Trevor was in full blown BEAST MODE in Gophers win!!
Post game press conference notes from Nadine Babu:
I’ve never seen a media frenzie around the Gophers like this. The media room was so packed, many of the #Gopher reporters had to set up their recorders and wait outside the room. Once again, this is live typing while talking (or typing on my iPhone) but you get the gist:
Austin Holins:
I feel like we played the way we know we can play. We took care of the call, played aggressive. Trevor had a huge game.
We’ve gotta build off this. We can celebrate this win tonight, but need to work in practice tomorrow
The fans were great, a fun thing to he a part of.
Trevor was a beast, on the boards, he was stoppable. He put us on his back and carried this team.
This is a lot more energy than we were playing with. There was a lot at stake.
Elliott Eliason:
We showed that we can play and beat the best team in the country
We think we can build off this. We can’t discount any team in the big, we need to move past this and prepare for Penn State and Nebraska.
It felt amazing. I had a tough 1st half, but battled back.
On Trevor – What a man. He set such a great tempo for us, you gotta respect him.
It’s great to have the fans recognize your hard work
The fans were great, they could have lost faith, but stayed true to us.
Rodney Williams
Once that 35 second mark, I thought we had it in the bag.
The students came down faster than I thought, that’s a moment I’ll never forget.
As soon as the fans came down Trevor fell, I fell, Andre fell, it was a domino effect!
It means a whole lot, coming off that losing streak. Everyone from the coaching staff, managers, players, and everyone stayed positive.
Trevor Mbakwe
Nobody danced (post game) Last time we did it and lost our next two games. So needed to change it up!
(On the court storming) I sweated more after than I did the whole game, it was really hot down there.
When asked about Zeller handling him tonight – he classily responded – He’s a great player.
The locker room speech post game was nothing special.
We just prepared well
Joe Coleman
Key tonight- I think we just came together, we came w a lot more w energy
We played more free tonight, a little more relaxed
We were all stressed a out the last two games, and we did that.
Tubby Smith:
• Tonight’s game was a real character test, we hadn’t played well the last couple games, coming in against the best team in the county, they were deserving of that status. Tom Crean always does a great job. We were very fortunate to get the win. Our guys were focused on the right things, Trevor set the tone early on, we got good solid play from our bench, particularly Elliott.
• We got a lot of good kids in our program. We do need to have to play with a little more sense of urgency, an edge, Trevor set that tone tonight.
• This is the best I’ve seen. We play hard all the time, not as efficient as we should. They stuck to the game plan. We weren’t distracted by anyone else. We’ve had a lot of people encouraging them, supporting them. They were loose and confident. It was good to see them having fun, even early in the game. We played hard and smart. We played smarter than the last couple games.
• On Zeller – you need to make him play both ends of the court, and Trevor playing the way he did early on, made him, we ran the floor well, we doubled him at times, anything we could do to negate his skill set. The aggressive play by us, especially Elliott, Trevor, and Mo Walker did it.
• Maverick hit two 3’s, he’s the only one to make shots for us. Mav took care of the bball, 3 assists, no TO’s. The The bench was critical tonight, we got positive things out of the bench tonight.
• Getting the ball, and getting touches was the key to Trevor. If he plays one on one, he’s very effective. He’s struggled making shots around the basket lately, he made them tonight.
• I thought we were confident coming out of the WI game, so I don’t really want to say anything about that. We don’t want to get too excited. You think too much of yourself when you win, and too little of yourself when you lose. The sense of urgency was the key tonight, from the beginning of the game. I don’t come out and watch warm-ups, but I senses
• We all need someone to lift us up. I look upstairs to the good lord…and my wife (smiling). Everyone uses somebody, especially when you go into troubled times. Don’t buy into all the other crap you read about
• Maverick has been playing well as of late, and he’s gotten better at executing the offense, I have confidence in him, he’s making his shots. We needed him. I was very proud of Maverick and how he’s hung in there, probably the most minutes he’s played all year. He was a big help when Andre and Austin were struggling.
• I can’t remember one court storming. This was a first. If there was one I didn’t remember it.
• No dancing, that’s the emotional part of it I’m talking about, getting too high or too low. I was more matter of fact.
Tom Crean:
• Sorry for being so late, I’ve been meeting different people
• Nothing more glaring than the rebounding, 2nd chance points.
• We weren’t nearly as good with the rebounding. They shot 20% from the 3, you’d think you’d be okay, but we weren’t physical enough on the board
• I hope everyone that has been hard on Trevor backs off, he’s a HIGH level player. High energy, tough guy. He plays the games at a desperate level, obviously I’m biased. He’s been in college a long time, he’s endured a lot. I didn’t feel we’d have him at Marquette for 2, maybe 3 years tops. He’s a grown man, one of the best rebounders in the country.
• Cody is capable a lot, he’ll bounce back
• We really didn’t spend much time scouting those last 2 games, we focused on the MN that was top 10 in the country. MN has a great coach, he’s a high level coach.
• Our lack of blocking out was the issue. It can’t be 14-4 in the 2nd half on 2nd chance shots. We made an incredible to come back, and our guys were making plays, but the game was lost on the backboards.
• Trevor was the main guy, but I think Rodney Williams had 7 boards.
• The reason they are such a good rebounding team because they go, they go on both ends. Joe Coleman goes, Austin Hollins will go. Those guys, that’s what they’ll do. We didn’t handle that like we should have.
• They’re really good.