out there. So we really appreciate that. We look forward to having them behind us moving forward every week. DREW EUBANKS: Yeah, just piggyback off that, they're always going to support. Even last year, when things weren't going our way, they were supporting us. It's just good, because we always know that we're going to have that sixth man in the crowd. Q. That was a pretty big game for Zach Reichel to be thrown in the situations he was thrown into. What was the thought process of giving him probably his biggest minutes of the season? WAYNE TINKLE: You know, we just try to go with our soldiers, guys that we just thought we were going to -- I won't say the phrase we used in one of the timeouts late, but just go with the guys that we thought were going to be locked in and do it our way and get it done. It's not anything to the guys that weren't in there. But just we put our faith in the hands of those guys. He played through some mistakes defensively. The neat thing was this time he didn't do what freshmen do sometimes, drop his chin, "woe is me." He just kept fighting. Made some big baskets for us. Got some key defensive rebounds for us. We said in the locker room after the game that he really, I'll say, grew up through that game. Q. Coming off an overtime victory, you've got to get right back on the court tomorrow. How do you summon the energy to go to battle again? WAYNE TINKLE: We're going to have to do some work up here, some convincing as a staff. Our guys know. This is what it's all about. It's March Madness. We're not even going to really talk about it. Just get right back on the horse tomorrow. We'll probably curb the way we do shootaround to get some guys some needed rest. I know our medical staff and training staff, they're on it right now just trying to get our guys rejuvenated a little bit. There will be lots of ice baths tonight. What are our options? Then we told the guys that didn't play a ton, and I've said this before, they all kind of winked at me, but we might need to play more guys tomorrow. Everybody's got to be ready. We have to have everybody ready. Q. The emotions coming into this and the momentum coming into this coming off the road win that you guys finally got the monkey off your back there. Past the first round, it's kind of another monkey off the back for you guys. How relieving is this for you? STEPHEN THOMPSON JR.: It's definitely a great feeling so far. We know we have a lot of work to do in order to accomplish what we want to accomplish. I think we should do a good job of carrying the momentum into the week and keep playing hard. That way we notice that our hard work can play off if we stay focused on the game plan and play hard throughout 40 minutes. WAYNE TINKLE: Don MacLean's probably wondering why we didn't foul on that last play. But with 2.5, we were talking about this earlier, we didn't think they would get that clean a look. We didn't call a timeout after the last free throw because they were out of them. And we didn't want Coach Hopkins, who is a hell of a coach, to draw something up. Sorry, Don, because we've been talking all season about what we would do in that situation, and I went with our gut that time, and it worked. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|