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POST-GAME QUOTES
Oakland University head coach Greg Kampe
Opening Statement
"I've been a head coach for 25 years and I've never run on the court after a game before. The last time I ran on the court after a kid made a shot, I was a graduate assistant my first year at Toledo, and Stan Joplin hit a shot to beat Iowa in the NCAA tournament and put us in the Sweet 16. I had never run out on the court, and my boss, Bob Nichols, started yelling at me about it afterwards. `Don't ever do that again. Act like you've been in the end zone.' So after 25 years, I did it. What a shot. What a shot. (Erik Kangas) couldn't even move. He had a cramp, and I'll let him explain what he's going through, but I kept going down to him during the game, and I wanted to play him, but I'm not going to get him out there where he could hurt himself. Finally at the end, during the last five minutes, I thought, well, we might as well give him that five minutes and see what he can do. His being on the floor helps us. The reality of it is we won against the preseason favorite in the league, a very good team. (Brett) Winkelman and (Ben) Woodside are great, great, players, Woodside scored 60 points in a game this year. They played great. I think Johnathon Jones forced things a little bit too much tonight, but he was awfully good down the stretch. Our freshmen were unbelievable. Drew Maynard stepped up in the first half. He had 20 or so out in Vegas too, and I think he knows next year he's going to get to run all those plays. So he was excited and he knocked down some shots, and (Cushingberry) knocked down some shots, and Samuels did a great job for us. Will Hudson was really good. Our bench really won that game for us. I'm really proud of our team."
On the sequence leading to Kangas' game-winner
"Keith Benson set a great screen. And so many times nobody sees that. But that was a solid screen, and he didn't foul. That's a hard thing to do and you've got to give him credit for that."
On the ramifications of the game-winning shot on the rest of the season
"I'm a big disciple of Bobby Knight. I've read everything he's ever said, a guy who wins as much as he's won and has won championships, he's a guy that knows how to prepare a team to win championships. And what he says in his writing is that you play these early conference games to get yourself in position. That's really what it is, and you can't ever be too high or too low. Every win is worth one, but a game like this is really worth two; because it's a win for you and a loss for your top competition. You have to get wins like this at home to put yourself in position at the end of the year to do things. The year we won the championship, we won our last six games. We were in a position where if we could win out, we could win the championship. So that's what we have to do. That's what this game meant."
On whether or not he thought about playing for the tie instead of having Kangas take the potential game-winner
"Nah, I go for the win. I always do. When you've got a kid that can shoot it like Erik, and a kid who has made so many, you have to. We weren't getting the touch call down the stretch, and I didn't want it to come down to that. Keith's a sophomore, and Erik's a senior. Keith is going to have two more years to try and win a championship, this is (Kangas') last chance. So we're going to put it on his shoulders. It doesn't say that we're going to get the three. There's chance that if they guarded it well, we'd get the shot-fake, driven, and get it to Benson. We still had a lot of time. We didn't wait until there was no time left, we went right away. I felt pretty good."
On Brett Winkelman's performance after battling the flu all day
"He did? He needs to get that bug and carry it around with him. He's unbelievable. (Mike Nelson) had 24 against us last year and made all their shots, I think he was 5-for-5 from the three. The turnaround jump shot Winkelman hit with Jones guarding him in the corner with about a minute to go, that's an NBA shot. That was unbelievable. As a coach and a defender, you just say `we forced him into shooting that kind of shot.' I always liked Winkelman. He scores in so many ways and rebounds. I don't know him but he looks like he's a tough son of a gun, and that's what I like as a coach. I like players that are tough. I think Erik Kangas is pretty tough. There were a lot of kids that were just not even wanting to go back in, and (Kangas) went in. I trusted him with the shot and knew he would make it, and I think Winkelman is that kind of kid too. I can't wait until next year when I don't have to play against him anymore."
Senior Guard Erik Kangas
On hitting the game-winning shot
"It still hasn't really sunk in. It happened so fast. I've had a lot of good shots this year, and fortunately a couple of them went in."
On his injury during the game
"I got a kick to the calf. It was just tightening up during the game, and I was having a hard time getting it loose."
On what he was thinking coming off the last screen before hitting the game-winner
"I thought this was it. They're calling my number. It's the last play of the game and I've got to make it, so I wanted to step up, and handle it, whether I was hurt or not, I had to hit the shot."
On a possible developing rivalry between OU and North Dakota State
"It's looking like it. They're a good team and we're both getting picked in the top three or four in our league, so hopefully it will continue and hopefully we can win."
On catching a break after having some on- and off-court struggles
"I hope this springboards the season. We've learned how to play without (Derick Nelson), and we're really good. Our hopes and confidence are high right now. We just beat the team that was picked to win the league, and we're feeling good about ourselves. We'll have to take it from here."
