Elliot Eliason had his sixth double-double of the season against Ohio State.
The Gophers got a big time win Thursday night as they upset #11 Ohio State 63-53, in front of a rocking crowd at Williams Arena. This was the first win against a ranked opponent for Richard PItino and an important win for their NCAA resume. Heading into the game, Ohio State had the best odds as they were 3.5 point favorites, but the Gophers inside game was the difference and Minnesota pulled away in the last few minutes.
Here are Gopher post-game notes from the press conferences. As always, these are not verbatim, just typing as they talk…so you can see the comments ASAP after that GREAT win against #11th ranked Ohio State.
Go Gophers!!!
Mo Walker:
This just shows that we’re capable of playing with the best in the country.
(On playing well) It feels good, I always want to help the team
(On what chant just made everyone laugh in the shower) – I don’t know, it’s Oto, he doesn’t speak English (joking).
He told us to cut down on turnovers, hold on to the ball, we knew they were going to strip us
Austin Hollins:
It’s really a team sport and we made winning plays as a team. Games that we lose, we don’t play defense and turn over the ball. We need to continue getting stronger and better.*
We’re both 2-2, we needed to take care of business at home
The crowd was huge, like at any venue in the big 10. They really gave us that boost we needed at the end of the game. I’ve always said we have great fans.
DeAndre Mathieu:
Coach tells me to not be so passive
(On who’s the most competitive player on the team) Me, without a doubt. I love the competition, it’s what I wake up for. Knowing that I was going to guard Aaron Craft today, one of the best in the country.
Oto Osenieks:
This is huge. We haven’t executed in the end a s shows we can beat anybody
I was so hyped, I forgot…he told us to defend the 3.*
Elliott Eliason:
That was very embarrassing (Iowa last year) . They are playing great bball. We can’t get complacent after this win.
You need to play the game like it’s the last one you’re going to play that year.
Richard Pitino:
• Certainly a great win for us, I thought we played tremendous defense. Elliott Eliason impacted the game for us in so many ways. Great win, learn from the mistakes, and continue to get better.
• Elliott – this was a good game for him, he has gotten so much better, he deserves to be a captain.
• I thought they were such a great perimeter D team, that we’d have to go inside. When Mo came off the bench he came and did a lot of great things.
• DeAndrew Mathieu was great. I thought we finally found a way to win. We found a way to get the win without making too many mistakes down the stretch.
• He told me it was because I threw my jacket – I told him, I didn’t throw it at you, maybe it’s hot in here. I don’t know, maybe I deserved it. *
• DeAndre got the wind knocked out of him, I thought he was tired. He told me he got the wind knocked out of him, and I told him he was too small. He’s one of those guys you love to yell at. He’s fun, he’s hilarious.
• Who are we to overlook any opponents (on Nebraska and the stretch). We want to go 2-1, if we can do that, great. There’s no easy opponents here.
• Elliott is rising to the occasion and playing with great confidence, confidence is so big in this game.
• Mo is getting better, it felt like he played longer than 6 minutes.
• (On playing Mo and Elliott together)Never, never. I’m going to do it some day just to surprise you guys.
• It sounds cliché, but we’re focused on Iowa. In this league, you have to take it one game at a time, or you’ll be miserable. We need to find a way to win at Iowa.
• The good thing is we showed up at Michigan State. We’ll reference that. I’m glad they won’t feel that added pressure going into Iowa.
• It’s hard. Coach Donovan in Florida always told me, they’ve got to make shots because they want to see the ball go in. As much as we want to rely on in defense.
On meeting Patrick Reusse – I never met you. Finally, the legend.
That Matta:
• (On Elliott Eliason) I’ve liked him since the day he got here. The jump shot surprised me a little bit.
• This loss is a little more perplexing. The last few games we played some pretty good bball, tonight, we didn’t play as solid. I’m not taking anything away from MN, they’re a heck of a bball team. For whatever reason, we didn’t have what we needed to win the basketball game. We need to look at reality as a team, and say “this is where we are.” Reality. People don’t like reality very often, that’s what we really have to look at.