University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota 65, PSU 60 Post-game Notes/Quotes
1/27/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Minnesota 65, Penn State 60
Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2007 Williams Arena
Attendance: 10,843
Game Notes
• Minnesota now holds a 13-3 overall record against Penn State and a 7-1 mark in Minneapolis.
• Jim Molinari is now 6-8, and 2-5 in Big Ten play as the head coach of the Gophers. Molinari is 224-175 all-time as a head coach.
• The Gophers 35 first half points were the most for the team since they had 36 against UCF on Dec. 12, 2006.
• McKenzie scored in double figures for the 17th time in his Golden Gopher career, and the 45th time in his collegiate career.
• Lawrence McKenzie has hit a three-pointer in 29 straight games, spanning his first 21 games as a Golden Gopher and his final eight games at Oklahoma.
• McKenzie has moved into seventh place all time on the single-season three pointers list with 56 and in three-pointers attempted with 150.
• McKenzie connected on five three-pointers, tying his career-high and representing the most 3’s he has had since he had five at UAB on Dec. 5, 2006.
• John Williams set a new career high for rebounds with 14, topping his current high of 10 at Iowa on Jan. 18, 2006.
• Williams’ 14 rebounds were the most by a Gopher player this season.
• Williams had his fifth multi-block game of the season and the 11th of his career.
• Williams also set a career- high for field goals made (6), attempted (9) and for points with 13, topping his previous best set at Iowa on Jan. 18, 2006.
• Williams earned his first double-double of the season and the second of his career.
• Dan Coleman had his 11th multi-block game of the season and the 17th of his career.
• Coleman set a career high for blocks with four, besting the mark of three he set against Purdue on Jan. 3, 2007.
• Coleman scored in double figures for the 18th time this season and for the 40th time in his career.
• The Gophers had four players in double figures for the first time since they had four against Clemson on Nov. 29, 2006.
• Kevin Payton had eight assists, only one off his career best of nine against Arizona State on Dec. 2, 2006.
• Payton scored a career-high for field goals made (4), attempted (8) and set a career high with 12 points, marking the first time in his career he has scored in double figures.
• The Gophers made 10 three-pointers, the most all season, and the most since they made nine against Marist on Nov. 23, 2006.
Post-Game Quotes
Minnesota Head Coach Jim Molinari
On the play of Kevin Payton:
“Obviously Kevin Payton was inserted into the lineup to give us more of a defensive presence. He has done a great job all year defensively. In the first couple of games we worried too much about offense and didn’t establish our defense. Kevin did a great job of that today guarding (Danny) Morrissey. We wanted to get the ball to Kevin to push it up the court after a miss and a steal, and he did all of those things today, and we got the added bonus of his scoring. Eight assists and one turnover is great.”
On the play of Jon Williams:
“I am just trying to widen Jon’s perspective. I am one of those people who thinks outlook determines outcome. I think motivation is telling people they can do more than they believe they can. Jon has always seen himself as a defensive player but we have really been pushing him to become more aggressive. Playing or not playing, Jon cares about the team.
“Until you do something it is hard to believe you can do it. Until Spencer went out, Jon’s role was never really to score. His role was to defend and rebound. Hopefully he can get some confidence and keep going.”
On the key to the win:
“Teams win games by what they work on. The only way we can win is by packing the defense in and trying to move the ball on offense to get some open looks. That’s how we won today. You can practice hard, but there comes a time when you need to be patient, trust what you work on and not try to do what you don’t do well. Penn State scored 25 points in the first 10 minutes, but we trusted our defense in the last 30 minutes and it came through.
“Our young men kept working and we got some defensive stops. If we lose our confidence, we can’t score and we lose it when we can’t stop them. We got some early offensive looks and McKenzie hit some big threes.”
