Ohio State 69 (12-1), Miami 40 (3-7)

Quotes

Thad Matta, Ohio State head coach

On tonight’s game

“What I told the guys at halftime, them [Miami] holding the ball got us a little into the standpoint of ‘I’ll just take any shot.’ But when we took time to run our plays and get set in our offense, we were much better. In the first half, however, we got what appeared to be open shots but they weren’t what we wanted.”

 

On Aaron Craft’s energy

“That’s the thing we’ve been telling guys is to play more off him. I hope he becomes even more contagious. He’s kind of everywhere and sometimes the other four guys are out there watching him. I singled him out in film in a positive way that we should all be like this.”

 

On LaQuinton Ross’ first appearance

“Q (Ross) is not ready at that level yet. Yesterday at practice I told him you can shoot the basketball, you just have to get your feet set, so it was probably a relief for him to knock that first one down. We just have to continue to bring him along.”

 

On the beginning of Big Ten play

“We just have so far to go with continuing to mature and doing the little things to make us a better basketball team. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that we’re still a young team. We have some battles coming up, we have to be ready.”

 

Aaron Craft, sophomore guard

On tonight’s game

“The biggest thing was getting back to playing our style. The best way to improve tempo and get faster is increasing the defensive pressure. We were able to do that much better in the second half.”

 

On LaQuinton Ross

“He came in and shot the ball right away. I don’t think we’ll have to be too worried about him being bashful. It is tough to come in and understand everything we throw at him. He continues to get better every day.”

 

On Thad Matta

“If you look back at what coach does he plays the players that he can trust. As long as we have guys that come in and practice and push themselves every day he’ll be able to build that trust.”

 

On his energy

“I know that if I see another teammate that plays really hard it gets me fired up to play a little harder. As long as we get the ball and continue to convert off of it [forced turnover] we’ll continue to push it.”

 

William Buford, senior guard

On Ohio State’s play

“I think we can do a lot better, especially if I put more points on the board. Going into the Big Ten 12-1 is pretty good, but we have to pick it up. If everyone had the same intensity on defense as Aaron Craft we would be fine, we just have to pick it up.”

 

On moving up on the Ohio State scoring record list

“It feels great to be even in the category with those people. I don’t care about scoring and statistics as long as we win.”

 

Charlie Coles, Miami head coach

On Ohio State

“We played against what I think is the best team in the country, the smartest team in the country. This team beats you because Aaron Craft takes his time, doesn’t gamble and runs the offense. Then you have the big guy Sullinger, Buford and the wildcard Thomas. Plus, there’s Smith, who just plays hard all the time. They’re great.”

 

On Thad Matta’s coaching ability

“Thad Matta gets to the point of what he wants out of this team. They know what is important and they let the unimportant things go.”