March 19, 2006
Head Coach Thad Matta
"Well, one of our biggest nightmares came true. Size is something we didn't like to see and we knew going in we'd have our hands full. And to Georgetown's credit, I thought they played extremely well. The hard part in a game like that is..you can't give them anything easy and in the first half they got us on some backdoor cuts. In the second half we did a much better job of making things harder. They made some incredible shots as the shot clock was winding down. They did a good job of spacing us out. Their defense was swarming and we never got a flow. It was definitely Georgetown's day today."
"I've never been more proud of a basketball team than I am with these 11 guys. It hard because it's been such a tremendous season. The ride has been one of the most incredible rides I've been on as a coach. That's a credit to the kids. It's hard to accept it's over because it's been so much fun. They have nothing to ever hang their head about. To the seniors: The job that have done to help us lay the foundation for the future of OSU basketball, these guys should go down in history for what they've done. And for what they've been through, I've never been more proud of our seniors and our entire team. It's a tribute to who they are, their character, their families and their pride for the Ohio State University."
"We were struggling, it was a weird feeling as game opened up. We had some balls that were bouncing around in our hands, they get it, they hit a three, then they hit a two. It was one of those games for us. They attacked the zone well too. It was really a feeling that we were struggling for answers defensively."
Was there any other times this year you've been struggling for answers defensively?
"That's the irony, for what a terrific season it's been. There was one stretch in the LSU game, early in the second half, when we went some zone and they alley-oop dunked on us. Quite honestly, (today) was the first time since that stretch against LSU that we've been baffled by a team. I knew going in that this was one of those games. We were hoping teams wouldn't pick up on us. We disguised it for 32 games, of what our weakness really was. A lot of teams don't have the capability that Georgetown does. Maybe two times that's happened this year and both of those were against guys 6-9, 6-9, 6-9 and that's what we saw today. I think our offense helped us disguised it. People kind of feared...they thought they couldn't put their big guys in there because then they can't guard us outside."
"Teams that had good low-post players always had real good games against us. That's what I meant by disguising. We looked like one of those great low-post teams because we out-rebounded teams. But we never tried to talk about it. When we played well, we out-rebounded our opponents. We were running offensively and playing great basketball, but our backs were against the wall the last three weeks of the Big Ten season. I thought we were playing better defense basketball at that time. Probably better than I thought we were capable of. Maybe the shots don't go down, but we were still getting those stops, we were still coming up with big shots. We appeared to be playing better then. But I thought these guys left it all on the floor. It seemed like we were playing better back then, but we weren't. We were playing against great competition and everybody knew everybody else [in conference play]. And that had a lot to do with it."
On the strength of the Big Ten, which does not have any Sweet 16 teams
(in jest) "I think the Big Ten was the greatest it's ever been and we were the Big Ten Champions."
Ohio State Student-Athletes
Senior Forward/Center Terence Dials
"We were winning five or six weeks ago and today obviously we lost. We were shooting a lot better five or six weeks ago. And when you're a team that relies on shooting the basketball as well as we have all season, and then you don't you can kind of get bit in the butt. And today wasn't so much as how we played, but how Georgetown played a lot better than we did."
On Georgetown's size
"When you have a college front line of 6-9, 6-9, and 7-2, its going to definitely pose some problems for a college team. The rebounding aspect, they got a lot of offensive rebounds. Not only are they long, but they're athletic. They're a tough match-up for anyone who's going to play them."
What are you thinking after the run to cut the margin to six points?
"We're thinking `we're going to win.' That was our mindset the entire game. We've been down in the past, and we've gotten over the hump. Today, we just didn't get over that hump. It seemed like every time we made a big play, they responded. They made a lot of big plays at the end to win the game and you've got to give a lot of credit to them."
Senior Guard J.J. Sullinger On playing for his hometown school and helping turn around the OSU program
"I grew up an Ohio State Buckeye fan. I watched Ohio State basketball since I remember what basketball was. Coming back and playing for the Buckeyes has been a dream come true. I had a lot of fun doing it and it's always good to do something I'll hold close to heart. I couldn't ask for a better set of teammates, I couldn't ask for a better set of coaches. I'm happy to say I couldn't be prouder to be a part of The Ohio State University."
"Georgetown played a pretty good game today. Their size definitely mattered today. It's always in back of your head when you're driving through the lane that there's a 7-2 guy, weighing 285 pounds, who can move. We obviously didn't have it today and you've got to give Georgetown credit."
On Roy Hibbert
"We knew he was going to be a handful. He's obviously a good player. He is the biggest player we've seen all year. He might be the biggest player I've seen in my college career. We knew he was going to pose some problems. He played exceptionally well today. You've got to give him and that whole team a lot of credit. They played exceptionally well and a team that plays like that, man, the sky's the limit for them."
