Nov. 28, 2009

Recap | Box Score | Notes

Oakland University

Head Coach Greg Kampe

Opening Statement
"We play Memphis on Monday night."

On the scoring drought in the second half
"Honestly, that whole thing was probably my fault. The deal here is that we are good in March and February and I could have done some things to stop that. I got mad at some guys and sat them and I wouldn't have done that if this were the end of February. I think the bigger thing is for this to become a good basketball team and you're playing a team that is probably nowhere near to the talent that you have. You're blowing them out, substituting a lot in the first half and that had a lot to do with them getting back into the game in the first half. Then, we tried to run a little zone to see what it would look like in a game situation and thought it might work a little bit against Memphis. They scored off that a few times in the first half and then in the second half, we had some veteran players make so huge mistakes, so I made some substitutions when I got mad at them. I changed the rotation and we got stagnant on offense. You can blame me for that, but hopefully in the long run, it will help make us a better basketball team because that's my job: to make us the best basketball team I can make us. Sometimes, you have to do what is the right thing to do and I believe that was the right thing."

On whether they will run a zone defense against Memphis
"We'll see tomorrow in practice. I am going to look at the tape of it and see what the mistakes were and why we made them. I think if we can't keep these guys in front of us, we're not going to keep Memphis in front of us. I thought that by playing a zone, we'll score well at the basket. Keith Benson should be the happiest guy in the world that we can't guard anybody because he gets a chance to block shots all the time because they get to go by us as if we don't exist. They probably had 14 layups and 21 attempts because he probably blocked a third of their shots. That's not very good."

On why Larry Wright didn't get much playing time
"He's hurt. He twisted his knee in Kansas. He came back to play in the second half and he said he felt okay. He came out and made his first shot and as the game went on, you could see him starting to limp and he made a bad play at the end of the half. I got on him and he told me at halftime that he wasn't able to push off his leg to make the play, so we decided it's not worth playing him if he can't push off his leg. Why take the risk?"

On whether things are starting to line up, rotation-wise
"No. Not even close. We're a long, long way from being a good basketball team. We have a lot good players, but some of them aren't here right now. I have no idea where Blake Cushingberry is. He just dropped the ball at the end of the game. He hasn't been able to make shots and I think it's affecting him mentally. Larry Wright, we don't know what he is yet. I was very pleased with Ledrick Eackles and Drew Valentine tonight. I thought both of those freshmen played very well and I had them in at crunch time. I let them both play to find out what they can do. Of course we want to win, but we have to find out about other players and that's why those guys are in. Drew Maynard didn't have a bad game on the stat sheet, but the shots he missed I think we had to get a new ball afterward because I think he put a dent in the wall because he was off by so much. He is not the best defensive player in the world and he is getting better, but we really need him for us to be a good team. He is an important piece and we need his offense. Tonight, they were just daring us to shoot the ball and Drew is one of our better shooters. Mentally, both he and Cushingberry are going through that sophomore deal."

Senior guard Johnathon Jones

On become The Summit League's all-time assists leader
"I have to thank my teammates; they're the ones knocking down the shots. A lot goes to them and me getting them to where they can be effective. I want to take care of everybody and that contributed to that."

On how prepared he thinks the team is for Memphis
"Toward the end of the game, it didn't look too well. After the first half, we really picked it up and were communicating on defense. We have to take the positives and the negatives and work on those to get ready for Memphis."

Junior center Keith Benson

On what made the difference in his performance
"They were a smaller team, so we just tried to go inside. My coach told me to go and protect the basket, so I was trying to do what I was told."

University of Central Arkansas

Coach Rand Chappell

Opening Statement
"Well I thought that was a pretty good basketball game. Obviously from our standpoint we got off to a slow start didn't guard very well in the opening ten minutes. Which you can look at it the other way, Oakland got off to a hot start, shot the ball well, moved it well. I thought that we had a chance to crack and for it to be a very ugly game from our end and I was proud of our guys. We utilized zone defense a little bit, just to change the rhythm of the game, slowed Oakland down a little bit and as the game went on we got into a little bit of our offense rhythm. I thought Chris Poellnitz and Mike Pouncy and others attacked the basket well and I guess we battle ourselves into position where we had a couple shots to make it a one possession game down the stretch and just didn't get it done."

On making big offense run in second half
"I thought our energy level was pretty good I thought the zone bothered them some, I never really thought we shut them down, they ended up with 83 points in the game. We made it more difficult them we got them out of rhythm a little bit. It seemed like in the first half some guys off the bench, obviously Eackles and Maynard, are scoring 8 points when they are averaging zero or two and it just seemed like whoever was in rhythm was shooting well. In the second half we got them a little bit by changing our defense got them out of rhythm. That allowed us to claw back into it a little bit. We have been very poor offensively up to this date and it kind of fed both ways it seemed like we made some baskets and that helped with our energy level on the defensive end."

On Oakland's post play and Keith Benson
"Obviously he is very impressive watching him the other night out play Cole Aldrich which is quite a statement when you consider Cole is one of the top Centers in the country most would say. Obviously Keith shoots the ball very well, for me you look at him you don't see, and I don't know where he is on this, his strength is not really where you want it but he out fought us for balls not above the rim but real just right here in his chest. I mean he had his hands on the ball we had our hands on the ball and he yanked it away from us. Obviously he comes down with 18 rebounds doing that and seven blocked shots also is a huge factor. I think he blocked the first three shots of the second half. Giving our guys credit we kept attacking and getting through some but we shot right at 50 percent with that many blocks at the rim so he was definitely a factor."