Jan. 2, 2010
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Oakland Head Coach Greg Kampe
Opening Statement
"Hell of a basketball game, I'm sure it was great for the fans, not so much for the coaches. I am very pleased, the game was high scoring but I liked our defense. They made shots, they made contested shots. Now, from the field or contested we made some mistakes but when teams are making shots that will happen because you want to go real hard to make sure they can't do this or can't do that and then boom someone is open down. Down the stretch, we guarded really well and every key possession we had a stop in. They did make some bombs in transition and some long, long threes. Those were the shots we wanted the m to take. The one guy, John Ashworth, made that cut it to two, JJ was all over him. I've to credit Ron and his team. They are a very good team basketball team and that's why their RPI was 61 coming into this game. This will help our RPI because we were in the 70s. They're a good basketball team and I was really pleased with our defense. Our rebounding wasn't what it needed to be, but we did some great things with the ball. A lot of different players stepped up and made key plays."
On adjusting to Robert Glenn
"We changed people who were guarding him because we wanted him to shoot the jump shot in the first half. Everything he does is driving and getting the foul or put-backs. Tonight, he made them, but he's a senior on a good team and they are playing good. Sometimes as a coach, you look a little foolish when you have a plan and it doesn't work. The second half, we went and guarded him. You have to give them credit, a lot of guys scored for them. I felt real good with a about two minutes to go in the game. Alex Young would have had 10 points and he's the guy we really wanted to stop. We did a really good job on him. It's not often you let them score 82 points and are pleased with your defense. It was a shootout, two teams making their shots. I thought the defense by both teams was good."
On the timeout controversy at the end of the game
"Well, I called timeout with us in the back court. What happened is they went to the shot clock and the clock and this is what I wanted at Bradley last year, when they threw the ball in full court I wanted the officials to use the clock because there was no way he could have taken three steps in less than a second. I can't argue it when it happens against us. What happened is that did not charge us with a timeout and they looked at the clock. Instead of arguing it, we knew we had to guard. It doesn't matter, we have to get the stop and win and that's what happened. It wasn't just that one play."
On playing in a top-heavy league and the importance of playing teams in the top half
"You don't win championships in January. You play, you get better and you win in February and March. We're still about that tournament. Sure we want to win the regular season championship, tonight helped us with that. I made a big error tonight in having Ledrick taking the ball out of bounds inside their press. That was a big coaching error. The players make mistakes and I make mistakes, we all learn from them. He should have never been in that position as a freshman, that's my fault, not his. All these games you learn from and hopefully as I learn my team, I won't make mistakes like that because that could have cost us the game."
On IUPUI's ability to score quickly
"We told them before the game that this team plays in runs. They're kind of a wild team. Alex Young is a player. You'll see him in the pros. They have some players that can score the ball and they are never out of the game. We knew it was a 40 minute game and we had to play all 40 minutes. I'm very pleased with the way we played; we played a steady game. We made some errors in the last six minutes and that could have been because I played JJ all 40 minutes. I'm very pleased and everything that happened was expected."
Senior forward Derick Nelson
On his performance tonight
"I was confident in myself in the beginning of the game and I saw one shot go in then another."
On how the team kept its composure down the stretch
"We made a few mistakes but for the most part, we were steady. We're a veteran team and veteran teams are supposed to close out games."
On playing IUPUI
"We knew they were a good team coming in. We saw how on ESPN how they took us out of the tournament. They played a good game and we have a lot of respect for this. This was a big game and we don't really lose in this building and we definitely didn't want to lose a league game. It was a stepping stone on the way to the championship.
Freshman guard Ledrick Eackles
On being his performance off the bench
"I just come in and bring that extra energy off the bench. I fit in where I can, it doesn't matter."
On the team's confidence
"We try to stay humble. We have confidence in each other down the stretch. I come in and do whatever I can in practices and games to make the team better."
IUPUI Head Coach Ron Hunter
Opening statement
"I wish that cell phone had worked, I had some choice words for Kampe. (laughs) This was a good game, this was a heavyweight game, this was two of the better teams in the league. As I told my players we will se them a couple of times, this is just the first of this battle. Two very good basketball teams, again it was a pressure game more for Oakland because they had to win this one at home and it's a league game. We knew that and we thought if we could steal this one because in this league if you can split one and one especially with a good team but if you can get two, so we try to be greedy. Oakland is a good basketball team, I like everything about this university, I think the coach is a little suspect, but besides that everything else is great. I love this place."
On the ability to stay with Oakland
"It is a sign of our basketball team, this group has been through a lot. I had to play some guys last year, this all started when George Hill left us in June and we never really recovered so I had to throw some guys Alex Young and Leroy last year and we kind of took a beating last year. But I think we have played a very difficult schedule like Oakland they are not going to quit, this is a good group of kids and they believe. They really, really believe and this is my 22nd year of coaching and I don't think I have ever had a better time coaching a group of kids because this group will fight. They will fight me sometimes too but this group will definitely fight."
Senior guard Robert Glenn
On his first half performance
"We watched film early on during practice before the game and watched how they guarded. Like to watch how he guarded, like anyone who Benson guarded he doesn't guard, he plays off so before the game I worked on my 15-footer and knew I was going to have to hit until he stopped it because he was going to play down. He will contest but he won't be close enough to alter the shot so I knew I had to be able to knock the shot down."
