PAC-12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 9, 2022

Dana Altman

N'Faly Dante

Eric Williams

Oregon Ducks

Postgame Press Conference

Oregon - 86, Oregon State - 72

MODERATOR: Once again, Coach will have an openings statement, and then open you up to questions.

DANA ALTMAN: I thought the guys played really hard, and I thought Dante and Eric and Jacob had a really good tone. Dante's presence in there was really important to us, and his activity I thought was great. Eric, you know, fought through the foul trouble and led us in rebounding with eight rebounds, 50% from the field. I thought he really played well. And Jacob's energy and pushing the ball was really big.

So good team effort. Points off turnovers, we beat them points in the paint, fast break. You look at those stats, plus six on the board, you know, we needed to come together a little bit without Will, and I thought the guys did a good job of that.

Q. Dana, you brought up defensive energy and holding them on threes, and you mentioned Calloo and Lucas, your thoughts on the overall energy on D and the defense of those two guys?

DANA ALTMAN: Lucas got away from us some. And they shot free throws, the thing that kept in there 19 and 21 from the line, and we go 9 of 18 with two front ends. So that kept him in the game. Could have made it a little easier on ourself.

But I thought for the most part our awareness was pretty good. We left Calloo a couple times in the first half, and he made us pay. But all in all -- and then I thought that little press and zone kind of got the tempo where we wanted it in the last eight minutes of the game, with Eric in foul trouble, Waldo in foul trouble, Dante in fall trouble. We just felt like we had to do something different.

Q. Speak to the challenge that was playing in foul trouble for as long as you were, not just with three, but four, for about as long as I can recall you playing with four fouls in a game. And the responses that you guys had all second half when they would chip away, and every time you guys had a response. You had one of those big buckets.

ERIC WILLIAMS JR.: I think as a team we weathered the storm today. We don't have Will, so we have to go out and do our best. And I think the guys came together, and it's one game at a time. And even with their runs, they were going to runs, they're still a good team. Even though their record is not the best, they're still a good team. I think we weathered the runs very well when we had foul trouble.

Q. Coach, what are you telling your guys going to this postseason, dealing with setbacks in terms of Will Richardson gone? What have you been telling them to try and deal with setbacks in March?

DANA ALTMAN: We gotta play one game at a time. All we talked about was making it to Thursday. And tonight all we'll talk about is trying to get a plan put together for Colorado, who's playing really well. Their ball movement in the last five, six games has been really good. Their offensive numbers have been tremendous.

So we know we got our work cut out for us. We expended a lot of energy. Oregon State gave us a great game. And we knew they would.

I want to compliment them. A lot of teams would give in to it, but they're playing USC to a double overtime, playing Washington State to an overtime. Almost beating Washington State on the road.

That's really hard to do when things aren't going your way. So it shows a lot of character and shows Wayne -- Wayne's a competitor, and he kept them in there.

So I just -- we knew we were going to have a tough one. We talked to our guys: Fellas, they're playing good. We had a bad weekend. We played really hard against Arizona and played really hard against USC, and we didn't get it done. And our guys didn't respond very well last weekend.

So it was a bounceback, but, again, I thought we played harder today. I thought we were more cohesive. Jacob set a good tone offensively. I thought Dante set a good tone defensively. And we had timely shots. Only thing I can complain about is our free throw percentage. So it was a good effort.

Q. What happened when you fell and I think Rivaldo hit you, and how are you feeling right now?

N'FALY DANTE: My ankle is kind of sore, but it's fine. Obviously it's sore. I get that a lot. So fine. Everything feels good.

Q. Can you talk about Jacob's heliocentric role in offense and how you see that progressing as the tournament goes along?

DANA ALTMAN: He's going to have to push the tempo. That's something, when we get 22 fast break points, Will has really good instincts in the half court. So we didn't want to make it a half court game, we wanted to try to push it. We're gonna try to push against Colorado tomorrow even though we had to play today.

We just -- we take it, pushing it, getting downhill. With the exception of the two turnovers right before half, I thought he did a really good job of making decisions, 10 of 19 from the field, 11 assists. That's by far his best assist game, and I thought it was because of the tempo.

And so we had 19 assists, which we haven't had for a while. So I think a lot of that was the tempo of the game.

Q. You mentioned playing hard one weekend, maybe not so much the next weekend, playing well today. How deep have you had to go into your bag of coaching tricks to extract that consistency?

DANA ALTMAN: I haven't done a very good job. Because we got good guys. They haven't given me any problems. We haven't performed at the level that I thought we should. The analogy would be an instructor who has a class and they are capable of doing B-plus, A work, and we've been a C team.

Now, part of that's the players, but a lot of that's the teacher figuring out how to motivate them, how to get them to play that way.

So we all share in the responsibility. For whatever reason, the connection between the guys and between me and the guys hasn't been what it's been in the past. And we're real close there, if we could've -- we had a good effort at Arizona and USC, and those were crushing defeats. And we didn't handle them very well. And a lot of times we haven't handled adversity well this year.

So, again, all we can do is worry about tomorrow. That's water under the bridge. But to answer your question, it's on all of us. And I share the brunt of the responsibility because I've taken a lot of credit over the years for when we have finished strong; and so when we don't, that's as much on me as it is on anybody.

Q. Dana, you mentioned Jacob's assists, and it's a career high for him. You knew what he was capable of coming here. But going back to October, I remember in a preseason practice chatting with you about how fast he goes, and that can be both a gift and a curse. When -- obviously, the part of necessity here without Will here, but when did you gain that confidence that not only could he be a major contributing factor and a pillar for you guys, but that he could do this and may be able to help you guys assemble a run like this?

DANA ALTMAN: Well, Jacob has been inconsistent in finishing plays, his assist-to-turnover ratio, he hasn't shot the three well lately. But today he was really aggressive, as I mentioned, with the exception of the two bad turnovers right before half, and Quincy saved him on one, got back and really took a nice -- a charge was really a nice play.

You know, like I said, that's on all of us. Me putting him into position, okay, him taking the responsibility to focus and be consistent every day in practice so it carries over to the games, those are -- we all share that.

But I gotta take my share of the responsibility too because I got to put him in that position. Today he did a really good job with the ball screens and reading them and I thought making the right play.

Q. Real quick, just tomorrow, just what stands out to you, Dana, for what you guys have to be good at to be successful?

DANA ALTMAN: Well, as I mentioned, Colorado has really played well offensively lately. I want watched any film on them specifically, but I've caught them on TV, and their ball movement, they are really playing well together.

And if you look at their point totals, they're scoring a lot of buckets. So we're going to have to be really focused defensively. We're going to have to do a great job on the boards. When we were able to get them at their place, I thought it was our defense; when they got us at our place, it was our lack of defense.

So our defensive effort is going to be really important, but they are playing really well. Down the stretch here they've played great. And we know we got our work cut out for us. We'll have to drink a lot of fluid and be ready to go 2:30 tomorrow.

Q. On that play towards the end of game when you had the emphatic putback dunk after Jacob's missed layup, and then you ran back quickly and chased down a block, how do you go from such a high emotion moment to running back on defense and getting that clutch block?

N'FALY DANTE: I was just thinking about winning. Me dunking and that I got a good score is -- doesn't do no good. So I just want to do anything to help my team win because I have done it for like -- I think in first half I have done it one time, so just want do what I can, just do what I can for the team.

MODERATOR: Thank you.

DANA ALTMAN: Thank you.