University of Minnesota Athletics
Postgame Quotes
2/25/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Minnesota Head Basketball Coach Tubby Smith
Opening Statement...
"Certainly, we want to compliment Purdue. They did a great job on making shots when they had to, getting the rebound, and they made some clutch shots down the stretch. That is what championship teams do. With the loss of their top player, Robbie Hummel, I hope he's okay. I thought that we fought extremely hard to get back in the game after we began the game on a shaky start. We had our chances, but we didn't finalize them."
On the confidence of the Gophers after they took the lead...
"Yeah [we had confidence]. This kid (Keaton) Grant made some big time shots to bring them back. That gives them that momentum and confidence. We had confidence, too. I thought that we did some good things, and our inside game is working. Colton (Iverson) and Ralph (Sampson III) played well together. We didn't get the perimeter scoring like we normally would. Devoe (Joseph) obviously took a lot of shots, I thought that he had a great look there at the end, but we were playing with a lot of confidence, yes."
On the last play of the game...
"I wished I would have called the timeout a little bit sooner. I was calling it sooner. I thought we had more time than that. We probably should have checked the monitor, but we didn't. Usually, you want to bring it up and then call a timeout."
Purdue head coach Matt Painter
On the effect of Robbie Hummel's injury...
"Obviously, we missed him, because we had a good start to the game. He gives us a balance to the game. He can go inside or outside, and he's a good passer. When we lost him, it hurt us a little bit. With their high-low stuff, Ralph (Sampson) was able to get a shot off, and then we backed off him.
It also hurt us against the zone because we went cold. We had some nice looks, especially E'Twaun Moore, towards the end of the first half, but just missed them. Once we were able to make a basket after we had a ten-minute drought, we loosened some things and relieved some pressure on our guys and were able to get some stops and make some plays. Obviously, Keaton Grant made a big shot. He's been very valuable to our team, especially the last three games."
On the Gophers' zone...
"I thought their zone was going to make us beat them from the perimeter. They did a good job of getting out to the shooters. They were really trying to bottle up the interior. They were giving us different looks."
Minnesota center Ralph Sampson III
On the feeling after the loss...
"Personally, it was a pretty tough one to take. I missed the first game (against Purdue)...and I wanted to come out and play strong, play tough in this game. Unfortunately, we came up short by one point."
On whether there was a point in the game when he felt like he could take over..
"I found out that there was a weight advantage that I had (over Purdue center JaJuan Johnson), so I tried to exploit that advantage as much as possible."
Minnesota forward Damian Johnson
On the end of the game...
"Keaton Grant came down and made one shot at the end. I mean, we had a good look at it. Devoe (Joseph) hit that shot. I've seen Devoe hit that shot more times than not."
On the mental state of the team after losses to two top-five opponents...
"I see that we can beat them. We just have to finish out. We had some costly plays towards the end. We still have a lot of the season left. We have three more games left. We have the Big Ten Tournament left. We have a chance to make a push for the NCAA Tournament."
