Recap | Box Score | Notes

POSTGAME QUOTES

Oakland University Head Coach Greg Kampe
Opening Statement
"That was a good win. (IUPUI) is a good team. They beat Seton Hall at Seton Hall, Arizona State was ranked in the top-20 and they had an 18-point lead on them at halftime, and lost in overtime to them. We have been there. We know what it's like. A few years ago we had a team we thought was going to be really good. We lost a few close games and struggled and that's what they're going through. We knew that this was a huge game for them and we had to be ready for everything. I thought our kids handled that very well. I thought we defended very well. We made shots again, and I don't get it sometimes. But I think we did a good job of making their shots as difficult as we could."

On the team's seven-man rotation
"I want to get Matt Samuels back in. He's been in the doghouse long enough. I need to get him back on the floor because we can't just go with seven. We have eight scholarship guys healthy, and that's all we have. Matt is good enough to help us and I need to get him out there. I wanted to get him some minutes tonight. I felt like we were playing great, but the difference was six, eight, nine points. I felt like we should be up 20 but we weren't and that was kind of scary, so I didn't substitute. I stayed with (Johnathon Jones) and (Erik) Kangas for 40 minutes and that's going to kill us. We can't keep doing that. But we held on to win tonight, and that's huge. Tonight was a huge game. We had to get it, so we played to get it. But I do have to get Matt out there."

On IUPUI pulling to within six points late
"That's a credit to their coach. He's really a good basketball coach. His kids over the years have never quit. He gets the most out of them and he wills them to stay in it, and you know whenever Oakland plays IUPUI you know it's a game. It's very seldom that a team gets up by ten, like we did, and then stay there. That's unusual, and maybe that had something to do with it, with me feeling like we were one possession away from disaster. What I really liked about our team, is when they were running and gunning and cut it to six, never did you see in our eyes, or our faces, or our body language, or anything that we were in any kind of trouble. We handled that, we called timeout, and came over, there was no fear in anybody's eyes. No anger. No players yelling at other players, and I felt really good. I thought we were fine because we had an air of confidence about us."

On the injuries Kangas has had to overcome this season
"Last year he broke the collarbone in the first game, we brought him back way too early and he never got through it. This year, late in the preseason he got kicked in the ankle in practice. Then he was just getting over that, and Drew Maynard, who is kind of a kamikaze-type guy, especially in practice - Maynard hits the floor in practice more than anybody. We're learning to just keep him away. He got Derick (Nelson), and in Vegas he got Kangas. He just dove on the floor right into Kangas' ankle. (Kangas) hurt it and he missed a game, and then he struggled. And even though he played, it was two or three weeks before he was better. Then we played North Dakota State, and he gets kicked in the back of the calf. It was just a weird, freak thing and he couldn't practice for a week. He gutted it out and played. With seniors, they learn to get tough because they start to realize that they don't have many games left. When you're a freshman or sophomore there's always next year. Well, for Erik, there's no next year - for he and for Dan Waterstradt. So they've really taken that to heart. But (Kangas) is healthy right now. Very healthy, and you know the good thing about it is, for him to graduate he's got to take a class on Tuesday and Thursday, right in the middle of our practice. So he doesn't practice, and that's good. Because that keeps him away from Maynard and (Maynard) can't hurt him. All (Kangas) needs to do is shoot. I mean, he knows me better than I know myself, so he doesn't have to really be there, he just has to get the conditioning and the shots so we bring him in individually on those days."

On whether or not he felt this was one of the team's better games
"Other than that little run they made, I thought that we controlled the tempo. We want to run but we can't playing seven guys. I think we were hard to score on. When they did score they had to make nine passes, find the right guy. We did a good job of that. I thought we had a quiet confidence about us, and I thought the ball really moved well on offense. With very nice passing, some backdoor cuts, it was just a really good performance. And that's why I couldn't understand why we were only up seven, 10 points."

On the team's performance on the offensive glass
"That's our strength. We really wondered where we would be on the offensive boards without Derick Nelson. After the Michigan State game, (Coach Tom) Izzo made a comment that he thought we were one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country, and they held us to six that game, and that he was pleased about it. And until he made that comment, I really never thought about it. We preach it and we strive for it. But I think it's kind of how we've been the last few years, we've been big and strong, a lot of size and toughness. Those types of kids get offensive rebounds. We had (Patrick) McCloskey last year, we had (Shawn) Hopes and (Vova) Severovas the year before that. We've had those guys. (Keith) Benson wouldn't be considered a big, strong guy but he's getting there. He's doing a good job, and I think Will Hudson has really improved. And Waterstradt only knows one way to play and that's 120 percent.

Senior Guard Erik Kangas
On how he sees his play after back-to-back 30-plus point games
"I've got a lot of confidence right now. We have tweaked our offense a little bit to favor my game, with running off screens. My teammates are doing a good job right now."

On taking on a tough team like IUPUI
"This is a big win. First of all, we don't want to lose at home. We've dropped three games in the league and we have to make sure we don't drop any more. It's huge to come out and get a win against a good team."

On his overall health
"I feel pretty good right now, and that can lead to a lot of confidence as well. There's nothing in the back of my mind when I'm going up for a shot, thinking something hurts. Being healthy is always good."

On the frustration of the IUPUI players when he began hitting regular shots
"I have had it happen to me, with guys making tough shots on me. It's frustrating, but I don't worry about what they think. I'm on the other team, I've got to score on them. I guess I get satisfied when people get (perturbed) at me."