Arizona-Oregon Post-game Quotes
01/14/06 | Men's Basketball
"I'm happy for these guys. It was the first time this group has had a chance to beat a ranked opponent at home."
"I'm also proud of how they hung together as a team and fought their way through it."
"We just keep getting a little bit better at practice everyday. That is translating into games and it is beginning to show."
"The building was on fire today for the first time in a long time and we fed off that fire."
"He [Olson] is a great coach, a hall of famer, and I knew he would have the team ready to play, especially after such a poor effort from his team against Oregon State."
"There was a point in the second half where I thought we took over the game and made it ours."
"If you look at his face [Hairston] and his demeanor he looks 24 or 25, then you remember he is only 18. There will be a time when he takes over an entire game, but he is not quite there yet."
"[Brooks] played a terrific game under tremendous defensive pressure by Chris Rodgers."
"Ivan played very well and did all the right things coming back from his suspension today."
"This is our first big win against a ranked opponent in two years. Everyone's going to keep coming out hard to keep us on this run."
"Ivan [Johnson] came out hard in practice and showed he wanted to be here. He's shown a real change in attitude. He is our stud in the middle. He's unstoppable when he's down there by himself."
"We played a lot smarter and had less turnovers. We played a possession game the whole game, not just at the end."
"Malik [Hairston] was on fire. That's why we call him our stud. He hit some clutch shots. He played his heart out. He put in the work and he deserves it."
"I think this is a continuation of two weeks of hard practice and dedication from the team. It was only a matter of time before we got everything together."
"Tonight I just had opportunities where I could knock down big shots, take the ball to the basket and run in transition."
"We just tried to remain poised. Our main focus was to handle their runs because they're a talented team."
"We have yet to set our identity even now. I think it's a great win for us. It's a great incentive to keep working harder."
On Hassan Adams:
"We just tried to keep somebody in front of him. He's a great athlete and that's all you can do against a player like that."
"It's a big win. It's a great feeling. It's the first time since I've been here that we beat a ranked team on national television. We just need to continue to work."
"We understand how we need to play. We just need to run when we have the opportunities. We have a lot of potentially great scorers on this team who know how to play."
"We didn't know how we should play. He knew we had the pieces but didn't know how to put it together."
"We've still got a lot of teams left on the schedule. This is just a stepping stone. We beat a very good team."
"Ivan [Johnson] is going to fight for you no matter what. He's talented and skilled. He's a beast inside. He's dominant and he's really coming along."
Arizona Head Coach Lute Olson
"Two words that cost us the ball game: second shots."
"Aaron Brooks did a really good job of controlling the tempo. He always plays well against us."
"Right now were having breakdowns, and it's not just one guy doing it. The whole team is having breakdowns."
"We are playing like a mediocre ball club, and if we're going to change that we need to play as a team."
"Oregon played very well. We were still able to create problems for them, but then we killed ourselves on the defensive boards."
On Ivan Johnson:
"I'll make a prediction; he's going to have problems on the road with fouls."
Hassan Adams
"We were just hoping to come out and get a "w", but they came out and played their game and the ball was bouncing their way."
Jawann McClellan
On foul trouble:
"It changed the whole rhythm of the game. I couldn't be as aggressive as I wanted to."
Ivan Radenovic
"They hit lots of big shots, especially in the second half."
"We were close many times, but the ball was bouncing their way."
Chris Rodgers
"We just need to work harder defensively, and I'm just going to keep trying to be a leader for us on defense."
Mustafa Shakur
On Hairston:
"He got hot and hit some great shots when guys were all over him."
"These last two games we just haven't been able to finish out when we had the chance."