North Dakota State Head Coach Saul Phillips
Opening Statement
"Boy, I'll tell you what. When North Dakota State and Oakland play, get your tickets early, because we have played three in a row that have gone down to a final possession. It'd be a lot more fun to be in these types of games if we were on the other side of it once in a while, but if you can't handle this type of environment, you better find a different type of work. I think we need to take our hats off to both teams for the way they played. I think (Brett) Winkleman was unbelievable for us tonight. It was even more amazing when you consider that he was literally on his back all day long with a stomach virus. He played with a piece of toast in him, that was his pregame meal. I told him to get the same virus before every game. (laughs) And it didn't affect him or his game at all. He was brilliant like that. Winkleman is a 4.0 electrical engineering student, so maybe being sick all day quiets his mind and he just goes out and plays. I'm very proud of our team's effort. It's tough on the second night of a road trip to come out and be competitive. We battled and it looked like a couple of times that it was going to slip away from us and we went with a lineup that's unconventional for us, putting Sam Sussenquth and Lucas Moormann in together, and that really allowed us to play nose-to-nose with a really tough Oakland team. I think if (Greg) Kampe and I go golfing, it would be sudden death for the rest of the night (laughs). You try to keep your head about it and keep it in perspective. I'll tell you what: this profession is about the student-athletes, about their accomplishments and what they can get done. I think you saw the best of college basketball athletics on both sides tonight."
On whether they expected OU to go with Erik Kangas in the last 15 seconds
"Yeah, no question about it. I contemplated calling a time out to switch it. Last year, we switched it and he hit the three the other way. I think what we'll do next time is try to shackle him to the bench, I don't know. We tried it a different way and I really thought we gave it a pretty good look, and with seven seconds to go, inbounded the ball in a situation that we practiced quite often. (Ben) Woodside got to the front of the rim and they had some good help there, but boy, I might go level that rim out there at the end of the game, because the ball hung up there for a while. I would go to Woodside in that situation any day of the week for the game winner. It didn't work out."
On strategy for Oakland's half court trap and zone
"I don't think I'm giving away a secret for them, but in general, you have to make sure you move the ball. A ball can get from point A to point B faster than I can or faster than anybody on the court can. It's hard to trap when you're running behind the ball and we tried to keep the ball up front and move it pretty well. We spent a lot of time prepping for their zone and I thought we handled it pretty well. I was really impressed with the way they came out and pressured us man-to-man. I thought that gave them some energy. They're a good team. I think it was two good teams. I think we'll see each other again. I know we'll see each other one more time for sure, it'd be good a third time."
On how much fun it is to be a part of a game like this
"It's a blast. I'm really proud of what these guys did. Listen, none of us feel good about losing, you still have that empty pit in your stomach. But, I'll live and die with this group of guys and I think we're going to come out on top with a lot of those games. As far as adrenaline, I don't bungee jump, sky-dive or anything like that, but this is about as good as it gets. It's fun."
Senior guard Ben Woodside
On Winkleman being sick
"I'm only going to give him a piece of toast in the morning every time. (laughs)."
On his last shot
"I got the ball with seven seconds left and I knew that was plenty of time to go out and get a shot off. I continued to attack the rim and got there pretty freely. I let it go and I'll be honest, I thought it was going down. Obviously, it spun off and didn't work out for us. It didn't fall for us tonight."
On presence of Keith Benson inside
"He's long and athletic and we've played a number of kids like that last year and this year. He's big, gets off the floor well and is a good player. We see kids like that quite a bit and he's a good shot blocker and it makes you think twice. He's a good defensive player."
On the shot by Kangas
"I saw it twice last year, I thought (laughs). I think (Mike) Nelson had a great chase on him and he was pretty contest, fading back a little bit. Kangas is a great shooter, though, and he knocked it down again. You've got to give it to him, that's three times now. I thought we played pretty good defense, but he made a tough shot and that's the way it goes."
Senior forward Brett Winkleman
On overcoming being sick
"Last night, I didn't feel all that great. I was in the bathroom throwing up and stuff. I tried to recover and once it came game time, I didn't really have much strength, but I recited my favorite Bible verse, through Christ who strengthens me, and I really looked to him to give me strength tonight and at times, I looked up and wondered how I am going to do this. I get on the floor, adrenaline flows and I just felt good on the floor. I don't know how I did it, it's the adrenaline and the college atmosphere and it's good to play whether you are on the court or not."
On attitude going in to the game
"I'm the type of guy, and so are my teammates, that whether I just sprained my ankle two seconds before the game or I am sick, it doesn't matter. I came all this way to play out here, so I am going to play (laughs). You go on the floor and give it your all and hopefully, you get in the game and the adrenaline kicks in and you forget about all that other stuff. That's what happened."
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