Gopher Basketball
Illinois Head Coach Bruce Weber…
-Obviously it’s a huge win tonight. It’s always great to get a road win, and to get it up here is huge.
-We have not played hard recently. Tonight we played hard.
-We had to match them in intensity, and that was tough because Tubby gets his guys ready to play. And we matched them tonight
-Not a great shooting night, but it was a great grind-it-out win for us, and that’s what we needed
-We haven’t dealt with success very well, so we’ve got to deal with that now
-I thought the Crush coming here tonight was a big bonus. I told the players tonight that we have some extra people in our foxhole tonight, and I think the team fed off that
Gopher Players Ralph Sampson and Trevor Mbakwe…
(Ralph) They were just more hungry for the win than we were. We had spurts, but they were able to sustain it throughout the game
(Trevor) On asked why…”I don’t know.”
(Trevor) It’s been very tough with the departures and everything, and with Al going out…Al is our leader. He’s probably the best defender in our league probably, and that really changed our game plan
(Trevor) They didn’t do anything differently in the second half that threw us off
(Trevor) We’ve just got to cut down on mistakes. We’ve had a lot of lapses. The spirits are still high…it’s just a bump in the road. We’re just hurting ourselves with our own mistakes. The sky is still the limit with this team.
(Trevor) Coach called me out the last couple of games. I’ve practiced pretty hard lately, and I think tonight it showed
Minnesota Head Coach Tubby Smith…
-Illinois came in and…I won’t say they outworked us, because we worked hard, but you’ve got to make layups.
-Illinois out-shot us in the second half
-We just had breakdowns on defense…I’m sure we were in the wrong defense, I’m sure.
-62 points, and shooting like we did…that’s just not going to work
-(On Ralph Sampson feeling the mentality of this team was not right) I’m sorry he feels that way…maybe he’s right
-I thought Hoffarber took some bad shots. I told him “why don’t you take a shot-fake and draw a foul one time in a game”; he’s out of position, he’s doing the best he can
-Rodney had four…you’ve got to get more out of your guards.
-We had a lot of guys missing easy shots. Chip I think missed five layups…
-(On the first four game losing streak at Minnesota) I think everyone’s got to look in the mirror and say “Am I doing the best I can”
-If I could wave a magic wand I would, but I can’t
-It looked like Illinois was a little stronger than us, particularly in the back-court
-(On trying to adjust to Nolen being gone this year, and how it compares to losing him last year) This is not the same case as last year. Last year we had a lot of leadership; we had Westbrook and Bostick, a lot of senior leadership. Last year’s team was a bunch of men. This year, we’ve got boys
-The starters are up in the air right now
-Got to get more out of Colton…
-There’s not much you can change, and the system works. You’ve just to get people doing it, and doing it the right way. After a while, some people start to question the coach. Coach Sucks. Coach don’t know what he’s doing. But I’m not going to take anyone that doesn’t believe what we are doing; we’ve been doing this for thirty-some years
-Chip was skiddish out there tonight…Rodney was skiddish. You’ve got to play tough out there…those are men out there
-Chips an energy-type guy, he’s a scorer. And when he doesn’t score, he becomes a liability. And he’s going to be a heck of a player, but he’s got to finish those shots