University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota/Morgan State Postgame Quotes
12/9/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Minnesota Head Coach Tubby Smith
On the game:
"I was pleased with our overall play. I thought we drifted a little bit there, but I've got to give a lot of credit to Morgan State and [head coach] Todd Bozeman. I think they changed their strategy in the second half to be a little more aggressive and a little more physical. We did have a high in rebounding tonight, even though we got outrebounded. I thought we got some quality minutes for Devron [Bostick], and he looked pretty good out there. He did some good things. Blake [Hoffarber] again had a very solid all-around game with his movement without the ball and his ability to pass the ball. We really wanted to get the ball inside a lot, and I don't think we really finished. Al [Nolen] played extremely well. He got a little careless there in the second half, but otherwise he did pretty well."
On whether tonight's lineup will be the lineup used in the Big Ten season:
"It could be. They've gotten off to a good start. They played well in the Brown game. Al [Nolen] and Blake [Hoffarber] have played together for a long time, and it gives us a really deep threat offensively. It creates a lot of problems for people and stretches out their defense."
Morgan State Head Coach Todd Bozeman
On the overall game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers:
There have been a lot of times where we have played through the situation like that in the first half; we just could not get it going. The only positives I can see is Kevin (Thompson) for him to have 19 rebounds in a game with his effort you hate for it to come in this type of lose. Tubby (Smith) always has his team prepared defensively.
On the first half of the game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers:
I thought that we were a little impatient; I don't know if it was jitters with some of the guys sometimes it happens like that. We did not get any good shots to start the game and started up in a hole and it was tough to get out of that.
Minnesota Junior Guard Blake Hoffarber
On Minnesota's quickness:
"The last couple of games we've really been pressing the teams to try and get going. I think it has been helpful for us to get off to good starts. Al [Nolen], Wes[tbrook], and I always play well together."
On maintaining the team's mindset after getting off to a large lead:
"Just like last game we have to keep our mindset in check. Coach said that last game at halftime and he said the same thing at this game's halftime. Anytime you are up big a little slippage occurs. Today they went on a little run, but we played hard most of the time."
On his improvement from last year to this year:
"Last year I was kind of just standing around the three point line. This year I am trying to get some easy twos, get some put backs, some rebounds and stuff like that. Coach puts me at the three a lot this year. In the past I played a lot at two, so I kind of had to change my game. I'm playing against bigger guys so I have to box out a little harder."
Minnesota Senior Guard Lawrence Westbrook
On Minnesota's speed:
"I think it allows us to put more pressure on the ball. Al [Nolen] is a good defender, so we can feed off that and it allows us to play the passing lane. Blake helps out a lot in the post tracking balls, getting steals and closing the passing lanes."
On Minnesota's defense:
"You don't want to give a team a chance to recover and regain confidence. I think we were up 18-0 at one time and we just wanted to keep putting the pressure on them. We did slip up a little bit in the second half."
On the team's performance after Damian Johnson left the game:
"Damian is one of our leaders on defense. We have to help each other out. Damian erases a lot of shots when people get beat. However, I don't think it's really a big deal when one guy goes out. We just have to rotate and pick the open players up."