On the team’s focus during practice:
“We moved the ball better. The last three games were kind of a wake-up call for me. I told the team, ‘These last 10 games, this is how we’re going to play.’ I am very sensitive to them because they have been through a lot, but I asked them what was the best way I could help them to move them along. By saying, ‘This is what it takes as a team and individually to compete in the Big Ten – ball movement, solid defense and being scrappy.’ I have been very hard on this team since the Michigan State game. These guys have worked really hard, and it’s great that they were finally rewarded for their hard work.”
Penn State Head Coach Ed DeChellis
On Minnesota spreading the ball around:
“That was really important for them. Kevin Payton played great. He had eight assists and gave them 12 points, which you’re not really expecting, and then the big kid (Jon) Williams comes through with some big baskets early and gave them 13 points. We knew McKenzie was probably going to get his 15-20 and that Coleman could make some perimeter shots, but the other guys really stepped up tonight, particularly Payton and Williams.”
On Minnesota’s three-point shooting:
“There was only one guy shooting threes for them, and that was McKenzie. That’s kind of been their theme all year. We just don’t find the guy who’s making some shots. He made a big one with about four minutes to go on the wing. We tried to mix defenses in the first half and played some man, but they scored a bunch of points against that. In the second half, at least they didn’t score as many points, but we just couldn’t make any shots in the second half.”
On Penn State’s offensive struggles in the second half:
“We rushed some shots and had some guys inside taking some tough shots instead of kicking it back out. I thought we had a couple of transition looks that we didn’t finish. It was 51-50 there forever, but we couldn’t get one more basket to get the lead. Then the mindset was a lot different on the other end. We had a number of offensive rebounds again, we just couldn’t get any of them to go back in the basket.”
Minnesota center Jonathan Williams
“Coach Molinari had an interesting story before the game. He asked us if we practiced three hours in the night and three hours in the morning and pictured yourself being so exhausted you can’t move. If the ceiling fell in would you move? We said yeah we would run. He told us that should be the approach to today’s game. It is live or die. We don’t want to be last in the Big Ten. It hit home with us that we have to fight to win a lot of games. We have to play these games like they are our last playing basketball. ”
(On confidence on offense)
“Coach Mo, pulled me aside and told me to be more active in the post. I have times in practice when I score a lot. I know the guys have confidence in both me and Bryce offensively. It is just a matter of slowing down and finishing under the basket. ”
(On the team’s defense)
“Coach Mo puts it on the board before every game that defense will win the game. I think we did do that. We shut them down in the second half defensively.”
(On Kevin Payton distributing the ball)
“He tells KP the same thing as me. He tells us both to slow the game down, and just play basketball. KP and I have a good combination. He tells me to be ready, because I am going to pass it to you. We do a good job of finding each other on the court. I have to give KP a lot of credit. Most of my baskets came from him.”
Minnesota guard Lawrence McKenzie
(On Kevin Payton’s play)
“He played really well today. I am proud of him. He has definitely been a guy who has been fighting through each practice and never getting down. ”
(On the team’s balanced scoring)
“They opened up a lot of outside shots for me. I have not seen a lot of those open looks lately. Having Big Jon playing well down low and KP hitting open jumpers got me a lot of those open looks.”
(On how much they needed the win)
“We needed to survive and we played like a desperate team. Coach Mo gave us a speech before the game that if we equate winning to living and losing to dying, which would we rather have. We have to play each game like that.”
(On team defense)
“Coach Mo talked to us about sticking with our principles. That is what we have not been doing. What we do every day in practice is play the pack defense. That is what we need to do in games whether our shoots are going down are not. We have to stick to our principles and play good defense.”
Minnesota guard Kevin Payton
(On Jonathan Williams)
“It became a habit of me when I was going into my shooting motion to still look for people. I found Big John three or four times that way. He is always ready to catch the ball. We do it in practice all the time so it was not surprising to me. He was open and I found him.”
(On team defense)
“Coach Mo always says that defense wins championships and games. We just have to come out and refuse to die.”
