Dec. 4, 2008

Recap | Box Score

OAKLAND 84, UMKC 78
MUNICIPAL AUDITORIUM
DECEMBER 4, 2008

OAKLAND HEAD COACH Greg Kampe

Opening Statement
"This is just an unbelievable win for us. You know to go through what we have gone through and what happened on Tuesday night. The opening jump ball Tuesday night, and two possessions later I looked at JJ (Johnathon Jones) and he said, `my legs won't move.' It was just a survival that we could get out there with nobody getting hurt. And knowing the importance of tonight's game. To get in an 0-2 hole would just kill us. It was a bad trip, bad idea, but when the league made changes and went to 10 teams with the December schedule, and we had already contracted that tournament we were in. There was nothing we could do, we couldn't get out of it. We were stuck. These kids deserve a lot of credit. As I told him, it was one of the gutiest, and I hate using that work being journalism major myself, but it was one of the gutiest performances I have ever been associated with."

On Kangas' clutch shot
"That's what I told him. He was having a bad shooting night, and he turned down a couple of shots down the stretch when we had the five or seven point lead. During the last timeout, when they were down at the free throw line. I said to him, `I'm going to you no matter what and I know you'll make it.' And they took that one-point lead and we ran a set to him and he came off it and he buried it. There's no question in my mind that he was going to make it."

On UMKC's size disadvantage
"They killed us on the boards. I think that they are a hard team to rebound against because 39 of their 65 shots were threes. And when you miss a three, what does it do, it comes way out and way high and way long and they got 22 offensive rebounds. Spencer Johnson was a man out here on the boards and they shot their free throws really well. They're very improved and they are a scary team to play. Their style is unique and it's hard to rebound against them. Early on in the game we looked like we were going to dominate the boards. We scored, we got a couple put backs, but as the game went on and they spread us out and shot all those threes. I don't think I have ever seen 40 of 60 shots be threes, but maybe us playing that zone had something to do with that. I thought if we guarded them man-to-man we would have to take those big guys out and I didn't want to do that. They had a hard time guarding (Keith) Benson inside."

On playing conference games in early December
"I hate it. I absolutely hate it. Because at our level the non-conferences play the big boys, make money, get some exposure and give kids a chance to play in great arenas. That's what our level is all about. And you're doing that and then you have to go and play two games that mean your whole life. Now they'll say that the only thing that really counts is the tournament, but the seeding in the tournament is huge. Getting the off day and everything else is huge. It's wrong and I'd like to see us look at it and change it."

OAKLAND FORWARD Dan Waterstradt

On the players being aware of Kampe reaching 400
"Well I've gone to ougrizzlies.com quite a bit, and I had noticed that he got 399, and it was just good to get it on this road trip and get it out of the way."

On the players thinking about it
"We were just thinking about UMKC and just trying to get after it."

OAKLAND GUARD Erik Kangas

On coach Kampe calling his number
"I was thinking every shot feels good and I'm going to make it sooner or later. Coach was calling out my name so I had to knock it down."

On knowing it was in when it left his hand
"Yes I did. I knew it was going in."