Post-Game Quotes
December 31, 2004 | Men's Basketball
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
(#13) Washington 81, California 67
Friday, Dec. 31, 2004
Bank of America Arena/Seattle, Wash.
Post-Game Quotes
WASHINGTON HEAD COACH Lorenzo Romar
General Comments:
"Give Cal a lot of credit for executing their game plan. Give our guys credit for still being able to come up with the win. We win as a team and lose as a team. It's always good to learn from a win, and I'd think and hope that we can learn from this."
On Will Conroy:
"Tonight, Will Conroy came up big in the intangible area. He was a warrior down the stretch. He got rebounds, he defended extremely well. (Richard) Midgley was kind of having his way with us, and I thought that down the stretch, Will and our team did a good job of not letting him break the scoring record. If Will's not on the floor tonight, I don't know if we win that game. It appeared that we were a little lethargic, for whatever reason - maybe it had something to do with the way they played. But when it was all said and done, Will Conroy stepped up and, without scoring 20 or 30 points, carried us on his back."
On California's size advantage:
"They're definitely bigger. In the first half, that affected us. The shots weren't bad shots. It was a good shot at the time that you received the basketball, but then you have a 6-10 guy come up behind you and all of a sudden a good shot turns into a bad shot. They were able to grab 14 offensive rebounds on us - we need to do something about that."
On Brandon Roy missing the game:
"Brandon decided before the game that he didn't feel totally comfortable to go out there, or you know he would have been in there. He just felt like his knee was a little weak, and so in case we really, really needed him -- which we did -- he wouldn't be available. We're not sure what his status will be until we speak to our medical people. It doesn't appear to be anything serious. I don't think the six-week recovery period is over yet, from when he initially went out. I thought about [putting him in] a lot of times, but in terms of acting on it, I never thought to act on it. He's his best judge. So if he says, 'I don't know,' then we'd better not risk it."
On Joel Smith:
"Joel is doing a nice job. We're really pleased with what he's been able to do for us. We don't look as freshmen as, 'They can't play early.' When they're ready to play, they play. He's been ready to play, and he's helped us."
On Bobby Jones:
"Bobby did have a solid game. Bobby's been really consistent for us."
CALIFORNIA HEAD COACH BEN BRAUN
General Comments:
"We got off to a slow start, but I think we came back. We were able to settle down and play some pretty good basketball in the second half. Washington was really hot from the perimeter to start the game and that hurt us. Pretty soon we were down because they were hitting some shots from the outside on us and that put us down early because of our slow start."
On the second half comeback:
"We felt that we made some strides and worked for that, it is something that we earned. Our players got their composure back in the second half. We established ourselves, but we let things get away from us near the end. It was a learning experience for our team because we are playing a lot of guys that aren't used to playing very many minutes. Those guys need to make the most of their time."
On sticking with Washington:
"This game was something that we can build on, but we are disappointed with the way that it turned out. We were able to get a lead after we battled back from 16 down."
